LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Friday 27th June 2008

Daily Telegraph says Glasgow Labour MP will resign on Monday

The Torygraph says: A Labour MP is set to resign forcing another potentially embarrassing by-election for Gordon Brown in the wake of his fifth place humiliation in Henley.The Telegraph can reveal that David Marshall, the East Glasgow MP, will stand down because of ill-health on Monday.The seat, with a 13,507 Labour majority, would normally be considered safe.However, the Scottish National Party will target the seat and Labour sources told the Telegraph that they believed the seat was 'vulnerable.'I wish Mr Marshall well, but this has to be the last thing Gordon Brown needs.

Poor Dear Boris

Got a text from a friend while I was at work today which made me chuckle:Am walking past Trafalgar Square now and there is a Veteran's Day stage out. The guy just said to the crowd 'Please welcome Boris Johnson' and nobody clapped. Haha. 'Lets try that again' and still no clappingPoor old Bojo. * cackle *

The Tories: the dirtiest trick of all

The other main parties really don't like us. What, in particular, they don't like is the image of the LibDems as the 'nice party', a party of which there is no need to be frightened. Both Tories and Labour in the past have attempted to dent that, but it's been half-hearted compared with the Conservative campaign which is now on show. The Witney Wonder, delighted to have John Howell as his newest MP, made a point of saying that the LibDems had been nasty during the by-election. Our campaign had pointed out that this self-proclaimed saviour of the Green Belt ...

Challenges for Middle Eastern Democracy

Baroness (Kishwer) Falkner and I were the guests on Nile TV's Politics Show recorded this afternoon (for broadcasting tomorrow), on challenges for democracy in the Middle East and the wider Islamic world. In a wide-ranging discussion, moderated by presenter Nihal Saad, we covered a wide spectrum of issues from poverty and education to authoritarianism and the attitude to [...]

Just do it!

I will leave commentary on the Henley by election to the many others rushing to blog on it, but I just want to comment on one thing. The number of people turning out to vote. The turnout was relatively high at just over 50%. However in this Country we do have true democracy, not just opposition parties, but those we strongly disagree with like the far right, and those who appear to be in the...

Favourite blog headline of the day

Was happened? Did a four-legged animal roam free inside a Town Hall forcing senior councillors to hide in the lift in order to avoid it? Alas no, the truth behind Cabinet evasive on zebra is rather more prosaic.

Frank Zappa explains the decline of the music business

'the person who's in the executive chair may not be the final arbiter of taste for the entire population'

Orange Broadband... Just When You Though It Was Safe, They're Back!

The sponge-brained halfwits at Orange Broadband have made a spectacular, tumbling re-entry into my life this evening, with a letter demanding that I pay them £40. And after a particularly useless telephone call to them which got me not one millimetre closer to sorting out their mess, I feel it only right to inform my tiny readership about them and their foolish ways. Let me begin by putting their customer-service shoddiness into context: As someone who has worked in a variety of public sector settings, each one devoid of any sense of urgency, and frequently entirely bereft of staff from ...

Trains of thought (2)

On Thursday afternoon I met Peter Hendy at Sutton Station for his second visit to Sutton in 8 months and took him and his team to visit some of the highlights of the Smarter Travel Sutton Project. Our first stop, just outside the station was to speak to the folks from Streetcar, an innovative car sharing club that now has over 120 members in Sutton. Then we moved on to have a look at one of the three new Smart Columns that have been installed in Sutton. The Smart Columns have interactive touch screens which offer easy access to a ...

Morgan and Zimbabwe

Whilst we here in the UK hold our election in peace and conduct our disagreements through debate and democracy the poor citizens of Zimbabwe are going through hell. It is interesting to see the video clips on the sokwanele link to the left or click here and see the peoples boycott of this sham poll. At least the world seems to be finally waking up to the brutality of this regime and...

Henley by-election

Well done to Stephen Kearney and all the helpers. If the key issue for people is the green belt it is strange that the people of Henley have elected a dedicated green belt developer. Still that's life. Our vote went up 2% despite the pressure from the Conservatives. More detail on this result and speach from Stephen - click here

Anyone who thinks ID cards are no problem...

... should read Nich Starling's account of what can happen when the government get hold of your data.

Treasury chief on wombat leave

A hairy-nosed wombat yesterday The BBC reports: Australia's top treasury official is taking five weeks leave to look after endangered wombats...Mr Henry will be looking after 115 hairy-nosed wombats in an isolated spot in northern Queensland, with no mobile phone coverage and two-and-a-half hours on a rough track from the nearest town.Given the mess the UK Treasury has made of things recently, we could do worse than send our own chief official on a similar trip.

Housing to replace Coppetts Wood Hospital

This week I received a briefing note on plans to redevelop the Coppetts Wood Hospital in my ward into housing. The hospital site used to be a much larger area (much has already been sold off) but with the relocation of the remaining infectious disease unit to Hampstead, the rest is proposed for new housing. The planning application is 'forthcoming', so nearby residents will get notification of the plans formally in due course - and anyone will be able to view them on the Council's website. The plans will apparently retain the building front (photo above) and be 63 units ...

The Ghost in the By-election Machine

The Liberal Democrat campaign in Henley was textbook. It included some of the best literature I've ever seen, including an exemplary magazine crushing the Tory's claims to be a defender of the greenbelt. We had a large army of volunteers out canvassing and delivering throughout the weeks preceding polling day. Our election day operation itself was so well-manned we were able to knock up people who we had no canvass data for, but appeared likely to be our supporters. But, in the end, we were only able to achieve a swing of 1.84% - a swing that, arguably, was more ...

Steve Winwood interviewed in the Sun

It has been a good week for the Sun. First, they helped me get a record day for visitors by putting the story about UFOs over Shropshire on their front page. And then today they have published a substantial article about Steve Winwood: Traffic's peak was 1970's John Barleycorn Must Die, a beautiful mix of folk and jazz that has remained one of the most influential British albums ever made. Paul Weller has based so much of his solo career on it, his album Wild Wood should have been called Winwood.

A week best forgotten

No, the title isn't anything to do with politics, just to do with a dodgy meat pie I ate last Sunday. I don't normally do self-indulgent, self-pitying blog posts, but... Had a great weekend up in Derby visiting my best mate - including on the Sunday having a nice walk in the Peaks (tho the attached photo was just an afterthought when we arrived back at the car). However, tasty as the pie lunch we had at a pub half way around was at the time, it has been less tasty since. Ended up being pretty sick on Monday, but ...

House Points: The RIPA and council spying

My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News. Serious snooping Every month local councils launch over a thousand spying operations. They are so keen on the work that they will soon be carrying out more surveillance than the police. A Dorset family was followed for over a fortnight because the county council suspected them of lying on a school application form. Welcome to Labour Britain. Everyone says such outrages are down to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. So I turned to Hansard and the debates that took place when it was passed in 2000. If a week is ...

Visit to the Guardian - photos

I'll let you into a little secret. I get all weak at the knees at the thought of newspapers. Particularly newspaper offices and printing presses. At an early age, I showed an interest in newspapers. I was particularly fascinated by the Plymouth Evening Herald arriving hot off the presses at 5pm and being chucked onto the hot pavement of the Strand, Bude in front of Tremeers newsagents. The 'Stop

Old Labour, New Joke

Great hilarity reading the 'thank you' comments from the Labour candidate at the Henley by-election on his website : 'Not a great night for Labour, but no worse than the by-elections in Romsey and Winchester when Labour was 20 points in front in the polls. Another truly awful night, however, for the Liberal Democrats, who threw their full by-election machine at this one and didn't even come close. The mutterings against LibDem Leader Nick Clegg at Westminster will be a little louder today.' Reality check needed, I think. The LibDem vote (9680) was UP on the general election by 1.3%. ...

Cabinet evasive on zebra

{BathNES Council Chamber} Cllr Nicholas Coombes presented a set of written questions to the Conservative Cabinet this week, including three on the zebra crossing on the Tesco site. A single response was provided to all questions which answered none of them: Q - does the demonstration of 50 protesters show clear public demand? Q - do the accidents at the site, including a fatality, show a high level of pedestrian risk? Q - if Tesco were to provide extra funding, would it be spent on a zebra crossing? A - Pedestrian crossings require fulfilment of numerical criteria relating to vehicles ...

Yet another Henley analysis - this one has vitriol

Well everyone else seems to have commented and I had few plans to do so, but I have been annoyed massively by a few of the comments I have seen from fellow Lib Dems. I have no problems with those comments which are matters of opinion, even if I don't agree, but some of the stuff posted today is just ignorant tosh. I'm afraid that I'm going to single out 'a radical writes' for the main batch of opprobrium. John writes of three perceived problems: 1. We we're too negative. 9/10 times the most optimistic candidate wins, we spent too ...

Chris Rennard writes about the Henley result...

I am enjoying this debate and for the record: 1) I don't always comment in detail on things read by our opponents - but I do welcome any constructive debate within the party on these issues - especially contributions from those who also work hard in these campaigns. 2) I am not generally "hands on" in the [...]

Switzerland, I bid you adieu

After two years of Swiss life, I am leaving the land of cheese, chocolate and nazi-gold for pastures fresh so I thought I would give you all the benefit of wisdom in relation to this small alpine retreat and the things it is supposedly famous for... Safe Streets Although crime has increased in Switzerland in recent years, violent crime is still virtually unheard of, and generally takes place in the immigrant communities (one reason for the rise in xenophobia recently). In this respect it is a very nice place to live. The fear that pervades British society is absent here. ...

Apparently I am banned from direct.gov.uk and will not be re-instated - be very afraid of government plans for ID cards

Just to worry anyone who might have qualms about a national I.D. scheme, I thought I ought to share with you the problems I am having with direct.gov.uk. A year ago I thought I'd apply for a new driving license. Direct.gov.uk claimed that it could marry up my details from my passport and my driving license and would therefore save me the hassle of having to have more photos done, posting forms, etc, and that this would be a shining example of joined up thinking by the government. Sadly, when I filled everything in online last year, the computer system ...

Historic fifth place for Labour

Can anyone recall when the party of government last came fifth in a by election? This is surely the biggest story of the Henley by election. Just over a year since Labour faced up to the fact that Blair had become 'a bit of a liability', Labour MPs would have hoped Brown to be a safe pair of hands. It is stunning just how much support has drained away from the Labour Party in just twelve months. In fact, it's less than twelve months since GB was ramping up expectations of a snap autumn election to get his own mandate! ...

Liberal Conspiracy

A couple of weeks ago I received my first invite to a proper blogging event, organised by Sunny Hundal of Liberal Conspiracy in partnership with the Guardian's Comment is Free. Sadly, after accepting the invitation initially, I found I couldn't attend due to travel and other issues. It was such a shame as I've never been to the Guardian...I've only looked round the Telegraph, through a friend who worked there, in all its glory. Sadly, I noticed every little detail, including the sarcastic comment by one journo typed and written on his computer about not being able to smoke in ...

Lapdancing letters...

Nearly two weeks ago now I wrote to my MP to ask him to sign EDM 1375 - concerning licensing of lapdancing clubs, but, predictably, have not received any response as of yet. In my experience as a constituent, MPs don't seem to respond very well to feminist letters from the Fawcett Society. However, it seems MPs take note of what I say in my blog when I make lists of who has and hasn't done their bit in the parliamentary party. So here we go: Amongst other Lib Dem MPs who have signed the motion are: Colin Breed Annette ...

Happy anniversary Brown

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7471980.stm The Last year has been a terrible year for the Labour Party and for Brown. Gordon Brown was always number 2 in the Labour Party until he became number 1. At the time the people did not think it was a good idea because Tony Blair was a great Leader despite the big mistakes he made that are going to probably cost his country the Power to Govern the Country. Then Brown come along instead of actually trying to pick up the country from where it left off from Blair Mr Brown just made a bigger mess of things. ...

Fighting 42 days online

I've always felt that we bloggers have a little bit of viral campaigning power - but to date - have not really used what we have. There are some honorable and fantastic exceptions - Dan Hardie's Iraqi interpreters campaign comes immediately to mind - but not enough. So - yesterday I invited Sunny Hundal of Liberal Conspiracy and a couple of others to meet and discuss what we bloggers who oppose Labour's plans for 42 days detention without trial could do to stop this hideous legislation. Sunny in turn suggested some other people, and meet together we did. As I ...

Anthony Wells on 'What happened to Labour'

Many Lib Dem Voice readers will be familiar with Anthony Wells' name. He writes the UK Polling Report blog, which (though Anthony is a card-carrying Tory member) carries the most impartial and intelligent analysis of British political polls anywhere on the web. On Politics Home today, Anthony analyses the results of the site's PHI5000, a [...]

Not had your fill of Henley analysis yet?

Then why not seek out former Lib Dem media chief Mark Littlewood's analysis in today's Telegraph? I don't agree with it all, but here's a thought-provoking extract to chew on: The truth is that the Liberal Democrats have yet to develop a compelling narrative to deal with the threat posed by Cameron - and with many [...]

Arms lobbyist loses Lib Dem peer Parliamentary pass

An update to yesterday's story, Indy: the arms lobbyist and the Lib Dem peer, via BBC.co.uk: An adviser to a peer is to lose his Parliamentary security pass after it emerged he also worked for a lobbying company with several defence clients. Robin Ashby's role with Baroness Harris could be "open to misinterpretation", the Liberal Democrats [...]

TGI Friday

A week which started in Devon is ending in Suffolk via Kent, Westminster and Henley. Not for the first time, I wish we had 'rail miles' as I trundle my way back home to Needham Market. Today has been the start of what is now a regular summer fixture for me - a series of lectures to visiting American students who have come to Europe under the auspices of a programme called 'People to People'. Between mid June and mid August, ten thousand students come over for a three week visit which includes 3 days in London. The highlight, of ...

Nick Clegg Joins Calls for Heinz to Reinstate Ad

The Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has joined the growing number of concerned citizens in the UK and beyond resulting from Heinz's pulling of their New York Deli Mayo advertisement. On the Lib Dem website from the letter he has sent to the company he has said: 'The depiction of a same-sex kiss in this advert was innocent both in tone and content, and I am shocked that you decided to withdraw it. '

Boris, Davis, Kearney, Scott, Harris, Brown, Cameron, Clegg

Real life has been catching up with me recently and haven't really been keeping up with the developments in political life so this is a quick run-down of my opinions on various matters: Boris/Local Elections/Crewe I know it was all a long time ago now and I hate to remind you all but I wasn't overly optimistic after the results.  I thought the local election results were okay but for both Crewe and London the squeeze took hold and we seemed almost resigned to the fact afterwards. As for Boris, well, he has nicely shown his true colours in the ...

Last Belsize post office finally closes

So now we have no post offices in Belsize where once we had three. It's a sorry tale. The England's Lane sub post office shut its counters last week. It was closed despite the fact that I and others came up with plenty of good reasons to keep it open. It was closed despite the fact that more than 5,000 residents signed petitions calling for it not to be shut. The government and anti-Europeans try to blame an EU directive that says postal services have to be opened up by 2011. But no one should be in any doubt that ...

Recycling audit proves need for change

At last the recycling audit I asked for back in 2006 has been published. It shows commingling has increased the amount of recycling collected, but, as I suspected, it's not very environmentally friendly. That's because, as I've said repeatedly over the last two years, we crush all our recycling up in the back of waste trucks and then spend huge amounts of energy trying to separate it at a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Greenwich. So, for example, our paper gets so contaminated with glass fragments that no British papermaker can turn it into recycled paper. As a result we ...

Winning here??

Liberal Democrat Voice has seen quite a vigorous post-mortem on Henley. One of the points that I made was that it is time to ditch the slogan 'winning here'. My main reason for this assertion is not only has it proven to be divorced from the reality of Crewe and Nantwich and Henley but it is an assumptive slogan. Stephen Tall quite rightly points out that it is to combat the impression that the Liberal Democrats cannot win. However, the net result when it comes to the votes being counted is allot of disappointed activists. This maybe connected to a ...

Davis to face 25 other opponents including former Conservative MP

The Haltemrpice and Howden by-election really is going to be a unique exercise in the field of circus acts democracy. One of the candidates is Walter Sweeney, former Conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan, who intends to take Davis head on concerning 42 days dentention. Full list of Davis rivals Grace Astley - Independent David Bishop - Church of the Militant Elvis Party Ronnie Carroll - Make

Henley by-election result - Conservatives hold and Labour slump to 5th!

Yesterday saw the Conservatives hold the Henley by-election. The Liberal Democrats came second followed by the Greens in third and then the BNP just behind and Labour in fifth.

The Worth of CCTV

Read Bruce Schneier, an excellent security expert, writing on CCTV, its use, misuse, and the future. Britain, the most watched nation on earth, should make an issue out of CCTV before it is impossible to do so.

Giving birth to more red tape

The proposed Equality Bill to be promoted by Harriet Harman is a damp squib for identity politicians. The proposals headlined in the press are about making public sector bodies and around 30% of private sector companies report on the gender gap, rather than doing anything about it. The remaining 70% of companies are not compelled to do anything. 'Part-time women receive 40% less pay than

Oh Christ this is so stupid

One of John McCain's advisors is promoting a Five Star Hotel/Casino on the banks of the Tigris in the Green Zone. Oh goodness me. This is just so stupid. Watch the video below. This is not a spoof. Beyond parody.

The Secret to Henley

Personally, I was quite disappointed when I turned on my computer this morning to see the results of yesterday's polls, I was hoping for a closer race.  I guess a lot of soul-searching will be done by the campaign team over the next few days. However, On the metro into work I came across something that added at least a small consolation.  When back in the UK over the weekend I picked up my old copy of 'The political animal' by Jeremy Paxman.  By a small stroke of coincidence that bit I got to this morning was when he went ...

Booklist 2008, part 26

39) Ekaterina Sedia (ed.), Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy (Hoboken: Senses Five Press 2008, ISBN 9780979624605). This was a birthday present from {[info]} envoy. It's a good read, but an odd collection. Sedia's Editor's Note says that the stories were selected 'because they share the insight into the cities as living entities', and Jess Nevins' introduction speaks of the cities as 'supporting characters' - but I only got that feeling from the final story in the collection, 'Palimpsest' by Catherynne M. Valente. Some of the stories don't even have a setting I recognise as urban, including some of ...

Local Government by-election results

Results: Thursday 26th June 2008. Blackpool UA, Park Con 977 (55.2; +28.1) Lab 448 (25.3; -8.1) BNP 218 (12.3; -4.8) LD Sue Close 97 (5.5; -8.5) UKIP 30 (1.7; -6.7) Majority 529 Turnout not known Con gain from Lab Percentage change is since May 2007 Burbage PC, Lash Hill LD Maureen Lynch 612 Richard Flemming 610 (71.2) Con 248/239 (28.8) Majorities 364/362 Turnout 29.4% LD hold x 2 Hexham TC,

The Nation State

I just left a rather long comment on Chris Dillow's post about the nation state. It was so long, I though I might as well post it myself.Here's what Chris had to say: What use are nation states? Two different problems raise this question. One is Zimbabwe. The notion that national sovereignty has a value provides a cloak for Mugabe's brutality, whilst the difficulty of co-ordinating national governments means little is done to stop it. The other problem is inflation. Many governments claim inflation is an imported problem. And they are right in the sense that global factors seem to ...

2010: Labour's Teutoberg forest?

There are times when I nearly remove a few blogs from my reading list, but just stop myself. One of them is written by Chris, who lives in Torquay. But sometimes, he comes up with a gem. This is one of them: In 1992 Tony Blair mounted a daring expedition from Labour's heartlands to capture as much enemy territory as he could. Confronted by a worn out and divided enemy his raid was as successful as it was audacious. He managed to capture vast swaths of formerly Tory territory sweeping all before him like an all conquering Caesar. Like Caesar ...

Gun control as racism

One of the points I've come across whilst reading around the Heller vs DC gun control case* is that the first gun control laws were brought in after the US Civil War. They were brought in, not to protect ordinary people, but to prevent black people and former slaves from having weapons. That is to remove [...]

Updates

I've finally updated the books I'm reading section on the right hand side and have put up the top posts for March, April, and May along the right hand side too.

Angry man points finger at car. Councillor gets cross.

I don't know whether heavy rain brings out maniacs, but in the showers last night I was a victim of road rage, and it made me sad that people can be aggressive for absolutely no reason at all. I was returning from the fish and chip shop (Dockers, the new one on Bury New Road near Lidl - and very nice it is too) when I made the major strategic error of turning onto Kings Road. I had momentarily forgotten the vital lesson that one should never go anywhere near there in a car because whereas the area was designed ...

Henley Results

We didn't win in Henley but at least we didn't come fifth like the Labour Party. With the Conservatives coming first it just shows that the people of Henley have sent Gordon Brown an Anniversary Present that he will remember but the people are still getting fooled by Cameron with his vague plans on how he thinks he can run the country. Cameron is just pulling the wool over the eyes of the public he can not actually be the prime minister like Brown he will probably end up destroying it and his own party like the Labour Party want ...

A couple of vids, and bunch of links, and a little bit of ranting.

{[info]} neohippie posted this video: ... and I had to share it because... well, don't you think the mad dancing dude looks like lanky Lib Dem councillor Jon Ball? Well, except the lanky dancing dude is a better dancer, obviously... ;) {[info]} neohippie also mentioned that the above video gives her the same sort of warm fuzzy feeling like that 'I love the whole world' Discovery Channel commercial, and that vid gives me the warm fuzzies too, so I'm going to repost it (link is here) Apparently the sainted XKCD get the warm fuzzies from it too, since they have ...

Hercules report shows Iraq presence a drain on vital equipment

Commenting on today's NAO report on Britain's Hercules aircraft, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary, Nick Harvey said: "This report is further evidence that our continued presence in Iraq is draining the life from equipment that is desperately needed in Afghanistan. "Overstretch and the impact of wars on two fronts has taken a heavy toll on the Hercules fleet. "As Sir Jock Stirrup said this week, the Armed Forces are simply not set up for fighting two enduring operations simultaneously. "The Hercules are operating in demanding and hostile environments. The older aircraft are operating beyond their original retirement date and are ...

I wanna sex you up, that's right. Come on now, let's get it on tonight.

Apologies in advance for pedantry and disloyalty, but I can't help but draw attention to the rather 'sexed up' and heavily-spun account of our Henley result from Party HQ. Says Mr Rennard in the second line of the e-mail we all received: 'We increased our vote and reduced the Conservative majority' On LD Voice, Pete (the Colchester one) notes that our number of votes actually declined. This is responded to by Stephen Tall who notes that 'it's silly to look at absolute voting figures on a reduced turnout', and hence that we did increase our percentage vote. Proved as follows: ...

'I won't let you down'

Has anyone else noticed this? Politicians are saying this rather a lot. Gordon Brown said it at the last Labour conference, it was Edward Timpson's 'special message' (cue cringe), and John Howells said it last night in the Thame Leisure Centre. It sounds crap. Who do they think is buying this drivel?

It's time to dump some sacred cows

There have been some interesting blog posts and LDV comments about Henley. Darrell on the LDV thread mentioned doing away with 'Winning here'. Agreed. It is nauseating. Tabman asked: "How much time and activists is "enough"? " Well, there were 400 activists at the last weekend. I seem to remember nearly 1,000 at the last weekend of the Newbury by-election. I apologise if my memory is playing

Neocons for Shari'a

All those neoconservatives who support military action and foreign intervention to counter the 'islamofascist threat' must be a little confused. Christian fundamentalist private military firm Blackwater are asking a US Court to use Sharia law in a case brought against them. The case is being brought in the USA by the families of US servicement killed in [...]

What does Henley mean for the Lib Dems?

"A bit disappointed" probably sums up the reaction of most Lib Dems on hearing the result from Henley. But it's a response that deserves some cool, detached analysis - because the underlying message from Henley is more complex than either Lib Dems who throw up in their hands in despair, or Tories who bray in [...]

Setting off for Petra and news of Henley arrives

I have come out to Jordan to wander around the ruins of Petra (amongst doing other things). And as I left the hotel this morning and headed to the site, news of another ruin arrived by the marvels of technology. Labour had come fifth in Henley. 3rd was what could have been expected but to be beaten by the Greens and BNP puts this byelection into the history books.I will be back in UK on Saturday

June oil analysis

One of the key things in the IEA's June oil report is an upward revision of demand in 2006 and 2007 by about 0.170 mb/d. This means that in each of those years it is now thought that the world burnt an additional rougly 62,050,000 barrells of oil compared to what was thought to be the case in the previous month. It is hard to measure these things which is why there are continual revisions to

The death of Focus?

In the aftermath of Henley there's a lot of hand wringing about our campaign. One thing which I think needs to be realised is that Focus is not as effective as it once was. The original Focus was a revolution in campaigning. A simple, but effective way to communicate with the electorate. It could almost win an [...]

A pro-democracy rant!

One reason to be happy but three to be unhappy this morning. Happy as I'm not at work and am having a blissful day off writing, but depressed by our second place in Henley (perhaps a reason to be happy simultaneously?), the BNP's fourth place, and last but not least, Mugabe standing against himself in Zimbabwe. Nigeria have now called for the 'election' to be postponed. This angers me, as it's shouldn't technically be called an election. It's a farce. Watching pictures this morning of people voting, using ballot papers which presumably only have Mugabe's name on is deeply saddening. ...

Chemical castration? - Let's hope this idea doesn't cross the Atlantic

Louisiana Governor, possible running mate for John McCain (9.2 on Betfair), and 'future of the GOP', Bobby Jindal has signed a new law (State Senate Bill 144 if you wanna look it up) which calls for the compulsory chemical castration of sex offenders, on the first offense. Now I'm not sure what qualifies you to be a sex offender in Louisiana but I'm pretty sure I'd be one having had sex with those under 18. Now I've just admitted to being a multiple offender, so straight to the castration room 101 for me. But what about the first time offender? ...

That thudding noise you can hear...

...is the sound of Gordon Brown beating his head repeatedly against the walls of No 10. You could almost forgive the guy deciding that it's not worth the candle and giving up, going away to do good things at the World Bank. Coming fifth in the Henley by-election is just the latest in a series of disasters for Brown and the Labour Party. It's utterly unprecedented for any governing party to slip as low as fifth in any parliamentary by-election in Great Britain (the Tories apparently came fifth in North Down in the 1980s, but the special circumstances of Northern ...

Happy Birthday Gordon!

Having been in the job for just 1 year the voters of Henley gave Gordon Brown a most unwelcome birthday present. In this safe Conservative seat, Labour was not only beaten by the Liberal Democrats but also by the Greens. The result had experts rushing to their history books to see whether there has been any example of the governing party coming 5th in a By-Election before. In fact Labour only hung onto 5th place by 223 votes. Commenting on the result of the Henley-on-Thames by-election, Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg said: "This is a good result for the Liberal ...

Chris Rennard on the Henley result

For those who missed it, here is the result of the Henley by-election: John Howell (Conservative): 19,796 (57%, +3%) Stephen Kearney (Liberal Democrat): 9,680 (28%, +2%) Mark Stevenson (Green Party): 1,321 (4%, +1%) Timothy Rait (British National Party): 1,243 (4%, +4%) Richard McKenzie (Labour): 1,066 (3%, -12%) Chris Adams (UK Independence Party): 843 (2%, n/c) Bananaman Owen (Official Monster Raving Loony Party): [...]

Henley - time to reflect

A dozen red kites circling over Chinnor, someone in a brash Union Jack t shirt yelling at me that he was voting BNP, me shouting back that if the fascists got into power he'd never vote again, a woman congratulating Stephen on an excellent campaign, a guy (somewhat bashfully) admitting he voted Tory where he had always voted Labour - but suggesting we were knocking up in the wrong area 'coz they are all BNP round here'. A snapshot of my memories from yesterday in Henley. Questions on the blogosphere are already being asked about what went wrong. I am ...

Time and Tide

Well, it's certainly been a while since I last updated this blog (or even looked at it to be honest), so now I'm getting down to dusting off the cobwebs. The truth is that I've been enormously busy and far too stressed to write blog entries or even look at other peoples' blogs. I have an [...]

Great Lyricists

The Guardian's latest series of booklets featuring 'Great Lyricists' took an interesting turn this morning when it added Alex Turner to the pantheon of Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Turner is, of course, the lead singer and songwriter with the Arctic Monkeys. There was no sign though of the lyrics to 'Fake tales of San Francisco' or 'Mardy Bum'.

Wolverhampton has not benefited from Brown's first year as Prime Minister

Wolverhampton has not benefited from Gordon Brown's leadership, claim local Liberal Democrats in a message to residents.

Moving forward from henley

The Henley by-election needs to be a moment to stop and reflect on a number of really fundamental issues. Most immediately I'd like to consider: (i) why we did not get a much better result after all the effort which went in (ii) why the usual campaign plan of throwing paper at an electorate until they raise their hands in surrender seems increasingly to be stuttering (iii) why much of the tenor of the campaign was attacking the Tories rather than presenting what we stand for (iv) why we got a candidate - lovely man, very able, clearly - in ...

Come on down to the Kit Cat Club

How much plotting occurred here during the early 18th century? This small house hidden away off Heath Street has puzzled me for a while.. So I learn that either this house or the pub that was called The Upper Flask (just up the road where St mary's now stands) was the gathering spot for a cluster of Whig grandees. It should be noted that this was not a smoke cabal - it was a summer garden gathering where converse and social intercourse were the norm... The political context is fresh from the Jacobite rebellions and are rooted in the succession ...

Day 2624: The good vicar

Monday: Just because I'm a militant atheist baby elephant, that does not mean I have to be against religion all the time... Hang on, actually it does... But as a LIBERAL fluffy toy, I'm also keen to give credit where credit is due. Just accept that I am COMPLICATED! I should like to praise the Reverend Giles Fraser, because of the things that he has said recently. Firstly, he wrote a piece for the Grauniad admitting that he had been WRONG. That is always pretty BIG of someone. What Reverend Giles had been wrong about was the so-called 'secular authorities' ...

Henley: What you're going to hear today

"The Tories are on the march" "The Lib Dem vote held up well, showing we're the only challengers to the Tories in the south and Labour in the north" "It was a drubbing for Labour, but a drubbing we expected" These are the headline messages the three main parties will be sending out today, following the result in [...]

Pennine's "60 for 60″ appeal

One of the things I do apart from being a Councillor is serve on the Board of our local hospital Trust Pennine Acute, one of my roles there is to serve on the charitable ("endowment") funds committee. Pennine Acute's Charity has today launched a "60 for 60 campaign" to raise money and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS. Business leaders, community organisations and schools from across the north east of Greater Manchester are being invited to put on their thinking hats to raise 60p, £6 or £60 for four local hospitals as part of the NHS 60th anniversary celebrations. ...

Henley in the morning

Well the result went pretty much as expected before I went to bed. My gut feeling is to follow what I felt last night and lean to feeling the result is not a good one. I don't think it is hard to see why when our swing of 1.7% was less than the BNP's share of the vote (3.6%), this is a very sobering statistic to me. So, what did Henley show us?? It showed us that the Labour vote is transferring itself not mainly to one party; that some are making the switch to the Conservatives and us but ...

Lib Dems take leadership of Greater Manchester Fire Authority

The Annual General Meeting of the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority has elected Liberal Democrat Councillor Paul Shannon of Manchester City Council, as the new leader of the Authority. The Fire Authority has been controlled by Labour since 1974. Councillor Shannon will be joined two Conservative Vice and Deputy chairs, including Bury's own Cllr Jack Walton. Authority Chairman Councillor Shannon said: "I look forward to working with all elected members on the Authority to make further improvements to our Fire and Rescue Service. The tragic events in Bolton earlier this week bring home to Councillors on the Authority the ...

Heinz Early Day Motion

Diane Abbott has lodged this Early Day Motion regarding the Heinz Deli Mayo Ad's removal on the back of 202 non-justifiable complaints: That this House notes that the manufacturer Heinz has withdrawn its television advertisement, which features two men kissing, on the basis of 200 complaints that it might be embarrassing for parents with children to watch; further notes that millions of children

Postwatch response

I sent my recent objection to the Post Office closures to Postwatch as well as Post Office Ltd as I believe it is vitally important that the independent postal services watchdog is made aware of the facts that support the campaign to keep these post offices open. I have now had a response from Postwatch as follows : Dear Councillor Macpherson Network Change Programme Thank you for copying Postwatch Scotland into your correspondence regarding the proposed closures of Nethergate and Lochee Road Post Offices. Regarding Nethergate Post Office you outline your concerns about the reasons for the proposal as it ...

Tory MPs call for Spelman to be sacked amid new revelations

Michael Portillo (cue: Knives in back) has called for Caroline Spelman to be sacked as Tory chairman, according to be BBC News 24 (or is it called something else these days?). Michael Crick says that 'a number of Conservative MPs' have approached the 1922 committee with similar requests. (That could mean two MPs, by the way). Newsnight has now reported further revelations based around Sally

Henley on Thames, what went wrong?

I have a few suggestions, we can put it down to a few uncontrollable factors but I still feel we have ourselves to blame, I was up in Henley for much of the last week and although our enthusiasm was strong that did not translate to an enthusiastic lib dem vote. We we're too negative. 9/10 times the most optimistic candidate wins, we spent too much time bashing the Tory candidate and not enough bigging up Stephen Kearney. The Tory literature on the other hand for the most part was significantly more positive. We failed to align ourselves with the ...

Luke Akehurst blog comments cause a storm in Hackney

I just happened to spot the front page of the Hackney Gazette the other day. Their lead story is this: TERROR BILL COMMENT OUTRAGE A Hackney councillor has provoked outrage after suggesting a victim of a terrorist attack should support the Counter Terrorism Bill. Chatham ward Labour councillor, Luke Akehurst, wrote the comment on his blog after Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis, resigned as an

Henley...... OK, now what?

So, Henley went, as expected, to the Conservatives. Not surprised. But I am a little disappointed. For a number of reasons: 1) Our 'famous by-election machine' failed to deliver' yet again! 2) People I know and trust, at the heart of the campaign, told me we were going to do better than we did 3) The Tories won Let's deal with these in reverse order...... 3) The Tories won. Well, they were always going to. Let's be honest, this was almost the safest Conservative seat in the country, and with such a short campaign, and so little media interest, the ...

Cameron's 'worst yet' PMQs performance

I don't watch Prime Minister's Questions. I've got a life and all that. So many thanks to Stephen Tall on LibDem Voice for supplying this little nugget from this week's PMQs: ...the last couple of weeks have seen surprisingly weak performances from David Cameron, who has perhaps been more discomfited by David Davis's resignation than he would care to admit. Tories may claim this is some cunning

Henley - a retrospective - Labour come fifth behind the BNP!

Labour come fifth and lose their deposit. Martin Salter is on hand to comment. A bit like the spectre at the feast. I can't be bothered to give (many) excuses or try to explain things away (much) or blame anyone. These things happen at this point in the electoral cycle and in Henley. We went up 1.7% on 2005. In many ways 'Henley' is a misnomer, as is often the case with constituency names.

Labour came FIFTH...!!

... in Henley, behind the Greens and BNP. (Lib Dem Stephen Kearney came second, reducing the Tory majority) Does anyone know - has a party in Government ever done quite so badly in a by-election before?

Henley - quick thoughts before bedtime

I really must get some sleep....but a couple of quick thoughts, based on the Sky News prediction of an increased majority for the Conservatives. This isn't hugely surprising but it is hugely disappointing, obviously we have picked up some Labour votes if the Sky prediction of 30% is borne out but nowhere near enough. I expect this to kick off a fundamental debate about the orientation of the Party and it should be discussing the themes that I sleepily mentioned. Our main dialogue has to be with disaffected Labour supporters by virtue of that being where the political motion is; ...

Will the BNP be the big story??

Political Betting is openly speculating that the British National Party may well take third place in Henley. Surely this would be the end for Gordon Brown? I have always thought the 'successes' of the BNP have to be kept in proportion but nonetheless surely it should be a cause of concern that relatively small but still significant people are turning to them....

Day 2731: The Chihuahua That Roared

Monday: And by 'Chihuahua' I mean our esteemed leader, who is happy to be associated with the little dog that doesn't let its size stop it standing up for what it believes in. Mr Clogg has made a KEYNOTE SPEECH to Chattering House about Liberal Democrat foreign policy and the need to get internationalism back on track after the disaster of the Monkey-in-Chief's administration. The main area of the speech is, of course, about ZIMBABWE, but Mr Clogg does start out by mentioning EUROPE and THAT Treaty. And you know what - it looks like I may have CONVINCED him ...

Friday 27th June 2008

Previous days:

Archives

Search for...

Adverts

Buttons

LibDem Blog Box

Contributors

Campaigns

Backlinks...

From the LibDems...

Featuring Nick Clegg...

From the BBC...

From the Independent...

From the Guardian...

Adverts