We had an excellent day seminar in Cairo today, on the challenges facing Liberal values in Egypt, organised by the local Democratic Front (a newly registered Liberal party, which is an observer member to Liberal International), with financial assistance and participation from the UK Liberal Democrats, with assistance from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy. Among the approximately [...] 
Well I am in shock. I did not expect there to be a new Dr. Who so soon, though it was good to see present day Cardiff actually playing itself in tonight's episode. I had always wondered what the water tower was for, now we know. It is a giant transmitter. The BBC has been enormously successful in keeping the lid on the departure of David Tennant as Dr. Who, even to the extent that the Director General himself told the Assembly's Broadcasting Committee on 16 June that one of the reasons why the BBC were producing just four specials ...
The second, but still possibly the last, in a new series which started with Article 246. Today, it is Part VIII, Section 1, Annex IV, Clause 6: As an immediate advance on account of the animals referred to in paragraph 2 (a) above, Germany undertakes to deliver in equal monthly installments in the three months following the coming into force of the present Treaty the following quantities of live stock: (1) To the French Government. 500 stallions (3 to 7 years); 30,000 fillies and mares (18 months to 7 years), type: Ardennais, Boulonnais or Belgian; 2,000 bulls (18 months to ...
I thought Henley was a score draw. We didn't do as well as we hoped, but we did a lot better than the Tories hoped we would do. Part of the discourse seems to be that we should, whatever the political circumstances, be taking seats off the Tories. I think there are two main issues about this. The first is that many of us still see the Tories as more like our natural enemies than Labour; the assumption is that we have less common ground with the Tories than with Labour. I think that that just makes us complicit with ...
If I reveal the inspiration for this story then I am afraid of looking faintly ridiculous but nonetheless I rather think I should to explain the context and maybe giving the reader a fighting chance of getting the twist. The basic plot was inspired by one from an episode of Buffy; The Vampire Slayer. In the episode called 'Hells Bells' (close to the end of series 6) the rather nerdy Xander Harris is set to marry but before he does he is vistited by his 'future-self' showed his married life and eventually decides not to go ahead. So, without further ... 
Well, no. Though I don't think Lembit would make a suitable President for the Liberal Democrats. Why? Well, first of all I think the role of the Party President is to act as a voice for councillors, activists and members. For that reason I think it's wrong that an MP should be President. Equally I'm not sure that being a member of the House of Lords is any better. It doesn't exactly say 'progressive' does it? I want to see a jobbing councillor and activist in the role. Someone who understands how tough it is for many of us at ...
Afzal Anwar again in the community really doing what he does best doing his bit for society. This man is probably the best man for the job. So Please Vote Afzal Anwar at the next general Election
So, my web host package for TaKtiX expires on Tuesday, so given I'm barely moving it I'm backing it all up to prepare to move it all to a cheaper server. While downloading the entire HTML content I found that the server stats programme provided by my host backs up the stats page monthly. This I knew not. Oops. So I read them through, and realise that I've been misreading them a bit. I thought they were cumulative in that programme, but they're not. Most read are the various feeds the site releases. After that are the graphics I use ...
Thanks to Well Behaved Orphan (You can't beat a good education - Lord Bonkers) for drawing this story from The Times to my attention: Archaeologists exploring a graveyard at St Pancras stumbled across a coffin containing a mysterious set of bones. They were later identified as belonging to a walrus. An explanation for the animal's dignified burial has not yet surfaced.The new St Pancras Church on the Euston Road, as I understand it, has a crypt but no graveyard. Which suggests that the report is talking about Old St Pancras.
Courtesy of The Mole on First Post: There is a grim joke circulating among Labour MPs: 'What is the difference between Robert Mugabe and Gordon Brown?'Answer: 'Mugabe was elected.'
In 2006 Mr Boris Johnson the Mayor of London was found to be having an affair. But not just one affair two. Mr Johnson was cheating on his wife and was seen sneaking out of his mistress's house. Mr Boris Johnson is a man that i do not think is very trustworthy yet the people of London Elected him as Mayor of London. Boris is a man that i and many think should not have got elected the people of London should have elected a more serious Candidate Brian Paddick.
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/2306_tory_stash.shtml The Conservative high flyer's are in the media a lot recently. Why is it that the conservative MP's are scamming the system or the tax Payer. In the Link above another Tory MP has been caught for having a £3 Million Pound Stash that was not declared. Why are the Tory and Labour Politicians scamming the system they get paid enough already and like Chris Huhne MP said on question time that MP's should actually give receipts before claiming money back otherwise they will start and carry on scamming the system like a lot of Tory and Labour MP's ...
Wendy Alexander's resignation as Scottish Labour party leader comes as no surprise. I blogged a couple of weeks ago when news leaked out that she was likely to face an adverse judgement from the Standards Commissioner over the donations row that it could prove to be the last straw for her. And so it has proved. But let's be clear about this: it wasn't the donations row that did for her, it was her own lacklustre performance as Scottish Labour leader. Had she been an effective leader, she would easily have weathered the storm over the donations row. But Wendy ...
A fantastic evening last night at Hyde Park celebrating Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday, at the 46664 concert - in aid of his charity, named after his prison number to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa. I feel so privileged to have been there, courtesy of my best friend Mickey, who got me a ticket. It was an emotional as well as celebratory concert, particularly for Mickey, whose family were so affected by the South African Apartheid regime, and whose father, George Peake, a colleague of Mandela and ANC activist, was the first political prisoner on Robben Island. Nelson Mandela - Madiba, is ...
Muswell Hill and District Horticultural Society Summer Show - to give out the prizes. Shock I know - but I am wearing a summer dress! The flowers are absolutely beautiful - but not enough entries to make the competition as fierce as usual. So come on Muswell Hill green fingers! In the first picture I am with Pam Defries and her winning flower arrangement. In the second picture I am with Marion Wilton who is giving me an arrangement she made for me. It is so lovely to receive such a lovely gift - and the sweet peas smell heavenly. ...
What a remarkable development. There is little more to say than wow. As the price of oil rises, the incentives to find new technologies and efficiencies will increase, therefore we will produce less CO2. There is hope yet.
Cripes, crikey and cascading cucumbers. I see some humans are up in arms (or down in the gutter) not liking a Heinz TV ad showing two men briefly kissing and not knowing what to say to their kids. But there's WORSE NEWS! Have you not seen how some footballers embrace each other and even indulge in lips on skin action when a goal is scored? Whatever can those parents tell their kids when THAT happens. Ban football from TV now! It's the only way to save our country's morals! Please now stand on all four legs and join me in ...
I haven't had a chance to blog this last week, so belatedly - you have to live near Green Lanes, the legendary home to London's Turkish and Cypriot communities, and the longest road in North London, starting in my ward in Newington Green, all the way to Enfield, to have witnessed the celebratory scenes during Turkey's semi final match against Germany last week. A week earlier we saw ecstatic scenes in the streets of Islington, Hackney and Haringey, following the Turkish side do battle with the Croatia, winning in the last few minutes. The only British player left in the ...
Just back from a trip to the Far and Middle East and have just got on the tube at Heathrow (they are all delayed due to a power failure). The Far East part of the trip was spent mainly in Bangkok but I also did a visit to the Bridge on the River Kwai.The Middle East part of the trip was spent in Jordan, with a few days on the Dead Sea, a day at Petra and a day visiting the Roman city of Jerash,
One of the sad legacies of New Labour is that traditional Labour, or 'Left', issues such as inequality have not been debated for over a decade. It almost certainly is still an important issue to be debated and understood, yet there is very little in the public discourse about it. Have a read of this stunning article on US inequality from the Harvard Magazine. It's quite one sided and has an obvious bias (oh and it incorrectly labels Ethiopia a post-colonial state), but the data presented does get you thinking. Have a go.
Sad as it has been to see the European Championship take place without England, it has been restful in a way. Because we have been spared the media overreaction that always accompanies such tournaments. In the run up we are told that England are the greatest and are bound to win it. Then when we go out, after one of those epic defeats in which we specialise, we are told that English football - if not English society - needs a thorough overhaul if we are ever to hope to win anything again. Media reaction to the Liberal Democrats is ...
An Open Letter! Sent to whom? Sent to Nigel, of course; top, leading, 'government affairs' bloke at Heinz. Dear Nigel Dickie, Predictably find here another complaint about your company's decision to withdraw the 'kissing men' advertisement because of the original complaints from a couple of hundred backward-thinking fiendish types in spite of the kiss apparently not even being a 'real' kiss but a kind of 'joke kiss' which I'm sure was rather funny and could have cheered up all us over-taxed subjects of Supreme Leader Gordo's Britain whilst simultaneously promoting your rather excellent beans. Please also note that this is ...
Is anyone else bored of hearing the word 'by-election'. There's going to be another one! Glasgow East was a labour stronghold, with libdems and SNP behind. But that last 60% in 2005 may not hold up the rate things have been going. So we could have every chance, if we can draw over Labour voters and stop the SNP. We did only get 11.8%, but the SNP only had 17% in 2005.
Just seen a report on Italy on BBCNews24. I am writing an increasing amount of entries on Italy and it's all to do with the new right-winged Government. The increasing list of entries is getting quite worrying now. Anyway the report was about the Italian Government on the Roma community, some of which I've written about. The Government has been blaming the community for crime and so are the Italian people. The new right-winged/far-right Mayor of Rome has been bulldozing the temporary houses of the Roma community. He of course promised to expel 20,000 illegal immigrants. The places they were ...
The Government still hasn't made up its mind about who will run the Post Office Card Account after the present contract expires in 2010. This is the account which replaced the Pension book for many over 60s, allowing them to go to the Post Office as they always had and draw the money out each week. For people like my mother who can't get into her bank branch it's a godsend, helping her to
I don't like it when our leaders start to exaggerate things rather than being honest with us. Clegg was over enthusiastic about the local elections, when the reality is the overall UK picture for us was just 'okay' and that's all. On the Crewe by-election our leaders suggested the race was a lot closer than the media made out, which proved not to be realistic. Chris Rennard didn't exaggerate too much on the Henley by-election result but he did emphasize how we'd increased our percentage. But the thing is our percentage went up 1.8 and the tories, 3.4. There are ...
Having recently done a joint surgery with Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee West, I am now doing another joint West End Ward surgery with an MSP - this time with North East Scotland LibDem member Alison McInnes MSP (pictured right). It takes place in the Activity Room of Blackness Library between 12.45pm and 1.30pm this coming Tuesday (1st July) - all West End residents welcome!
A few weeks ago Tory bloggers were queueing up to complain that poor old Caroline Spelman was being unjustly accused of paying her nanny out of parliamentary expenses and that her version of events made complete sense. Some of these Tories blamed the BBC (what a surprise), some blamed other parties, but none of them blamed Caroline Spelman. Now, it appears, even Tory MPs are coming forward to say she was not telling the truth about her expenses and she has to go. Where are the Tory bloggers who defended her now ?
Like me you have probably seen the bright orange branding of the Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyBus as it plies its trade up and down the Woodcote Road on route between London Victoria station and Gatwick airport. At peak times the service runs every 20 minutes and off peak every 30 minute for much of the way - but you try to catch it! Unfortunately the bus just passes through Wallington on its way to the airport or to London. But it does stop in Coulsdon and in Streatham High Road. I think there's a hidden demand for this fast and reliable ... 
So - 200 complaints about two men kissing and Heinz - whimps that they are - withdraw the advertisement. Just when you think that we have moved beyond the bigotry and homophobic hatreds of the past - something like this (or Iris Robinson) pops into the limelight and reminds us that we still have a long way to go to eradicate homophobia. We may have been able to make homophobic behaviour subject to the law - but it is clearly still there in the people - and in corporate cowards. Would Heinz have pulled an advert if 200 people had ...
Visited Spurs Foundation yesterday with Lib Dem colleagues: councillors Robert Gorrie, David Winskill and Rachel Alison, plus David Schmitz who is our prospective parliamentary candidate for Tottenham. We were looking at the work the foundation is doing in terms of encouraging learning, sports opportunities for children with disabilities, and generally discussing how and what needed doing in terms of integration between the west and east of Haringey. Spurs have moved a long, long way since the days when they were totally resistant to putting back anything into the local community and over the last several years have come on in ...
So, Heinz releases an ad they must have known would cause a controversy, in which two men kiss. Not of course, because they're in love or anything like - my reading of the ad is one where the family are so far into taking their mum for granted that she can entirely be replaced by some strange American guy in a chef outfit and none of them even notice. So, Heinz releases a controversial ad, and then, surprise surprise, there's a storm of complaints from the fundies. So they pull the ad. Then there's a storm of complaint from the ...
The last 24 hours have seen many suggestions from readers about the conduct of by-elections. Now it seems that the opportunity to put these suggestions into practice is coming up quicker than expected. David Marshall MP has told his local Labour party that he will stand down because of his worsening health. The results last time: Party Candidate Votes % Change Labour David [...]
(hat tip: Mark Pack at LDV) Our Glorious Leader has taken a stand. Bless him, he's written an open letter to Heinz: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. While I understand that some people in Britain today are uncomfortable with same-sex relationships, such prejudice should not be condoned by an organisation of your size and stature. The sight of two men kissing affectionately should not be considered offensive or controversial. This is particularly the case in an advertisement which was so ...
The Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander has resigned. It is another twist in Labour's sailing close to the wind too often with political donations. She had failed to declare in time 'gifts' given to her for her leadership election last year. The parliamentary standards committee had earlier on this week suspended her for one day. After what has been a gaffe strewn 10 months of leadership
In case you thought it couldn't get any worse for Labour, it just did.
Afzal Anwar is working for the community to make it a better place for the people of Pendle. Mr Anwar has been seen at many charity events doing his bit for the community and i have seen him holding a donation box and standing in public places for a local charity. Mr Anwar also is on the Whitefield Regeneration Group which is made up of residents and Councillors who want to make a difference to Whitefield. Mr Anwar is on the Group as a resident as he thinks it is his duty to serve the people that is why he ...
Mark Littlewood, ex Lib Dem Head of Media and well known exponent of dragging the party kicking and screaming to the right, urges Nick Clegg in an article in the Telegraph yesterday to make us the low tax party. 'Greatly to his credit, Nick Clegg has dropped some hints that the LibDems could become the party of low taxation at the next election. But he has yet to adopt the policies to make such a claim truly plausible' He also has some wise words to say about our desperate need for a meaningful narrative and clear messages, though clearly his ...
I've been watching for a while as the petition to Heinz to reinstate their ad has ticked closer to the momentous threshold of it's ten thousandth signature. Well at High Noon UK time, after all this is a UK ad, on the 28th June it was only 12 signature short of that number. It's only taken 15 minutes more to get to 10,000. Considering that Heinz initially said when removing their ad that they
Wendy Alexander has resigned as Labour's leader in Scotland following a ruling that she broke the Scottish Parliament's rules over declaring donations. More on the BBC and PoliticsHome (which has her full statement).
How many scientific reports do we need before we can have the "science based" policy that Nick Clegg says we should have ? Back on the 31st of July the Commons Science Select Committee released their recomended rating system as part of their repo... Read and post comments | Send to a friend
This time it is the Labour Party that has fallen victim to the unwritten rule that every time I leave my home for an away break a high profile political resignation takes place (which makes it logically the Lib Dems turn next, I can see the restraining orders coming already). Wendy Alexander has resigned following the decision of Scottish Parliament's standards committee that she failed to declare donations to her leadership campaign on her register of interests and it's recommendation that she be banned from the Scottish parliament for one day. Alexander complained on the BBC that the decision was ...
I am beginning to wonder if I need to take some time out of politics to catch up on my reading and improve my cultural hinterland. I was looking through the South Wales Evening Post earlier today and came upon the page containing photos of readers' pets. At the bottom was a picture of two kittens called Romulus and Remus. Naturally, I immediately assumed that they were named after the Romulan homeworld and its moon as featured in Star Trek. My wife however pointed out that it was possible that they may well have been given their names in commemoration ...
This is something that I will never need. As I have previously mentioned, I have a fabulous boss, and we all know I don't work in an office. Still, I thought I'd link to it as a public service: Whack Your Boss. It took me ages to find the seventeenth method, but I still think the scissors are the best. Last week there was a meeting of contributors to LC and their allies. Obviously, as these things always are, it was in London, so I couldn't go#. There has been a dribble of posts along the lines of Useful things ...
Those who wish to see a bigger picture can look at Flickr for it. The process of reducing the Sub Post Office network from about 18,000 to 4,500 outlets is continuing with silly decisions to close down profitable outlets continuing to be made. This is the local councillors from Acocks Green and Springfield Wards (Springfield is in Hall Green Constituency) campaigning to keep Shaftmoor Lane Sub
There has been a lot of coverage about the police violence during the STWC demonstration against George Bush a couple of weeks ago. In the middle of all this is an interesting and very disturbing story. This was the first demo I have missed for sometime, but in the early evening I had a call from my pal Yas who was there. She asked me about a guy we had both met at a Christmas Party - she wanted to be sure he did what she thought he did - a senior police officer with a hugely sensitive role. He ...
With the market taking a turn for the worse SSAP 24 will start causing difficulties again. Too many of the aspects of our financial system are self-reinforcing. That results in a gearing effect on changes.
From Pink News: The leader of the Liberal Democrats has become the first party leader to comment on the decision of food manufacturer Heinz to withdraw an advert from TV because it depicted two men kissing. Nick Clegg has written to the the Director of UK Corporate Affairs at Heinz expressing his disappointment at their decision and [...]
A week is a long time in politics, a year is a short time in bureaucracy. Make that 4 years, in the case of Transport for London. I've blogged before about the pelican crossing outside Angel tube station. It's a nightmare: southbound traffic from two roads (Upper Street and Liverpool Road) feeds into it and [...]
As a netviber and general Internet addict, I rarely pick up an actual paper and ink newspaper. Sure I read the comment and opinion sections of around a dozen newspapers a day but I don't read their news coverage, that I get more instantly and elsewhere. Today was different. I happened to be waiting for a bus in Kensington to take me home, so I bought an actual copy of the Times. On page three there is a terrifying headline: 'Second top al-Qaeda man to be freed'. Under this shocking revelation is a photo of a kafiyeh clad gunman and ...
Yesterday we discovered that the taxpayer footed a £40 million quid bill for the Royal Family last year, minus security costs. Some people are worked up about this. £40 million quid is a lot of money, paying a hereditary elite family a salary every year appears bizarre, and having a Monarchy at all is anachronistic. I am nominally a republican, but do not feel it is an important issue now, there are better things to be worried about, and I am rather pleased it isn't really on the political stage. I feel a fair solution to funding of the Royals ...
A few months ago, I had a rant about BT Broadband's customer service. So for the sake of balance, I share with you this gem about Orange broadband. Not so bright....
The calls are growing for Caroline Spelman to be sacked over the nannygate expense scandal. This week, Michael Portillo added his name to the clamour of voices (mainly Labour ones and Newsnight's Michael Crick) calling for her to go. Although there is no evidence to suggest that Spelman over spent her office allowance or spent any more than other MPs, it increasingly looks as though she technically broke the rules and she will find it difficult to hold on. Yet, Spelman probably found that her nanny was more helpful in enabling her to do her job than her secretary, who ...
You may notice that for the next few weeks that this blog isn't very active. That's because I'm going on holiday in Bodrum, Turkey and then I'll be heading down to Plymouth to work at Plymouth Marine Laboratory for a few weeks.
You can take a look at this full story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7471211.stm Well the HMRC has new boss who replacing the previous boss Paul Gray who lost millions of people personal details who were claiming child benefit. The inf...
I am off to spend some time with my partner so will again be away this weekend until Monday night...not that anybody will miss me I am sure...now the last time I did this David Davis resigned so fingers-crossed for a quiet political weekend...I have left a couple of things to autopost which include a couple of my ambles off into creative writing...to be honest I would eventually like to expand the horizons of this blog (while taking nothing away from the diet of politics) so it is something of a dry run for that....anyways, I hope all have a ...
Thursday: Colour me stunned, the Conservatories held the safest Conservatory seat in the country. Yes, I am disappointed not to get brilliant Mr Stephen into parliament, but this is a good sign for the future. i.e. we've still got one! Despite HYSTERICAL coverage from the Grauniad trying to distract attention, and their results list giving the Conservatories a majority of 74% by overlooking the Liberal Democrats entirely (how strangely TYPICAL of the tribally NewLabour Grauniad), the Liberal Democrat vote held up pretty well against the Conservatories at full flood. So the big story was the Labour receiving just 1066 votes ...
Wednesday: This is going to sound SOOOOO ungracious after they were kind enough to invite me to their meeting, but the 'Left Liberal Bloggers Summit' organised by the Labour Conspiracy and the Grauniad this week was DULL with a capital DULL! I was not sure what I was expecting it to be about going in, but more disappointingly I am really not sure what it was all for coming out! What I CAN say is that it felt like a typical Labour Students meeting: a panel of the 'important people' at the front addressing a lecture hall of us 'proles'. ... | < | June 2008 | > | ||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
