LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 13th July 2008

Gene Robinson - the personification of grace

Grace is a virtue rarely talked about, perhaps because it is in such short supply. But this fact means that when it is demonstrated it is all the more powerful. As 'Tuesday's Child' I am supposed to be 'full of grace' but I confess it is a quality that I admire so much in others, but rarely find in myself. So I was deeply moved watching the Andrew Marr interview with Gene Robinson this morning. As the only Bishop not to have been invited to Lambeth he could have been full of pique and anger. Instead he has chosen to ...

I'm the last one left. Do I have to turn out the lights?

Contrary to the picture painted in "Hello" magazine and various other society journals, the life of a suburban Lib Dem Councillor isn't one canape party after another. In fact, quite often I am bored to tears at weekends and forced to flick through the Sky TV directory until I stumble across the inevitable repeat of "Only Fools and Horses" somewhere. This weekend though has been nothing short of a social whirl, as weddings, farewells and gatherings have collided to make it seem for a brief period as if I do indeed have some semblance of a life. Unfortunately, the social ...

Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union

Gordon Brown went off to Paris today determined to persuade his EU counterparts to tighten the screws on Zimbabwe — quite right too, in view of the disgraceful volte-face by Russia re sanctions and the more predictable veto from China in the UN Security Council. But for the host of the Paris Summit, Nicolas Sarkozy, [...]

Justice Sunday - 2 sides

This isn't exactly the title of today, but my title for it, it being 'Matins for the Courts' at Durham Cathedral, which isn't just about lots of (mainly men) dressing up in wigs and gowns. It is a time to reflect, even if of no religion, of the role of our justice system. It wasn't just the splendidly outfitted judges, High Sherriff, magistrates and other people from the judicial system, but...

REM: Nightswimming

Automatic for the People came out so long ago that my copy is on vinyl. Like many people, I bought successive REM CDs after that, hoping each time that they would be as good as the earlier album. They never were. But I also investigated the band's back catalogue, which was more rewarding. Anyway, here is a live performance of one of the songs from Automatic for the People.

North Korea and Betws-y-Coed

Blood & Treasure comments on a report that A North Korean soldier has shot and killed a South Korean tourist who wandered into a restricted zone: This reminds me a bit of going to North Wales on holiday when I was a kid. Great scenery, but when the inhabitants are tight lipped fanatical nationalists, untoward things happen ...The local Methodists in Betys-y-coed [sic] weren't as heavily armed, but as in North Korea everything was shut all of the time.

Patrick Mercer calls Redruth curfew a success before it has even started

The idea of curfews on young people is back with a vengeance. It is rapidly getting caught up with the current concern about knife crime. The Sunday Times this morning says: A report from a House of Commons committee will say this week that a national curfew on young teenagers could curb anti-social and violent behaviour.I suppose such a curfew would have that effect. And if you included older teenagers and adults it would have even more of an effect. But do we really want to live under a version of martial law? It is not surprise to see Keith ...

I've Decided To Take On Obama And McCain

Of course it's true - just see this news report:

Cameron:'Liberal Conservative':- What do you mean?

When David Cameron became the Leader of the Conservatives he called himself a 'Liberal Conservative' what did he mean? The conservative Leader has sent a message to Liberal Democrat supporters on the Pendle and many other Conservative websites and the link to the Tory message is below. http://www.pendleconservatives.com/index.php?sectionid=100 The Link to the Flaming Message is 'For Liberal Democrats' i think that was the page that Sajjad Karim visited an awful lot when he got nominated second by the Liberal Democrats. Them words in the message are the exact words used by Mr Karim when he changed parties he also said ...

Fruits of the Earth

This evening we ate a meal of boiled new potatoes cooked in fresh garlic with wilted spinach beet; fried cabbage and onion; and lettuce; with a pudding of rather lovely raspberries. Why am I telling you this? Because it was all picked an hour before from our allotment and all grown organically (except for the [...]

David Cameron Bullingdon photo 'dropped out of circulation'

From this week's Economist: "...[David Cameron], Mr Osborne and Mayor Johnson, the three most prominent Tories in the land, were all members of the Bullingdon Club, an infamously elitist and rowdy Oxford dining club. (A photo of Mr Cameron and his clubmates in waistcoat and tails has mysteriously dropped out of circulation.) Well, if The Economist are [...]

People's Day

{Peoples' Day 2008} This time last year, I was inter-railing round Europe. That did mean I was enjoying much better weather than we've had this week, but also meant I missed Lewisham People's Day. So it was good to walk up to Mountsfield Park on Saturday for my first People's Day in two years. I helped out for a bit on the Lewisham Lib Dem tombola stall, which was good fun. I can't say I was thrilled with my sole prize - a bottle of shampoo large enough to keep someone with my hairline in shampoos until the next People's ...

Knowing your Fannie from your Freddie

There has been quite a lot in the news recently about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Until a few days ago I had never heard of them. I imagine most people in the UK were in the same boat. The International Herald Tribune has an excellent piece, Protected by Washington, Fannie and Freddie Grew that explains the background to the story.

McCain, the new Roosevelt

In a report by The International Herald Tribune, John McCain says he sees himself as Roosevelt. That is Theodore not Franklin. For non-students of American politics, Franklin gave American the New Deal and Keysnian economics while Theodore spoke softly and carried a big stick. The latter phrase summed up his foreign policy. Domestically, he regulated big business by busting trusts and his conservationism led him to establish national parks. McCain's choice of political inspiration is very shrewd. Roosevelt was a maverick who broke away from the Republican party. Thus, McCain appeals to party members and the independents and floating Democrats ...

Cameron shows his true colours with his 'fat speech'

....Well, apparently Cameron has confided to intimates: 'I suppose it will always be known as the 'fat speech' now' - so who am I to disappoint him? The Sunday Times sees the speech as the 'third great moment' of his leadership of the Conservative party. On the other hand, Jon Cruddas has an article in the Sunday Mirror entitled: 'Cam shows his true colours': I give him credit for saying what

Farewell!

I hate to use the well-worn phrase 'blogging will be light to non-existent' but it may well be over the next month or so. Not for any reason in particular. I may write articles but they will most likely be for my A-Z of Politics. I am having a long break at some point in the next two months and won't be taking my computer so will wind things down gradually. Also, as parliament will cease for the summer soon there won't be much to blog about. I'm also not a 'leading blogger' (even though I rival Gavin Whenman for ...

Scandal of four MPs' second homes

The Sunday Telegraph has listed four MPs who have homes in their constituencies which are within reasonable travelling distance to Westminster. However, these four MPs have used their ACA (Additional Cost Allowance) within the 'letter' (if not the spirit) of the House of Commons expense rules, to use taxpayers' money to fund second homes in places further away from Westminster and nowhere near

Something for the Weekend: The wheels on the bus

As my roast cooks away in the oven, there's just time for a quick Something for the Weekend. OK, I'll probably do this blog post and then start cooking, but it sounded better the other way. Anyway, enough culinary procrastination. Let's see what this week's mélange has for us. Boris wants your lack of expertise Boris Johnson's [...]

What Ignatian spirituality means to me: 3. Pay attention to what's going on inside you

This post is part of a series. If this is the first one you've seen, you may want to take a look at the introduction, which will also give you the links to earlier parts. In part 1, one of the things I wrote about was the idea that we are images of God and, because of this, can only understand ourselves by understanding God and vice versa. (When I write 'we' and 'us' in this series, I mean Christians, and sometimes specifically those in the Ignatian tradition; I am not trying to tell atheists or agnostics or those of ...

Getting American politics: The Age of Reagan

Every so often, people ask me for suggestions for the best books to read about modern American politics. For what it's worth, I usually refer them to the efforts by E.J. Dionne jr. and Godfrey Hodgson to explain the crisis of American liberalism and other big themes in US politics over the last 40 years. Then there is another suggestion, that usually takes people by surprise: to read just about anything that is well-written about Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan. Following my own advice, I am currently reading Nixonland, a brilliant new work by Rick Perlstein. He explains the secret ...

Bournemouth Conference Facebook Site

I couldn't find one, so I've created one for representatives and guests to chat, plan their conference, find good hotels, restaurants, pubs etc. All coming soon. Includes links for registration and Agenda. Its here There is also an 'event' Facebook site here though it doesn't seem to have any links/info etc at the moment.

It is worth checking your bils...

So just the usual Sunday, a bit of Lib Deming, a bit of gardening, a lot of cleaning and tidying and washing and a bit sorting through my mail. Yesterday I was watching 'You Money' on BBC News channel and they were talking about the problems with paying by direct debit, especially utility bills where metres are used. Many people are caught paying a regular amount only to find their bills are

Money down the drain!

Revelations in the Daily Mail and Hampshire Chronicle this week highlight the "extraordinary extravagant" Conservative controlled Hampshire County. They reveal that the of £40M being spent on refurbishing the county council headquarters in Winchester, £1·25M has been spent on new furniture and fixings. These include directors' chairs with adjustable lumber support, head rest and multi-position tilt. Multicoloured designer sofas and chairs provided for rest areas when staff are not working. The six kitchenettes now have the best in designer taps costing £2000 each. County Councillor for Andover North, Robin Hughes said, "When ordinary people are having to tighten their belts ...

Woof woof bark spoon crime woof

Woof woof - woof, snarl. Grr bark; woof-woof woof. Grr grrrrrrrrr snarl spoons to fight crime woof bark bark. Bark? Bark grr bark!

UK School Games in Bath

{Bath University Sports Training Village} The UK School Games are being held in Bath and Bristol on 28th-31st August. The games are the junior equivalent of the olympics for (as should be evident) UK school children. The University of Bath are hosting the athletics, fencing, table-tennis and volleyball on their Claverton campus; swimming is at theMillford school near Glastonbury and the remaining events at UWE and Filton, both North of Bristol. Volunteers are needed to help run the games who will be fully trained, get free access o the events and a uniform to keep! Information on visiting and volunteering ...

Knife Crime - John Major nearly gets it right - Jacqui Smith doesn't get it at all

Andrew Marr interviewed John Major this morning, remember him? Inevitably following the chat about the economy the subject of the current moral panic about knife crime. What he said I found very interesting '....If you look at knife crime in the cities, if you go back to the time when I was a boy I, I lived in the middle of Brixton at a time of quite a lot of social turmoil, when there was relatively little to do. But there were gymnasiums, there were places where you could go and you could box, you could play indoor soccer, you ...

Chariot Festival

Saturday afternoon saw a pair of local party events. First in my own patch - Strawberry Tea at beautiful home of Harold Margolis - and then off to to Tunbridge Wells local party as Guest of Honour at their Summer BBQ fundraiser. Sat Nav saved me! The house in Paddock Wood was just beautiful: an old Oat House and Hop Press - now fantastic home with fantastic where there were table and chairs and lots of delicious food. And after food - came me! It was a lovely evening - and they seemed to be such an optimistic group - ...

Also, an FYI

I decided to play about with the LJ Toys readership monitor. Y HALLO THAR readery-type people. If you don't want to be picked up by it, set your browser not to load remote-hosted images and you won't be.

Clegg grill's Cameron

In the link above Nick Clegg is really grilling the Tory's about them being a party that fights for the liberties of the people. He says that David Davies is the only conservatives standing alone with these issues in mind. This link shows how much of a hypocrite Cameron is and this i think brings out just some of the truth that will hopefully be revealed to the Public before they get fooled into electing the conservatives. Please visit the link and get back to me on what you think!

Not Big Brother but Big Brown

Please visit the link above it is a article that shows that the Government want to keep a record of all our email's on a national database. Why don't they not open our letter's and make photocopies of them! This Government really knows how to keep a watch on its people if this was to be introduced all out liberties would have been bulldozed away by Labour. If the prime Minister doesn't want to share his email's with the nation then why should the nation share their email's with the Government? These plans are over the top and will ...

Lib Dem Victory in YouGov 'Six Pointer'

Hmm, I haven't spotted this elsewhere in Lib Dem blog circles today so thought I'd stick it up - the latest YouGov poll, pleasingly showing us 3 points up and Labour 3 points down. Woop! On pb.com Mike Smithsons notes that 'since the 2005 general election the firm [YouGov] has generally been giving the lowest figures for the third party' - hence this is an especially welcome boon for us lovely liberals. Good work, team.

The Dangers of Being a Ranting Loon

Something that worries me is the conflation of religion with race. There is an assumption that white people are Christian (when in fact they can be any religion or none), that black people are probably Christian (when in fact they can be any religion or none), and that brown people are Muslim (when in fact they can be any religion or none) which makes me very angry. I am bang alongside the idea of criticism of religion, because (weird Muslim ideas about what should be done to apostates aside) religion is a choice, a choice to follow a given set ...

Housing Plans

Residents in Broxtowe have reacted with disbelief to the proposals of consultants that three large housing estates could be built on the greenbelt in the borough. Before I go any further I'll make it clear that I would personally be very affected by these proposals as the largest proposed estate is directly behind my house. I don't hide from that at all. Even if I wasn't affected personally I would still consider the proposals to be deeply flawed. The consultants did not look at any possible sites in the flood plain. That may be understandable given last years flooding, but ...

The Silent Cllr

In Pendle Council we have a very silent Councillor he probably only speak's up for the people of his ward when his Party leader allow's him to. You can count the number of times this Councillor has spoken in the council chamber on one hand and yet he was elected to speak the mind of the people of his ward. He is very quiet and shy and is not really a candidate that lives in the ward but yet call's himself a local man. Guess who the silent Councillor is?

Silly Plan's of Prevention

Our silly Government is at it again. Today making claims that it will send knife carrier's to visit Victim's in Hospital. What a silly way to try and tackle knife crime. Our Government is trying its best to hang onto Power but the way its going Thur 'power' it has is going to kick it in the face and do a runner. The Government is coming out with silly plans to tackle knife crime that are so ridiculous that victim's of knife crime wouldn't think are sensible enough. Last week we had Cameron wanting to lock up people who carry ...

Labour Out Of Touch

Two comments by politicians recently have illustrated how out of touch Labour have become with ordinary people, the people that their party was formed to represent. First Gordon Browns answer to the economic squeeze - delivered just before he attended a banquet apparently costing £85,000 for the meal, is that people should eat less and not throw anything away - Monday's meal will be the leftovers from Sunday, that sort of thing. If that wasn't bad enough we then had the appalling Angela Eagle trying to justify massive increases in road tax by saying that it won't affect poor people ...

Day 2479: Halting Price and Howdoo

Friday: Well Done to Mr Davis David for winning his seat back with only five-hundred-and-sixty-three votes FEWER than the Liberal Democrats got at the last proper election. In fact, the total turnout was only about a thousand higher than Mr Davis David's own vote last time. So it's POSSIBLE - in spite of (or because of) the long string of LOONIES and less serious candidates - that Conservatories were the ONLY people out voting. It is a bit SAD, though, that Mr David's magnificent gesture has become rather muted thanks to the Labour giving him quite another sort of Great ...

Tories on the take: the South East London belt of shame

'The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered four cases where MPs are receiving up to £24,000-a-year in 'second home allowance' despite one of their two homes being nowhere near either Westminster or their constituency.' The picture built is one of a 'belt of shame' across South East London Tories. 1. My old friend 'Three jobs Bob' is also 'Two homes Bob'. Tory MP Bob Neill's house in his Bromley &

On The Buses

{806d201004_4} Picture shows the old breed of number 17s. I was glad to hear of the new, 'greener' ethanol powered buses on the number 17 route. But on closer inspection, are they really any greener? The main issue I've noticed is there are fewer seats onboard - especially for those with wheelchairs and pushchairs with spaces slashed in half. Parents are already having to fill the aisles with pushchairs as a result, something that could potentially be very dangerous. How long will it be before people with wheelchairs or pushchairs feel that they will be better off going by car ...

Something the party could offer...

On the whole I think the Liberal Democrat Party is good at helping smaller locally parties to develop. Although most of this comes through ALDC and most of it must be initiated by the the local part its self, help and advice is out there. I think there are a few small services that the party could offer that would help local parties to campaign smarter. A couple of services that I think would

Is anyone surprised that Labour seem to have got it so wrong again on knife crime ?

Labour's latest policy to solve the problem of knife crime on the streets is to take youths found to be carrying knives around hospitals to show them victims of knife crime. My understanding is that people carry knives mainly through fear of being attacked themselves. They don't rationalise the argument that carrying a knife makes you more likely to be a victim. Instead they see it as something of an arms race. I would expect showing someone arrested for carrying a knife just how much damage can be done to you by someone with a knife is more than likely ...

Bloggers' summer reading (Part II)

Imagine you were going on holiday this summer: which two books would you take with you? One should be a political book - whether you want to re-read it, or try something new you've been recommended. The other should be your own choice of summer reading - the book you're most looking forward to reading [...]

To curfew or not

The Sunday Times reports that nine out of 10 parents would back a curfew to prevent their children going out after dark. The poll follows news that the home affairs select committee of the House of Commons will say this week that a national curfew on young teenagers could curb anti-social and violent behaviour. Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the committee, said: "I have sympathy with the view that children should not be out after 9pm." There are many dangers with this approach of course, not least the misconception that a problem, which is particularly severe in some English ...

There may be travel ahead...

The weekend started with an event in Peasedown St John in the North East Somerset constituency. Like the rest of Somerset, it's very pretty, but unlike the rest of the county, currently has a Labour MP. This rather unusual situation arises from the fact that there used to be a thriving mining industry in this part of the country and the vote has traditionally reflected this. The Labour meltdown is clearly in evidence in North East Somerset, helped along by the sterling work being carried out by our Parliamentary candidate Gail Coleshill. Back home in Suffolk for the remainder of ...

Why not write for Lib Dem Voice?

Lib Dem Voice is exactly what it says it is: "an independent, collaborative website run by Liberal Democrat activists, where any individual inside or outside the party can express their views." In particular, we welcome opinion pieces from party members, and have published articles by 148 different authors on a range of subjects since LDV was [...]

Surprise Surprise

Surprise Surprise... guess which MP voted to have the 'john Lewis' item's in his London second Home well our very own Pendle MP Gordon Prentice. These MP's get paid enough and yet they claim as much expenses as they probably can. If they was a expense given to MP's to go for walks i bet you no MP would be found at their constituency office they rather go out and take a walk for the extra money in their pocket then serve the people of their constituency. So people of Pendle be wise and Vote Afzal Anwar a 'John Lewis' ...

Day 2478: Religious Right trumps Gay Rights

Thursday: Or do they? The news that the Registrar who won't marry gay daddies because of her religion, Ms Lillian Ladle, has won her case should be treated with a little bit of caution. She CLAIMS that this is a 'victory for religious liberty'. But is it? It is important to recognise that Ms Ladle's complaint was that she had been BULLIED about her refusal to comply with the terms of her job (namely, provide marriage for anyone who asks). Would things have turned out the same way if the council had merely politely required her to do her job? ...

Day 2477: Ms Harpy - the economy will be fine so long as the Opposition don't keep talking it down

Wednesday: The BBC news may be focussing on Ms Harriet Harpy's assertion that Mr Frown has 'true grit*' or that she has Bats in her Belfry, or at least Daddies for Justice on her roof... (You know, it USED to be the case that the Prime Monster said he had full confidence in his ministers just before he sacked them for incompetence; now here is Mr Harpy saying she has full confidence in HIM...) ...but what you may have missed was her reply to our own Dr Vince 'the Power' Cable, asking her about the crisis in house-building. Here is ...

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Sunday 13th July 2008

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