I recently wrote a Comment is Free piece on the benefits of encouraging chess in schools. And the Turners Court School for Underprivileged Boys does sound rather like Lord Bonkers' Home for Well-Behaved Orphans. So naturally I was drawn to this British Pathe film. The description on the British Pathé page - follow the link to go there and play the film - describes: the group of boys as they move on the board, dressed in chessmen costumes of medieval tabards and wearing eye-masks, hats, horses heads and castles made of papier-mâché.But no trousers. Hmm. The overall effect reminds me ...
Wednesday's front page: * Mark Pack is Co-Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and writes a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Last week, I requested the City Council's Environment Department looks to : • Install new and larger litter bins on Magdalen Green • Work with Friends of Magdalen Green to install proper further BBQ tables and consider how to stop the use of portable BBQs on the Green • Consider toilet provision on the Green The City Council's Head of Environmental Management has now responded as follows: "Thanks for your positive suggestions. This seems to be a sensible way forward." In another good development, solar stud installation for the paths in Magdalen Green has started in the past couple of ...
When I was doing my BA in Philosophy at York more than 30 years ago, one of my favourite philosophers was Karl Popper. I discovered him for myself and soon realised that he was not wholly approved of by most of my lecturers. That, of course, made him all the more attractive to me. The best introduction to Popper's thought remains the Fontana Modern Masters volume by Bryan Magee - I did not discover Magee's connection with Market Harborough until a few years ago. But another secondary text I liked at the time was Return to Reason by Roger James. ...
Item one: A letter tomorrow in The Guardian from 15 Liberal Democrat MPs setting out their opposition to illiberal monitoring plans. Item two: More Conservative MPs joining with David Davis in speaking out against widespread online monitoring, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg. Item three: The Times reporting, Cameron forced to retreat on snooping powers [£]. Item four: a subtle, but significant, choice of words by Nick Clegg in a media interview this lunchtime presaging a major change of course from the story given to the Sunday Times at the weekend. Clegg signalled (as does The Times report) that the Queen's Speech ...
Michael congratulates the MP for Berwick upon Tweed, Sir Alan Beith, and others for their awards from UK Scouting and encourages others to volunteer too.
We're very glad that the campaign Keith has run with local residents to get a proper puffin crossing on Schools Hill looks to be successful, with Sainsbury's verbally agreeing to fund the crossing. Keith and I had a near miss on the crossing that shows just why we need to replace it. We were on Schools Hill yesterday evening – in daylight – crossing from the Bruntwood Park side to The Downs. A car slowed down to stop for us so we started crossing. Half way across we had to stop as the car coming the other way was showing ...
Bloody hell. Not sure what to think about to think of this whole e-snooping business. I understand why some might argue for Skype and other VoIP technologies to now be included under RIPA, but not bloody Liberal Democrats. I think this whole situation stinks of the party leadership failing to listen to the grassroots before ...
Earlier this evening I took part in a conference call on the Coalition's proposals to oblige internet service providers to collect and store more data about their customers. One of the other participants claimed to be Nick Clegg's 'political adviser'. As - how shall I phrase this? - I am not wholly convinced that this person can be relied upon to offer Nick the best political advice on a consistent basis, I am offering him a little of my own. Let me explain, Nick, why this issue, which may appear to be a little esoteric, poses a threat both to ...
A letter from 15 Liberal Democrat MPs expressing concern at the Coalition's plans will appear in tomorrow's Guardian. It stops short of an outright condemnation at any extension of snooping, but it more encouraging than any we have heard from the leadership so far: It is absolutely vital that the public get a chance to see and debate the details of any proposals to extend state surveillance, not just being presented with a Home Office fait accompli. It is also essential that the initial plans include adequate safeguards - which should be stronger than the current weak controls. Liberal Democrats ...
... which started politely, quickly degenerated into everybody shouting at each other, and ended up with everybody sounding very subdued. The Spads did start by trying to defend the proposal; by the end of the conversation, once many many people had explained the technical, logistical, political and financial problems with the proposal, along with the objections on principle, they were saying "well if you're right about what this entails, we won't wear it". And I'm afraid that when one of the them used the phrase "terrorists and paedophiles" in an attempt at justifying this intrusion into everybody's life the F-word ...
It has been difficult for most liberals – let alone Liberal Democrats – to take any positives at all from the fiasco that ensued from Sunday's leaked announcement of plans for new powers for Government to snoop on electronic communication. Some pretty sharp lessons need to be learnt across the board, from the spectacularly ill-advised reaction to publicly defend plans that were universally condemned as flawed, offended the most basic of liberal principles and (it is reported) will cost billions of pounds we haven't got. Tom Brake, outside Government and supposedly speaking for the Party, deserves particular singling out in ...
Having now read all of the novels on the shortlist for this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, I am glad to say that I finished on a high note. Rule 34 ticked a lot of my boxes, dealing with the relationships between small state-like entities (in this case, a near-future Scotland and a fictional Central Asian republic) and also with the relationships between law enforcement, social networks and artificial intelligence, as well as quite deliberately referencing Ian Rankin's excellent Rebus novels. My only serious stylistic quibble is that the second person voice, which was appropriate for Halting State, the game-centred ...
Ahem. I just published a blog post (80% written on the train this morning) about plans by the government to allow police to monitor the internet use of anyone and everyone without needing a warrant. But, because I was at work today, I wasn't able to finish and publish the blog post until this evening. Which means I have just found my entire blogpost made redundant by this piece of breaking news: Web and email monitoring plans will not be rammed through, says CleggThe article then goes on to say: The government will not "ram legislation through Parliament" to increase ...
This morning I was listening to an interesting debate on Radio 5 about the standard of education relating to A level results. Some listeners were saying that university students only had a basic knowledge of English and they struggled to write essays. Some were a lot more derisive. As with all good debates, there were those who supported the students too. They were brilliant at writing essays and did not lack a basic knowledge of English. These listeners should know because they marked the essays. The subject came up because Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, had expressed concerns that A ...
Or, to be more accurate, FFS Lib Dem parliamentarians in government. Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time there was this big nasty Labour government who loved nothing better than to extend the power of the state and its power to spy on people's lives. They had a brilliant idea to spy on everyone's email and internet use so a police officer could see anything anyone was up to online without even needing to go to a judge to get a warrant. But fortunately there were these brave people called the Lib Dems who stood up ...
I've been annoyed by this problem for some time. This afternoon it just became even more unbearable, perhaps because I have a slight stye affecting my right eye. What is the problem? Well put quite simply it is that the course materials for W100 are printed on paper that is quite glossy and shiny. Even ...
The topic being snooping legislation..... Martha Kearney: Well just before we came on air I spoke to the Deputy Prime Minister himself, Nick Clegg, and asked why he thought there was a need for a change in the legislation.Nick Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister): I think it's very important that people kind of hold off in making their judgements until they actually see the proposals. There's been a lot of kind of speculation, some of it inaccurate, over the last couple of days about what these proposals may or may not contain.I so happen to think that it is right to ...
There is a lot of talk in the news about the new surveillance plans the coalition government has announced. Needless to say as a Liberal I am totally against this sought of thing. I have written an article that was published in the Scotsman on the topic. I have also written something for the Yorkshire Post that should be published over the next couple of days. My thoughts are the same as the Ex head of the Association of Chief Police Officer's Sir Chris Fox who has siad that government plans for new surveillance are "fraught with danger for innocent ...
Last call for nominations in England and Wales Don't forget that the absolute final deadline is NOON, tomorrow, Wednesday 4th April. Returning officers have NO discretion to accept late nominations!!! [IMG: thanks to lakewentworth for the photot] You just can't trust the weather!!! Rumour has it it's going to get warm again, for the weekend. Which is great news for us. The four-day weekend is perfect to get the first full leaflet out. Your priority in the early campaign should be on building your candidate's profile and establishing their record. You should aim to get all your main campaign messages ...
You don't really expect snow on your Easter holidays. If you did, you wouldn't book a cottage that's several miles down an unadopted road. You know how I feel about snow and ice anyway, so you'll understand that I was slightly perturbed by forecasts of the white stuff for today. I stocked up, though and had these romantic notions of how being snowed in would work. We'd gather round the table playing Ludo and having some great family fun. What did not feature in my idyllic fantasy was the thought that we might lose the power as well. All the ...
Local Election Day is now exactly a month away for most of Metropolitan England as well as across the whole of Scotland and Wales. Nick Clegg was in my own area of Stockport earlier today to officially launch the Liberal Democrat local election campaign, visiting a local business and speaking with councillors, business owners and local people. I've no doubt that many of you have been out on the doorstep over the last few months, talking to people and showing them what we are achieving both nationally and locally. You will already have your big messages in place. Number one ...
When I heard fellow Reading Lib Dem Jenny Woods was making a trip into Gt George Street to talk about the Communications Capability Development Programme PR snafu, I used my morning commute to send a few suggestions her way. It had been bothering me that the reaction to the leak over the weekend was strong, but perhaps not precise enough on the substance to make a full case against the CCDP proposals. She said it was useful (hopefully not just to soothe my ego). So with a bit of tweaking for readability in my afternoon coffee break, here's the email ...
It has long become a cliché that social media is changing public relations, but which are the key tools you need to know to turn yourself from bumbling amateur into result-drive superstar? 1. Google Analytics The standard tool for website statistics, Google Analytics is free, reliable and (mostly) easy to use. Advanced ecommerce sites can benefit from heavy duty paid-for tools, but for PR work Google Analytics lets you get all the key information about traffic levels, content popularity and how people find your stories. 2. Google Insights for Search Want to know how people's online search habits are changing ...
The Party in England will select our candidates for the next European Parliamentary elections later this year. Although the elections are not until 2014, having candidates in place eighteen months before the elections will allow them to play a leading role in the formulation of the campaign strategy, as well as starting to campaign across the Euro Regions. As with all selections, our candidates are chosen in a ballot of all Party members. This ballot also determines the order in which candidates appear on the list. For the Euro elections, there will be a postal ballot which is likely to ...
So, I've sat through nine weeks now of Macroeconomics lectures and seminars: there's not many of us who have not missed a week! I've turned in what must rank as the weakest essay in defence of orthodox macroeconomic monetary policy imaginable. And only now have I discovered the perfect antidote to this fiction in the form of Detlev Schlichter's "Paper Money Collapse: The Folly of Elastic Money and the Coming Monetary Breakdown." If that sounds a little apocalyptic I can say I am three quarters of the way through so far and have not reached the apocalypse, but what I ...
Should the police be able to gain internet records of terrorists or criminals in order to help them with their job, bring about justice and keep us safe? Of course they should. Should they be able to do this carte blanche on their own say so without making the case to either a judge or a Home Office minister? Of course not and therein lies the problem with the current draft legislation that has been proposed. That is why only last month the Liberal Democrats at conference did call to ensure "that there shall be no interception of telephone calls, ...
Dear Nick and Dave Excuse me writing to you out of the blue but you probably wont bother reading this anyway. You see people like me only figure right down at the bottom of your radar. You don't care that people like me even exist all really do you?. You do however, keep saying that 'we ...
Last week the OECD forecast that Britain was about to experience a double-dip recession, for the first time since 1975. Vince Cable in his Centreforum paper Moving from the financial crisis to sustainable growth asks "How far should monetary policy now be expanded further in the UK to boost demand and head off a period of poor growth? He goes on to say "There is no possibility for further meaningful interest rate cuts - real short term rates are now minus 4 percent. That means further recourse to quantitative easing. If we reached a situation where even more unconventional policy ...
I'm rather cross with myself – and the course question setters this week. Having found the Lab 4 curve tracer exercise straightforward and also having rattled my way through the first two parts of homework 4 (H4P0 and H4P1 on Zener diodes) without too much difficulty, I got stuck on the amplifier questions in H4P2. Except, I didn't really. I'd assumed that a couple of decimal places for reporting the bias current would be sufficient ... however, the answer appears to require at least 3 decimal places! I spent ages going round in circles, assuming that I'd got my logic ...
Since Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani acceded as Emir of Qatar in 1995 the face of the country's capital, Doha, has been transformed. Several of the souks around the old town centre have been renovated or reproduced and some traditional streets lined with cafes and restaurants have been pedestrianised, notably around the Souq Waqif. But all the ...
OK a slightly misleading title for this post. It should be " Why I hate Sleet" as the best thing about snow is that it isn't sleet! Sleet, which has made a nasty comeback today, has no redeeming features! You can't sculpt it of put blades on a skate on it like ice. You can't fall on your back and make angels out of it, nor can you shape it into grenade sized balls and throw it at passing schoolchildren or make a snowman out of it. Nope sleet is just cold, wet and painful. More so if you have ...
Here we go, another bleeding heart Liberal writing about the evils of CCTV... Well, no actually. I thought I'd write defending the deployment of CCTV and its good uses as well as to level a few criticisms - and as a qualified SIA licence holding CCTV operator with two years experience on the job I am indeed in a good position to do so. Does CCTV prevent crime? No, not really. CCTV can deter opportunist but determined Criminals aren't worried and take precautions not to be caught on camera. Indeed even opportunists can still have a crack but if they ...
The residents of Stockport Borough have massively increased the amount we all recycle over the last 18 months. We now recycle over 60% of our household waste, making us number one in the country among metropolitan boroughs and in the top three or four of all boroughs. Our recycling success has brought in lots of money – over £5 million so far. That's why Lib Dem Stockport has been able to freeze council tax this year without cutting valuable services. But can we recycle even more? We certainly hope so. There are two ways we can do it. First, we ...
As the national political debate around the Budget moves on, one specific proposal is continuing to dominate both the headlines and my inbox - the so called 'Pasty Tax'. The Chancellor's proposals to change the VAT arrangements on hot food could see the tax being levied on pasties for the first time. The Treasury are currently consulting on the idea, and there remain some uncertainties that will need to be clarified. I certainly understand the logic behind making sure that VAT is charged on hot food in places like large supermarkets to stop them undercutting local cafés and takeaways. But ...
I came across the Portland Streetcar. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail They decided to implement a tram that is lighter than Light Rail. They've spent $130m (£110M) for 5km of streetcar. The spec involves digging down 30cm for new tracks rather than 45cm for light rail. They also largely use traffic signals which are cheaper than special track signalling and don't involve central signalling boxes etc. This seems the perfect solution for a new tram from Peckham to Waterloo station or even London Bridge (connecting with the shard) via Elephant&Castle. The cost is such that even Southwark could choose to borrow the money for ...
You may have heard me talk in glowing terms about Liberal Youth Scotland President Sophie Bridger. She's had a really successful year in office, standing in Inverclyde and totally trumping the Labour candidate on live tv and leaving LYS with a highly motivated and utterly fabulous team of activists. She's started up a new campaign to reform the law on abortion to do away with the requirement to have two doctors give approval for the procedure. She wrote about it on Lib Dem Voice last week. This is an emotive issue, but I think she strikes absolutely the right tone ...
Again it's completely unscientific - but after the Mayoral hustings on LBC this morning, the Twitter poll of who voters intended to vote for showed... Now of course, maybe we're just better at social media and got the Twitter scores up ourselves.. But still. Brian seems increasingly popular. You don't think...do you... Also, how come the BBC are allowed to introduce pieces on the Mayoral elections by referring to the two 'main' candidates - as happened on the news at 10.30 yesterday. Rather unbiased terminology, isn't it...
Tue 3rd
11:06
The Independent View: Why the Lib Dems should put cycling at the heart of their transport policy
More motorways, airports and cities, cried the leader of the "greenest" government ever. The Prime Minister is absolutely right that we need new infrastructure but what we need is not ever wider motorways but a modern cycling infrastructure, to get the ridiculous 50% of journeys under 5km that are currently taken by car, out of the way of essential business traffic. Millions of UK citizens are too old, young, poor or eco-conscious to own a car. In countries from Denmark to Japan, their governments provide safe cycle-paths. Our roads however are not fit for purpose, as demonstrated when in a ...
Why nations fail Book review in The Economist (tags: politics economics ) South West Trains: Disability Discrimination Shame Appalling. (tags: disability ) Euromyths and Letters to the Editor The European Commission's attempts to counter UK media lies. (tags: ukpolitics ukpol eu ukraine ) Bilingualism — Crooked Timber Why are we so good at learning a first language, and so poor at learning a second language? (tags: psychology linguistics ) Record-breaking sailor 'insulted' by train guard Company apologises, suspends guard. (tags: disability )
I received a call on my mobile this morning, from a landline number (01792 455426). You know the type, "We're ringing about your claim to a refund.", where someone you've never heard of, clearly in a call centre (you can hear the background noise), tells you that you may be entitled to money from the banks as a result of a legal judgement against them.Now I've only ever taken out one loan in my life, as a bridging facility for a specific purpose, which was paid off in full at the first possible opportunity, so I'm unlikely to have been ...
The last few days have been rather odd to say the least. On the surface it appears that coalition ministers fuelled the crisis by talking up the potential of a strike. Ed Miliband claims this was done to distract people from the Chancellor's Budget. Quite why the government would decide to create a shambles to divert from criticism is anyone's guess. What is more likely is that they intended to send the right message but ended up causing panic. This demonstrates two things: there are always unintended consequences and coalition ministers need to develop stronger strategic communication skills.
With over 3,500 applications made so far to local authorities alone for street parties to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, this year looks set to be a bumper year for celebrations. To help party organisers ensure that events run smoothly, whether on public or private land or in your own home, the Association of British Insurers has produced a guide. 'Celebrate - An ABI guide to planning an event' sets out what party organisers need to know, including: Things to consider about your venue, such as is it safe for the number of people you expect, are outdoor activities involved, ...
This could be a terrorist on their way to kill you With apologies to Theresa May. Walking is now a part of our daily lives — it's how we go to the travel agents to book our holidays, buy our Christmas presents and meet our friends. But walking can also be abused by criminals, paedophiles and terrorists who want to cover their tracks and keep their communication secret. Right now, the police and security agencies use information from watching people walking around to solve crime and keep us safe. Looking at where a suspect has walked up to can lead ...
Cambridge residents have backed a campaign for a new post office in the King's Hedges area of the city. More than 75 per cent of people surveyed by ward councillor, Neil McGovern said they wanted a new post office to replace the one on Cameron Road which was demolished to make way for housing. After the post office was closed - under a Labour government-run programme which saw more than 7,100 post offices lost including almost a third in Cambridge - residents have been using post offices in Arbury Court, King's Hedges Road and even Milton. Now the Liberal Democrats ...
We can't say he didn't warn us. In 2010, Nick Clegg said in an interview: "I need to say this - you shouldn't trust any government, actually including this one. You should not trust government - full stop. The natural inclination of government is to hoard power and information; to accrue power to itself in the name of the public good." And now that it looks like the government is going to try to extend RIPA to essentially allow snooping on internet communication and the Lib Dem party machine has issued a briefing paper defending this that has already been ...
Richard Kemp, the Liberal Democrat Candidate for Elected Mayor of Liverpool, has published his manifesto as part of the campaign. The election for mayor takes place on the same day as the local elections - May 3rd. Here is a link to Richard's manifesto which you will also find on http://www.kemp4mayor.org.uk/. Hosted by blogger.com and published by A Makinson promoting R Kemp(liberal democrat) at 509 Smithdown Road, L15 5AE
Lib Dems: Playing politics wrong Interesting narrative of how the Lib Dems have performed in government so far. Largely I can agree with the analysis and conclusions, but I think I have a bit more hope that we'll pull ourselves out of it. (tags: libdemmery ) Why does the government always get it wrong? « Paul Bernal's Blog The vast majority of politicians don't listen to people who are immersed in the internet because at heart the vast majority of politicians are small c conservative, and the internet is still thought of as new and scary and weird. Aside from ...
Liberal Democrat Jonathan Fryer has been barred from Bahrain, in part because of what he has tweeted in the past about the country: I flew in, hoping for a couple of days of winding down before doing some work elsewhere in the Gulf only to find that nowadays even those of us with European passports don't just hand over 5 dinars and get a visa in 30 seconds. A significant number of people coming in on my flight (and those following) were taken aside while their documents were consulted against the Immigration Department's records. My passport was held for almost ...
From 11th October 1951, Liberal Party leader, Clement Davies, gives an election address. This is from Gaumont British newsreel on ITN Source. Davies demonstrates that he was possibly one the most passionate speakers the Liberal Party ever had. [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Well done George Galloway for last week's Bradford West by-election victory. He was astutely aware of the state of a vacuous Labour party lacking leadership and direction, and took full advantage of it. Now, no-one can say that a Left-wing party is doomed to automatic failure. And it is little use Lib Dems complaining: "That's our job." It is our job, but we have failed completely. A strong left-wing challenge from us, the true party of the non-socialist Left could have produced a very different result. Could we have done so with a Black minority ethnic (BME) Lib Dem candidate ...
Lynne Featherstone emailed the LibDem leadership yesterday evening trying to reassure us that they haven't gone over to the Dark Side. Lynne or whoever wrote the email in LDHQ said this: Liberal Democrats have always been, and will continue to be, opposed to a centralised database that allows government to monitor your internet activity at ...
If you wanted to pick an issue guaranteed to unite the whole party - protecting our civil liberties has to be it. So the last 48 hours have been a frenzy of claim, counterclaim, the candyflossesque spin of internal briefings and Lib Dems across the blogo/twitto/facebooko/forumosphere reaching dangerously apoplectic levels of disquiet. Mark Pack, in his inimitable unflappable style offered an informative briefing via LDV - taking the optimistic view, reassuring us that "what the Home Office proposes is not the same as what Parliament will legislate. No matter how flawed the initial proposal put to Parliament by Theresa May ...
Due to other members either working with an expected Government bill to change the law or failing to get their idea accepted by the Assembly, I find myself preparing the first private members bill to come before the Welsh Assembly following the referendum and the granting of new powers. I am seeking to reform the law relating to Park Homes and fixed caravans so as to offer better protection to home owners. There is a huge amount of material on the problems faced by Park Home Owners and this will be added to later this year when Consumer Focus publish ...
I'm sure I've quoted this before in a post but it seems apposite again in these dark days of tales of yet more government noseying about in our private business. Lest you think the state's desire to spy on its citizens is anything new the following was penned by one of my political heroes Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, in his "General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century" in 1851: "To be GOVERNED is to be kept in sight, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right, ...
This post started as a reasonable post because I like to think I am a reasonable man. I actually finished the post and it was reasonable. It was reasonable because I want to give the benefit of doubt to the government because, well, I want to believe that a party, my party, which has the word Liberal in its name would have no sympathy with a massive extension of surveillance powers. So as usual with most of my posts I pressed save and went away. Then I remembered a conversation I had with a fellow Lib Dem Councillor in May ...
The Spring Conference of Liberal Youth was held in the lovely city of Leeds, thanks to a successful bid submitted by our branch, Leeds Liberal Youth. I have to admit, I was a Conference virgin, having not been to either a Liberal Youth nor a Federal Conference before (rather stupidly electing not to go to the 2011 Conference in Sheffield). But, with a Conference taking place in my proverbial back yard, I felt I was obligated to go. That, and I was part of the host. Conference started on Friday evening near Crash Accomodation up in Headingley... or it would ...
[IMG: Servers] Reports in the mainstream press this week about government interception measures proposed as part of the Communications Capabilities Development Programme (CCDP) have led to widespread opposition from the public and from representatives from across the political spectrum. Aldes committee member Dr Jenny Woods worked earlier this year to draft an amendment to the Civil Liberties Motion at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference. The motion, which recognised the threats to individual privacy inherent in the proposed measures and proposed safeguards against them, was supported by engineer Zoe O'Connell and was passed unanimously by conference in Gateshead four weeks ago. ...
The recent warm weather has brought with it several silly season stories and the Easter holidays have only just begun. Before the weekend, the media feeding frenzy was on whether a disinclination towards savoury baked goods was evidence that the Conservative party were elitist and ill-suited to government. In the past twenty-four hours, this has moved on to deeply concerning reports that the government is set to begin 'snooping' on emails, telephone calls and online conversations. Today's headlines make a serious of highly misleading claims which the Coalition have been characteristically slow to respond to. The level of sudden concern ...
...over proposals for government internet snooping. Once again Clegg and his PR advisers have made the party look idiotic and dealt a further blow to party morale on the eve of vital local elections. Allowing the party to be painted on the illiberal side of the debate over this proposal is a disgraceful failure of leadership and communication. When David Davis and Dominic Raab are the standard bearers of personal freedom then something has gone horribly wrong. This is a big state issue where the lazy vested interests of law enforcement are simply requesting more and more intrusive powers with ...
This afternoon I received this email from Lynne Featherstone MP, Liberal Democrat Home Office Minister, which was sent out to all Lib Dem members about the concerning press reports about changes to the interception of communications. "I wanted to write to reassure you that the current reports in the media about Government plans to snoop on your emails are complete nonsense. Liberal Democrats have always been, and will continue to be, opposed to a centralised database that allows government to monitor your internet activity at will. That is not going to happen under these proposals and never will happen in ...
