More notes from my experience at the 2012 Lib Dem Conference in Brighton. The Meedja There was a sense, at the start of the week, that the media had a pre-written narrative. Party activists would be unhappy with Clegg, a leadership challenge was in the offing and conference would be in a rebellious mood. None of the above was particularly evident. Whilst it would be foolish to suggest that there aren't those with concerns - after all, if you get 2,000 politically active people together they are going to be a wide variety of views on how to deal with ...
Dear Nick, We love you really. Particularly after "I'm sorry". We were good boys and girls and folk of no particular gender and didn't make noises about unseating you at conference, because we don't believe that's a good idea. (Even if the press would love it) But you really, really need to learn to stop talking sometimes. At conference during your Question and Answer session, you were asked about the draft Communications Data Bill. As you probably know this does not make headlines in the Guardian every day but is still something that worries many liberals. When Mark Pack asked ...
Insomniac Londoners with long memories will remember Clive Bull's amazingly complicated late-night quizzes on LBC. I've still got around the home a mug I won once, a gonk I won another occasion and (I think, unless it was urinated on by a former landlady's cat) a signed photo of Clive Bull. It was also his late night phone-ins that used to be graced by the wonderfully weird calls from Sven in Swiss Cottage, seeking to escape the fish-obsessed phone-in shows of his home country, Norway. Sven was in fact Peter Cook. So what fun to discover this evening that the ...
The weather in Brighton was a lot stormier than the Lib Dem Conference.It's just possible that the media may not have communicated this to you. The purpose of this post, however, is actually just to explain that I haven't fallen off the planet, or been disabled by the Great North Run, merely been visiting that "other country" – The South of England. Normal service will be resumed shortly.
As many of you know, I spent Friday to Wednesday in Brighton at the Liberal Democrat Conference. It was a great experience which I loved from beginning to end. My phone died on the way home which gave me ample opportunity to write notes which form the basis of this post. I've eschewed too much structure and gone for a disjointed, ad-hoc approach to recording my thoughts. I've included some notes on Nick Clegg's key speech - but intend re-reading and/or re-watching before elaborating. It appears my initial opinion at odds with some of my colleagues in the party. They ...
As I'm sure you're aware Apple have updated their iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod) with iOS 6 which replaces the existing Google Maps with *new* Apple Maps which includes Turn-By-Turn navigation as well as a 3D view. Sadly the new Maps application is not quite up to the standard of Google Maps (in much the same way as an ant is not quite up to the height of a giraffe). Looking at Bar Hill Tesco is a good example of where this has not quite worked ... The map at the right shows Tesco Car Park with access both to ...
Won by Amanda Craig, children's books critic of The Times, who is mercifully veiled by the newspaper's paywall: I have long thought that [J.K.] Rowling, despite her unadventurous prose, is the true heir to Dickens, who believes in the novel as force for social good.
Labour-run Haringey Council is in danger of breaching the legal deadline for having its accounts signed off by its auditors after a series a multi-million pound errors were found in the accounts. Today is the last working day before the legal deadline for auditor approval of 30th September The debacle was revealed at last night's Corporate Committee meeting where the Labour chair of the committee described the situation as "very regrettable". However Labour's Cabinet Member for Finance Joe Goldberg failed to turn up – leaving council officers to face the music and apologise. The errors have already cost Haringey Council ...
The Independent leads a report on conference with the price of Miriam Clegg's dress, followed by "Come back Lembit, the party needs you What the conference has missed is Lembit Opik, the ex-MP". No, no,no - or as King Lear Lear put it: "Never, never, never, never, never". The piece continues with " Ian Wrigglesworth... held the stage immediately before Clegg". Well, he was on the stage
APB are a band from Ellon, Aberdeenshire who formed in 1979. I was recently reminded of their existence by a chum from university on Facebook. Anyway, they are still going and have an album out available here. One assumes the Red Hot Chillie Peppers are fans:
Labour shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna today challenged his Lib Dem opposite number, the business secretary Vince Cable, to reverse policies and save the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He also quotes my recent article ...
So, I'm lurking outside the conference hall on Wednesday morning just before Jo Swinson's speech when my phone rings. The unfamiliar voice from the blocked number announces herself as a producer from Brian Taylor's Big Debate. She asks me if I'd like to come along on Friday as it was in Livingston. I wonder if they are struggling for audience members and are ringing round the usual suspects. Then she says "as a member of the panel." I just about jumped out of my skin. Well, I can hardly complain about lack of women on panels and then refuse to ...
This is one of a number of stories relating to the Slovak Government talking to the UK Government about the children. It seems that they are talking about 89 cases. That could be 89 children or 89 cases (a case can involve more than 1 child). I am talking to people from a number of other governments, not just the Slovak Republic. There are also the cases which affect English people which,
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week Blog of the Year Awards 2012: Vote for Best non-Lib Dem politics blog (1 comment) by Helen Duffett Time now to prepare for a progressive centre-left coalition in 2015 (40 comments) by Paul Walter Opinion: Why Nick Clegg was wrong to apologise for tuition fees (86 comments) by David Thorpe Nick Clegg: "We made a pledge. We didn't stick to it - and for that I'm sorry" (127 comments) by Helen Duffett Opinion: Why I will withhold ...
With the Welsh Health Minister about to announce a relaxation of the smoking ban in Wales so as to allow actors to smoke on stage or on film sets as part of a production, this article in today's Telegraph seems to be particularly pertinent. They report that research has shown that Hollywood films last year showed more on screen smoking than the previous year, reversing five years of steady progress in reducing tobacco imagery in movies. They say that many of the top-grossing films of 2011 with significant amounts of smoking targeted a young audience, among them the PG-rated cartoon ...
On Thursday night I joined several of my Lib Dem colleagues on a very enjoyable cruise down the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, on board the Pride of Sefton canal boat. I am pictured above chatting to the skipper whilst enjoying a small glass of fine wine, Fred volunteering to drive to and from the moorings. Having owned a narrow boat for several years I thoroughly enjoyed the evening as it brought back many good memories; I even took the tiller for a short time. Sefton has 2 "Pride of Seftons", both being run as charitable trusts to provide activities for ...
Although not widely reported in the British media, there is a build up of expectation that Israel will attack Iran. It amazes me that this was barely discussed at our recent Brighton conference. There were two motions on this submitted for conference but both with rejected by Federal Conference Committee and, perhaps as a consequence, there were no foreign policy motions debated at conference. To raise the question I had to wait until Tuesday when there were two Centre Forum fringe meetings on foreign policy. Neither of the fringe meetings was specifically on Iran, but the question was asked about ...
Norfolk Liberal Democrats have announced that James Joyce will be their candidate for the election of the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner on November 15th. James Joyce is currently a district and county councillor. He represents the Eynesford Ward on Broadland Council and the Reepham Division on Norfolk County Council. Since 2005 he has represented the latter body as a member of the Norfolk Police Authority but he will be stepping down from this position in order to contest the election. Commenting on his adoption, which follows a ballot of all Liberal Democrat members in Norfolk, Mr Joyce said: "I ...
As the Manchester Evening News is reporting, a gang of Eastern European thieves are stealing from hairdressers and beauty salons across Stockport, with Cheadle and Gatley already among the areas targetted. Anyone getting their hair cut or visiting a beauty salon needs to take extra care to look after their personal belongings and be on the lookout for the thieves. The gang – described as eastern European – is suspected to have struck at least nine times in just a week across the borough. On each occasion either two men or a group of women came in and searched the ...
Here's the latest community newsletter from our local police for Gatley. Police newsletter Gatley Oct 2012
There's an old saying about budgets that prove popular on the day, become unpopular in time. And that was certainly true of this year's offering - shredding the credibilty of the Chancellor with every Cornish pasty sold in bakeries. Sadly, the various economic and presentational gaffes also meant that its one big liberal success - the increasing of the personal allowance - was buried in an avalanche of negative headlines. It looks like the same unravelling could be happening with Wednesday's Clegg speech. Lord Bonker's estimable confidant - Jonathan Calder - being the first to break cover with some measured ...
Three little words can mean so much... and so little. Black History Month, like that other famous three worded phrase, can be said with genuine love and passion. It can also be insincere. Some people ...
miss_s_b | Lib Dem Leadership - the runners and riders. With added Star Trek metaphor! Must try harder. That's my chief take-away from this year's Lib Dem conference | Stephen Tall via @stephentall Nick Clegg conference speech in full Potty Proposals Mitchell must resign, say Tory voters The Hand Of Plod Works In Mysterious Ways Is UKIP here to stay as a serious player?
Stephen Tall writes: The best and most important debate at this week's Lib Dem conference was on the motion opposing the extension of secret courts proposed in the Coalition's justice and security bill. Jo Shaw's opening speech was acclaimed by many as the best of the week and helped ensure the overwhelming rejection of 'secret courts'. For the benefit of those who weren't able to hear it, and for those who want to remind themselves of the clarity of Jo's arguments, we're delighted to publish the full text below. *** Full text of Jo Shaw's speech to Lib Dem conference, ...
It has become a tradition for the weekend at the start of Liberal Democrat federal autumn conferences to feature a Q+A session with the party leader. This time in Brighton I took the opportunity to submit a question about the Draft Communications Data Bill, aka Snoopers' Charter. With draft legislation currently being examined by a pre-legislative scrutiny committee made up of MPs and peers, it wouldn't have been realistic to expect Nick Clegg to say 'I'm going to kill the Bill'. His answers were promising in suggesting that is what he will end up saying, however. First, for close followers ...
Norfolk Liberal Democrats have announced that James Joyce will be their candidate for the election of the Norfolk Police and Crime Commissioner on November 15th. James Joyce is currently a district and county councillor. He represents the Eynesford Ward on Broadland Council and the Reepham Division on Norfolk County Council. Since 2005 he has represented the latter body as a member of the Norfolk Police Authority but he will be stepping down from this position in order to contest the election. Commenting on his adoption, which follows a ballot of all Liberal Democrat members in Norfolk, Mr Joyce said: "I ...
Following the public meeting held in the Town Hall a couple of months ago, Cornwall Council's Parking Panel has agreed recommendations for new parking rates for Launceston from next April. The option they are recommending to Cabinet is for all Cornwall Council owned car parks (ie Walk House, Tower Street, Pannier Market and Cattle Market): 1 hr - rate abolished, minimum charge for 2 hours Up to 2 hours - £1 2-3 hours - £3.30 3-4 hours - £4.80 in Cattle Market only All day - £5 in Cattle Market, £5.80 in Walk House The biggest change is the move ...
If you've been following the UK news lately then you will have heard the story of Maths teacher Jeremy Forrest from Sussex who has disappeared over to France with a 15-year-old student of his. After almost a week without a positive sighting, Sussex Police have decided to call on their European partners for help and have issued a European Arrest Warrant (EAW). EUReporter have taken the
The 2011/12 National Survey for Wales found strong satisfaction levels with health and education in Wales, according to Wales Online. Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Eluned Parrott said it would be a "justifiable aim" for the Welsh Government to learn about the success of policies. But she added: "However, I am deeply suspicious that this survey is too vague and unfocused to give any indication that could help steer the Welsh Government in any meaningful way. "When using a '1 to 10 scale' on questionnaires, most organisations will expect to hit at least a 7 out of 10 for quality ...
Sorry to report that my iphone has died and I'm getting a new one. It does mean that I will not be able to answer calls or receive texts until at least Tuesday. I will, however, still be available by email. If you have sent me a text or tried to call in the last 24 hours but have not received a reply, I didn't get your message so please email. Tweet
By Howard of Lib Dem News
Last night, after a busy weekly ward surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended the latest meeting of the Harris Academy Parent Council. Following on from the update Head Teacher Mr Thewliss gave to the August Parent Council meeting regarding the 2012 examination results, Mr Thewliss gave an indepth report of more of the detail last night, which showed excellent and improving performance at Harris, both in terms of year on year over the past eight years, but also in relation to comparator schools across Scotland. It was a very encouraging report indeed and reflects extremely well on both the ...
Just watched Cameron on Letterman. This is the moment when he responded to the question, "How are you doing ?" Many people have commented on his failure to translate the words Magna Carta, which is bizarre given his Eton education and, anyway, why couldn't he guess ? Boris, of course, would have known. Cameron did, however, work in one of my favourite historical facts, that the British
As Liberal Democrat Voice reminded us two years ago: Having moved south from Manchester to enlarge his family business, Sam Ryder was first elected as a Liberal councillor to St. Albans council in 1903. Just two years later, Ryder was elected Mayor of St. AlbansHe also seems to have been a bit of an Edwardian Danny Alexander, surprising his colleagues with an uncompromising assessment of the Council's financial situation: "We rejoice in a debt of £40,000 and our income is raised every year and mainly all spent or bespoken itself before we raise it so that we are in a ...
I enjoyed chairing Liberal Reform's fringe meeting on civil liberties at the Brighton conference this week, featuring Shami Chakrabati, John Kampfner and Ming Campbell... ... though (as usual) the request to speakers to speak for 5 minutes to allow plenty of time for audience questions was blown out of the water, mostly by Ming and then in retaliation by Shami! (They were on opposite sides in the debate on secret courts.) I've never yet found a way of keeping speakers to time in a way that doesn't end up detracting from the event overall. One innovation we did try was ...
I thought Nick spelt out a clear narrative going forward for the party in his speech at conference. And I liked his speech more the second time I heard it, and even more when I read it. Judging from my twitter feed amongst party members, I'm in a minority on this one. However, I've stuck my neck out and said what I think in the New Statesman. Do pop over there and have a look at the normal forthright comments. But here's what I said... I asked Nick Clegg yesterday at Lib Dem conference for a short description of what ...
Whilst Lib Dem Conference-goers were fighting the elements in Brighton, there were no less than eight council by-elections being fought across the country. Besides a Labour gain from the Tories, everything else stayed as it was - making for six successful Conservative defences and a Labour defence on Thursday 27th September. For the first time in a while every election was for a principal authority, there were no parish or town council contests reported to ALDC. With no great Lib Dem successes on the day, it's probably best to start with the 'no candidate' walk of shame. On the day ...
(The author currently works for Telefonica – but these views are his own) Do you remember when mobile phones were in their infancy? The frequencies allocated to Racal's Vodafone and to BT's Cellnet were mutually incompatible. You couldn't simply switch your SIM to another handset, you had to specifically make sure that it supported your carrier's frequencies. As the mobile market matured, "dual band" phones became common. Any phone you bought in the UK would work on any UK carrier's slice of allocated spectrum. Then, of course, some people around the world decided that they wanted different frequencies. Sometimes for ...
So, a year after throwing the baby out with the bathwater by dumping its Palm WebOS software, HP has decided it wants to get back into the smartphone game. HP's position isn't quite as perilous as Nokia's "Burning Platform" was, but there are definite similarities. Apple sells more iPads than HP sells PCs, their traditional market for printers is drying up, its share price is on the wane, and a series of boardroom scandals have left it weak. Meg Whitman has correctly identified where the company needs to head next "My view is we have to ultimately offer a smartphone, ...
On Wednesday night Radio 4′s The World Tonight lined up the three of us to talk about Nick Clegg's speech to the Brighton conference. You can listen to our discussion, along with interviews with other conference attendees here: * Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg has used his keynote speech to the party conference in Brighton to announce extra money for 110,000 children struggling with maths and English. The Deputy Prime Minister said secondary schools in England will receive an extra £55 million to help pupils arriving in year seven who have slipped behind in English and maths at primary school. The money will come in from next January, with schools deciding how to spend it to help pupils with weaker results in maths and English. The extra funding could fund around 14 hours of extra one-to-one coaching per pupil ...
As Stockport Council consults on the 2013/14 budget, where we need to make around £12 million savings, we want to get your ideas about what we should do. One way is to have a go on our Budget Simulator: try balancing the budget for Stockport – what would you cut, what would you increase, what effects would that have? Why not give it a go. If you come up with a budget you're happy with, you can save it and we'll be able to see what you've done.
I've been away (of which more later) and so I missed the chance to post this on Tuesday: Kylie's new single, from her upcoming Abbey Road Sessions album. Those of you who have followed this series of posts will recall that the first two - here and here - already featured two songs from those from the sessions; the album looks set to be a cracker! The single has been released as the latest treat in the K25 celebrations. It's a beautiful ballad which was originally considered for her 10th studio album, X. It wasn't included but was part of ...
I posted the other day that Harriet Harman - awful on Question Time last night by the way - was spoiling for a fight with Ed Balls over spending cuts and austerity measures. And so it has come to pass. Never one to walk away from a fight, Ed Balls has come out swinging in The Telegraph. Predictably he has gone 'tough' on spending. Nick was right to highlight this weakness in Labour's record in his conference speech, and Ball's clearly has cottoned on too. (It's not rocket science) "The public want to know that we are going to be ...
Lib Dem MEP for Yorkshire & The Humber, Edward McMillan-Scott MEP and a Vice-President of the European Parliament, was last week presented with the "Outstanding Achievement" award in the MEP 2012 awards by the Parliament magazine, primarily in recognition of in recognition of his achievements in highlighting the costs and difficulties of the European Parliament's treaty obligation to travel from Brussels to Strasbourg for plenary sessions. He said: "This is a great boost to the Single Seat campaign which has really taken off with a two-to-one majority of MEPs now voting that way. They are concerned about the extra costs ...
What Happens to Stolen Bicycles? (tags: ) Liberal Will » Tom Harris is not a nice man (tags: ) Reddit Users Attempt to Shame Sikh Woman, Get Righteously Schooled (tags: ) BBC News - OpenDyslexic font gains ground with help of Instapaper (tags: ) How many people attended Lib Dem conference? | Stephen Tall (tags: ) 26th of September is Petrov Day Thank you, Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov, for not blowing up the planet when I was five. (tags: ) BPS Research Digest: How the mere presence of a mobile phone harms face-to-face conversations (tags: ) BBC News - IQ linked ...
During my time working at party HQ doing online campaigning, one of our most successful projects (cooked up with the help of Rob Fenwick and Martin Tod) was the 'campaign buttons' – a simple piece of code which let bloggers and those with other websites easily display campaign adverts from the party. It was a great way for the party to be able to push out quickly and widely adverts for new party campaigns, policy launches and the like, whilst for those running sites it made for some automatically updated and useful content which they did not have to look ...
I don't have enough time to write a full post today — I'm off down to That London to see the Beach Boys tonight, and I'll have a review of that show up tomorrow. But it's been an interesting few days for me, watching how newspapers report things, how social media reacts to that report, ...
Neither is quite so gauche as to say it explicitly, but you hardly have to peer between the lines to work out what message is meant to be imparted by a piece from Nick Clegg praising Tim Farron's record as President, especially when it's contained in a leaflet handed out at conference by Tim's re-election team and with a form asking people to sign Tim's nomination papers tucked inside. It is looking like it will be an uncontested re-election so far, but credit to Tim for still taking it seriously. That is not only sensible caution, as complacent candidates often ...
So, Lib Dem autumn conference is now over. As normal it was great fun though expensive (especially if, like me, you're on a student budget) and a fantastic opportunity to bump into friends and acquaintances old and new. And I thought I'd just write this post to highlight my personal best and worst bits of conference. The Best As always, my favourite bit of conference was Glee club on the last night - a proud, decades old, tradition where we all get together, get drunk, and sing Lib Dem versions of many popular songs until 2am. My favourite songs this ...
Dr Julian Huppert MP proposes the motion Dr Jenny Woods summates the motion With thanks to Zoe O'Connell for providing the video.
[IMG: Ed Miliband] What a bad year it is to be a political satirist. First there was the problem of the minister who met the Prime Minster, intending to resign – yet somehow the conversation ended without the PM noticing that a resignation was on offer. Hard for a satirist to top that. And now we have the bizarre case of the Labour Party confiscating its own party leader's mobile phone, as reported by Sky: The Labour leader disclosed earlier this month that he had been secretly wooing the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary with text messages. His admission infuriated Labour ...
