If there was a magic formula to win elections it would have been patented and sold to the highest bidder long ago. Nonetheless, there are many practical tips from which a political campaigner can learn, from the late David Penhaligon's "if you have something to say, put it on a piece of paper and shove ...
Guilty! Shock horror "On a personal level, I'm as shocked and surprised as anyone else" says Tory blogger and former colleague, "Today's news from the court in Maidstone should shock me, but sadly it doesn't." Says Labour leader, who has in his short time as leader of the local council done little if anything, other than deals and given jobs to independents to keep his party in office. Even the great dormant one from Ramsgate, appears to have been jerked out of a virtual coma, by the Sandy Ezekiel trail. Schadenfreude is evident, in much of the media coverage, for ...
Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats (EMLD) are lobbying Lib Dems in the House of Lords over clauses in the proposed law to scrap elements of Britain's equalities legislation. EMLD are turning up the heat on party ...
Today's newspapers are full of stories that Andrew Mitchell is to be compensated for being traduced over plebgate (or "gategate", as I prefer to think of it) by being appointed as Britain's next European commissioner. Our current commissioner, you will instantly recall, is Baroness Ashton. By my calculations, her term of office ends in December 2014. As the next general election will probably not take place until May 2015, that implies there will be a by-election in Mitchell's Sutton Coldfield constituency. Sutton Coldfield, which contains some of Birmingham's most select suburbs, has always been a safe Tory seat. At one ...
As secret courts enter the House of Commons, many bloggers are highlighting why the illiberal measure must not pass. Richard Morris asks Lib Dem MPs to remember all those activists who bust a gut in Eastleigh, and vote how the membership feel. Caron Lindsay astutely wonders, will we still like Mike after Monday? Mark Pack has signed ...
The Liberal Democrats were founded twenty-five years ago today. It's a relief that the party's just had such an impressive present to celebrate (if you can call the result of such hard work a present). But winning elections isn't the only thing that matters - I joined that month in 1988, and like most Lib Dems, if all I wanted was to win I'd never have chosen this party. So, especially now we're sharing power, it's important to assert our values. What makes us different, and makes us stay? How does that join up to what we're doing in government? ...
The Eastleigh by-election leaves things much where they were. By this I mean that the frontier between Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters remains much where it has been since 1997. Some seats did change hands between the two parties in both directions, but that may have had more to do with the expenses scandal than anything else. This suggests that the claim from Tim Farron that the Liberal Democrats could gain 30 seats from the Conservatives is overly optimistic, but it is certainly no more ridiculous than the widespread idea that the Liberal Democrats will be wiped out at the ...
Subtle from the Labour press team.
This week's Sunday Sound is something completely different - in the context of my blog but also every time it is performed or heard. This recording is a full orchestra version. The work is in three movements, although total "performance" time is just 4'33''. It is, of course, John Cage's 4'33": Enjoy! Andrew
Reader's voice: As you are running out of inspiration for these Sunday music videos, may I suggest we have some more Housemartins? Liberal England replies: By all means. You may also enjoy the Old Grey Whistle Test documentary about the band (part 1 and part 2). And yes, young person, that is Fatboy Slim on bass.
So the game is up. Cardinal Keith O'Brien may not have specifically admitted what he has been accused of but he has "apologised" for his sexual conduct falling "beneath the standards expected". "However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal." "To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness. To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologise." "I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no ...
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 315th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere ... Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (24 February - 2 March, 2013), together with a hand-picked quintet, normally courtesy of LibDig, you might otherwise have missed. Don't forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging. As ever, let's start with the most popular post, and work our way down: 1. ...
"The Justice and Security Bill was, is and will always remain a bad Bill. No amount of amendment will make it anything other than a full assault on fair trials in this country. It must be defeated, and we are watching Liberal Democrat parliamentarians, including Mike Thornton, to see they do everything they can to defeat it at every opportunity." Jo Shaw keeps up the fight against secret courts. Simon Jenkins, rightly, defends Michael Gove's plan to reintroduce narrative to school history. A Song of Liberty leaves the Liberal Democrats, making an interesting observation on the way: "Here's a theory ...
Look let me start with this. I'm not football scout. I'm just a guy who watches a lot of football and enjoys the game. We all have opinions on players and sometimes we go out on a limb against the vocal majority. For example I always thought Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi could be a success in the old division one but the vocal majority of Pompey fans thought he was just too short. They wanted old man Dave Beasant back in the team and eventually that is how it went down. I thought the reason we conceded so many goals had to ...
If I tell you that amongst the other signatories are Jo Shaw and Martin Tod, you might be able to guess what it's about... Also in there is Stephen Tall and an entertaining mix of people whose views I rate very highly and those who I most certainly don't. Which is a good sign of success at building a broad coalition of support.
Sun 3rd
17:55
Nick Clegg's Letter from the Leader: "We can be in government and win if we work together"
No prizes for guessing what dominates Nick's weekly letter: the Eastleigh by-election, which he learned the Lib Dems had held with a majority of almost 1,800 when director of campaigns Hilary Stephenson texted him. 'We didn't win in Eastleigh "in spite" of our record. We won because of our record,' says Nick. Significantly, though, there is also a paragraph dedicated to the party's response to the allegations against Chris Rennard: 'It's clear mistakes were made in the handling of allegations and that is something we have to put right.' Here's his letter in full... [IMG: libdem letter from nick clegg] ...
I'm sat writing this entry from seat G 42A of an InterCity 125. Well, that's what it would have been called in the days of British Rail – today it's just simply the 1732 East Midlands Trains service from Derby to London St. Pancras. I prefer the old 125s to the newer trains. They're definitely more comfortable as the seats seem to be rather more generously proportioned than the ones on the Meridian trains which plough the same route. I suspect we're in the twilight days of the Class 43 locomotives, but they've done very well for a 1970s design ...
As I mentioned in my last post, I did a five mile run in the Epcot parking lot while I waited for the start of the Royal Family 5K - Disney races always include a 5K fun run the day before the long distance race. It's generally a great way to get the whole family of the distance runners involved and I think it's awesome that Disney offers a shorter "intro" race for people who don't want to or aren't ready to run the longer races. (I wish they'd do more - I'm super stoked that they've added a 10K ...
Next week I start my new job, have a local party AGM to attend, and I'm going to see both the Magic Band and Richard Thompson, and I'm still working on the novel, so it's unlikely I'll have much more up here. After that, though, things should with luck settle down a bit (until the ...
[IMG: Papers - Some rights reserved by NS Mewsflash] It's Sunday afternoon, so here are a dozen thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking as you unwind after the turmoil and excitement of the past 7 days. For a change, this week's collection is devoted to just one topic: the Eastleigh by-election (to be honest, I've not had time to read about much else!)... Eastleigh By-Election: Worst of All Worlds for the Tories – Tim Bale has few words of comfort for the Tories: 'Having run the economy into the ground, risked their already shaky reputation on the NHS, gone for ...
Ask anyone to name UKIP's policies and they would probably struggle to produce more than this: Britain should leave the European UnionEr......That's it.But UKIP does have other policies, and the Independent on Sunday has published a special report ('What voters should know about Ukip'), which provides some long overdue scrutiny. One overriding theme emerges: If Ukip had a name that truly reflected its priorities, it might be called the UK Immigrationphobe Party. Ostensibly the anti-EU party, an obsession with immigration and exit from Europe as a means to close Britain's doors is its prevailing motive. The word immigration runs through ...
Sun 3rd
15:42
Zadok Day leaves the Lib Dems but makes a very interesting observation on his way out of the door
Here's a theory I've been working on: political parties are cults. They should be clubs for the like-minded, but instead become repulsive repositories that make the people inside more similar, not less, and farther away from the general public, not closer. They encourage closed minds, adoration of party leaders, disbelief of crimes committed, putting the good of the cult above the good of other people - in this case the country! Look at the way canvassers go from door to door, inquiring about votes, the currency of the cult, rather than ideology. We don't want to change the minds of ...
25 years ago, our party agreed its new constitution - and the preamble to that constitution, setting out our core values and vision. Many of us will know some of it - 'The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, ... in which no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance, or conformity'. This extract - the bit that appears on membership cards - is in my view truly poetic, and captures brilliantly what we are trying to do. We are concerned about people, and empowering them to do what they can and want ...
By now the emails will have gone out and news of my resignation as co-chair of Liberal Reform will have hit the Twittersphere. What will perhaps be more of a surprise is my confirmation here that yes, I am resigning ... Continue reading →
[IMG: image] If only, if only... Instead of holding out for a referendum on the Alternative Vote the Lib Dem negotiators had secured proportional representation for all local council elections instead. Hindsight's easy, I know. At the time of negotiating the Coalition Agreement, electoral reform at Westminster was the party's deal-breaker. The Lib Dem vote had gone up by a million, our number of MPs down by five. The public were in favour, or so the polls said. It's possible the party wouldn't even have approved entering the Coalition if the Westminster voting system had been left untouched. And yet, ...
I'm not keen on heights and I'm not keen on confined spaces. So combine the two and for me, you get a very uncomfortable environment. Yet, those who know me may be surprised to read that I have for some time been rather keen on the idea of doing a parachute jump for charity. A bungee jump? Not a chance, no way. But a tandem parachute jump? Whilst I can't really explain why, yeah...it's interested me. Lance Cole In memory of my father, Lance Cole My health scare before Christmas kind of reminded me of the important things in life ...
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... BBC News – Farron on Liberal Democrat leverage from Eastleigh Here's Lib Dem president Tim Farron's Marr interview > Farron on Liberal Democrat leverage from Eastleigh http://bbc.in/XPfJOG
There's no denying that this is a painful time for the party. Eastleigh gave us all something to smile about on Friday, but we still have some serious stuff to sort out.The party has set in train some processes to deal with the allegations against Lord Rennard and they really should be allowed to take their course without people making unhelpful comments on the sidelines. Over the last few days, I have been dismayed by insensitive and intemperate language used by senior people in the party. Those in elected office, parliamentarians and councillors really should be using their positions to ...
"Men of Harleigh, ye whose action Put to rout the Tory faction In their ranks spread wild distraction Vanquished all their bands. (...) Shoulder press to shoulder Onwards march and bolder Triumphs more we yet shall see Before we get much older. "Peace, Reform and Liberation" Be our triune aspiration Till we win them for the nation And our land be free!" That was the hymn I hummed all day on Friday when I heard the news from Eastleigh! We, the Dutch Social-Liberals from D66, know that (in Dutch coalition government politics) "Regeren is halveren": every time D66 joins a ...
I haven't been to an unconference in ages - so it was nice to get back into the swing of things with LibraryCamp. It was a delight to spend time with a collection of committed professionals doing amazing things with books. As requested, I recorded all the sessions I could. Here are my notes, and the audio from each session I attended. I've based some of the information from the excellent LibraryCampLondon Wiki, including the session proposal page. Hidden Collections Katie Birkwood lead a fascinating session. It turns out that there are hundreds of thousands of books hidden away in ...
The last two big Liberal Democrat by-election winners have not let their place in Liberal Democrat legend go to their heads. Mike Thornton MP (I am not going to get tired writing that in a hurry) was interviewed on BBC News this morning while, as he told us, he was heading to buy a new head for his shaver. Willie Rennie, who pulled off a spectacular victory in 2006 and has gone on to become leader of the Scottish Party was not too grand to make the tea for us the other night as we were phone banking for Eastleigh. ...
[IMG: Healy's Mortar, Gibraltar]
John Cornwell is the writer of "Hitler's Pope"; a book not without some controversy. So when he writes an article for the Daily Mail, which spells out some of the current controversies within the Vatican and postulates that Pope Benedict XVI resigned to bring an end to them, we should read it with a degree of scepticism. But it is an interesting description of the troubles that continue to haunt the upper echelons of the Catholic church. A lot of the reporting on the Catholic church's scandals is based more on a puerile sort of rubber necking than actual concern ...
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the longest running science fiction show in the world I am taking a weekly look at some of my favourite Dr Who episodes focusing on one Doctor a month. This month it's the third Doctors turn. Today we move into the multi coloured, fun filled, action packed spectacular that is the Pertwee years. We get to meet new villains, super villains and one or two crap villains. We get to know a fantastic ensemble cast while the Doctor sits uneasily in his exile in Earth. We pick up where The War Games left off. ...
Those Tories who took to the airwaves to condemn a new European Union law to cap bankers' bonuses sounded unconvincing at the time and look even sillier now, with Switzerland on the verge of voting in favour of the measure. The problem faced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his attempt to modify the proposals is that he is being torpedoed by the bankers themselves, who have a knack of demonstrating a stunning lack of tact and self-awareness at the most inappropriate time. This time it is the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is mostly state-owned, and who handed ...
Few can have missed the main story in town over the last ten days. Ludlow's town walls are falling down, or at least a substantial section has fallen and is under threat of falling. Fortunately we have a responsive council. Shropshire Council organised an immediate response, making safe collapsed areas and shoring up areas under ...
The language of workfare (tags: ) the new MP for Eastleigh has an interesting vote for his first one (tags: ) [IMG: comment count unavailable] comments
In the last fortnight it had been a huge surprise to everyone where horse meat has been turning up – even in some school meals in some parts of the country. Fortunately none has been discovered in SE London. But I'm also concerned about what the food is but how it's turned into nutrious food for our children. Councils measure food hygiene and safe cooking processes. They record inspections via the following search tool – if you use this search and look by borough at ratings for business type = school/college/university interesting reading: Greenwich - don't use the Food ...
Caron Lindsay has written a fantastic blogpost posing the question..... Will we still like Mike after Monday's secret courts vote? #no2secretcourts which is a tough one for Mike Thornton to answer. In a nutshell, Caron says... "The activists from all over the country who poured into Eastleigh or spent hours on phone banks at home will really, really love him, though, if he does what Conference asked and voted to get rid of unfair and illiberal secret courts.Let's get to filling his inbox. Don't write loads - we don't want to overwhelm him - but do write. His first vote ...
From Liberal Democrat Voice: Liberal Democrats are entitled to a weekend of being incredibly pleased with ourselves. I have never been as proud of this party as I am now. The way we calmly and professionally got on with delivering a brilliant campaign on the ground was astonishingly good. Activists put their lives on hold and dedicated themselves to Eastleigh for three weeks. My eternal regret will be that I never made it there, due to a horrendous Flu and its lingering aftermath. However, Team Scotland and many others across the country phonebanked their hearts out. Yesterday in Edinburgh, we ...
I recently obtained a new mobile phone. I have used an Android Phone for a number of years. I quite like HTC phones although Samsung also have a good reputation. What irritates me, however, is that they are not that efficient as phones. I, therefore, looked at writing something to make the process of dealing with phone calls more efficient and have written what is called a widget to sit on
I've been a bit discombobulated this week and last week, because of the traveling for Princess. I'm committed to getting back on track, though, and I think things should be less crazy from here on out. So, for the week of Princess: Monday - 5 x 1000s at 5:12 pace. Did it, but was awfully glad when I realized I only had five intervals, not size. Had a good discussion with a guy who was doing gait analysis. As suspected, tight hips are probably the root of all my issues with my adductor. Tuesday - 5 easy (10:53 pace), then ...
From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee: To accompany the current exhibitions in the Tower Building, we will be hosting a free public lecture on Monday 4th March at 5.30pm in the D'Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre (ground floor, Tower). The lecture, entitled Subsculpture: Assembling a Museum of Attractions, will be given by Dr Petra Lange-Berndt, a lecturer in Art History at University College, London. Since the early twentieth century, artists have been commenting critically on the public displays of natural history museums, exploring issues such as the favouring of photogenic species, or the role of the ...
Waiting time targets for urgent cancer cases to receive treatment have been missed once again, according to
