"Delve beneath the left-wing and anti-austerity rhetoric and you'll find a bit of everything: centre-right economics, centre-left social policy, populism, authoritarian law and order, as well as libertarian stances on sexual and gender politics." David Torrance examines the contradictions of the SNP. "What the hell is a university doing plonking a lump of rock covered with party political propaganda on its campus?" Nick Cohen on the threat to the independence of Scottish universities. Iain Martin asks why Mhairi Black is pretending to be working class. The Revd Giles Fraser was wrong to calls for a Dr Beeching for churches says ...
Glory, glory... It's been a good(ish) day for the Marketmen, as Needham Market drew 1-1 at home to Hampton and Richmond Borough in the Ryman League's Premier Division.FT @NeedhamFC 1 Hampton & Richmond Borough 1. Great and deserved point for the Marketmen! They'll be fine with more performances like this— Will Ridgard (@WillRidgard) October 17, 2015A home draw, that's not that good, you might think. But they have started the season badly, and are beginning to look a bit more at home - the defence is tightening up, for one thing. Now to start winning a few games... The extremely ...
Recently I decided to watch a documentary about the Ku Klux Klan. I still don't understand what possessed me to do this. I've watched documentaries about them before (there's a really good but short Louis Theroux one on the internet somewhere) and I recognised most of their answers to the questions they were asked. Same old failure to misunderstand the one-way nature of racism. Prejudice is bidirectional, true, but systemic racism remains firmly oppressive of the same groups as always. Same failure to grasp the concept of fighting back. Still terrified of any threat to their privilege. There was one ...
On 22 July 2006 I blogged about Adil Rashid's Yorkshire debut, in which he took 6-67 against Warwickshire, and asked: Won't it be nice if yesterday turns out to have been an historic day in English cricket?Today, by taking 5-69, Rashid became the first English leg spinner to take five wickets in an innings since Tommy Greenhough in 1959. That was in the second Pakistan innings. In the first he took 0-163, the worst ever figures for an England bowler on test debut. Read more about Adil Rashid and about the history of English leg spin.
I spent the afternoon at the Battle of Ideas at the Barbican. Thanks to the organisers for the press pass - we bloggers still get the odd perk. Among the speakers I heard was the wonderful Lenore Skenazy and the less wonderful Dapper Laughs. I shall write up the three panel debates I attended over the next week. There is a second day of the Battle of Ideas tomorrow.
So, off to Cambridge for Regional Conference, starring a medley of Party Presidents - Ros, Tim Farron and Sal Brinton. And, for a change, I had work to do, as I had been asked to chair a session. An early start, fortified by bacon, was necessary, and we even made it to Churchill College on time (that would be Ros's doing) for the Chairs and Aides briefing (don't do anything stupid, here's some guidance to read, turn up on time, that sort of thing...). Conference was opened by Norman Lamb, who started by overrunning a bit - I suspect that ...
The Liberal Democrats have set up an independent panel of experts to establish how a legalised market for cannabis could work in the United Kingdom. There's also been a debate recently in Parliament on legalisation of the production, sale and use of cannabis, which came as a result of a petition to parliament with 221,019 signatures. To [...]
I've had a long-standing project of always keeping a Tolkien-related book on my "to-read" stack, since starting on The Book of Lost Tales in 2010, but I think I've come to the end of it now (though I'll continue to keep an eye out for new material). This is another of Flieger's lucid explorations of Tolkien's thought, this time looking at his interpretation of Time, as evidenced both by the time distortions experienced by visitors to the fairy realm (be it the Fellowship in Lothlórien or Smith when he leaves Wootton Major) and by the prophetic dreams revealed to many ...
I was reading an article the other day by the Local Government Association, which appeared in one of their publications, which claimed "Metal thefts have fallen by a third in the past year...", claiming that Councils were winning the war against unscrupulous thieves targeting churches, desecrating war memorials and causing disruption by stealing electric cables [...]
Something called the Investigatory Powers Tribunal has decided that even the private telephone calls, Emails, and letters of our members of parliament are not exempt from arbitrary interception by "the authorities." So along with the rest of us, their private communications, however "confidential " they may be presumed to be, can be made available to umpteen different bodies on the whim of any bureaucrat who fancies a bit of finding out. All this in the name of protecting us from terrorist plots and sundry dangers. What a contrast with the standards of privacy maintained in the mid 19th century. In ...
One of my earliest blog posts spoke of the long-running heartache of being a Welsh football fan - the pain of which could be encapsulated in the Paul Bodin penalty miss in the crucial Wales Vs Romania qualifier for USA '94. Reading it back now, it does come across with a rather bitter undertone - one of a fan looking for a scrap, just a scrap of light at the end of an interminably long tunnel. France Euro '16 Qualification!Well, now we have it! It was with some incredulity but utter delight that I watched Wales qualify for our first ...
(NB: this post has been going in various forms since '08 and was last posted in '13) This list is presented in what I feel to be order of importance of the arguments.The argument from perpetuation. This is the big one as far as I am concerned. It's the practical argument. Positive Discrimination doesn't work, and worse than that, it makes the situation continue and can even make it worse. Using discrimination to fight discrimination is like fucking for virginity. It doesn't even stop specific instances, and it definitely doesn't get to the root cause. It's salving - no, not ...
I suspect that the title of this blog post is mildly inaccurate, as it should really be "Experience Review". This is the first time in 55 years that this film has been shown in a cinema as it was meant to be seen, in glorious Smell-o-vision. ( I'm therefore going to hide how they did it under a cut: ) As for the plot of the actual film, well it was a British comedy crime caper with lots of celebrity cameos. Denholm Eliot, Leo McKern and Peter Lorre were all excellent, although seeing Leo playing ( SPOILER ) was a ...
Those present: Lord Avebury (Vice-Chairman), Lord Luce, Lord Ramsbotham (Vice-Chairman), Baroness Whitaker (Vice-Chairman), Alan Brown MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP (Honorary President), Dr Paul Monaghan MP, Andrew Rosindell MP (Chairman), Henry Smith MP (Vice-Chairman), David Snoxell (Coordinator), Richard Gifford (Legal Adviser), Oliver Taylor (Administrative support)
[IMG: members forum wordle] LibDemVoice has two parallel sites. The first is our public blog, the thing you're reading now. The second is our private members' forum, which only current Lib Dem members can access. If you're a member and want to chat with fellow party members about any issue that's on your mind, then why not sign up? In addition, you'll be included in our regular surveys' of party members' views. Here's some of the most active discussions this past 10 days: Blame it on the bookers Ideas to help local parties create organisation and restructure Should the UK ...
(I'd stopped doing these, but then this dropped down through the space-time continuum and I felt NWTW deserved resurrection to share it with you...) Film Review: Nighthawk (no stars) Big-screen remakes of old TV series are not uncommon, but there's a good chance that Zack Snyder's new film Nighhawk may just have killed them off for good, hopefully along with his career. A terrible script that's poorly directed is one thing, but I've never seen one so horribly misjudged in tone, casting and everything else as this. To some, what follows may count as spoilers, but I choose to call ...
The Liverpool Echo has the story – see link above. This should be quite a piece of artwork to see.
In 2006 I gave a talk at a dinner to mark the 100th anniversary of the 1906 Liberal landslide election victory, drawing parallels between elections now and then which are still very relevant. These are the slightly edited notes I spoke from. Imagine you are Prime Minster, with a majority of 130 (and in practice a majority of more like 350 on most issues given how small the main opposition party was). You call a general election on a point of principle, and end up not merely without a majority but in fact 60 seats short of having even a ...
So much for the new compassionate Conservatism. Today's Independent reports on the views of one Tory MP, who is also a landlord, that a proposed law that would require landlords to make homes fit for human habitation would be an unnecessary regulatory burden. Phillip Davies is of course right when he says that the overwhelming majority of landlords want to do the right thing, wouldn't ever dream of renting out a property that isn't in a fit state to be rented out and want to comply with every regulation that's introduced. However the reality is very different: Research by the ...
Sat 17th
09:30
Scottish Conference Countdown: The values document (relevant to all Lib Dems, not just Scots)
On Saturday October 24th, the Scottish Liberal Democrats hold their Autumn Conference in Dunfermline. One of the items under discussion will be a Values document. This is an attempt to find that elusive melody, the narrative on which all our policies are based, a statement of who we are and what we're for. Have a look at it here. A lot of this isn't Scotland specific so even if you're not Scottish, it's worth taking a look. What do you think of it? Here's a summary of the main principles: [IMG: Scottish Lib Dems Values Document] There are bits of ...
Sat 17th
09:24
Remember the Banking Crisis! Strong regulation now? No way, banks still have upper hand
The Guardian has the story – see link above Seems that the banks are still ruling the roost despite all the political will that was supposed to bring them to heel! With thanks to Roy Connell for bringing this article to my attention.
After Corbyn's second go at Prime Minister's Questions, Michael Fabricant, the man many of you might know as the Tory MP with the interesting hair, took to social media to comment. "This 'Jackie from Abbots Bromley says' technique is very time consuming. What about back-bench MPs who can't get in? Corbyn can ask the question without having to name everyone. It adds nothing. They can have a voice without valuable back-bench time being wasted by Corbyn wittering on at length with preambles." Here's the thing: prior to reading this stuff from Fabricant, something bothered me about Corbyn's approach to PMQs ...
courtesy of Cake Central Amazing when you think of it, that I've managed to keep this blog going for ten years. There aren't many of us in the Liberal Democrat arm of the spiral galaxy that is the blogosphere that have - hats off to Jonathan Calder (4 March 2004) and Stephen Glenn (2 July 2005), both of whom are veterans compared to me (you both look better for it than I do, darlings...) who are, along with Peter Black and Stephen Tall, probably the most prominent (thankfully, Mr Tall isn't always prominent, know what I mean?). But, here we ...
Sergio Agüero's haul of five goals finally rewarded those of us who'd stuck with him through his goal drought — and brought about a big change in our LDV Top 10. Congratulations to Christopher Buck, whose Moves Like Agger (476 points) lead the LibDemVoice Fantasy Football League after Week 8, just ahead of Paul Revell's Sock Monsters (459) and Edward Douglas's Use Your Ed (451). Edward and Christopher has the week's best performances. But let's also hear it for two players outside the top 10: William Jones' Slumdog Mignolet accumulated 112 points, as did Callum Morton's RRN's. [IMG: ldv ffl 8] ...
Saturday: So the Doctor begins the episode by giving us a lecture on the Ontological Paradox - or as he calls it the "Bootstrap" Paradox, as in Baron Munchausen lifting himself into the air by pulling up on his own bootstraps because it's the "it happened because it happened" with no visible cause or means of support one. He does this by means of an extended metaphor about Beethoven and you think "ah, clever - Beethoven was deaf and one of our characters is deaf and the ghosts are mute so this is going to be relevant". Only it's not. ...
The consultation over the future of Maternity Services in North Wales has now come to an end but there can be no doubt that Labour's management of the Welsh NHS will be one of the key issues in next year's Assembly elections. There have been some well-publicised problems with staffing in North Wales illustrated in the recent report on Tawel Fan ward in Ysbyty Glan Clwyd. The problem is that the vast majority of hard working and caring staff do not make for good media headlines. They are often let down by managers and politicians who do not take a ...
