-
Local Government Conference
No comments on Local Government ConferenceToday I was in Birmingham for the Liberal Democrat Local Government Conference. It was a very successful event with a packed agenda. Another reminder that whatever shenanigans are going on in Westminster and despite the vagaries of the national polls the Lib Dems local government base is in a robust state and means serious business. Highlights for me where the too brief conversations with various friends I hadn’t seen for ages, some useful info picked…
-
Silence
I was rather brought up short today when, in the middle of the usual Monday morning rushing about and being late for things, I left the Town Hall to stand by the War Memorial with other Lutonians in silent tribute to murdered PC Jon Henry. Understandably it has coloured my mood, making today’s work on local political issues and preparations for this weeks full council meeting seem very small and petty. I am conscious that…
-
Six Dwarves?
The most entertaining thing on telly last night, well apart from QI, was Newsnight’s Labour deputy leadership debate. Quite a few moments to get me laughing or shouting at the TV. Wasn’t it interesting how they all seem to want to make sure that they were seen to regard Tony Blair as some sort of bad smell? Who won? Well I thought Harriet Harman just seem to shade it. She came across as the marginally…
-
The "stop and question" kite
What is really behind these proposals for the new “stop and question” powers? I have been puzzling. News of the proposals came from a leaked letter from the counter-terrorism minister, Tony McNulty, to Tony Blair and the media took up the story. The police were surprised and a little confused. Civil liberty groups were understandably outraged. Opposition politicians reacted and so did Labour deputy leadership contenders. And the Government said that…er…they were just thinking about…
-
Carnival Cancelled
A disappointing day as the Luton International Carnival, “the biggest one day carnival in Europe”, was called off because of the bad weather. Very sad really as lots of people across the town, and beyond, put a lot of effort into making floats and costumes. I was hoping to see the work of the kids from the junior school where I am a governor who had made “Arabian Nights” themed costumes including, apparently, boy and…
-
A victory for decency
I don’t think that anyone with any sense of decency could fail to be outraged by the treatment of the Chagos Islanders by the British Government even with the briefest knowledge of their story. I find it difficult to imagine a clearer example of how a powerful bureaucracy and military establishment can abuse the rights of a weaker poorer community outside of tales of the Empire at its height. So I was pleased to hear…
-
Too macho for RoboCop?
I’ve posted before about New Labour’s obsession with the “strong man” approach to leadership and how almost inevitably it is a man, so I was interested to see this article, ‘RoboCop ready to fight again for job he does not believe in‘, while catching up on my reading. Ray Mallon, the elected mayor of Middlesbrough, apparently doesn’t think much of the elected mayor model. According to the article after meeting one of the other elected…
-
All change
This blog has been very quiet of late for the very understandable reason that I have been defending my council seat in the local elections. Hard fought local election campaigns are not the ideal environment to encourage regular blogging. But the elections are over and after a week or so recovering I can now venture out into the world again. How did I get on? Well after what was the biggest, and most professional, election…
-
Bad pun alert
The following pun in today’s Simon Hoggart column made me laugh out loud; “the MP for Burnley, Kitty Ussher (she used to work as a steward at cat shows)” Source: This content was originally posted on my old Process Guy blog.
-
Angry Ming
There isn’t any point echoing Alex’s authoritative post on the trident debate/leader’s speech, much of which I agree with (I’ll save my disagreements for a mega-post on coalitions which I am working myself up to), but I did want to make two observations; Made for TV speech First, more than any other leader – or indeed other senior Lib Dem – that I’ve seen give conference speeches Ming’s are the ones that are most squarely…
-
Conference in a nutshell
OK, so now the fog has cleared a little how was Harrogate for me? Here we go with a few highlights and observations: Pleased to get a lot of good ‘geek-work’ done on the train on the way up and enjoyed the wide-ranging philosophical discussions I had on the train on the way back. Delighted with the launch of the Home Office Watch website, which I have had some techy involvement with, at the rally…
-
Post Conference Fog
Having been back from Harrogate for over 36 hours, dealing with the usual tiredness, trying to catch up on all those missed tasks, dealing with Monday, and trying to fit in catching up on the media coverage and other peoples posts, I finally get to blog. However, although there are several half formed posts in my head, I’m finding it difficult pull out from the fog in my brain the important themes as to what…
-
The Miliband Elephant
According to Nick Assinder on the BBC News website David Miliband is an elephant. I don’t know whether Millenium is likely to comment, but I will. Reporting on Charles Clarke and Alan Milburn’s launch of their new website, Assinder says; “As one of the journalists at the website launch put it – there is a very large elephant sitting right behind you, we all know it, why don’t you just say it, you want a…
-
The Westminster Arctic challenge slideshow
I rather liked the The Westminster Arctic challenge slideshow on the Guardian website which I came across a few days ago. Includes a nice picture of Jenny Willott MP, not that you can really tell it is her. Source: This content was originally posted on my old Process Guy blog.
-
So Macho!
I’m learning new stuff about this whole blogging thing all the time. Including how easy it is to end up with dozens of half written posts in draft and nothing actually posted for weeks. But one thing I have learned this week is that it is really easy to prepare a speech for full council if you’ve already blogged about the subject several weeks ago. Yes, we had a full council meeting this week in…
