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Voting in the Local Elections 2 May 2019
No comments on Voting in the Local Elections 2 May 2019Off to the polling station to cast my vote in this year’s local elections. This time I had to do something I don’t think I have ever done before. Unfortunately, the Liberal Democrats were not able to put up a candidate in my ward this year. So my choice was only between Labour and Conservative. Given how things are at the moment I couldn’t bring myself to choose between them. The Green would have got…
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Random Thoughts for 18th June 2013
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 10th June 2013 and 18th June 2013: A personal guide to the 13 most essential political podcasts | Stephen Tall Stephen gives a comprehensive guide to the podcast listening choices available for politicos. I regularly listen to a subset of these. The one addition I would make —…
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Random Thoughts for 9th May 2013
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 30th April 2013 and 9th May 2013: Historical Figures for the 21st Century – Telegraph This gallery shows portraits of historical figures updated as if they were alive today. It is a really interesting and thought provoking idea — although I think in most of these examples they’ve…
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Random Thoughts for 29th April 2013
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 20th April 2013 and 29th April 2013: Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform The Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform have set up a new website as part of the Reform Groups Network. Burn our planet or face financial meltdown. Not much of a choice – Will Hutton This is…
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Wigmore by-election to be held on 10 April 2013
Following the sad death of Liberal Democrat Councillor Roy Davies a by-election to Luton Borough Council for the Wigmore ward is to be held on Wednesday 10 April 2013. Note that polling day is a Wednesday — not the usual Thursday. There are six candidates — all men — for the vacant place in this three member ward. The other two councillors for Wigmore are both Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrat candidate will be former…
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Random Thoughts for 3rd November 2012: Clegg speaks Dutch, Food Labelling, Deacon Blue and some baby animals
This is the latest in my series of Random Thoughts posts with links, things found on the web and other stuff that has occurred to me between 27th October 2012 and 3rd November 2012: Nick Clegg insists on speaking Dutch at Cabinet Office meeting Those on the political right can inhabit a deeply weird paranoid world. Witness this story in The Telegraph — Nick Clegg can speak 5 languages – so this is obviously suspicious.…
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The return of the poster boy for Lib Dem misery
One of the things that people were ‘kindly’ reminding me of during my time at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Birmingham last week was my experience of becoming a poster boy for Lib Dem misery following this May’s elections. Something which I have written about here and here. Thanks guys for the support! This wasn’t helped by the Daily Politics using the footage in its review of the year for the Lib Dems on the…
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Random Thoughts #4 – The 2011 elections aftermath edition
I haven’t done a ‘Random Thoughts’ post for almost a month so this is a bit of a catch up on links related to the aftermath of the May 5th elections. Mainly for reference purposes to be honest. My personal Lib Dem Top of the Blogs, Golden Half-Dozen It would have been better to have put together a post with a round up of the best of the commentary reacting and analysing the results a…
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Should I take out an injunction or demand royalties?
I should either take out a super injunction or demand the payment of royalties – that seems to be the advice from friends and colleagues for dealing with my new found minor fame. I am not sure they are being entirely serious. When I wrote about how I had become a poster boy for Lib Dem misery last Friday I expressed the fear that that in the future when someone at the BBC wanted to…
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How I became a poster boy for Lib Dem misery
Just over a week ago I failed to be re-elected to Luton Borough Council. Since then I’ve handed in my Town Hall pass, done a substantial amount of tidying and throwing things away, got drunk, caught up on my sleep, and had time to reflect on my new situation. I now am ready to write up the experience, starting with how it felt like I had become a poster boy for “Lib Dem misery”. In…
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Luton Council’s budget for 2011
The annual meeting to agree Luton Borough Council’s budget was held this month on Wednesday 16th February. I was there sitting on the Liberal Democrat benches in my role as a local councillor. As usual the meeting generated a lot of heat and only some occasional flashes of light, and as seems to be becoming a habit I probably ended up speaking too much. Local government and the services that it provides face some significant…
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Views from my local party AGM
Luton Liberal Democrats held our Annual General Meeting last night. One result of which is that for the first time in what must be over ten years I am not a member of my local party executive. The formal business of the meeting was followed by a discussion of the coalition government and our prospects for the local elections next year. I was struck by the amount of consensus amongst our members. With the exception…
