Jennie links today to an article on the OpenDemocracy website about the BBC coverage of NHS reforms. I'm afraid I didn't finish reading it. I generally have a little rule, if I'm reading something that claims to be factual and come across something that's egregiously annd blatantly false, I find it hard to take anything else it says seriously, if ( Read more... )

Clegg's speech at conference includes the line A new economy that works for families. Where men and women can choose how to balance work and home. That’s why Liberal Democrats are bringing in shared parental leave and more flexible working.
This is a very cheering thing to see. I knew it was likely on the cards and was being worked on, but actually ( Read more... )

This pretty much sums up the reactions of large swathes of talking head commentators over the last week:


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Today has not been a good day. I spent most of the afternoon and early evening at the count, watching friends lose their seats or not gain them, then watched ballot papers get piled higher and higher in the "No" slot, and then had to clear a big pile of potentially spoilt ballots, which overwhelmingly meant me saying "yup, that person clearly meant ( Read more... )

One suspects C. P. Scott would be annoyed with the sub editor who wrote this headline:

Liberal Democrats to fight next election as totally independent partyWhat's next from the supposed bastion of liberal journalism? Pope confirms Catholicism? Bear faeces found in woodland? Hazel Blears is short ( Read more... )

I'm a liberal. I don't like banning things. I'm an environmentalist, I think destroying the planet is a Bad Thing, and am fairly convinced by the science on climate change. But, as is always the case, liberalism wins out. Banning traditional lightbulbs is a bad idea ( Read more... )

Words fail me. Remember the creationist 'zoo farm' that Debi and I wrote about a few years back?

They've won an education award , specifically a "Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge" awarded by the Government backed Council for Learning Outside the ClassroomA Government backed charity has issued an accreditation award to a science denying ( Read more... )

So, Boy George did his first budget yesterday, and it was nasty. But I somehow suspect the nastiness was inevitable, and it was a lot less nasty than it would've been if it'd been a Tory-only administration. Labour have decided to spend their political capital attacking the Lib Dem junior partners for the nasty, instead of the senior party, and ( Read more... )

Now the manifestos are out, the guys behind the Who Should You Vote For test have updated the question set to try to make it more accurate. Here's mine:

Take the Who Should You Vote For? England quiz
Liberal Democrat
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OK, for those under a brick, headline news most of the last week has been the argument between the two Labservative parties over the planned National Insurance increase. It's dull and longwinded; palpably obviously, no one commenting on it in the media seems to actually understand it at all. Boy George Gideon Osborne doesn't ( Read more... )