tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136466832024-03-07T07:41:39.270+00:00Disgruntled RadicalCrumbs from the breakfast table of an unreconstructed LiberalDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.comBlogger545125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-5892635927305848272014-02-08T17:49:00.002+00:002014-02-08T17:49:13.424+00:00Farewell Blogger. New posts here: https://disgruntledradical.wordpress.com/Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-19163571059907619402014-02-07T11:26:00.002+00:002014-02-07T11:26:45.498+00:00Blogger still buggered up. I'm moving.Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-4078985448323036382014-02-06T19:34:00.001+00:002014-02-06T19:34:15.922+00:00Nothing on the wonderful new dashboard drop down list actually works ! If they don't fix this, I'll move to a new supplier.Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-69443665276246475512014-02-06T19:26:00.003+00:002014-02-06T19:26:29.186+00:00Must be part of their wonderful " completely new, streamlined blogging experience" ! Trying to solve it.Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-17692690529200678552014-02-06T19:23:00.002+00:002014-02-06T19:23:39.285+00:00Sorry if your comment is waiting - Blogger is blocked up and not letting me in !Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-59819449236828986822014-01-30T20:43:00.000+00:002014-01-30T20:45:17.693+00:00Update on Theresa's Law and how Liberal Democrat MPs voted
The Commons today voted to accept Theresa May's new clause 18 for the Immigration Bill. It gives her the power to deprive a British citizen of their citizenship if she:
"...is
satisfied that the deprivation is conducive
to the public good because the person, while having
that
citizenship status, has conducted him or herself in a manner which
is seriously prejudicial to the Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-5571467122214722022014-01-30T17:12:00.000+00:002014-01-30T17:12:19.617+00:00Teresa May can take away your citizenship !
When I read this morning about the last minute government amendment to remove
UK citizenship from terrorists, I immediately thought of the UN Convention on
Reduction of Statelessness 1961 under which the UK can remove
citizenship on grounds that a person "conducted
himself in a manner seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the State;". The UK took advantage of a provision inDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-76460782815368125082014-01-30T14:56:00.000+00:002014-01-30T16:07:58.893+00:00School - let's have a little diversity
Just been reading about the problems of yet another national political initiative for schools - this time free school meals for some. Nick Harvey warned that it would be unfair in the allocation of resources. Now the Independent reports it wasn't thought through before being announced.
What is it about hands crudely grasping the levers of power before they are wrenched away by Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-78989074984774431912014-01-28T22:17:00.001+00:002014-01-28T22:17:06.087+00:00Much ado about something: getting the Levels right
Much in the news lately the small community of Muchelney in the Somerset Levels. I heard Chris Smith, chair of the Environment Agency, on the Today Programme this morning (at 2h11m) defending their work to help flooded Somerset. I thought he made a good case. The Levels flood every winter, as did the lane where I lived not far away in Ilford, Ilminster, but these Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-2004823898972757842014-01-21T09:40:00.000+00:002014-01-21T09:40:26.189+00:00Climate Change: Avaaz, you're not helping !A friend has asked me to sign an Avaaz petition supposed to influence decisions of the European Commission about action to fight climate change. Here was my response:
I have signed Avaaz petitions before but will not sign this one because of
the misleading information they supply.
They seem to assume that all politicians are corrupt and in the pockets
of lobbyists and the industries they Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-21643106166632393562014-01-19T10:19:00.000+00:002014-01-19T10:19:08.180+00:00Due process and sexual allegations
Horace Rumpole, Mortimer's fictional Old Bailey hack got in trouble with his son's girlfriend for suggesting that allegations of rape had to be tested rather than simply accepted as true. It seems to me that many Liberal Democrats, from Nick Clegg downwards, have been guilty of the same lack of scrupulous attention to due process in the case of allegations against Chris Rennard. &Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-68246220794146652812013-12-05T23:09:00.002+00:002013-12-05T23:09:57.709+00:00Nelson Mandela - how times have changed
"The ANC is a typical terrorist organisation ... Anyone who thinks it is going to run the government in South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo land" - Margaret Thatcher, 1987
"How much longer will the Prime Minister allow herself to be kicked in the face by this black terrorist?' - Terry Dicks, Conservative MP, mid-1980s
"Nelson Mandela should be shot" - Teddy Taylor Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-37096373694929383582013-12-05T10:17:00.001+00:002013-12-05T10:17:40.578+00:00Empowerment
Excellent piece by Bill le Breton on why empowerment is an illiberal concept and no, we are not in the centre ground !Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-9250673278514350782013-11-20T10:32:00.000+00:002013-11-20T10:32:45.293+00:00His sins were Scarlett but his dossier was read and believed
Writing in today's Guardian Simon Jenkins says "The days of believing spy chiefs who say 'Trust us' are over." Sorry Simon, those days were over more than a decade ago when Sir John Scarlett colluded with Blair's No.10 in compiling the dodgy dossier. Or perhaps in 1924 when MI5 and/or MI6 leaked the fake Zinoviev letter to the Daily Mail and brought down the Labour government.
InDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-14298305007403848032013-10-27T23:24:00.001+00:002013-10-27T23:24:39.412+00:00In the fensToday I cycled along the banks of the River Cam as far as Bottisham lock. Just past the lock you come to the first of three lodes, Burwell Lode. These are narrow canals dug by the Romans. Burwell Lode doesn't look navigable but Reach Lode is. I am astonished by these little waterways built two thousand years ago.
On the way back I stopped to smoke my pipe at Bait's Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-89743794412006277932013-09-21T17:38:00.002+01:002013-09-21T17:38:48.349+01:00Let a thousand idiots bloom !
Those of us who know what a bunch of fools and liars UKIP are were not surprised by Godfrey Bloom's latest outburst. (NB. Before the Telegraph let you watch Bloom, they make you watch a Gucci advert, the male and female models in which I feel sure have never seen the back of a fridge.) I really want the electorate to have the greatest possible exposure to this bunch before they Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-50565434677604292382013-09-07T22:33:00.001+01:002013-09-07T22:34:15.207+01:00The last day of Summer
I always think of the Last Night of the Proms as the official end of summer. A great way to round off a wonderful day visiting Rutland Water with Jonathan Calder and a splendid lunch in Uppingham and... a double rainbow at the Finches at Upper Hambleton.
Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-77565236859045297082013-09-07T22:22:00.000+01:002013-09-07T22:22:23.813+01:00You'll never walk alone
Just read tomorrow's Observer about Sarah Teather giving up. Reacted intemperately thus:
"So bloody typical of the woman. Who ever said
politics was easy ? Buggering off will not help and doing it just
before conference is just egotistical and very unhelpful. Too much easy early
success. Some of us have been fighting our Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-85973721209511489202013-09-06T09:14:00.000+01:002013-09-06T09:15:12.507+01:00The block on the rock
It strikes me that the Spanish government's current tactic of delaying crossings at the frontier of Spain and Gibraltar is illogical. If they maintain that Gibraltar is part of Spain, they should remove all frontier controls.
People who often question the role of the EU in maintaining peace in Europe are missing the point. The dispute over Gibraltar is a small example. Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-39480003456915474042013-09-03T10:07:00.000+01:002013-09-03T10:07:18.168+01:00Keynes, thou shouldst be living at this hour
At the Liberal Democrat conference in 2011 Jeremy Browne, MP for Taunton, was heard to say, "We have taken down the picture of Keynes in the office and put up one of Gladstone". If it were only the picture ! At the time, I thought Keynes knew a little more about economics than you Jeremy. It seems now that the Financial Times agrees. In case you can't get pastDavidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-43000907474091864882013-09-01T18:54:00.002+01:002013-09-01T18:54:47.226+01:00The plank in the eye
As an alternative to military action, I looked at proposals for financial sanctions against Syria and against the guys who supplied the chemical weapons amongst other armaments. Why, I wondered, do we not go after them ?
The Daily Record has the answer.Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-49148451506786960492013-08-29T23:10:00.000+01:002013-08-29T23:10:40.938+01:00When is it right to go to war ?
A friend asked me if I would rule out military action in all circumstances without a resolution of the UN Security Council. Putting on on side the circumstances in which the UN Charter authorises actions without such a vote, I still don't think it is possible to rule out action ever without a UNSC motion, but yes I support the development of international law since the Second Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-45825405141862824792013-08-29T09:43:00.002+01:002013-08-29T09:43:56.780+01:00It should have been us
It should have been Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats forcing Cameron to think again on intervention in Syria. Lamentable performance by Clegg on the Today programme this morning. Gladstone would have got this right. Once again I considered resigning from my party and rejected it. I will be there long after Nick Clegg has gone. I am delighted that we have a parliamentary and Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-89843313420875591222013-08-28T17:21:00.000+01:002013-08-28T17:21:22.675+01:00Syria: what I told my MP
My MP asked constituents for comments before the Syria debate tomorrow. I responded:
Dear Julian,
You have expressed all my concerns. My instinct is
that we should not intervene because of the difficulties of any military
option, the risk of making things worse rather than better in Syria and the
consequences for relations between the Islamic world and the
West. &Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13646683.post-55881634868417582802013-08-13T09:43:00.000+01:002013-08-13T09:43:45.425+01:00Pickles' EU Pork Pie
Eric Pickles doesn't just eat pork pies, he tells them, particularly where the European Union is concerned. On Liberal Democrat Voice Giles Goodall reveals a classic tale of inventing and spreading Euromyths, this time the European flag and the birth certificate. The Sun and the Mail voraciously gobble it up.Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03281231409865527752noreply@blogger.com0