I have just added my tuppenceworth to the suggestions for questions to be asked of our former PM when he appears before the Chilcott Inquiry.

Although there are many I would like answered,  the one I hear least concerns the impact of the US and the UK taking what amounted to pre-emptive military action, without the support of the UN, or even NATO. The question I have suggested to the Inquiry is therefore:

How do you justify the damage your decision to take Britain to war has done to the process of international diplomacy, and Britain’s reputation? What weight did you put on this consideration before you decided to mislead parliament in order to win the vote on 18th March 2003? As John Denham said on that day the decision to take pre-emptive action, without the support of our international partners “…will turn many parts of the world against us, undermine friendly Governments, fuel terrorism and those who will join it in the future, and make it more difficult to sustain international action against common problems.” Do you not agree that his points have been shown to be very prescient?

I would urge everyone to use the 38 Degrees website  to put their own question, and to encourage the inquiry team not to let our former PM off the hook

I think the answer the first question is much easier than the second.  We are currently in a nightmare situation militarily and diplomatically and there are few signs of it getting any easier. Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.

It is pitiful that both Labour and Tory politicians seem to be falling over each other to quote dear old Maggie Thatcher’s “advisors advise, ministers decide” dictum when what they are really saying is “we know best, never mind the evidence”. Thank God for Chris Huhne and Evan Harris who have shown that not all MPs are so patrician in their outlook.  We must champion evidence based policy making and support informed debate.

Yesterday the Liberal Democrats called on Parliament to back the 10:10 campaign on climate change. Sadly, the Labour Government applied a three-line whip (why did they have to do that? - doesn’t that just make politics even more pointless to real people?) to vote down any specific action and the motion was defeated.  It was heartening to see local Conservative MPs speaking and voting in support of this initiative, although not surprisingly our own MP, whose views as a denier of climate change are well known, did not see fit to attend the debate.

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Great news for green campaigners as EON has now announced it will not be proceeding with plans to develop Kingsnorth coal fired power station.

Allegedly this is as a result of the recession, but it would be nice to think that it is also due the massive level of protest from diverse environmental and community groups, and of course the Liberal Democrats, who were appalled by the potential for this plant to add massively to the UK’s carbon emissions. Read the rest of this entry.

We had another successful visit to Hitchin market this weekend - see the article on the local party website.

David Cameron’s conference speech was a bit of a high wire act – teetering between various policy stances and trying desperately not to upset, rather than putting forward a coherent vision for the future of Britain.  Perfectly understandable given his PR background and his apparent belief that he will inherit number ten, just as he has inherited so much else.  Let’s examine a few of his claims: Read the rest of this entry. Read the rest of this entry.

If you had purchased £1000 of Northern Rock shares one year ago it would now be worth £4.95; With HBOS, earlier this week your £1000 would have been worth £16.50 and £1000 invested in XL Leisure would now be worth less than £5.  But, if you bought £1000 worth of Tennents Lager one year ago, drank it all, then took the empty cans to an aluminium recycling plant, you would get £214. So based on the above statistics the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

(Now if I had written this it would not refer to Tennents Lager…)

Am writing this as we wait for our speaker to arrive.

The fringe meeting I am attending is about The Green New Deal. Watch this space as this is something you will be hearing more about and not just from me.
This is an idea whose time has come. It puts forward the premise that to address the linked triple crunches of credit, energy and climate change, we need a new deal on the scale of that in the thirties.

More later I hope, our speaker has arrived.

I’m at the party conference and enjoying the chance to catch up with friends from around the country and to participate in some real debate on future policy, something no other UK party seems to include any more.

Personal highlights so far have been making my first conference sppech - even if it was only a 1 minute intervention - in the debate on Global Security Saturday afternoon. I just wanted to hughlight the looming threat of reducing energy supply, particularly in respect of oil resources, and the impact that will have on geopolitical pressures. Read the rest of this entry.

Following the well attended public meeting on 23rd July, a “Campaign Committee” has been established with representatives from across Harpenden’s political spectrum. Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate Nigel Quinton and colleagues Jeff Phillips and Cllr Alison Steer have joined with local Conservative councillors Mike Wakely and Julie Bell and put aside party differences to work together to try to save Station Road North Post Office (as the Post Office call it) from closure. Read the rest of this entry.