postmodernlabour

The New Lib Dem Fees Policy

2009-10-24T00:25:00.003+01:00

Much has been mentioned about the Lib Dems new university fees policy (or lack thereof) so you would imagin that when speaking at Sheffield University, Nick Clegg would be keen to explain the details to students, particularly as many of them actually live in his constituency.

Well, the result was. The first rule of the new lib dem fees policy is, you don't talk about tuition fees. The second rule of the new lib dem fees policy is, you don't talk about tuition fees. Yes, the leader of the lib dems managed to talk to students without mentioning fees, Charles Kennedy where have you gone?

They also had some leaflets available, perhaps they had laid out their position on these. Again, it appeared that whoever wrote them had applied the first rule of the new lib dem fees policy.

Lib Dem Hubris

2009-10-21T18:43:00.006+01:00

Walking through Sheffield University Students Union I happened to notice the poster below. The initial statement that "these people have changed the world" is pretty reasonable, most of us would agree that Jesus, Einstein, Gandhi et al have made some pretty significant differences to the world.

However, the man in the middle for the vast and lucky majority who've no idea who he is, is Paul Scriven, Lib Dem Leader of Sheffield Council and their PPC for Sheffield Central. Having lived in Sheffield since he became leader his only real policy achievement has been the introduction of 'Community Assemblies'. These replaced the previous 'Area Panels' but with the difference that hundreds of thousands of pounds of money was moved from deprived areas to leafy suburbs. Which while it's change, I'm not quite sure it matches with the change that Mandela, MLK and Obama support.

So my question really is, in what way has Scriven as leader of Sheffield council changed the world? On the evidence so far not much and I'm going back to laughing at the poster.

The labour candidate for Sheffield Central is Paul Blomfield and can I encourage everyone to go here and donate/volunteer to ensure we get an MP for Sheffield Central who supports positive change which improves Social Justice and Mobility.

Post Deleted

2009-05-27T21:58:00.004+01:00

Late Post

2009-05-26T23:31:00.002+01:00

Musings from all sides about reform of Parliament, Cameron promising to give power away; good points are changing the way select committees are chosen, gimmic alert text messages about bills in parliament.

More controversial is the discussion about proportional representation, now, personally I'm not a huge fan of PR for the commons as long as the commons appoints the executive, however, for the lords I'd be more in favour. The AV+ system has a particular flaw in that it selects the 'least hated' instead of the 'most liked' candidate and I can foresee some odd results in seats where the leading party is just short of 50% in the first round.

Though the most important story of the day is that the secret of Irn-Bru is to be passed on ensuring that supplies of the sugar and caffine based nectar continue well into the future.

Late Post

2009-05-25T22:38:00.002+01:00

Where Ed leads, it would appear that David follows, I particularly liked the following quote.

""Through decentralisation, transparency and accountability we must take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street."

He doesn't mention if this applies to wealth or opportunity?

North Korea continues its arms race, against whom it's not clear. Hopefully they're putting as much effort into food production.

Burnley secured promotion back to the ~~first division~~ Premier League with a top class goal at Wembley. Sheffield United failing to realise that playing 4-5-1 with a sole striker who can't score wasn't the best plan.

Late Post

2009-05-24T23:01:00.002+01:00

Still not sure of the best title for this feature, will try a few and see what sticks.

Ed Miliband sets out his view on some necessary changes in Parliament, generally good suggestions, but more than a few of us will miss the theatre of PMQs, even if it's not terribly enlightening. Also widely reported is David Cameron's plan to open up the Tory candidate list to non-members (don't all rush at once) an idea that I'm sure is welcomed by the 'A-list'.

In non political stuff, I'm not sure whether the idea of Newcastle in the Championship or Rangers in the Champions League is more amusing.

Though back to a final thought of the evening, walking home from the pub this evening I saw a discarded tory euro election leaflet, with a speech bubble added next to Cameron's mouth, I'll leave it at saying that I agree with the writer's sentiment.

Last Post

2009-05-23T23:17:00.002+01:00

Not totally sure of the title for this but basically it's looking at what's in tomorrow's newspapers, may be renamed first post if I start doing it after midnight, suggestions of a better name welcome.

It looks to be last orders in the house of commons for 325 MPs who are having time called on them in parliament, though Boris Johnson appears to have had a lucky escape and will remain Mayor for a while longer. Also making the news is a rumour that at least one church is close to moving into the 21st century.

Lib Dem Confusion

2009-05-23T19:44:00.001+01:00

Now, it's hardly news that Lib Dems often exist in a state of general confusion, however having talked to a few of them, there were two things that I thought they were pretty certain on.

1: Their dislike of dogmuck
2: Proportional Representation.

As you're probably aware from the avalanche of paper through your door recently, elections to the European Parliament are happening, polling day is on the 4th of June. These are the only UK wide elections to be carried out using proportional representation.

Thus, you would think that the Lib Dems would choose to send out literature pointing out how one of their core aims was promoting a more accurate result of popular opinion. Nick Clegg as their leader surely should be leading the charge.

However, on Mr Clegg's literature is a bar chart (not quite to scale but better than some of their attempts) showing results for 'this area' (presumably one of Yorkshire and the Humber, Sheffield Hallam, Fulwood) with numbers. These being Lib Dem 47%, Tory 40%, Labour 10%. However actual election results for Sheffield Hallam or Fulwood Ward don't seem to match. Can anyone let me know where they got their numbers from?

This is accompanied by the statement "only the Lib Dems can beat the Conservatives here" which while utterly wrong in the context of a PR election in Yorkshire but none of this is the main issue.

The real issue is that elsewhere on their leaflet they make the statement "The BNP are fifth place in Sheffield and cannot win", excuse me aren't they meant to be the advocates of PR and given that Clegg was educated at Cambridge you might expect him to have figured out how one of his key policies works. The BNP can very much win here and statements like that do nothing to dissuade those who are (rightly) annoyed with politicians abusing allowances from voting for the BNP to 'send a message to that lot' not realising that it could result in everyone in Yorkshire having a racist MEP.

Hello

2009-05-23T19:42:00.002+01:00

K, this is a test.