tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137445692011-04-22T04:26:23.506+01:00A mix.Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.comBlogger121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1150971140810673012006-06-22T10:48:00.000+01:002006-06-22T11:48:18.200+01:00

This article is a report of Gordon Brown's annual Mansion House address. In it he said:"The all too easy, but fundamentally wrong, temptation for political parties is to cling to the past or to sidestep difficult long-term choices,"Given Cameron's wannabe progressive noises and Ming's recent shifting about on tax and so forth, who's clinging to the past? We must surely assume that he's talking

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1128342357692502762005-10-03T13:17:00.000+01:002005-10-04T01:43:13.133+01:00

Winterbourne is a village not far from here. It's both a traffic hotspot and an electoral problem. There's some local pressure for a by-pass and it was this issue that helped the Tories capture all the seats at the last local election (whereas the previous administration had a good splattering of LibDems). The LibDems remain the largest group on the council, however, and traffic and planning

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1128262581232104492005-10-02T14:31:00.000+01:002005-10-02T15:38:39.160+01:00

Is it acceptable for the central party to bribe local parties in target seats to select particular candidates? That is to say, should the party be in the business of slipping "large sums" to certain campaigns based solely on the gender of the candidate?It appears that it is acceptable, and that this practice will grow in the future, limited only by available funds.http://www.libdems.org.uk/

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1127856377869756312005-09-27T21:49:00.000+01:002005-09-27T22:26:17.880+01:00

Here in the South West when I get on a bus, I pay the driver then sit (or stand) where I like even if that's sprawled halfway up the stairs, Metro gripped between the teeth, wondering when the high speed corners are going to end. The bus takes the quickest route that includes all the requisite stops (the precise path depending on the traffic). We rattle through mostly LibDem constituencies.In

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1126351668175529112005-09-10T12:21:00.000+01:002005-09-10T12:31:25.396+01:00

After reading the BBC's story about the possible return of the fuel protestors, I described them as "self interested fools with regard only for their own pockets. Thugs, bullies and racketeers". Then somebody asked me why...The fuel protestors, despite their claims to be representing "motorists" are largely made up of commercial hauliers. Their complaint is not about the price of fuel as an

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1126173898247572142005-09-08T10:54:00.000+01:002005-09-08T11:04:58.253+01:00

According to Ruth Kelly on the radio earlier this week, her department is "responsible for parenting". Oddly though, I took my son out on a train-trip to Cheltennam yesterday and most of the parents we saw were busy being responsible themselves. Even in Ruth's absence.

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1124539953897879522005-08-20T12:58:00.000+01:002005-08-20T13:12:33.906+01:00

There is a site which aggregates LibDem blogs. At the moment it's a bit like being in the kitchen after a half-hearted party - everybody is talking about what would have made it more fun, and who should organise the next one.There's been some talk of Liberal Democrat philosophy: what it is, what it's good for and where we might get some. A step along the way seems to be the labeling of types of

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1123940631586229532005-08-13T14:25:00.000+01:002005-08-13T14:43:51.593+01:00

I regularly cycle from my home in South Gloucestershire into the center of Bristol. I've found that SUVs, people carriers and pick-up trucks have taken over the Volvo's traditional role as chief peril to cyclists. As I peddled along yesterday I was therefore particularly pleased to see on a billboard that Nissan have launched their "new" Navara. The Navara is a dirty great black pickup truck; one

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1119782839283038402005-06-26T11:17:00.000+01:002005-06-26T11:47:19.286+01:00

One could have predicted it. The government has been talking with "private firms" about selling access to the proposed ID card database. This is the database that would gather together information about every person in the country - from biometric data to benefit entitlement, from home address to health problems. And it will be available to Tesco and any other company prepared to pay to rifle

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1119528914230581012005-06-23T12:58:00.000+01:002005-06-23T13:15:14.236+01:00

It took far longer than usual to get in on the bus this morning. For no apparent reason the lower half of the M32 was stationary; no accident, no lanes closed, no policemen with speedguns. The bus took a rather circuitous route to avoid the latter stages of the blockage - so circuitous that it's wasn't clear that we actually saved any time at all. We did, however, get to survey roadworks on

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1119345563908552732005-06-21T18:18:00.000+01:002005-06-21T10:19:23.913+01:00

First post.This is me poking the blog with a stick to see what happens.

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13744569.post-1119353175042986152005-06-21T11:50:00.000+01:002005-06-21T13:59:27.890+01:00

Cosmos 1, a solar sail powered space craft launches later today.The science behind the mission is fantastic: imagine a craft that can fly, at speed, through the solar system powered only by the solar wind (this one is a tester only: it will going to into a low Earth orbit and not staying there too long). Like ocean going sailboats it's a thing of beauty: a combination of elegance, human

Martin Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04083206077388502816noreply@blogger.com0