Author Archives: Alex Foster

Alex Foster is a former Lib Dem councillor in Nottingham and has been a party staffer working in the constituency offices of MPs and MEPs in the East Midlands. He is Lib Dem Voice's bursar and likes to create podcasts.
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Empty homes policy launch

By Alex Foster | Thu 14th January 2010 - 3:19 pm

Details arrive at the Voice of a launch of our General Election housing policy:

The Liberal Democrats today set out plans to bring a quarter of a million empty homes back into use, making homes available for people who need them and creating 65,000 jobs.

There are over 760,000 empty properties across England which are no longer used as homes but can be brought back into use with some investment. People who own these homes will get a grant or a cheap loan to renovate them so they can be used: grants if the home is for social housing, loans for

…

Posted in General Election and Local government | Tagged cardiff, EDMO, empty homes, freedom central, housing, iain donaldson, manchester, nick clegg, peter black and Wales | 22 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 14 January 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 14th January 2010 - 12:44 pm

Good ~~morning~~ afternoon and welcome to Daily View on a largely uneventful day in history. 152 years ago today, Napoleon III wasn’t assassinated. It’s the day Martin Niemöller was born, the author of the words about Holocaust victims, “First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out.”

Today Richard Briers, Faye Dunaway and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are celebrating birthdays, and we remember Lewis Carroll’s death.

2 Big Stories

Haiti victim search

All the papers lead today with news of the continuing search for survivors amongst the debris following the massive earthquake in Haiti.

Times: Race against time for Haiti earthquake aid
Telegraph: Race to save thousands of lives
Daily Mail: Haiti razed to the ground: Horrifying new pictures reveal extent of earthquake destruction
Guardian: International teams join Haiti rescue operation

Posted in Daily View | Tagged data, david beckham, derek, faye dunaway, haiti, hugh fearnley-whittingstall, james graham, Martin Niemöller, Ming Campbell, napoleon III, popbitch, richard briers, skeletor and victoria beckham | 1 Comment

Conference deadlines approaching

By Alex Foster | Mon 11th January 2010 - 5:10 pm

The calendar and the clock are marching ever on, and whilst it might feel like you’ve barely blinked since Christmas, important deadlines in the Conference office are fast approaching.

LDV have booked a big room for a conference fringe event on the Friday night and we have until the 15th to decide how much information to put in the conference pack about the Exciting Secret Project our boffins and wonks are collaborating on late into the night. We’re of course stuck between a pillar and post – will the event be so massively oversubscribed we might need to remove walls, like …

Posted in Conference | Tagged journalist and motion | Leave a comment

Campaigning in the snow

By Alex Foster | Fri 8th January 2010 - 4:34 pm

It’s snowing. It’s cold. Much of Britain is housebound.

Here are some top tips to keep your constituency campaigning in the snow.

Telephone canvass!
Get your photos for next year’s Christmas card now!
Use time trapped indoors to review your plans. Have you ordered your ink, sourced your suppliers and got a name next to every action point?
How’s that to-do list looking?
Are you practicing Inbox Zero? What better time to start!
How snowy are your neighbours’ roofs? If some houses in your street / ward / constituency have the snow and ice melting faster than others, then it’s a clear indication they don’t

…

Posted in Online politics | Tagged ears, energy efficiency and snow | 8 Comments

YourThurrock.com talks to PPC Carys Davies

By Alex Foster | Thu 7th January 2010 - 8:50 pm

An email arrives from the editor of YourThurrock.com pointing us to a YouTube interview they’ve done with local PPC Carys Davies.

You can see the interview here, as well as register to leave comments.

Thurrock, if you didn’t already know, is in Essex. Gotta love a place whose Wikipedia History section begins “Mammoths once grazed in the Thurrock area.” Is it the WP equivalent of “First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came…” ?

At the end of January, the LDV team will be meeting to discuss how we cover the general election. As a site launched …

Posted in General Election and Site news | 9 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 7 January 2010

By Alex Foster | Thu 7th January 2010 - 7:27 am

Good morning and welcome to Daily View on 7th January. Waking up to a cold frosty reception this morning are Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Labour ministers and fellow East Midlanders Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt – and, well, pretty much the rest of us as temperatures are set to stay below freezing for most of the country for most of the day.

The 7th January in history saw a trio of firsts: Galileo Galilei first observed the largest moon of Jupiter; the first use of the modern Italian flag; and the first transatlantic telephone call.

A trio of Nicks have birthdays today: Nicholson Baker, the American novelist; Nicolas Cage, the tax defaulting American actor – and our own Nick Clegg MP, who is 43 today!

And in misogyny news: today is Distaff Day, when traditionally, women, who’d had a break from household work over Christmas, began their domestic tasks again.

2 Big Stories

Today we have one nice story and a load of links poking fun at the Labour party.

Lord Mandelson plans street parties for Queen’s diamond jubilee

Mind you, even this story in the Telegraph, ostensibly about something else entirely, can’t help but speculate on Gordon’s much-demanded departure. Here’s the Lib Dem relevant paragraphs:

Lord McNally, for the Liberal Democrats, had to cough to get himself heard, for Lord Mandelson had risen too soon. This faux pas prompted Lord McNally to say, “That’s a bad start to the year,” before demanding street parties and mugs to celebrate the jubilee.

A lesser performer would have been thrown by the embarrassment of forgetting the genial Lord McNally, but Lord Mandelson recovered without apparent effort, declaring himself strongly in favour of street parties and mugs.

Yay, street parties and mugs! Woo!

Posted in Daily View | Tagged colony, diamond jubilee, distaff day, east midlands, galileo galilei, geoff hoon, grit, jupiter, lord mcnally, maureen rigg, nicholas cage, nicholson baker, nick clegg, patricia hewitt, peter mandelson, salford, steve middleton, stockton, street party and woman's work | Leave a comment

Resolve to communicate better with your members

By Alex Foster | Fri 1st January 2010 - 12:09 pm

One of the many interesting and challenging jobs I am tasked with as a member of the exec of Nottingham Lib Dems is to produce a members newsletter five times a year. We have a big events programme built up of lots of easy-to-organise events, and so much of the content is taken up with the details and information about those.

But a recent training event with staff from Members Services at Lib Dem HQ set me thinking about what better could be in our members newsletter. Thinking back to how and why I joined the Lib Dems it …

Posted in News | 5 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 31 December 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 31st December 2009 - 7:37 am

Good morning on New Year’s Eve 2009 as we here at LDV Towers celebrate the passing of the year and indeed the decade. There’ll be fizz spilled on the Night Desk for sure, and I’m cooking beef wellington canapés and a chocolate/chestnut torte.

But what, I hear you ask over the hubub, happened on this day in history? Well, did you know that until the 1750s, the new year actually began on Lady Day (no, not her) in March? And in fact that’s why the tax year is still based around that time of year?

New Year’s Eve is the day on which, in 1951, the Marshall Plan ended (did you know the UK got more money out of it than any other nation? It didn’t help we still had the vestiges of empire to spend it in). In 1960, the farthing ceased to be legal tender; and in 1998, the value of the Euro was first establised.

Birthdays include Ben Kinglsey, Donna Summer, Val Kilmer and Alex Salmond – together at last!

Don’t forget Lib Dem Voice is still seeking your nominations for Liberal Voice 2009.

And one more thing – today there will be a Blue Moon – the second full moon within one calendar month. This won’t happen again until full moons either side of the London Olympics, in August 2012

But, finally, what of the newspapers and blogposts? Read more, after this:

Posted in Daily View | Tagged alex salmond, anatoly perminov, apophis, asteroid, beef wellington, ben kinglsey, chestnuts, donna summer, euro, farthing, lembit opik, lewes, marshall plan, mushrooms duxelles, new decade, new year, royal mail, russia and val kilmer | 1 Comment

Daily Mail: it’s a scary place

By Alex Foster | Wed 30th December 2009 - 9:24 am

As a paid up member of the liberal élite that’s ruining our country, I do like to pop over to Daily Mail Island every now and again to see what’s exercising the minds of Britain’s tablerati.

This week had two eye-poppingly awful pieces that I just had to pick up on.

Firstly, Leo McKinstry’s sensitive, and thought provoking piece deftly picking at the complex moral issues surrounding the execution in China of Akmal Shaikh: HEROIN TRAFFICKERS DESERVE TO DIE.

No, wait, sensitive and thought provoking it is not. For a line-by-line demolition of the mountains of crud streaming forth from the piece, …

Posted in Humour and News | Tagged akmal shaikh, charity, crisis, daily mail, homeless, homelessness, leo mckinley, liz jones, salvation army and shelter | 10 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 24 December 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 24th December 2009 - 7:37 am

Good morning, and thank you for trudging through the snow and ice to Daily View. It’s Christmas Eve, and the staff at LDV Towers are expecting a half-day holiday if they get through all their work.

Across Europe, it’s today (rather than tomorrow) that many continental children receive their visit from Santa. Is that enough date-related trivia? Hell no! Carol Vorderman, Caroline Aherne and Barry Chuckle were all Christmas babies and are celebrating birthdays today.

Literary giants Harold Pinter and William Makepeace Thackery both died on Christmas eve, albeit 145 years apart.

And in events on Christmas eve: in 1946, the French Fourth Republic was founded; and in 1968 the crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to escape the Earth’s gravity, and the first to broadcast the bible from space.

An eventful day! But click on to find what’s happening today.

Posted in Daily View | Tagged alexis rowell, anglican, apollo 8, bad weather, barry chuckle, carmageddon, carol vorderman, caroline aherne, duncan stott, evangelism, extreme weather, harold pinter, indoctrination, jonathan calder, mark lynas, proselytism, santa and william makepeace thackery | 1 Comment

ID cards trial failure

By Alex Foster | Wed 23rd December 2009 - 7:56 pm

Hot on the tails of the news that P&O refused to recognise an ID card as a European travel document comes this investigation from the Manchester Evening News:

THE national identity card scheme was in chaos last night as an M.E.N investigation revealed some of the country’s biggest travel companies are telling customers that they can not be used instead of passports.

Some 1,736 people in Greater Manchester have bought the £30 cards after the Home Office promised they could be used to travel in Europe.

But customer service staff at nine major travel companies – including British Airways, Eurostar and

…

Posted in News | Tagged eurostar, failure, farce, id cards, manchester evening news, national identity register, transport and waste | 3 Comments

Rochdale’s first female leader

By Alex Foster | Tue 22nd December 2009 - 5:52 pm

News reaches t’Voice (via the Middleton Guardian) that Lib Dem Irene Davidson has become the new leader on Rochdale Council – and in doing so has become the first female leader of the Council.

Coun Davidson, who works as a prison officer in Manchester, will be replacing the leader Alan Taylor, who decided last week to stand down due to ill health.

Earlier this year, she stood in for Coun Taylor during one of his bouts of illness. She was acting leader when Rochdale hit the national news headlines after installing its Christmas light decorations in August.

Councillor Davidson said: “It is

…

Posted in News | Tagged alan taylor, firsts, irene davidson, rochdale and rochdale council | 1 Comment

Daily View 2×2: 17 December 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 17th December 2009 - 10:06 am

Good morning, and welcome to Daily View. Today we’re wishing happy birthday to children’s author Jacqueline Wilson and commemorating the death of Dorothy L Sayers.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

Auntie’s moral compass flushed down the toilet as BBC asks “Should gays be executed?”

Caron takes the BBC down for a particularly crass way of starting a debate on Ugandan policy. Particularly unfair in that the BBC ban homophobic contributions, so presumably anyone who thought gays should be executed wouldn’t be allowed to say so.

Posted in Daily View | Tagged BA, bbc, cancer, caron lindsay, dorothy l sayers, gay execution, gay rights, jacqueline wilson, leaders tv debate, peter black, sandi the cat, uganda and Willie Walsh | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: 10 December 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 10th December 2009 - 7:48 am

Good morning and welcome to Daily View. 10th December is the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death and the first awards of the Nobel Prize in 1901. Today we also sing happy birthday to Emily Dickinson and Ada Lovelace.

The numerical elements of this post break down a little, as you’ll see.

Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are some posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

OnePlace to rule them all

As we reported yesterday, the Audit Commission launched One Place, a website listing government inspection results of all local authorities. And reviews of their own councils have been exercising some Lib Dem bloggers since the site came back up yesterday afternoon:

Matt Davies: Labour failing Haringey residents
Suzanne Fletcher found Car seat safety in taxis more interesting than One Place
Jon Whitehouse: Essex has some of the poorest children’s services
Chris White: Tory council slammed as inadequate

Posted in Daily View | Tagged ada lovelace, alfred nobel, alistair darling, audit commission, car seats, chris white, emily dickinson, essex, haringey, housing, john healey, jon whitehouse, jonathan calder, matt davies, oneplace, PBR, pre budget report, suzanne fletcher, taxis and tiger woods | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: 3 December 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 3rd December 2009 - 11:17 am

Good morning and welcome to Daily View. With just 28 days until the end of a year, what an ideal time to hear Delia on Woman’s Hour and prepare for Christmas – whatever your gender.

Today is the anniversary both of Elvis’s ’68 Comeback Special and the awful Indian Bhopal disaster where, in 1984, a chemical leak killed thousands and injured hundreds of thousands. The Guardian has a photo series.

Today we also sing happy birthday to Eamonn Holmes and remember International Day of Disabled Persons.

2 Big Stories

Gays won’t go to heaven, says cardinal

Over in the Telegraph is the latest skirmish in the battle between Catholics and homosexuals.

“Transsexuals and homosexuals will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven and it is not me who says this, but Saint Paul,” said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, 76. In remarks which outraged gay rights groups, he claimed that people were not born gay, but chose to embrace homosexuality of their own free will.

Posted in Daily View | Tagged daily telegraph, delia smith, gay rights, george monbiot, james may, Javier Lozano Barragan, lambs, ovine adolescence, roman catholic church, sheep and top gear | 3 Comments

Where next for Lib Dem Bloggers’ Internetty Meetup Thing?

By Alex Foster | Wed 2nd December 2009 - 11:20 am

Just two weekends ago, we helped run a moderately successful Bloggers’ Unconference in Edinburgh, the guests of the Scottish Liberal Democrats at their HQ in Clifton Terrace. The Scottish Lib Dems were generous with their facilities and their time, giving us a room for a day, feeding us, and making sure lots of interesting senior Scottish Lib Dems came to talk to us. In the end four English bloggers made the …

Posted in Events and Online politics | Tagged #ldunconf, brussels, edinburgh, manchester, maybe, maybe not, nottingham and reading | 9 Comments

New copyright rules for Lib Dem Voice

By Alex Foster | Tue 1st December 2009 - 9:24 am

There now follows a short notice updating you on the copyright rules we use for articles that appear on Lib Dem Voice after 1st December. In effect, these are the rules we have used all along, but we are now putting them on a more formal footing.

Articles that appear on the Lib Dem Voice after 1st December 2009 will be copyright Lib Dem Voice and the original author, and will be licensed under the Creative Commons terms Attribution, Non-commercial licence.

Lib Dem Voice reserve the right to use material commercially to further the aims of the blog. Articles from before

…

Posted in Site news | 3 Comments

Opinion: Nation’s campaigners kickstarted

By Alex Foster | Mon 30th November 2009 - 3:53 pm

Yesterday saw the conclusion of ALDC‘s annual training event Kickstart, designed for councillors and campaigners who are defending and targetting council seats at next year’s local elections.

Next year is a special year indeed, because in all probability the General Election will happen on the same day as local elections. Whilst this is nothing new, the councils that are facing election this time are …

Posted in Events, Local government and Op-eds | 1 Comment

Jo Swinson’s video from the UN

By Alex Foster | Mon 30th November 2009 - 11:15 am

Last Saturday at the Bloggers’ Unconference, our final interview of the day was with Jo Swinson MP – which was particularly kind of her, since she’d flown back from New York the day before, and must have been jet-lagged.

Falling at the end of the day, the discussion we had with Jo was one of the most informal of the day, but was all the better for that. Her enthusiasm for finding new ways of communicating really shone through, and she talked to us about creating the video below. In particular, she was really keen to show us her new Flip video camera, which is extremely portable and can be used by just the one person, without needing fancy lights, an off-camera microphone or an extra person working as camera operator.

Jo used her Flip to make a series of mini videos about the work she was doing at the UN, and quite simply to give some basic impressions of what visiting the UN buildings in New York are like. The buildings are iconic, but not particularly fancy. Working in the main office block is like working in any slightly old fashioned tower block. She also takes time out of her schedule to show us a moving statue rescued from the rubble of Hiroshima – on the face, undamaged and intact; on the rear, scraped raw by the heat and debris of the nuclear explosion.

If you follow LDV’s twitter feed, you may also have seen this message promoting a short audio interview with Helen Duffett asking Jo the questions.

Posted in Blogger Interviews and Online politics | Tagged #ldunconf, climate change, hiroshima, Jo Swinson and un | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: 26 November 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 26th November 2009 - 7:42 am

Good morning, and Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers. 26th November is also the anniversary of the opening of the terrifying Pontcysyllte Aqueduct. Today also sees a significant birthday for Tina Turner and a rather less significant one for Hilary Benn.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator. I’ve taken two environmental picks today:

Why are Reading’s Christmas lights on during the day?

Do these lights have to be blazing all day? This simply does not make finanical or environmental sense. Christmas lights in the Town Centre are very visible. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas lights. But what message does leaving them on all day send out about environmental responsibility?

(Cllr Daisy Benson)

‘Consultation’ Who are you kidding National Grid?

The beauty of an underground superconductor cable system would be that it would not only remain hidden, but the transmission of power from future expansion of energy in the South West (from renewable resources such as the Severn and new as yet to be built wind farms and tidal stream generators)
could with ease be accommodated in a super conducting cable. Super
conducting cables are also massively more efficient with losses of just 3%
compared to around 30% in the current national grid, something that is of
massive importance when we think of global warming and the need to conserve
and use energy wisely.

(Brian Matthew)

Posted in Daily View | Tagged brian matthew, chilcot inquiry, daisy benson, hilary benn, lord ashcroft, pontcysyllte aqueduct, saddam hussein and tina turner | 1 Comment

Tories rolling in dough shocker

By Alex Foster | Wed 25th November 2009 - 5:28 pm

Isn’t it strange how sometimes two pieces of information arrive simultaneously that just go together to confirm a prejudice?

This afternoon, Guido’s post on Tory fundraising came to the top of my feedreader. The pithy title contains all you really need to know – Tories Raise More Cash than All Other Parties Combined – but if you’re a fan of pie charts, you might want to give Guido the clickthrough.

Guido’s story is that of all the reportable donations given to all the parties in the Electoral Commission’s third quarter, 55% of the moolah went to the Blues.

This report from Guido came hot on the heels of a couple of bits of information about Conservative fundraising efforts in Ealing, which has caused a bit of a stir in the local papers. An email arrived with a copy of a Tory letter, and a letter in the Ealing Gazette, which I reproduce below:

Posted in News | Tagged angie bray, conservative party and donations | Leave a comment

Goodnight from Irfan

By Alex Foster | Fri 20th November 2009 - 10:01 pm

Jonathan Calder last night broke the news (well to me, anyway) that Irfan Ahmed has had to pull his blog permanently following further outrageous comments.

The final para of the Pendle local newspaper story is apposite:

The comments are not the opinion of the LibDems and neither has anything on my blog ever had anything to do with the view of the LibDems in Pendle or across the UK.

Well, quite.

Posted in News | 4 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 19 November 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 19th November 2009 - 7:24 am

Good morning, and welcome to Daily View. Today, in 1990, Milli Vanilli were stripped of their Grammy. It’s the birthday of American President and pizza-loving cat James Garfield.

Today is also both International Men’s Day and International Toilet Day.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

How much food can be grown on a balcony?
Cllr Alexis Rowell gives the answer: quite a lot, actually
Time to stop calling them “honour” killings
Meral Ece takes on a difficult subject.

Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.

2 Big Stories

Posted in Daily View | Tagged alexis rowell, international mens day, international toilet day, james a garfield, lord ashcroft and meral ece | Leave a comment

Context is king – link for victory

By Alex Foster | Sat 14th November 2009 - 8:50 am

Welcome to part six of our “Introduction to blogging” guide for Liberal Democrat bloggers or would-be bloggers. It’s appearing each Saturday between now and Christmas, with all the posts available via this page. The series will then be revised and collated into an e-book, so please do post up your comments as the series progresses. Today it’s the turn of Alex Foster.

When writing for a blog, perhaps the default view I have of my reader is someone who is familiar with my entire body of work, someone who started at the first thing I wrote, and read it through in …

Posted in Blogging guide | Tagged blogging and featured | 1 Comment

LDVideo: American politics videos

By Alex Foster | Sat 14th November 2009 - 3:10 am

Here’s a handful of videos doing the rounds from American politics.

First up “There’s a rep for that!” – riffing on the iPhone’s ad showing how there’s an application to do the most ridiculous things, here’s a video with a light-hearted but deadly serious look at some of the disgraceful campaigns American Republicans have run:

Posted in LDVUSA and YouTube | Tagged jon stewart | Leave a comment

Daily View 2×2: 12 November 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 12th November 2009 - 7:34 am

Good morning. Today in 1990, Tim Berners Lee published a formal proposal for the world wide web. Today nearly twenty years later, here we all are. And isn’t it frightening that 1990 is nearly twenty years ago?!

2 Big Stories

Labour’s plan for ‘John Lewis’ public services

The Guardian is reporting that the Labour party are proposing mutualising public bodies – and the Guardian thinks the concept of mutualisation will be so alien to its readers that the only way of explaining it is by analogy to John Lewis.

Hospitals and schools would be transformed into John Lewis-style partnerships under radical plans that could form a central plank of Labour’s general election manifesto.

Public sector bodies, which would also include leisure centres, housing organisations and social care providers, would be allowed to take control of their own affairs if staff and users voted in favour.

Quite an amazing change of fortune from the party that has spent the last dozen years increasing Whitehall control over – well, pretty much everything.

Posted in Daily View | Tagged cornwall council, elderly, john ault, john lewis, mutualisation, tim berners lee and valerie singleton | 4 Comments

Evan Harris’s blog on #nuttsacking

By Alex Foster | Wed 11th November 2009 - 10:42 am

On Monday, Helen brought you news from the Guardian of the dispute between Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris and Home Secretary Alan Johnson.

Over the last two days, Dr Harris’s blog has been unmissable as he has been posting details of the correspondence on his blog, along with the consequences.

A fisking of Alan Johnson’s speech in Parliament

I was amazed to hear what the Home Secretary said, under privilege, in parliament about a distinguished scientist and sent Alan Johnson the letter below demanding a retraction and apology.

A fisking of Alan Johnson’s reply

The Home Secretary has now responded

…

Posted in Parliament | Tagged ACMD, alan johnson, david nutt and evan harris | 12 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 5 November 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 5th November 2009 - 8:10 am

Good morning and welcome to the Voice’s early morning roundup of news and views. It’s 5th November, an anniversary we can all remember, when Guy Fawkes didn’t quite manage to get his suggestions for MPs’ expense reform through Parliament. It’s also Art Garfunkel’s birthday – he’s 68 today.

2 Big Stories

Bloody betrayal raises fresh doubts about Britain’s campaign in Afghanistan

The Times carries the story most papers are leading with this morning.

The killing of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman raised fresh doubts yesterday about Britain’s mission in Helmand.

Senior political, diplomatic and military figures warned that public support for the British presence was in danger of collapse without a clear and freshly defined strategy.

Meanwhile, the Guardian has one of the more startling headlines I’ve read recently:

Posted in Daily View | Tagged afghanistan, alastair campbell, art garfunkel, autism, cannabis, caron lindsay, charlotte gore, david cameron, guy fawkes, james graham, jenny willott, nicolas sarkozy, pierre lellouche, state pension and william hague | 2 Comments

Cameron’s Euro line addresses all the wrong problems

By Alex Foster | Wed 4th November 2009 - 10:40 pm

I listened to BBC reports of David Cameron’s speech on Europe with increasing bafflement as it appeared that the Conservatives set out a complicated set of policies that to my mind addressed all the wrong problems.

Granted, by many standards, and certainly by Tory standards, I’m a rabid pro-European. But here are two obvious flaws in the Conservative position.

No more treaties without referendums

So for each new treaty, the Tories will make sure there’s a referendum. Awuga, wrong question alert. Ask people if they wanted the Lisbon treaty, and most often what you get in answer is why they don’t like …

Posted in Europe / International and Op-eds | 11 Comments

Daily View 2×2: 29 October 2009

By Alex Foster | Thu 29th October 2009 - 7:53 am

Good morning and welcome to October 29th. Today is the anniversary of the first performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the birthday of Boswell, the biographer of Samuel L Jackson, and the anniversary of the death of Sir Walter Raleigh (he was executed – I didn’t know that.)

It’s also the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which first set up a Constitution for Europe.

2 Big Stories

The postal strike is on
Read all about it on the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian:

Both sides blamed each other after three days of talks mediated by the TUC collapsed without a deal being reached. As late as evening there had still been some hope that this week’s strike action could be called off to relieve the pressure on Royal Mail.

Posted in Daily View | Tagged alex wilcock, arnold schwarzenegger, don giovanni, elizabeth truss, european constitution, james boswell, jonathan calder, martin lewis, mozart, paul walter, samuel johnson, samuel l jackson, strikes, tony blair, treaty of rome and walter raleigh | 2 Comments

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Mathew on Monday: “We need to be bold” (Mathew Hulbert)
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From national averages to local realities: inequality in our communities (Tom Walker)
We do have a two tier system, Part 2 (Neil Hickman)
A Federal Britain: 3. Fiscal Federalism and a complete constitutional settlement (Iain Donaldson)

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