By Stephen Tall
| Sat 24th November 2012 - 8:15 am
It’s Saturday morning, so here are twelve thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices…
The lottery of life: Where to be born in 2013 – The Economist‘s annual list of the top quality-of-life countries: ‘Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too.’ Britain comes 27th. (The Telegraph has a picture-only version here.)
It’s Saturday morning, so here are eight thought-provoking articles to stimulate your thinking juices…
Three big things I’ve got wrong since I’ve starting blogging and commenting – ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie confesses to a trio of big errors on the NHS, higher-rate tax and equalities: “One of the many reasons I don’t want to be an MP is that I think this sort of ability to think openly and reflectively is probably impossible when you are standing for office.”
1. What’s your formative political memory?
The morning after the 1992 election – remembering my parents’ disappointment that Labour hadn’t won (again) and the pervading sense of gloom of another Tory government.
I also remember one election in the 80s when my parents displayed an SDP and a Labour poster in the same window!
2. When did you start blogging?
2007
3. Why did you start blogging?
I started because I wanted to communicate to my constituents what I did as a councillor on their behalf.
4. What five words would you use to describe your blog?
Local
Personal
Topical
Passionate
Committed
5. What five words would you use to describe your political views?
Humanistic
Instinctive
Pragmatic
Empathetic
Social
6. Which post have you most liked writing in the last year (and why)?
It’s the post I wrote about the budget-making process in Reading Council. I felt proud to have played a role in delivering one of the most difficult budgets in Reading Council’s history whilst protecting key services, and I wanted to contrast our approach with that taken by Labour opposition which I thought was totally lacking, obviously.
7. Which post have you most liked reading in the last year (and why)?
I really enjoy Mark Thomposon’s posts as they are always intelligent and thought-provoking. I enjoyed this post as I thought it was a point that need making about Labour.
I’ve been a bit ambivalent about the idea of crime maps, both because of the many categories of crime missing completely from them and also because the provision of a map in itself risks being seen as the final step rather than a preliminary step in making government more accountable and responsive to the public.
But that ambivalence was ended by Simon Jenkins. Not quite in the way he expected, I suspect, for his piece last week arguing vigorously against crime maps ended up persuading me that they are a good idea. That is because all but one of his …
Lib Dem climate change and energy secretary Chris Huhne joined with Conservative party chair Baroness Sayeedi Warsi today to launch a blistering attack on Labour’s financial legacy.
You can read Chris’s speech in full, below, in which he issues a stark challenge to Labour to “face up to the challenge of fixing our nation’s finances”, warning that if they don’t “they won’t deserve power for another generation.”
However, it is Baroness Warsi’s demand to David and Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Andy Burnham to forfeit their £20,000 severance pay as cabinet ministers – branded their “reward for failure” – which …
The Evening Standard ran a piece from Simon Jenkins, which included a bit of myth-recycling about what the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health had said about people clearing snow from outside their property.
There were two problems.
First, either Simon Jenkins or a sub-ed dropped the word “probably” making the quote sound far more definitive that in the original version reported in other newspapers. (I suspect it was no innocent error because there was also a similar distortion of what Lord Davies said in Parliament.)
Second, the quote was – even in the full version – wrong. …
Nonconformistradical I thought Ed’s point was that given the still ongoing cost of living crisis now was not the time to push for an income tax rise.
Especially given the exte...
David Symonds Lib Dems may have made a tactical error in abandoning the 1p increase in income tax. Whilst no one wants to see taxation any higher than what it is, the state o...
Martin Gray Another we know best nanny state posts ...
Online betting limits & now this ...
"As Liberals we try to avoid banning things "...
We've seemed to have ban...
Peter Martin @ Joe,
Technically what you say about the taxation process is correct in an accounting sense. The state imposes a debt on us all in the first place by demand...
Andrew Tampion Thank you for the information Jennie. At the risk of going off topic. If the rare earth metals used in vapes are needed for other more important purposes why ar...
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Rishi Sunak - the pointy finger PM.
Braverman admonished
Full slate of Lib Dem candidates and up into second in Rishi Sunak's constituency
Getting things done - Scott Street #dundeewestend
Anyone try the West Cliff Lift?
Dropping the 1p tax rise has political costs too
Matthew Sweet on conspiracy theorists and the media
A blob-chart way of dissecting Britain's prosperity failure
Nonconformistradical 
David Symonds 
Martin Gray 
Peter Martin 
Andrew Tampion 