February | 2009 | Liberal Conspiracy

Tory AM Brian Coleman triples expense claims – and you’re paying!

by Newswire February 26, 2009 at 5:48 pm

The Tory Troll reports:

[Conservative London Assembly Member] Brian Coleman has almost tripled the amount of expenses he claims from the London Fire Authority, Tory Troll can reveal. The figures released to this blog, show that the man Boris Johnson appointed to chair LFEPA claimed a whopping £2275 in ‘subsistence and travel’ between 1 April and 31 December 2008.

In fact, as information collated from other blogs shows, this isn’t the only sign that Brian Coleman is putting the entire London Assembly to shame though his inflated expenses claims.
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5 Comments ¦ 26th February

Convention sold out; but are Tories serious about liberties?

by Sunny Hundal February 26, 2009 at 4:28 pm

The Convention for Modern Liberty in London, this Saturday, is sold out! That’s 1000 tickets gone people – a massive achievement in itself. Clearly there is a huge hunger across the country to reclaim our civil liberties back.

If you haven’t got your London ticket or couldn’t make it down anyway, then there are other ways you can join in:
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21 Comments ¦ 26th February

Why I’m standing for Young Labour chair

by Sam Tarry February 26, 2009 at 12:42 pm

I am standing to be National Chair of Young Labour because now, more than ever is the need for progressive Labour Government; progressive solutions are needed to take our country forward. Young Labour must be at the heart of this.
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117 Comments ¦ 26th February

Was the financial crisis predicted?

by Dan Hind February 26, 2009 at 11:00 am

No one could have predicted the current economic crisis with any accuracy or authority. The whole thing has surprised the finest minds in mathematical modeling and finance-as-physics.

Writing in the Financial Times John Kay has helpfully explained that when we consider markets ‘we may be able to say a lot about their general properties while being unable to make specific predictions’. That’s because markets are so dynamic and non-linear and all. You know, that thing with the butterfly and the hurricane.

It’s all very well to carp now, and complain about the excesses of the last decade or three, but it’s better, more mature, more sophisticated, to recognise that what’s done is done, shrug, and move on. After all there is work to be done, and there are belts to be tightened. Someone has to pay for these bailouts.

The trouble is that this is all bullshit.
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34 Comments ¦ 26th February

So, who does the Mail think is British?

by Sunder Katwala February 25, 2009 at 11:21 pm

Dear Mr Dacre,

I was disappointed to read reported in today’s Daily Mail that the newspaper regards it as a mistake to consider that the children or grandchildren of immigrants are British, but rather would classify us as “second or third generation immigrants”.

although the figures from the Government’s Office for National Statistics show an increase in numbers of foreign born people they still fail to record the true impact of immigration because they record their children as British rather than second or third generation immigrants.

I hope that your proposed reclassification of Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry as not British, as second and third generation immigrants descended from the foreign-born Phillip, will not distress them too much.

But it does seem most ungrateful, when Winston Churchill was voted ‘greatest Briton’, to now strip him of that status because he had an American mother. (However strongly your newspaper disagreed with Churchill’s criticisms of appeasement in the 1930s, isn’t it now time to let bygones be bygones?)

Perhaps you could let us know who the Daily Mail thinks is truly British. I can see you probably think it is too late for my children – as “third generation immigrants”, currently aged under 3 – but perhaps there might be a tip or two they could pass on to their descendants.

So, given our shared interests in integration and citizenship, it would be terribly kind if you might let us know whether there is anything that those of us who were born here as British citizens could ever do so as to become British in your eyes.

Yours sincerely,

Sunder Katwala

118 Comments ¦ 25th February

Jack Straw’s right, Cabinet Government matters

by MatGB February 25, 2009 at 7:43 pm

Jack Straw has decided not to appeal a decision and instead the Cabinet has voted, using the power allowed it by law the law, to prevent the release of documents, for the first time since the FOI Act was passed.

Y’know what? I disagree with Justin, Jennie and most Lib Dems on this. He’s right to do so. We can, and should, be attacking this, but not because Cabinet minutes aren’t going to be released. Cabinet minutes should not be released, it’s one of the basic principles of our Parliamentary democracy.

Here’s how it’s supposed to work:
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18 Comments ¦ 25th February

Cameron hit by personal tragedy

by Unity February 25, 2009 at 11:29 am

If you’ve not picked this up from the MSM yet, David Cameron’s disabled son, Ivan, passed away earlier this morning due to what one would assume to have been complications arising out of his condition (cerebral palsy/epilepsy).

In the circumstances I think I can say, without any fear of contradiction, that everyone associated with Liberal Conspiracy would like to offer David Cameron and his family our sincere condoloences.

35 Comments ¦ 25th February

Slipping a Rizla between Labour and the Tories

by Jennie Rigg February 25, 2009 at 11:05 am

Tory bloggers like to crow about how awful and incompetent and corrupt and authoritarian the Labour government is, and how different the Tories will be when they get in. If, by any chance, anyone brings up past performance they point out that it was a terribly long time ago they were last in government, and anyway, look at David Davis!!!

Ah yes, David Davis. The man who thinks 42 days is worth resigning over, but 28 days is A-OK! Well, you can paint him as a Tory Champion of Liberty if you like but Cameron and his little buddies, emboldened by the recent opinion poll leads, are distancing themselves from his Liberal agenda at the speed of light.

And yes, that is this Chris Grayling they’re talking about. Oh how corrupt and incompetent and anti-liberty the Labour party are. Isn’t there something Christians say about planks and eyeballs?

And then there’s yesterday’s news (broken by Jo Swinson) that Jack Straw has disobeyed a court order because ~~he’s Judge Jack Straw, and he doesn’t have to go through no stinkin’ appeals procedure!~~ it might be embarrassing for various people.
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25 Comments ¦ 25th February

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