Entries from December 2005 ↓

Ok, I’m a bit slow at finding some of these websites but some of them are just exceptional.

1. LastFM – The best find of 2005. Linked to iTunes this compiles your personal listening charts, finds your nearest musical neighbours and recommends further listening. If these guys hooked up with iTunes, they’d be the Friends Re-united of the music world. It is just exceptional.

2. Flickr – Like I said, I’m pretty slow to find this site but since the boy was born, it has been an invaluable way of sharing photos with family members and friends.

3. PostSecret – There have been occassions this year where I have nearly, just nearly, stuck up my own cry for help on this mainly funny, occassionally dark site.

Bobby, the ever-effervescent student in my office has disturbed the Watson family Christmas to bitterly complain about Bob Geldof selling out. Am I the only person in the Labour Party who doesn’t agree with this view? Here’s my thinking:

1. Bob Geldof is not a man to be messed with. If David Cameron fails to deliver on the poverty agenda, then he will say so.
2. The challenge to the Tories is to match the rhetoric to policy.
3. I just don’t think they have the will to do this.

Jumping into bed with Zac Goldsmith looks counter-intuitive and clever now but will it be when they fail to deliver on climate change? Either Mr Goldsmith has cut a political deal to meet the family ambition of entering parliament or else he’s going to be a very disappointed millionaire ecologist.

As for the mighty Bob, there is a great piece in the times about pop stars and the right. I had to make a strong cup of coffee to recover from reading it. Can it be true that the legendary Johnny Ramone is a flippin’ Repbulican? It was bad enough when I found out Billy Bragg wanted an elected House of Lords using a warped form of PR.

2005 will be known as the year as the iPod. The great thing about iTunes is that you can arrange your music into smart playlists. It takes away the Nick Hornby style love of your record collection but it doesn’t half help with family parties. Anyway, here’s my list of fave music from this year:

Forget Myself – Elbow
Their album, Leaders of the Free World, is my record of the year.
Aint no easy way – Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club
Barnowl – Caribou
Fix you – Coldplay
Good people – Jack Johnson
Blue Orchid – The White Stripes
American Idiot- Green Day

The Haynes clan have been going pop-art crazy since reading how to convert ordinary photos into Warhol masterpieces on B3ta. Stavros, you’re a criminal genius. Thanks for the new avatar.

Hope your Christmas Day went to plan. Our boy got a lifetime supply of wrapping paper. Mrs W. liked her coat and I love the new noise reducing headphones for train journeys.

There was a fascinating article by Sally Barker on Christmas Eve about the Times’s style. “Scars do not heal (even metaphorically);wounds heal, scars remain”.

Anyway, The Times Style Guide is published on their web site.

I think that Oliver Kamm has just nailed Noam Chomsky in an argument.

Why would a magazine that boasts Andrew Motion and John Stevens as members of the editorial board be hosting a website for a campaign to depose the leader of the Liberal Democrats? Whilst we’re at it, why does a magazine that calls itself “The Liberal” decide to lead the charge? Have you ever heard of this magazine? Where on earth does it get its funding from? I think editors Ben Ramm and Nathalie Rothschild should let us know. (Thanks to Bob Piper for the link).

If ever there was an example that showed the world just what a problem Charles Kennedy has with his party, then it is this letter from former Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate,Mike Dixon. Whilst you’re dropping by his site, take a look at his photo gallery….

Is strictly come dancing rigged?

Update: no maybe it isn’t after all.

Very good analysis of the Lib Dem problem from Martin Kettle. Before I comment on it though, let’s talk about Martin Kettle. Is it me or is he now one of those must reads? I find his arguments compelling. His writing business-like – succinct and to the point.

Anyway, Mr Kettle says that the row this week is particularly damaging because it was the Kennedy team that turned on him: Teather, Oaten, Campbell et al. He says that he acts more of a chairman than a president, a tactician not a fighter. The “botched centrist putsch” by his own team has left him at the mercy of the “Liberal Democrats without a strategy”. All of this is true but what other choices did he have?

I am politically closer to Dianne Abbot than John Hemming is to David Laws or Mark Oaten. The Liberal Democrats are ideologically divided. Just look at the furore around the Orangemen and their book to prove that. The genius of Kennedy is that he has not only successfully refereed these guys slugging it out but managed to hide it from the disinterested parliamentary press gallery for so long. He can’t do that any more.

If Mr Kennedy was replaced by a right-winger like Oaten, then Hughes would go into permanent internal opposition. If Hughes succeeded, they’d have civil war with all those MPs in Tory gain seats running to the hills. The only guy who could have straddled the two conflicting positions was Ming Campbell and his treachery has surely removed him from the running. Nobody likes a traitor after all.

So, to be contrarian, I think Mr Kennedy could end up being strengthened by the botched coup as Martin Kettle describes. The only question he should be asking this weekend is why on earth should he bother?

Not sure about libdems4cameron. Is it possible? I know Dave can ride a bicycle but riding two horses is harder. What do you think?

Liberal Democrat John Hemming on the Liberal Democrats:

Too frequently we are seen as arguing minority sectional interests, particularly driven by the special pleading of certain Non Governmental Organisations. This may not appear to have an impact in the short term, but as it comes to the time at which people start taking a direct interest in politics we are not seen as a party that represents people’s interests.

Obviously, he doesn’t mean the minority sectional interests of his shadow cabinet.