LibDem Blogs - Archived! - Sunday 15th April 2007

Farewell Millie & Welcome Milly

My Aunt Millie died a few weeks ago. She was part of my life for 45 years and part of my family for many years longer. Millie was my Godmother, although as a practicing atheist I never called on her to perform any Godmotherly duties - just loved her as a good and decent person who was always there in the background of my life, as I did her husband, my Uncle Bill who died a few years before her. I miss you both and remember you with love. Just a week after we celebrated Aunt Millie's life Catherine's ...

Do you have investments with Fidelity?

Have you got investments with Fidelity? Either of your own, or through a pension fund or similar. Fidelity are a privately owned US company. Their UK subsidiary is probably the largest provider of unit trusts here. Here is a breakdown from the Electoral Commission website of the £320,500 they have donated to the Tory Central Office since 2004... Fidelity Investment Management status: Company

The ties have it!

A silly little bit of fun to let some of my ties reach a larger audience! Any suggestions for which one should be worn at the Cunninghame South Scottish Parliament count would be very welcome, but bear in mind that I'm the Lib Dem candidate...........

I'm back!

Sorry for having been posted missing for the last three weeks but the 'Black Dog' has been out and I, quite frankly, haven't had much to say. However, I'm now back in the passenger seat of life and can at least post a few mutterings. There willl be a lot of thank you's in future posts as there have been a load of good folk supporting me through this thin time and, whatevver the results, there shall be a lot of people to thank for their help during the election campaign. More soon if you can put up ...

The future of Irish cricket

Ireland's victory over Bangladesh today can only be good for cricket. And it would have been an awful anticlimax if they had qualified for the Super 8 stage and then lost every game. If cricket is to carry on developing in Ireland then one thing that will have to be sorted out is that country's relationship with England. It will be hard for the game to develop further there is any good young player they produce follows Ed Joyce in ceasing to play for them and joining England instead. One reason that 15-a-side rugby has not developed further ...

Welcome back Foyle's War

The period detail, interesting stories and quality acting lift this ITV series well above most TV crime shows. The wonderful Honeysuckle Weeks is instantly believable as the sort of gal who won the war. And Michael Kitchen demonstrates Martin Shaw's First Theorem of Acting: men can look better 30 years on, providing they lose their 1970s hairstyle.

My Celebrity Look-alikes

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

Swings of the Pendulum

Waiting for the ship to join the northbound convoy through the Suez Canal, I’ve been reading the Duff Cooper Diaries (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2005). As always when studying political memoirs of the period 1922-1959, I’m struck by the number of MPs who defected from the then Liberal Party to Labour following bitter divisions amongst the [...]

ELDR Council, Zagreb, Croatia

To Zagreb and back in less than three days for the ELDR Council to which I was elected last year (thank you, by the way, if you voted for me). Got up in the small hours, took the night bus to Heathrow, departed a little late due to fog, changed planes at Vienna. On the second plane I was given a traditional Croatian sweetmeat; the message on the wrapper conveyed a touch of Croatian self-satisfaction at having their country to themselves at last - a veiled triumphalism about the outcome of the vicious wars that convulsed this region ...

Autumn Conference timing: tell us your views

Federal Conference Committee is consulting party members about the timings of the autumn federal conference, from 2008 onwards. The present timing sees conference starting with consultative sessions on the Saturday afternoon and ending with the leader’s speech just before Thursday lunchtime. The main business of the conference generally takes place between Monday and Thursday. We would [...]

Meet Shropshire Star

He loves nothing better than diving into the pages of the Shropshire Star and rolling around in ecstasy. Not me, you booby: I mean this cockatiel.

Squadron Leader Neville Duke

There was a tremendous obituary in yesterday's Guardian: The test pilot Neville Duke, who has died aged 85, was an icon of the New Elizabethan Britain of the 1950s. At the dawn of the television era, when media personalities were born within black and white newsreels, picture weeklies and smudgy tabloids, the former Royal Air Force squadron leader had the celebrity of sportsmen such as Stanley Matthews, movie actors such as Dirk Bogarde, or the conquerors of Everest. It was a form of celebrity almost unimaginable now, built not only on Duke's performance as a test flier but on ...

Raising the Drinking Age

Jasper Gerard has called for the drinking age to be raised to 21. To me, there is something slightly illogical in tackling under-age drinking by creating more under-age drinkers! This might seem like a cheap attempt to make a vaguely amusing semantic point, but I'm serious. Such a measure would simply increase the number of teenagers and young adults drinking alcohol, obtained through older friends or fake IDs, on street corners. If anything, I think the best way to tackle the problem is to lower the legal drinking age. The UK has one of the ...

Blair "My legacy will live on", "Yes, in David Cameron", I reply

Blair insists that his legacy will live on. I'm sure it will. The age of vacuous, say what ever will win votes, spin obsessed, focus group based blandness allowing you to disagree and oppose all the things you believed in just a few years or even a few months before, will live on. It permeates every single part of the Labour Party in Parliament, and has been adopted 100% by the "Call me Dave" Cameron. Blair's legacy is a worse kind of politics. Thanks Tony, thanks a bunch.

I Hereby Declare That The Following Person Is Approximately Elected.

I happened to be looking at the 2006 election results for Hull City Council, from the council's own webpage. The result for Marfleet Ward caught my eye. It's a clear Labour victory, with us in second, but look at the Conservative "result": Marfleet Name of candidate Description Result ABBOTT John Francis Conservative and Unionist Party 217 approx CHAYTOR Sean Labour Party 1023 MATTHEWS

Six more goals

Was planning on going up to the Spurs match at Wigan today originally, but couldn't make it - and didn't even get to watch it in the pub either. Seems to have been a bit of a cracker - ended up 3-3, which means Wigan have still never beaten us in the Premiership but gives them a point that should help them stay up and have another crack at us next year. One random stat I read yesterday remains intact - apparently Spurs and Newcastle are the only teams not to have conceded in stoppage time this season. Makes ...

China and Iraq

In looking towards the end of US involvement in Iraq, we may be better off to look at the actions of China rather than developments in Washington. To explain why this is so we first need to take a look at how the US is financing its actions in Iraq.

Chin Up

After yesterday's depressing events on the football field I'm feeling a little more optimistic about the future of Torquay United. I think our attitude should be chin up and look forward to winn...

Action on Crime from the Liberal Democrats

The campaign for Wycombe District Council is hotting up. Your Liberal Democrat candidates have been out and about meeting voters throughout the district, hearing your views and feedback and listening to your concerns. We have been encouraged by the welcome we have received from many of you and we thank you for your support. Wycombe Liberal [...]

British values really to the fore - well done Norfolk Police

Yes I know it plays up to national stereotypes, ‘your policemen are wonderful’, ‘fair play’ ‘Britishness’ and all that. But the story of the Great Yarmouth policeman who won an award from Lithuania because of his response to the conditions of Lithuania migrant workers in his town is heartening. He learned Lithuania to make contact with them, and set up a ‘Welcome to Norfolk' Webpage to help all migrants make sense of our rules and regulations and how to help the police help them. Really, a kind of FOCUS for the migrant communities. Aciu labai (warmest thanks) PC ...

Magdalen Green, Seafield Lane

Again, a beautiful day! Whilst campaigning earlier on, came across bags of rubbish dumped besides waste bins and dog bins on the edge of Magdalen Green next to Magdalen Yard Road (see right) - I have reported this to the City Council.Now trawling through my e-mails and note feedback from Home in Scotland regarding my request for a further "Residents' Parking Only" sign residents in Seafield Lane had requested given the extent of other cars parking in the narrow lane: "...we will arrange for a sign to be put up as soon as possible. Hopefully this will help to alleviate ...

News from the world

since yesterdays media coverage was mostly about a break up between two young adults, here are some stories from around the world that you may have missed; Rudy Giuliani in a dress The picture alone is quite funny, but some people honestly beleive that the fact the former mayour of New York City will have to explain himself for dressing up as a women, for a charity event that is meant to take the p**s out of the politicains of that great city. What some commentators are talking about is that this may harm him in hte republican presidential ...

Back from India

O yes, I'm back from India having arrived at Heathrow early on Thursday morning. All the transport links after the Heathrow Express were horrendous and late. But I was gobsmacked by the weather. Perfect for campaigning against Tories in Dorset. Lots of lovely sunshine and no soggy leaflets, or dipping wet canvassers (leave that to the other parties). Went out yesterday, Saturday, leafleting up and down country lanes with my father, who is a Lib Dem candidate in the local elections, and Neil. Not a bad way to come down after an extraordinary holiday. (More about ...

Tony McCoy

I put money on L'Ami in yesterday's Grand National. Everyone said Tony McCoy is a brilliant jockey, it's his year to do it etc, etc. Shows you shouldn't be taken in by spin.

Day 2295: DOCTOR WHO: Gridlock

Saturday: Daddy PROMISES that he did NOT KNOW! In “Gridlock”, Russell T Davies has written a rather beautiful fairy story, or possibly a future-religious mystery, of a community of people trapped in a perpetual circular purgatory who nevertheless keep the faith and are eventually released to enter the heavenly city through the actions of two people seeking redemption and the sacrifice of a lonely immortal. The story is profoundly allegorical: heaven is dead; no one realises it, because they think they are still hearing the voice of an angel, even if it’s just a traffic update. ...

One for all us political hacks...

Lib Dem councillor, campaigner and worker Jonathan Wallace reports that the Labour Party leaflets in Gateshead are dull. It got me thinking about a site, I hate to admit it, that I often visit- By election leaflets. Maybe someone needs to set up a similar site for local election leaflets. it would be good to see what other Lib Dem leaflets are like, as well as the quality of the other parties.

Why the NHS is illiberal

In my previous post, I called the NHS illiberal. This has received at least one criticism so I thought I’d explain. Firstly, I’m not calling the concept of seeking to ensure every person in the country has access to health care illiberal. There are very good arguments for why this is liberal, and I tend to [...]

ELDR Council in Zagreb

I am now back from Zagreb and vaguely awake (it wasn't the jet-lag more a couple of early mornings and late nights). Council was good, there is a report below, but firstly I would like to say how nice Zagreb is - due to being in Council most of the time I didn't get to see much of it but the walk I had was lovely, it is certainly somewhere I would go back to and recommend others go to.

Disappointingly dull - Labour in Gateshead

We do this every year - wait with interest for the first Labour leaflet of the election campaign, eagerly hoping that there will be some good knock-about stuff in it. And every year, we produce the same response - how dull can Labour get in Gateshead? I got my hands on the Labour leaflet for Lobley Hill and Bensham yesterday. This is the ward where we cut the Labour majority last year from 900

Another Tesco tale of woe

Visiting Devon last week gave me another example of the damage Tesco are doing to communities across Britain. Having just built a new superstore and petrol station in East Devon, they have done an enormous amount of trade and people have stopped using local petrol stations as they "fill up" when they do their shopping. As a result, five petrol stations in villages as far as 12 miles away from Tesco have closed. The problem is that in many of these small petrol stations there were also small shops which were usually the only shop in the village. So ...

Old Haunts

William and I took the boys to Truro yesterday and caught up with some old friends. I lived in Truro for 10 years, William for even longer, and the only reason we ever left was because we needed to buy a house and we simply couldn't afford to buy in Truro. At the time I was expecting and ran my business from home so the flexibility was there - William's job is in St Austell. Now that the boys are a bit older and engaged in life around them it was lovely to take them to our old ...

Hitting the rails

Here in South Wales we know all about problems with trains. We have just spent 10 days cut off from all points east due to maintenance work overrunning. Prior to that key commuter trains from Cardiff to Bridgend and Swansea were axed, whilst mainline trains are often late arriving here. Yesterday, there was a steam engine running from Swansea to Llanelli. It certainly got people out of their houses to watch, but it also made an important statement about the condition of our railways since privatisation. This morning's Observer reports that plans by the Conservatives to put things ...

Please leave a number!

The last few weeks have seen a surge of case-work as the campaign has got going properly. This is great news, as it gives me the chance to talk to more people and listen to their concerns. Unfortunately I am often out during the day, at work or wherever. And I come home to messages on the answer-machine. But sometimes I can't respond because the caller hasn't left their number! This is really

The Great Neil Hamilton Mystery

Getting cards from strangers at birthday and Christmas time is one of the hazards of making friends, I suppose. At least with my leaflets there's no danger that they can ask for my address and promise to "keep in touch" after a heady holiday romance, only to disappoint and never be heard of again. On occasion I get cards from people who I barely remember, or ones where the signature is so

21 + 5

Yesterday was my birthday. It was also fellow Prestwich Lib Dem Cllr Andrew Garner's birthday, and I am feeling slightly guilty that whereas I slunked off for some fun after 4 hours of leafleting, I am informed by those in the know that he actually worked on the campaign for 47 hours yesterday. Still, I did get out and deliver the first batch of the new campaign leaflet for a good proportion of

Treating celebs like human beings

With stunning topicality, the prime minister has rejected my petition, seeking a little more respect to be shown to royals by press photographers. He - or one of his people - says it was intended to be humorous. Well I am gutted. Couldn't he at least have said that it was humorous? At least that would give me some sense of achievement. And what is wrong with injecting a little humour to make a

PPC news: Simon Hughes reselected

Congratulations to Simon Hughes MP who has been unanimously reselected to fight North Southwark & Bermondsey, and a hat-tip to Will Howells for the info. Apologies for being behind on selections, and e-mails in general. I will catch up soon!

A Blissful Saturday Evening

For some people it’s being out in the sun, for some it’s great food, for some it’s their loved ones… Well, Richard and I had a very agreeable walk in the sun this afternoon and enjoyed our steak and chips this evening, but what we took the greatest pleasure in was our own company. And the television. You knew, didn’t you? We both thought tonight’s Doctor Who, Gridlock, was absolutely marvellous, so for once I’ve got some (spoilertastic) observations before Millennium gets there. Then watching Any Dream Will Do let us indulge our inner Statler and Waldorf to the full… ...

It just isn't polite to keep winning

Off tonight to the Lewisham and Beckenham North Quiz Night. Borrowman's Buccaneers tonight consisted of the Haringey Quiz winners of myself, Grace, David McBride and Jes (boyfriend Stuart who was with us in Haringey stuck on a broken down coach with school choir in Spain) joined by Liberal Bureaucrat Mark Valladares who had been victorious at the Bexley Quiz with Grace. Quiz show master Will

Another day, another glorious victory...

To Sydenham for an evening with Lewisham and Beckenham North Liberal Democrats for their quiz night. Once again, I found myself in a team with Grace Goodlad, Chair of Orpington, this time with her lovely husband Duncan, his daughter Jessica, and David McBride, leader of our group on Bromley Council. With Philip Peake as quiz master, I should have guessed that the questions would be harder than

Sunday 15th April 2007

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