Liberal England

Iain Dale: So you don't do what Ming Campbell used to do every morning when he was shaving and think: "God, I wish I'd stood against Charles Kennedy?"

Vince Cable: No, absolutely not, I genuinely don't. I quite enjoyed the 'acting leader' period, and did quite well, but I've got a very full role.

Read the whole thing in Total Politics.

Labels: Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable

From BBC News:

Cocaine-snorting rabbi "lonely"

Labels: Awards

I am at the first Lib Dem Bloggers Unconference, which is being held at the Scottish party's office in Edinburgh.

Labels: Blogging, Liberal Democrats, Scotland

How can I resist this essay on The Rumpus?

It is a meditation on "Higher Love" - which is not one of my favourite Winwood songs either - and takes in Reagan, Derrida and Levi-Strauss:

Labels: Music, Steve Winwood

Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells.

Labels: Liberal Democrats

I am posting this from the first class lounge at Euston. I shall fulfill a long-held ambition and catch a sleeper train later this evening, waking up in Edinburgh for the first Lib Dem Bloggers Unconference.

Meanwhile, here is this week's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News.

The Queen's Speech

They’ve gone again. Only four weeks after the end of the summer recess, the Commons had a break before this week’s State Opening. Some observers seethed about MPs’ long holidays; cynical old hands reasoned that at least it limits the damage they could do.

But the real problem is that, however long they spend at Westminster, there is little MPs can do to hold the government to account. And few with only a few months left until the election, there is little the government can do either.

Which is why Nick Clegg was right to call for the inevitably electioneering Queen’s Speech to be abandoned (David Cameron forecast it would be “shameless”, which conjoured up an unwelcome vision of Frank Gallagher on the throne) and the remaining time to be devoted to some reform of the Commons itself.

If you doubt that reform is needed, listen to the Labour MP Kevin Barron speaking in a health debate in Westminster Hall last week:

Members of Parliament are sent to the House because our constituents want a representative of the state. That is the whole point of the exercise and why we are sent to Westminster, whether we are in government or opposition ... We are the state's representative in our constituencies.

You could say that he was just being a socialist, but MPs of all parties have to be careful not to fall into this trap. They must always remember that they are not at Westminster to speak for the government or their party: they are there to represent the electors who sent them there.

Which is why I have some sympathy for the Norfolk Tories – the very term “Turnip Taliban” is redolent of metropolitan contempt for the provinces – who felt Liz Truss had been wished upon them by Conservative Central Office and that they had been told less than the full truth about her.

Imagine their chagrin when they discovered she had conducted an affair with a married Tory MP and –worse – was a former Liberal Democrat who used to write rude articles about the Royal Family.

And if that identifies me as the East Midlands equivalent of the Turnip Taliban – a Pork Pie Poujadist or a member of the Stilton Stasi – then so be it.

Labels: Blogging, House Points, Railways

From the Daily Telegraph this evening:

David Curry, the MP who heads the committee responsible for policing Commons expenses, has claimed almost £30,000 for a second home that his wife has banned him from staying in.

Mr Curry has resigned his chairmanship of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee and told the Telegraph that he will refer himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner.
The newspaper goes on to allege:

The Conservative MP is accused of having an affair with a headmistress in his Yorkshire constituency and using a taxpayer-funded cottage to meet his lover.

A Telegraph investigation has learned that four years ago, after discovering the affair, Mr Curry’s French wife Anne demanded that he does not stay at the Yorkshire property as a condition of the couple’s reconciliation.

However, the former Conservative minister has continued claiming thousands of pounds a year for the house – which he could expect to sell for a substantial profit after leaving Parliament.

Labels: Conservative Party, Expenses

Many readers will remember Irfan Ahmed, the enfant terrible of Liberal Democrat blogging. He removed his blog from the LibDemBlogs aggregator a few months ago and little has been heard of him since.

But it seems that his idiosyncratic views have landed him in trouble and that he has closed his blog down as a result. Full details on Political Scrapbook and in the Burnley Citizen.

I hope we will see an older, wiser Irfan return to blogging one day.

Labels: Blogging, Liberal Democrats

I was down at St Pancras today for a business lunch - there is a phrase you would not have written a few years ago - and noticed that Paul Day has now added a frieze to the base of his giant statue The Meeting.

Labels: London, Railways, St Pancras

From The Journal:

A North East MP has insisted reports of his death are an exaggeration after rumours swept his constituency that he had died.

Whispers grew across Blyth Valley from Sunday night that Labour MP Ronnie Campbell had had a fatal heart attack.

But he would say that, wouldn't he?

Labels: Labour

Don't forget the get together for Lib Dem bloggers in Edinburgh on Saturday.

The details are on Lib Dem Voice and a number of Leading Scottish Liberal Democrats have promised to look in.

I hope to see you there.

Labels: Blogging, Liberal Democrats, Scotland

With Clairwil.

Labels: Britblog Roundup

News has just come through that Liz Truss's selection has been confirmed this evening by a substantial majority. But I find myself with a sneaking sympathy for the Turnip Taliban in South-West Norfolk, if only because the very name is redolent of metropolitan contempt for the provinces.

What appears to have happened is that Liz Truss was presented to the local party as a model Cameroon candidate. Only after she had been selected did the locals learn that she had a) conducted a widely publicised affair with a married Conservative b) is a former Liberal Democrat activist who used to write articles attacking the Royal Family.

I imagine that b) was more damning than a), but it is quite possible not to approve of adultery without being a prude.

Yes, it is easy to laugh at South-West Norfolk Tories - I myself RT'd a tweet saying something like "Don't they have the Google in Norfolk?" - but imagine it it was you? Wouldn't you feel a little used by Central Office?

We Liberal Democrats are vocal about our local candidates for local people, and localism was one of the more attractive aspects of Mark 1 Cameronism. So I don't feel too guilty about my sneaking sympathy for the Turnip Taliban.

I was sorry to hear of the death of Edward Woodward.

Labels: Films, Television

As this story is in the news again because of the Australian government's apology, it is time for a quick plug for the column by Professor Strange that I posted here in June.

Labels: Professor Strange

Like Friday on My Mind, this is a song I have always known but would have been hard pressed to tell you who sang it until I looked it up.

Chris Farlowe, one of the great underrated voices of British blues and soul, topped the singles chart with this Rolling Stones song in 1966.

Farlowe has his own website and is still performing. A work colleague saw him and Alan Price in a concert a few weeks ago.

Labels: Music

Labels: Awards

Well done, Your Grace:

The mindset of most of the writers at Liberal Conspiracy is not that of the liberal. It is that of the conservative. These are people who hate diversity, who despise people who don't think like they do. They are Tories of the left.

Judge for yourself.

Labels: Awards

A bit of cricket-related children's TV nostalgia from me over at The Corridor.

Later. Note the comment by Tim Rice's brother.

Labels: Cricket, Television

The latest issue of Fortean Times carries the news that an American tourist saw "a largish, dark creature moving slowly up the mound" of Silbury Hill back in July. The magazine also has pictures showing "the usual ambiguous black blob against the famous prehistoric hill".

As we revealed a couple of years ago, Silbury Hill - a man-made earthwork - belongs to the Liberal Democrat peer Eric Avebury.

This is a good opportunity to send our best wishes to Eric Avebury, who is recovering after breaking his hip last month. He has recently posted X-rays of his injury on his blog - this is the sort of transparency we should encourage in our politicians.

Labels: Cats, Liberal Democrats

A bit of Googling reveals that my hero J. W. "Paddy" Logan, former Liberal MP for Harborough, was mentioned in a poem in Punch in 1891.

The poem is prefaced by a quotation from Logan, who had just gained the seat from the Tories in a by-election:

Labels: J. W. Logan, Market Harborough

There is an article in the Magazine section of the BBC News website today that looks at the furry scene.

It explains:

No standard definition exists but generally furries are people who have a fascination with anthropomorphic animals. These are animals that are given human traits, like walking and talking. They can be anything from cartoons characters like Bugs Bunny to computer game personalities like Pokemon.

The scene has its own art, animation, comic books and literature, but activities are largely conducted online - where furries adopt "fursonas" for role playing.

But for some it is about meeting other furries in person. Groups around the world meet regularly and there are conventions in the US, UK, Germany, Mexico, France, Russia and Brazil.

There's more:

But, inevitably perhaps, there's a sexual element too. In a recent court case in the UK, two men who met on a furry website, and shared sexual role-playing fantasies, were convicted of plotting to kill one of the pair's adoptive parents.

Christopher Monks, from Lancashire, and Shaun Skarnes, from Cheshire, were found guilty of meticulously preparing the killings via the internet. They are currently awaiting sentence.

Furries will not thank the pair for casting their hobby in a negative light, and tend to argue the sexual side is hugely overplayed.

The BBC takes it all terribly seriously - and look out for "Species Identity Disorder" in the comments - but I was reminded of a Christmas early in the 1970s. I was given a Monty Python LP and it contained the sketch "The Mouse Problem":

Linkman Yes. The Mouse Problem. This week 'The World Around Us' looks at the growing social phenomenon of Mice and Men. What makes a man want to be a mouse.

Interviewer, Harold Voice, sitting facing a confessor. The confessor is badly lit and is turned away from camera.

Man (very slowly and painfully) Well it's not a question of wanting to be a mouse... it just sort of happens to you. All of a sudden you realize... that's what you want to be.

Interviewer And when did you first notice these... shall we say... tendencies?

Man Well... I was about seventeen and some mates and me went to a party, and, er... we had quite a lot to drink... and then some of the fellows there ... started handing ... cheese around ... and well just out of curiosity I tried a bit ... and well that was that.

Interviewer And what else did these fellows do?

Man Well some of them started dressing up as mice a bit ... and then when they'd got the costumes on they started ... squeaking.

Interviewer Yes. And was that all?

Man That was all.

Interviewer And what was your reaction to this?

Man Well I was shocked. But, er... gradually I came to feel that I was more at ease ... with other mice.

Watch the rest for yourself...

Labels: Comedy, Television

An opinion poll asked who should chair Question Time if David Dimbleby were to be injured by a bullock again.

The results were as follows:

• John Humphrys - 17%
• Jeremy Paxman - 14%
• Jonathan Dimbleby - 6%
• The bullock - 63%

Labels: David Dimbleby, Television

It seems I spoke too soon.

From the Shropshire Star:

Labels: Shropshire

My House Points column from today's Liberal Democrat News.

Civil wall

In Berlin Angela Merkel watched Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa stroll over the ruins of the Wall. Back in London our government chose a different way to mark the 20th anniversary of one of the most joyful events in European history.

It overturned Lords amendments so it will be able to hold inquests in private. It confirmed plans to compile a database, open to 653 different public bodies, of every phone call, text message, email and website visit made by British citizens in the past year. And Ed Miliband came to the Commons with plans to remove local democratic control from many planning decisions.

The end of the Cold War and the way the British people have accepted the erosion of their liberties ever since are connected. While the Soviet Union existed we – that is, the greater part of British society (leaving aside a large wedge of Labour activists) – had a clear model of the sort of society we must never come to resemble. Now that awful warning has gone.

But Monday’s events also reflect the way mere survival is now our highest aim. Liberty and the pursuit of happiness are nowhere in British politics these days. So national security is the justification the government gives for both secret inquests and its elephantine new database.

The welcome the green movement has given to Miliband’s plans to allow central government to impose anything from a nuclear power station to a wind farm on local communities shows it too been succumbed to this emphasis on survival. Forget enjoying the natural world: the environment is all around us and it is out to get us.

We needed light relief on Monday and Philip Hollobone was there. He is not quite David Tredinnick, but it was Hollobone who broke into the heated Commons question time on the death of Baby Peter last year (“On another subject...”) to urge Ed Balls to encourage children to take up the ocarina.

His contribution this time: “Rugby has Twickenham, football has Wembley, and now volleyball has Kettering. Would the Minister like to congratulate the English Volleyball Association on choosing Kettering for its national training and competition centre?”

Think of Mr Hollobone as the sort of harmless eccentric we fought the Cold War to defend.

Labels: House Points

For the past few weeks I have been contributing the occasional post to The Corridor. This is because its owner is struggling to find the time to blog at the moment, but wants to keep it running. So he has asked a few other cricket fans to help out.

I was talking about this with someone at my writing club this evening, and we hit upon the idea of blogsitting.

It would work like this. If you were going on holiday, busy with your day job or needed a break from blogging then I would offer you the following service. For a fee I would contribute regular posts to your blog reflecting your political views and in your usual style.

Tories, Labourites, Lib Dems, Welsh Nationalists, nihilists. Philosophers, humourists, swear bloggers. Blogsitting can handle them all.

Labels: Blogging, Cricket

From this evening's Leicester Mercury:

A last-ditch effort to save Leicester's historic Bowstring Bridge from demolition has failed.

Campaigners' final hopes of preventing the destruction of the bridge in the West End were dashed yesterday when their latest appeal to have the Victorian landmark listed was turned down.

The application was rejected by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which upheld an earlier decision by English Heritage.

It was ruled that the bridge was not of sufficient architectural or historical interest.

I don't blame them: I blame Leicester City Council.

Labels: Bowstring Bridge, Leicester, Railways

Thanks to today's news I am reminded again of Carry On... Up the Khyber:

Brother Belcher: I've never ridden in a cart pulled by cows before.
Captain Keene: Bullocks, Mr Belcher!
Brother Belcher: No, I haven't, honestly.

Labels: David Dimbleby, Films, Television

All them cornfields and ballet in the evening.

Collision, ITV's drama this week, reminds me of the 1949 Ealing film Chain of Events.

As Wikipedia says:

The film opens with a long shot of a Liverpool-bound train waiting to depart from Euston station. The train leaves with various characters on board.

After dark, the train is still travelling north at speed when a light being waved by the trackside is seen by the driver. Alerted to possible trouble he applies the emergency brakes, but a road tanker stalled across a level crossing is looming up just ahead. Plainly, there is not enough room to stop. Just as the collision is about to occur there is a fade out, which is succeeded by a general view of the railway locomotive sheds at Euston, three days prior to the accident.

Several personal stories are then told in a series of flashbacks which make up the train of events referred to in the title.

I didn't think the crash was that well staged in Collision, but I have to admit that it is better than the special effects in Train of Events.

Still, the train is driven by Jack Warner. And I remember that in an early scene someone makes his way across London and passes a neon sign advertising Nicholson's gin. That is Nicholson as in Emma Nicholson - she comes from the distilling family.

Labels: Films, Railways, Television