Let's see what Eric Pickles is made of

Colin Breed, the Liberal Democrat MP for South East Cornwall, has issued a challenge to Eric Pickles, the Chairman of the Conservative Party.

A few days ago Pickles described Paddy Ashdown as "frail and confused" after the former Lib Dem leader said the South West had been "trampled on" by previous Tory administrations.

Now Breed has challenged Pickles to:

"visit Cornwall and Devon and meet Mr Ashdown. Perhaps first they could 'yomp' across Dartmoor."

Turning the irony up to 11, Breed went on:

"I can assure Mr Pickles we have very long memories in the South West and we would love to see him down here.

"Of course I suspect he would have passed out on a boggy patch a few hundred yards after trying to keep up with the frail and clearly decrepit Paddy Ashdown."

Let's see if Pickles will have the courage to take up this challenge.

Come on, Eric, show us what you're made of!

Karen Gillard chosen to fight South East Cornwall

Or so the Plymouth Herald says.

This is a Lib Dem seat, currently held by Colin Breed.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Monday

Liberator 320 has arrived in the post. The exciting news is that it is now possible to subscribe online. Full details on the magazine's website.

This time I am going to publish Lord Bonkers' diary one day at a time, just as the old boy writes it. It's Monday today, so let's start with...

Monday

This year’s Uppingham International Film Festival opens today, and I am busy in my role as Patron. We have a particularly fine programme this year; notably, a series of lectures on the Liberal revival of the early 1960s and showings of British Realist films of the period, under the title "It’s Grimond Up North". Beyond this, there is strong selection of moving pictures: Beith in Venice, Greg Mulholland Drive, For Huhne the Bell Tolls, The Colin Bulldog Breed, Braveheart with our own William Wallace, of course, some episodes of Mike Hancock’s Half Hour that were long believed lost, Night of Mark Hunter, Danny Alexander the Great, The Killing of Andrew George, Adrian Sanders of the River and many riches beside.

The only fly in this particularly fine ointment is what to do with Michael Moore. I knew him first as a well-scrubbed young fellow who was often to be seen carrying Elspeth Campbell’s shopping, and in due course he was elected to Parliament from a seat in the Scottish Borders. Something unfortunate then happened to him: he took to wearing a baseball cap, making films and, worse, telling all and sundry how wonderful those films are. I fear that he has not been invited. Incidentally, I met a fellow in the Bonkers’ Arms last night who swore that Moore is now the Liberal Democrats’ Shadow Foreign Secretary; but, as I pointed out to him, if this were the case, surely one would see his name in the papers more often?