At Fifty : Favourite Politician That I've Met

When I was about 16, Rayleigh Liberals invited Clement Freud to our town to speak and I wandered along to listen.

Only about 15 people turned up, but Clement spoke at ease and with aplomb, and I asked a question (though I can't remember what it was). He shook my hand after the meeting and I took his photo. I was still a young Heathite Conservative back then.... it took a while for me to realise that he was on the cover of Band on The Run (see my previous post).

So he's my favourite Liberal MP that I've ever met (with Ros Scott being my favourite baroness). I still enjoy listening to him on Just A Minute.

I like his story about how he got elected:

"Politically, I was an anti-Conservative unable to join a Labour party hell-bent on nationalising everything that moved, so when a by-election occurred in East Anglia, where I lived and live, I stood as a Liberal and was fortunate in getting in. Ladbrokes quoted me at 33-1 in this three-horse contest, so Ladbrokes paid for me to have rather more secretarial and research staff than other MPs, which helped to keep me in for five parliaments."

And about his family :

During his time as a Member of Parliament, he visited China with a delegation of other MPs, including Winston S. Churchill, a grandson of the wartime leader of the same name. Freud noticed that the Communist Chinese hosts regularly gave Churchill larger, or higher status, accommodation than him. Tactfully he enquired why and was told it was because of the status of Churchill's namesake. Freud observed that this was the first time ever that he had been 'out-grandfathered'

One Day To Fifty - Some Favourite Music

Three songs that bring back happy memories, with a couple of versions of each...

Playing this on my cassette player when I was getting ready to go out as a teenager....






Playing when I got up on my first election day.....





And this has been played a lot ever since I got married..... in a happy way...

Two Days To Fifty: Favourite TV

Here's a series I always used to enjoy watching - pity there weren't more episodes made.

The show is "Shoestring" starring Trevor Eve. After having a mental breakdown he has become a "private ear" for a local radio station.....

This particular episode is called "Circle Of Uncertainty".




And then there was the justly famous Hill Street Blues - I remember watching this in the house I shared when I was a student....

Three Days To Fifty: Two Favourite Books

I'd be interested to know how many people have heard of "Little, Big" by John Crowley.

I describe it as 'a favourite' and I normally re-read my favourites, yet I have only read it the one time, about 20 years ago. (I still have the book, protected in a plastic cover). It's just too dense a book to pick up for a casual re-reading.

It's a fantasy that's hard to accurately describe (especially after two decades!) At it's heart is an American family who live on the edge of magic for several generations. The individual family members more or less know that something magical may be going on but aren't really sure what it is. Sons are unhappy that their fathers don't tell them more. Fathers wish that they could find the right moment to tell their sons the little they know.... All is by described with a writer with a wonderful gift of language. It's a work of beauty, and I was totally gripped by it deep, veiled richness.

I really am going to have to read it again....

A book that I have read and re-read is Lois McMaster Bujold's "A Civil Campaign".

Its science fiction - with more than a hint of Jane Austen about it. Bujold has written about a dozen books featuring a character called Miles Vorkosigan, who is an aristocrat from a conservative, militaristic world named Barrayar. Miles has the advantage of coming from the second most important family of his whole planet, and has tremendous charisma. However he has the disadvantage of having brittle bones and a dwarfish physique - in a society which is repelled by deformity or mutation.

After some years as a mercenary leader operating under a pseudonym, Miles has a respectable role as one of the Emperor's investigators. All he wants to do now is settle down and marry the woman he loves, a widow called Ekaterin. However she has no idea of his feeling towards her - and a previous career as a mercenary leader doesn't exactly give Miles the right training for wooing...

The book is extremely funny in places, and the characters and the dialogue are splendid. Plus there are several serious sub-plots - Barrayaran women have about as many rights as early Victorian women, and Miles has an opportunity to improve things a little...

You can actually read the first half of the book here.

Four Days Before Fifty Years -Sport

Here's one of my favourite sporting memories - the 1991 World Athletics championships. Black, Redmond, Regis and Akabusi take on the USA....

Five Days Before Fifty Years

Hmmmmm. I celebrate the big Five-Oh next Tuesday ,so I'm going to be a bit self-indulgent over the next few days and post stuff about a few personal favourites.

To accentuate the alliteration of "Five Days Before Fifty Years" , I'll begin with a Favourite Film - "Frequency"

It's underated, perhaps because it's a Science Fiction / Thriller crossover that is really a film about family bonds. It can have a certain effect on grown men who lost their father when they were young.....




In this extract, John, a 1990 New York detective, has been called to a crime scene. He's feeling edgy and unhappy because he knows the following day will be the 30th anniversary of his fireman father's death.

Meanwhile in 1960s New York there's a guy who's really puzzled how someone on his ham radio could predict the details of a baseball game....