Swelling On The leg, Swelling In Public Opinion

Today was a good day for me .... I went to my GP, she told me that the rather worrying lump on my calf was probably just a sebaceous cyst, and arranged an ultrascan to check.

Last night wasn't quite so good for a while , because I found the lump and was somewhat concerned as to what it might be. After a while I tried gently squeezing it and it went away, which made me think that I had just burst something like a cyst - definitely not a good thing to do, but at least it probably wasn't anything worse. (By this morning the lump was back, bigger than before.)

But in the intervening worrying time between finding and squeezing I had googled 'lump on leg'. It led to an American forum full of questions from people worried about lumps on their leg that might be cancer. One comment struck me in particular and made me feel glad for the NHS:

Lumps in thighs and hipps
Hi, I have good news and bad news. Starting with the bad news; there are many very dangerous even life threatening. I also understand why you guys are reluctant to go to the doctor. It can be very relative but it can be inexpensive, or absolutely and totally cataclysmic for your finances. In addition dot ors these days never touch your body in any way unless they have to. That being said; you will get an inconclusive x-ray for 3-600 dollars, you will then get a ct cor cat scan to "get a better look at what's going on in there." this will cost 2500$-6000$ . After which if the still think you have some money or patience, they will give you an MRI to get the clearest view possible. Still playing time for the biopsy. Mind you all of these tests have at least a month in-between. And you or you insurance have gotten the bill up to 25000$ now an nobodies laid a hand on you.

Of course, this person's spelling wasn't that great, maybe his cost estimates weren't that great either, but it made me think - again - about the health bill.

With more and more being said against it, the Royal College of GPs coming out against it
and even ConservativeHome saying 'kill the bill' it's time to say enough is enough.

I don't recall the Lib Dems proposing these changes before the last general election. I don't recall the Conservatives doing so either. I believe the Lib Dem leadership should gently say to our coalition partners , "Sorry, this ain't going to happen..." - as soon as possible.

A Quick Check

That's a relief....

The Day I Officially Became A Handicap To Local Democracy

Peter Black has already written a pretty comprehensive post on the Councillors Commission proposals. I particularly agree with his last paragraph:

Normally, one would rely on Ministers to sort the wheat from the chaff. My fear however is that they and their civil servants have demonstrated again and again that they do not understand how local democracy works and that they believe they can use Councils as a testing ground for some really silly proposals. When that happens it is local services that suffer, along with the confidence of the electorate in their Councillors and their Council. That is a sure-fire way to damage our democracy. Surely it is time that we said enough is enough.

It's their proposal that people should be barred from serving more than 5 terms as a councillor that affects me most personally. I've done more than five terms already, so if the commission get their way, I wouldn't be allowed to stand again.

When I first read about this on Sunday morning I was annoyed - I've enjoyed being a councillor, feel I do a decent job and I've assumed that my civic future will be determined by the local electorate (who last time gave me about 74 percent of the vote in a town from elects a Conservative MP by a large margin.)

However in the late afternoon I was out delivering some of our Christmas Focus. In the damp December dusk, self-doubt starting to creep in. Do councillors get too complacent after 20 years? What should my aims be? Am I achieving them?

Nothing much is going to happen after my walk in the dusk. I'm still against the commission's proposal for a 5 term maximum - I think such a blanket ban across the whole country is unneccessary and illiberal. I'm not planning to step down.

But this report has unsettled me. The idea that the commission believes I'm a handicap to local democracy has left me with an uneasy feeling....

Alas , Poor Paris, I Knew Him Well, a Liberal Democrat Cat of Excellent Jest

Life's been too busy to blog for the last few weeks, but I'll probaly start writing again soon.


At the moment we're mourning the loss of Paris, one of our fine pair of brother cats. As you can see, he was always interested in our Lib Dem leaflets.... but he had a weak heart, and even though he had 350 ml of fluid drained from around his lungs, more fluid came back in a few days... he's now gone to the great Lib Dem Cats Home in the Sky...

We'll miss him.

Age and Being a Councillor

Age is a funny thing. I'm 48 now, but I don't think I feel different inside to the 38 year old me, or indeed 28 year old me.

I'm sure that part of this is due to being a councillor. For quite a while I was the youngest in the Lib Dem group (and indeed got some invaluable help and advice from my older colleagues on such things as driving lessons, buying a car, buying a flat, and even that biggest decision of my life, a marriage proposal.) I'm still one of the younger councillors on Rochford District , and sometimes feel like a sort of official council 'Nephew' whose enthusiasm is appreciated , rather than the 'Leader of the Opposition'

I've been a councillor now for 23 years. As the years roll by, babies have become voters, young dads get grey hair, and active pensioners became frailer and aren't there to open the front door any more....

But I don't look in the mirror very much. And somehow I've felt untouched by Anno Domini when I'm doing council activities - at least until this week. When I heard that someone had voted Lib Dem because I had been at school with her uncle, it finally came home to me that I wasn't the 'young' councillor any more....

A Strange Magic

After 12 years of marriage I thought my wife Lena and I had already discovered all our mutual likes and dislikes. But not so.... Sitting in a traffic jam last week, we discovered that we both liked the Electric Light Orchestra. Nothing very exciting about that, you might think. But consider-

Early 1970s, Essex, England. Earnest teenager has ELO as one of his favourite bands, has "Showdown" as one of his favourite singles, and knows the lyrics to the album "A New World Record" off by heart.

Early 1970s, Novorossiisk, southern Russia. Serious Russian teenage girl likes ELO and buys Livin' Thing from a shop there. I didn't even know you could buy ELO in Brezhnev's Russia. I didn't know if Lena had heard of ELO.

So we have something extra in common. Maybe that's why we've lasted together. Marriage? It's a livin' thing. It's a terrible thing to lose.

Typing left handed

After about 25 years of delivering leaflets , it's finally happened today - I got bitten by a dog.(well, I didn't actually see or hear it - so it could have been anything).

So I'll use a stick from now on.

I have to say, Basildon A and E were very quick and pleasant.

Has this happened to any other Lib Dem Bloggers?

To misquote Jim Callaghan - Chris ? What Chris?

I see that Chris Ward is stressing that he is not the Chris Ward who is a Gay Porn Director .

I do understand . Top search in Google for my name gives Sexy leather bikinis designed and modelled by Chris Black. - and it isn't anything to do with me...

What's in a name?

Well, I felt a bit deflated after hearing the leadership election result - actually, rather more deflated than I expected, because rationally I know that all three candidates could do a good job. Maybe it's an inbuilt reaction I experience whenever a candidate I support loses...

Having said all that, Ming seems to have made a decent start. I heard him three times on the radio on Friday, and thought he was in good form.

Driving around after hearing him for a third time, I had a curious thought. My father, who was a sports fanatic (couldn't get married at the weekend because he would miss a Southend United reserve game) chose the name Christopher Ian Black for me after Chris Chataway the runner, and Ian Black, who I believe was a Scottish swimmer.

If instead of being born in 1958, I'd been born a few years later, what possible sporting forename might he have picked for me?

Friends Reunited

Becoming a Blogger4Chris has given me one unexpected pleasure. One of my former colleagues on Rochford DC saw me on the Huhne website and has got in contact with me again.

Trevor Powell succeeded me as our group leader back in the 90s before work took him away to Suffolk. He and and his wife Nita are now considerably further north, running a bed and breakfast in Avoch, Ross-Shire! Trevor is still active as a Lib Dem , being constituency secretary in Charles Kennedy's constituency...

For anyone looking for a Lib Dem B&B for 18 pounds per person per night, have a look at their website .

The First Liberal MP I ever met

It was around 1974 when I met ny first Liberal MP. I was too young to vote, but thought I myself as a Conservative. Even so , I went along to a local school hall in Rayleigh (the school where my mother attended in the late 1920s, and the one my son would one day go to).

There was an embarassingly small turn-out, but the chap made quite a good little speech, and he shook my hand and I took his photo (it's lost in a cupboard somewhere).

So for personal reasons I'm very pleased that Clement Freud (for he was the MP) is supporting Chris Huhne for the leadership.

Pause for Thought

While most of us have been understandably preoccupied with Lib Dem problems, this is a time for thinking of the families of Rachel Squire and Tony Banks

When I saw the news report ,and particularly the photo , of Rachel Squire, it reminded me of Sylvia Lemon, who was my fellow Lib Dem ward councillor for 16 years. In her final year before she planned to retire, Sylvia was unanimously elected chairman of our district council. Cruelly, she fell ill a few weeks later and was diagnosed as having a brain tumour.

Sylvia had an amazing, inspiring and brave term of office, carrying out engagements in a wheelchair before dying just before the end of the civic year. It was greatly to his credit that our Local Tory MP , Mark Francois, paid tribute to her in the House of Commons.

Rachel Squire seems to have had a similar determination.

Life can be very unfair.