Those Lords

Last weekend I went to a very pleasant evening arranged by Basildon and Thurrock LIb Dems. Highlights of the evening were a very heartfelt farewell presention from one veteran Lib Dem Basildonian (Geoff Williams) to another (Joe White) and an entertaining and thought-producing speech from Baroness Ros Scott

"Of course I didn't buy my peerage"

she said

"I'm a Liberal Democrat.
I won it in a raffle."

New Kid on the Loch

A warm welcome to new blogging Lib Dem Trevor Powell

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...

A period of silence

This blog's gone a bit quiet recently ... I don't think I'm going to be posting very much in the next 6 weeks at all, because there's a certain event on the first Thursday in May that I'm rather busy with at the moment... ! In due course you'll be able to find out more from our local website.


So good luck to everyone else taking part in similar activities... !

Seeking the Defectors

So where are all these Lib Dem Defectors to the Conservatives? I know they are trying to poach us - in my first 261 months as a councillor nobody asked me to switch sides, but I've now I've been given two opportunities in the 262nd.

All political parties have a few discontented souls in the council chambers of the land (and sometimes they have reasons for being discontented). I suspect that Cameron is saving up half a dozen defectors for a press conference at the start of the local election campaign. If he can't even do that, he's really doing poorly.

If it does happen, I suggest that our spokesman pinches an old comment from a New Zealand Prime Minister talking about emigrants to Australia. He should say "Their defection improves the average ability of both parties".

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?

Small but interesting poll.

Have you seen the story today in the Observer today from Ned Temko and Svetlana Graudt?

"Frontrunners take Lib Dem battle to a photo-finish

Observer survey shows Hughes a distant third"

Statistically it isn't worth a bag of beans. They have simply asked Lib Dem constituency chairs . And not even all the chairs, just the 63 with Lib Dem MPs. And they only got 46 replies:

HUGHES - 8
HUHNE - 18
CAMPBELL - 19
NOT SURE, EITHER HUHNE OR CAMPBELL -1

NO RESPONSE - 17

However it does illustrate one point. Ming has the declared support of 31 Lib Dem MPs. But it seems likely that many of those MPs have constituency chairs who are voting for Chris.

Anyway, this might be my last post about the leadership election until we get the result. Time to move on to other things...

In honour of Ben Franklin

Jonathan Calder and Nick Barlow both quote Benjamin Franklin today. He is one of my historical heroes . Of all the statesmen and scientists that I've ever heard of, he's one of the ones I'd like brought forward in a time machine and elected onto our local council.

If you are interested in the great man, my favourite search engine Clusty has a special Ben Franklin portal

"a comprehensive, one-stop site that includes carefully curated educational resources, Franklin's own writings and proverbs, and tens of thousands of websites scattered throughout cyberspace. Befitting this founding father's leadership in establishing the country's first public library, this free site, in honor of his Tercentenary, is accessible to anyone with an internet connection."





CORRECTION: Jonathan didn't quote Ben Franklin today, however Nick linked to something that Jonathan had written about liberty and then Nick quoted Ben Franklin. Sorry for the error! However both quoted Shirley Williams. And having listened to her on Desert Island Discs recently - an absolute delight - I'd probably have her on my all-time council as well. Hmmm, better stop now before I drift into Dr Who territory.

J. frowned and turned down the radio. “The last time this happened,” she said, “the area was raided.

I've been feeling guilty over the last few days - too busy with family, work and ward issues to do any blogging.

In particular, I've not had time to properly respond to those posts with titles like "1001 things I don't like about Huhne now that he's ahead of my candidate in the leadership race" and "Chris Huhne is too dull to be a Prime Minister , unlike uh, John Major or uh, Gordon Brown"

But I've been thinking about Chris' comments in the Question Time debate last week. They were something on the lines of 'In Iraq we are seen by the population as part of the problem, not part of the solution'. A week ago I wasn't quite convinced by what he was saying. But now his comments seem quite prescient in the light of the past few days' disclosures.

I don't have any answers. But for a reminder of what life is like right now in Baghdad, please, please read this from Baghdad Burning.

Tragedies

It was a bad day for 78 year old Harry Whittington when he was shot last Saturday by Vice-President Cheney in a hunting accident. At least the poor chap is still alive, even after a consequent heart attack. There's an element of farce here.

However while surfing, I stumbled across a couple of truly tragic events.

Back in August, my very first post was about the little town of Galion , Ohio (pop 11341) which had massive financial problems after it's finance director had embezzled some of the town's cash. He tried to commit suicide by shooting himself in the head, but survived, blind.

I thought I'd do a Clusty search for Galion and see how the town was managing...

I found this

GALION FEB 14TH - The death of a 10-year-old boy found shot inside his home Wednesday was a suicide, a coroner ruled Monday.

Alexander Stone, 465 Wine St., died of a gunshot wound to the head, Franklin County Coroner Dr. Bradley Lewis said. A preliminary autopsy was completed this weekend.

Matt Stone, the boy's father, said his son was a sensitive child who had recently been having trouble in school.

and from three weeks earlier, this:

A 16-year-old boy who accidentally shot and killed his girlfriend was charged today with a delinquency count of reckless homicide.

Crawford County prosecutors did not release the boy's name today.

Mount Gilead teen Lindsey Sligar, 17, was shot to death at her boyfriend's Galion home yesterday.
Valerie Sligar, Lindsey's mother, said today that her daughter was a senior at Northmor High School getting ready to graduate.

"She was working so hard," Sligar said of her daughter. `She didn't deserve to die." Lindsey was pronounced dead at Galion Community Hospital at 6:20 p.m. yesterday, about 80 minutes after authorities received a 911 call from the home.

"It looks like horseplay in the bedroom," police Chief Brian Saterfield said.
Police recovered a .380 semiautomatic handgun.

Sometimes, life can be unbearably cruel. And Galion seems like the archetypal American small town - "Big Town Close, Small Town Cozy"

A bit more work needed on the dark horse's profile.

The Lib Dems in our little corner of Essex are fairly well split between the three candidates, although I'm pleased to say that Chris seems to have the most first preferences.

I was perturbed however , by a friend who told me that he'd given first preference to Ming Campbell and second preference to Geoff Hoon.

The Futures's Bright - Picking the best candidate rather than the least worst

Over at Inner West, Simon Mollan writes:

So now that Oaten has bitten the dust, Hughes has imploded, and prostrated, and Huhne’s moose has been hollering, there is only one candidate now worth considering: Ming Campbell.

Actually , I disagree. Although I'm sticking with Chris as first choice, I think we still have three candidates worth considering.

Ming looks a better leader than he did a month ago, and certainly will be stronger for being elected rather than for being crowned. Simon may have imploded, but is recovering better than I expected, and performed best last night. I would still be nervous about Simon being leader, but when talking to residents I've noticed he sometimes gets support and sympathy from unexpected quarters.

Chris did look a bit too smug at times, but looked much better once he became more passionate. I think he would do better up against another party , rather than with other Lib Dems. I'd love to see him in a debate with Gordon Brown... and I don't see him floundering over tax policies at press conferences in the next general election campaign.

Calling him looking smug may be a little unfair. He's run a campaign that has taken him from invisibly dark horse to apparent frontrunner. If I was in his shoes, walking into that debate ahead in the latest opinion poll (however uncertain those figures may be), I think I'd have a slightly odd expression on my face. Consider how Ming did so badly at his first PMQs... Chris has run the best of the three / four campaigns, which should be a factor taken into account when deciding how to vote.

As the campaign has gone on, I think we are looking better and better as a party. The three of them together looked pretty impressive. A more convincing threesome than Blair, Prescott and Brown. And after Dunfermline...

Hint to Ming re Prime Minister's Questions

You know that cheap jibe he made at you at your first PMQs about "failing organisations".

Any chance of reminding him about that next Wednesday?

The Government - an enemy of localism

So the goverment is getting closer to scrapping district councils , and maybe cancelling the 2007 elections.

So far, so expected. It follows the trend of combining the police into superforces, and amalgamating Primary Care Trusts.

Serving on a council that is forced by central government to be one of the lowest spenders per person in the country, I don't need to hear any preaching from Labour on how to cut costs. Our residents don't ask me for council reorganisation. But many of them are grateful that our council is small and local.

Seems a good issue for the new leader to campaign on, whoever he will be!

Localism is going to be an important campaigning issue for the party.