After another tiring week - busy at work, not least because of the changes in government, governors and council meetings -a tiring 'weekend away' so far.
A pleasant enough train journey to Cornwall on Friday afternoon, slightly spoiled by having work to do on the way. Then a little bit of campaigning with Steve before working on his hustings speech until late at night.
Steve is my former Fortis Green ward colleague from his few years in London before going home to Cornwall. He is hoping to be selected as the Lib Dem Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the new constituency of St.Austell and Newquay.
This morning the first hustings were in St.Austell and we have just finished the second (and final) hustings in Newquay. The turnout from members has been very impressive and the debates have been excellent. The other two candidates are both clearly very good too, so I'm confident we will win the seat at the next election.
The only downside is that, due to the postal strike, the count is being delayed until Wednesday - so the three candidates have some restless nights ahead.
But it does mean the 'work' is over for the weekend and it's time to enjoy a Cornish pint.
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Tuesday, 26 June 2007
Conservative MP brands David Cameron "superficial and unreliable"
Well, Gordon Brown must be smiling this afternoon. Quentin Davies, a Conservative MP since 1987, has defected to Labour.
And in his resignation letter he has been devastating in his criticism of David Cameron.
"The MP for Grantham & Stamford declared that under Mr Cameronthe party "appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything or to stand for anything".
He complained Mr Cameron's "sense of mission" amounted to no more than a "PR agenda".
Mr Davies made public his letter of resignation to his ex-party leader,
which stated: "Under your leadership the Conservative party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything.
"It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has
been replaced by a PR agenda.
"Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative party to achieve.
"The Conservatives are either wrong - on the NHS, on nuclear power, on Europe, on many things - or they simply do not know what they want or what they believe."
He is no doubt just saying what a lot of people are thinking about the New Conservatives drive to merge seamlessly into the spin of New Labour. But I would also add that it seems extraordinary he has managed to serve under the array of dire leaders the Tories have picked over the last decade and actually finds Cameron the worst!
And in his resignation letter he has been devastating in his criticism of David Cameron.
"The MP for Grantham & Stamford declared that under Mr Cameronthe party "appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything or to stand for anything".
He complained Mr Cameron's "sense of mission" amounted to no more than a "PR agenda".
Mr Davies made public his letter of resignation to his ex-party leader,
which stated: "Under your leadership the Conservative party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything.
"It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has
been replaced by a PR agenda.
"Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative party to achieve.
"The Conservatives are either wrong - on the NHS, on nuclear power, on Europe, on many things - or they simply do not know what they want or what they believe."
He is no doubt just saying what a lot of people are thinking about the New Conservatives drive to merge seamlessly into the spin of New Labour. But I would also add that it seems extraordinary he has managed to serve under the array of dire leaders the Tories have picked over the last decade and actually finds Cameron the worst!
Friday, 22 June 2007
The Good The Bad And The Queen
Just a very short post...
Damon Albarn has always been a bit of a hero of mine and I'm going to see The Good The Bad And The Queen on Monday July 9th at the Tower of London. I've ended up with one of my four tickets going spare though. It's a standing ticket, so can just go with any other friends you might have going. Drop me an email (as at top of the page) if you want to buy it.
Well, if I can't use my own blog to "advertise"...
Damon Albarn has always been a bit of a hero of mine and I'm going to see The Good The Bad And The Queen on Monday July 9th at the Tower of London. I've ended up with one of my four tickets going spare though. It's a standing ticket, so can just go with any other friends you might have going. Drop me an email (as at top of the page) if you want to buy it.
Well, if I can't use my own blog to "advertise"...
Wednesday, 20 June 2007
Just do it
As there is currently a meeting (political, rather than religious) taking place in my lounge, it seemed apt that someone has just sent me this photo as part of an email of amusing signs.
Breast is best
Why?
You can see what I'm on about here.
I haven't (knowingly) bought any Nestlé products for about 10 years. And although I don't drink coffee, giving up Smarties and Kit Kats was tough. They're such a massive company it's difficult to make sure you avoid everything they have a finger in - including L'Oreal (and so now The Body Shop too), but worth the effort.
The various Nestlé boycott groups like Baby Milk Action have designated the 2nd to 8th July as International Nestlé-Free Week - so if you think the issue is important, please at least consider giving up the Kit Kats for that week.
I got Nestlé products banned from my students' union at Durham - even down to the catering supplies and all vending machines, not just the shop. I'm going back there for a reunion in September, so I'll see if the boycott is still holding strong or not...
You can sign up here to support the boycott.
You can see what I'm on about here.
I haven't (knowingly) bought any Nestlé products for about 10 years. And although I don't drink coffee, giving up Smarties and Kit Kats was tough. They're such a massive company it's difficult to make sure you avoid everything they have a finger in - including L'Oreal (and so now The Body Shop too), but worth the effort.
The various Nestlé boycott groups like Baby Milk Action have designated the 2nd to 8th July as International Nestlé-Free Week - so if you think the issue is important, please at least consider giving up the Kit Kats for that week.
I got Nestlé products banned from my students' union at Durham - even down to the catering supplies and all vending machines, not just the shop. I'm going back there for a reunion in September, so I'll see if the boycott is still holding strong or not...
You can sign up here to support the boycott.
Piara Khabra MP
Just heard that the oldest MP, Piara Khabra (Labour, Ealing Southall) has died, at the age of 82.
My sympathy to his family and friends.
My sympathy to his family and friends.
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Stella and Sasha
Busy, busy, busy - again.
Work is pretty insane at the moment, so just haven't had a chance to blog. What else has been keeping me busy? Well, had a governors meeting last Wednesday evening (will be blogging about that in detail when I get the chance). My sister had her baby on Saturday, so I am now uncle to four (count 'em, four) nieces. Sasha is Tamsin's new little sister.
There's also been more work, working at weekends, a bit of council (a fair amount of casework). And as my parents were down to see baby Sasha, they came to Muswell Hill for a Father's Day dinner on Sunday night.
The little respite over the last week was a day at the Stella Artois - sorry, just the Artois Championships now. Went on Thursday and during the sunshine saw a couple of good matches. Attaching a photo of Marat Safin serving (although he lost his match) and Tim Henman and Lleyton Hewitt playing doubles together.
Anyway, there has been some interesting stuff going on, but I just haven't had time to write about it and just too tired now. Maybe normal service will be resumed, blogging-wise in the next week or so when things (hopefully) quieten down a little.
Work is pretty insane at the moment, so just haven't had a chance to blog. What else has been keeping me busy? Well, had a governors meeting last Wednesday evening (will be blogging about that in detail when I get the chance). My sister had her baby on Saturday, so I am now uncle to four (count 'em, four) nieces. Sasha is Tamsin's new little sister.
There's also been more work, working at weekends, a bit of council (a fair amount of casework). And as my parents were down to see baby Sasha, they came to Muswell Hill for a Father's Day dinner on Sunday night.
The little respite over the last week was a day at the Stella Artois - sorry, just the Artois Championships now. Went on Thursday and during the sunshine saw a couple of good matches. Attaching a photo of Marat Safin serving (although he lost his match) and Tim Henman and Lleyton Hewitt playing doubles together.
Anyway, there has been some interesting stuff going on, but I just haven't had time to write about it and just too tired now. Maybe normal service will be resumed, blogging-wise in the next week or so when things (hopefully) quieten down a little.
Wednesday, 13 June 2007
Who will Labour try next to sort out the NHS?
Belatedly spotted this post on a Labour colleague's blog. Alan was the Chief Whip of the Haringey Labour group last year.
Alan and I can certainly have a rare moment of agreement on some of his post:
I don't think anyone is expecting Hewitt to keep her job when Gordon takes over. But who will be the next Labour Secretary of State for Health?
And, Alan, if you're reading, hope Rhodes was good.
Alan and I can certainly have a rare moment of agreement on some of his post:
Patricia Hewitt survived an effective vote of no confidence the other evening in the House of Commons after a debate brought forward by Tory MPs over hr handling of the NHS.
Now, I'm finding this quite difficult, but perhaps if MPs had voted her out my Labour Government may finally have woken up to see the mess and chaos that the NHS is in. Staff morale gets lower every day. The wonderful PFI schemes are failing, new wards close almost as quickly as they open. Hopsital Trusts are expected to balance the books and by this force staff to be redeployed in the hope of avoiding paying out redundancy payments and lay off Doctors and Nurses, whilst expecting those that remain in the NHS to work longer hours.
I don't think anyone is expecting Hewitt to keep her job when Gordon takes over. But who will be the next Labour Secretary of State for Health?
And, Alan, if you're reading, hope Rhodes was good.
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Excuses, dull tennis, catching up and cheekiness
I've managed to not get around to blogging for over a week - easily the longest gap since I started last December. Ooops. And while I've been neglecting it, the counter has crawled past the 10,000 visitors mark nonetheless.Just been a very busy week or so, especially mad at work. Also spent a couple of days in Manchester on a training course last week, had a few council meetings and other stuff going on, then went to Paris over the weekend. Was at the French Open final - but the disappointing, dull ladies final, not the men's which would have been rather better. Also went to Stade de France to soak up the pre rugby final atmosphere, before watching that match in the pub - I'm not a big rugby fan, but was a good match and the Stade fans certainly enjoyed it.
Last night went to Parliament for the first time for ages, for a drink with Julia - who I used to work with when I was researcher for Ed Davey and she was researcher for Matthew Taylor. Of course, now she's an MP we don't have to try and bluff our way onto the terrace for drinks, just wander on and enjoy the view (though, as you can see from the photo, it was pretty overcast Monday evening). Also bumped into Lembit, who we used to share an office with when I worked for Ed - and even met a certain Cheeky Girl. She seemed lovely, by the way.
Well, I hardly ever mention MPs on my blog, but I think I made up for it in that paragraph.
Right, I'm going to try and get back to updating this regularly, but with more meetings (including an important one at Fortismere tomorrow) this week and my sister expecting her baby at the weekend, I'm not making any promises!
Sunday, 3 June 2007
Mini crocs
I blogged a little while ago about crocs, having seen them on the Ward Walkers stand at RCN Congress.
My brother-in-law's parents have just got back from America, where they bought little Tamsin a little pair of her own. I don't think they were inspired to get them by reading my blog though.
Tamsin and my sister are both asleep at the moment, and Chris is out shopping. Which has given me a bit of time to do some council work - now onto some work for my job. What an exciting Sunday, eh?
Friday, 1 June 2007
Lib Dem GLA candidates for 2008 announced
Tonight was the count (electronic, no less) for the Lib Dem list of candidates for the GLA elections next year.
Wasn't at the count, as had a meeting of Overview & Scrutiny - where we decided that I will be chairing a review of the Council's Neighbourhood Management function... I'll talk more about that another time...
Also had a leadership group meeting after that, so busy night. But the good news is that Monica (whose campaign I was managing) got selected for the list, in 10th place out of the 22 candidates.
The candidates standing for us next year will be:
1 Mike Tuffrey
2 Dee Doocey
3 Caroline Pidgeon
4 Jeremy Ambache
5 Geoff Pope
6 Ben Abbotts
7 Stephen Knight
8 Shas Sheehan
9 Duncan Borrowman
10 Monica Whyte
11 Merlene Emerson
The 14 constituencies that make up the rest of the 25 member GLA are at different stages of selecting their individual candidates. At the last election in 2004, London elected 5 Lib Dem GLA members - all from the list, but we have very good prospects in a couple of constituency seats this time too.
Three of our five existing GLA members are standing again and have made positions 1, 2 and 5 on the list. Monica is actually the only candidate on the list from North London, which is a shame, as is the minimal representation of ethnic minorities - but I know at least something of all the candidates on the list and believe any one of them would make an excellent GLA member for us.
Wasn't at the count, as had a meeting of Overview & Scrutiny - where we decided that I will be chairing a review of the Council's Neighbourhood Management function... I'll talk more about that another time...
Also had a leadership group meeting after that, so busy night. But the good news is that Monica (whose campaign I was managing) got selected for the list, in 10th place out of the 22 candidates.
The candidates standing for us next year will be:
1 Mike Tuffrey
2 Dee Doocey
3 Caroline Pidgeon
4 Jeremy Ambache
5 Geoff Pope
6 Ben Abbotts
7 Stephen Knight
8 Shas Sheehan
9 Duncan Borrowman
10 Monica Whyte
11 Merlene Emerson
The 14 constituencies that make up the rest of the 25 member GLA are at different stages of selecting their individual candidates. At the last election in 2004, London elected 5 Lib Dem GLA members - all from the list, but we have very good prospects in a couple of constituency seats this time too.
Three of our five existing GLA members are standing again and have made positions 1, 2 and 5 on the list. Monica is actually the only candidate on the list from North London, which is a shame, as is the minimal representation of ethnic minorities - but I know at least something of all the candidates on the list and believe any one of them would make an excellent GLA member for us.
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