Photos from Liverpool

These are some of the 1200 photos I took over the weekend at Liverpool. Fortunately I have extracted only a handful for the blog!

• Lynne Featherstone starring in the new Lib Dem L'Oreal advert - because she's worth it!
• Inside the new conference centre


• What is Chris Huhne eating?


• A bunch of members from the North East make merry in the glee club


• two views of the outside of the new conference centre


• Nick Clegg after his speech at the end of conference


• Vince Cable doing his stand up comedy star turn


• Nick Clegg speaking at the rally


• Sarah Teather introducing the speakers at the rally

More exclusive photos - this time from Downing Street

A week couldn't go by without some exclusive photos from yours truely. I headed off to Downing St today to do the photos for the handing in of the Lib Dem petition against post office closures. We had to go through all sorts of security checks last week to be on the list of those allowed in. Anyway, here are the pics, complete with Sarah Teather, Brian Paddick, Colin Eldridge (from Liverpool) and a variety of Lib Dem MPs and campaigners.

The Monday morning train blog

I was rather surprised by the number of people at conference who told me they read my blog and one of the more popular posts is the one I do from the train on Monday mornings on the way to London. As I came down to London yesterday, straight from Liverpool conference, this post is being written as I wait for the delayed train to Victoria - which I can now see approaching!

Temporary interruption whilst I get on train.....

I have to confess that I followed very few of the debates at conference. Instead, I had to cover about 10 events on Saturday for camera duty. Sunday morning saw me hidden away in our office as I uploaded over 1000 photos to my laptop. I was however, in the hall for Nick's speech - there were actually 4 of us (me, Alex, Dave and Jayne) doing the photos so if we aint got anything usable between us, then something has gone badly wrong! One of the jobs I have to do today is to sort all the photos and get them into circulation!

And now news from the home front: Freda, our 19 year old cat, has returned from a visit to the vet and is reported to be in fine health; our seed potatos have arrived; the base for our greenhouse arrives on Tuesday. Well, it doesn't get more exciting than that!

Meanwhile, there is predicted to be a jam famine in Cowley St during this week. As I haven't been home, the Cowley St fridge can't be restocked. Tough....



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Elbows at the ready

Having just done the photos at the Nick Clegg speech, I now find myself in similar physical circumstances. In other words, I am on the train heading out of Liverpool. Doing leader's speech photos requires camera and elbows. Getting on the train and claiming one's seat simply requires elbows. The problem is, the person next to me is all elbows and laptop. On a crowded train, this person is typing away, elbows pointing out, virtually pushing me off my seat. And this guy is double the width he needs to be as he is wearing a heavily padded coat. It is already a hot train.

Anyway, he has not yet taken the physical hint of having his elbow jabbed back at him. I may have words, polite of course. There may be trouble ahead......

And as I write that, Mr Padded Coat has just put his laptop away. I will blog if he suffers from heat exhaustion before the end of the journey.

Talking of Nick Clegg photos as I was earlier, I did a photo op with key seat candidates and Nick yesterday. There is a nack to doing photo ops and getting everyone through on time. Basically, it involves my shouting, instructing, pushing and cajoling. Nick's comment about me whilst I was busy moving candidates around was definitely meant as a compliment......I think!

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Lots of Virgin bodies

I am on the train now, heading to Liverpool for the March Lib Dem jamboree. I'm really looking forward to the late nights, the fatty full cooked hotel breakfasts, the crush to get served at the bar and the delights of the sing-song Saturday night in the glee club.

The train we are on is courtesy of Virgin. Travelling to conference is one of those unmissable delights. Packed in, all those heaving Virgin bodies filling every nook and cranny of the carriage. To get to the buffet car, you have to endure a human obstacle course. I eventually made it and made the return to my seat as well.

Having just munched through a pack of Walkers cheese and onion crisps, I discovered a note on the back of the pack. It tells me it created 106g of carbon to produce a mere 50g of crisps. I think I am going to add crisps to the list of things not to eat! Fortunately I rarely eat the things anyway.

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Third of a million viewings

I checked my YouTube account just before leaving the office. My videos have now had a third of a million viewings. Next milestone - half a million. I reckon I should be there in about 5 months' time.
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Euro-bores and mad elephants threatening Camp Cameron

The Tory Euro wild bores have largely been coralled into a small corner behind barbed wire and armed guards ever since of Cameron took over the Tory game reserve as park keeper two years ago. Back in the 90s, these Euro bores had been running free all over the reserve, wrecking everything in sight. They had to be controlled and tamed or else the whole park would die off.

But then, Head Park Keeper Cameron came up with the bright idea of opening the gates of the Euro-bore cage to let the occupants loose. The idea was that the Euro-bores would stampede into Labour and Lib Dem reservations and allow this wily park keeper to grab some extra land.

It seems as though there are a few wild bull elephants in with the Euro-bores as well. They never forget, especially if it's a tedious fact about some obscure clause of some unknow Euro regulation.

The Euro-bores and the mad bull elephant of the Tory party are now free to rampage across the Commons agenda, crashing into everything in sight. Cameron may think he is reflecting the majority view of the people that a referendum should be held, but he will rapidly lose what little interest people have by allowing the Euro-bores to make the running.

But once the Treaty has passed through Parliament, what then? The Euro-bores have been freed from captivity. They have tasted freedom and they have enjoyed it. You can see them licking their lips. They have feasted on Euro hysteria, and they will want more. Cameron may have spent two years trying to show that the Conservatives have changed and are no longer obsessed with issues like Europe. All that hard work could be lost.

Soon those mad marauding wild elephants and bores are going to come crashing through into the Cameron safari camp and wreck his carefully constructed and arranged big tent (only one previous owner).

The Euro-bores are set to trample all over Cameron. He set them free. And they will be heading his way soon. He will have to spend a lot of time trying to round them up to get them back into their cages. But they won't go willingly. Watch out for spilt blood ahead. Or watch out as he is forced to throw then more red meat.

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Cowley St can eat toast

I blogged last week on the train to London about the Cowley St cake that David had made for my colleagues. Well, my generosity does know its bounds. No more cake, not today at least. Instead, I have a bag with me that is filled with homemade jams. This will be enough to keep colleagues in jam until tomorrow, and a few more days besides.

I found a lemon in the bag this morning. David put it in. This is probably a needless extra weight in my baggage as the last time I checked, lemons were on sale in London. The background however is a small lifestyle change I have made. As well as giving up meat during the week, for environmental reasons (meat production is wasteful and environmentally damaging), I am now into the second week of a new tea drinking regime: no milk. In Cowley St last week, I was having my tea neat. David added lemon over the weekend.

Later this year I will be experimenting with locally grown alternatives to tea. Nettles will be the first to suffer a massacre in pursuit of this lifestyle change! Then I'll be trying elderflower, then raspberries and other fruits. Part of our strawberry crop will be consumed in this way. I will no doubt be blogging on whether the new liquid intake habit has been a success or a disaster.

Talking of blogging, my ninth event to photograph at conference next weekend is now in my diary. The Gender Balance Taskforce has asked me to take pictures at their blog awards. A free glass of wine was offered to encourage my cooperation in this matter. I know my price! For a second glass of wine, I'll do the video as well!


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So much for National Express booking system

I am not impressed with the on line booking system for tickets on National Express trains. The website allows passengers to book types of seats on their trains. I always book airline window seats. Having just got on the 12 minutes late 9pm train from KX to Newcastle, I find I am on a table seat. This is not the first time the National Express system has screwed me up.

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Well done Marks and Spencer

In the dim and distant past I was a manager with Marks and Spencer. I didn't get very high up in the chain of command before I moved on to work elsewhere, but it looks good on a CV!

I was reminded of my past employers when I woke up to the news from GMTV (not my favourite programme but someone has to watch it!) M and S, it was announced, are to charge 5p per carrier bag in their stores.

Putting aside all the memos we had from M and S HQ when I worked for them, calling on staff to discourage excessive use of carrier bags (to save on costs), this move by the company is to be welcomed. The move is designed, at least in public, as an environmental policy and if, as I hope it will, it leads to far fewer carrier bags being used only once and then dumped, that is an important step forward.

There are of course business benefits as well. Carrier bags are an overhead for retailers. Reducing such overleads increases profitability of the business. I'm sure M and S shareholders, ahem, will welcome that!

So hopefully this will turn into an example of how environmental good practice can make profitable commercial good sense as well.

Another feature on GMTV today was about bottled water. This stuff is hugely environmentally damaging. Tap water is fine to drink. It has to be. That is a regulatory requirement. Tap water is also locally sourced. Bottled water is hugely environmentally damaging, is shipped often from thousands of miles away, and produced a huge amount of waste packaging in the form of plastic or glass bottles, which themselves took up vast quantities of resources to make.

British tap water is amongst the best in the world. It's so good, what we use to flush the loo is good enough to drink!

So start using tap water for drinking and stop being ripped off for overpriced, environmentally damaging and unnecessary bottled water!

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I'm on camera duty at conference

I notice that Stephen Tall on Lib Dem Voice has dubbed me words to the effect of the "Hello" magazine photographer of the Lib Dem blogosphere. This proved to be not quite the Tall story it could otherwise have been, after today, that is.

My original planning for spring conference scheduled in two photo ops for candidates and campaigners. That got bumped up to three following a request by the Campaigns Dept. Then after discussions with the Leader's office, the number of photo ops went up to 4. All of these are scheduled for Saturday 8th March.

Then a couple of weeks ago, when I was working at home, Conference Office called me to ask me to photograph a reception and the rally on the Friday evening, 7th March.

Then today, I found I am covering, at least in part, the Leader's tour of the exhibition area. And for good measure, Deidre, who edits Lib Dem News, arrived at my desk this afternoon and booked me in to cover much of what was left of conference!

The power of photographs! So memo to self: remember to take camera recharger and back up batteries!

And watch out Stephen, more exclusive Hello style photos coming your way in the near future!

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Breakneck speed up Victoria Street

I left it rather tight, leaving Cowley St tonight. I left briefcase, cameras etc in the office but took with me a reused carrier bag containing an envelope of press cuttings - sorting them is my job for tonight - 2 novels by Harry Turtledove and 2 empty cava bottles I need for champagne making.

As I got to Victoria St, I realised that to get the 8.17pm train, I had to run at breakneck speed. Overcoat unbuttoned and shoes clattering along the pavement sounding like clogs, I managed to get to the train station with a minute to spare.

Then I remembered the train was at 8.22, not 8.17. And it was late. Bloody typical.

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Let Cowley St cake eat cake

Well, it's my usual Monday morning blog from the train. So after a weekend of writing, printing and delivering Focuses, visiting constituents and hedge trimming on the allotment, what can I report? For Cowley St colleagues I have great news! You will be eating cake!

For the uninitiated, here's the story about what happened. In the new openplan office into which the Communications team was moved a couple of months ago, office conversations and chitchat now involve a larger number of people than previously. So during a discussion last week, involving the use of my now famous (for HQ staff) jam, I inadvertently suggested we could do with one of the chocolate and banana cakes that David occasionally makes. Following some extreme pressure from colleagues (three polite requests and the bribe of a mug of tea) I agreed to volunteer David's cookery services for the benefit of colleagues.

So the cake is currently sitting in a box on the rack above my head here on the train. My best guess is that it won't last longer that lunchtime. So, to colleagues, get the plates ready! See you in a few hours.

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Give children cheap sweets – Labour MP

This has to be a classic gaff from the ranks of Labour’s backbenchers. Step forward Sharon Hodgson MP, recently dumped by Labour as their candidate for Gateshead constituency.

Last year, Sharon had a good idea. Clearly, this was an historic event in its own right so I made a note of her grand plan and, I have to confess, I did rather like it, even if the cost of it is sky high.

Her proposal was to give all school children healthy, free school meals in a bid to tackle obesity and poor health. There is a “need to tackle obesity, promote skills and change lifestyles” she told the Commons on 13th November.

I wouldn’t go as far as pouring scorn on the parents who fed pizza to their kids as she did but her point about poor diet was a reasonable one. Sharon, nevertheless, was clearly on a crusade. As she wrote in politics.co.uk, “I see it as part of my responsibility as an elected representative to promote policies which could benefit children's health…”

So I find it rather strange that having promoted healthy diets, she’s now whinging about the price of sweets and confectionery being too high. Okay, her attack is about the price paid when visiting cinemas, but how she squares her call for cheap sweets with her previous call for healthy lifestyles for children is something I definitely want to see.

Sugary Sharon has proposed an early day motion which attacks the cimema chains for charging too much for the sweets, pop corn, ice creams, pizzas, cokes and other foods and drinks that no one going to the cinema is forced to buy. EDM 983 goes on to put the boot in to the cinemas for having the effrontery to remove people who have brought along their own healthy alternative of teeth rotting sweets and cola.

So, in a matter of 3 months, Sharon has swung from Fight-the-Flab Crusader to Marie-Antoinette Let-Them-Eat-Cake (and sweets and cola) guerilla fighter. I suspect she has been eating too many of those sweets the House of Commons shop sells. What are they called? Let me think…..oh yes, I remember, Parliamentary Humbugs!

By the way Sugary Sharon, what is your next crusade going to be about? How about this? Look at all those restaurants charging a fair whack for a bottle of wine. Why not have a campaign to force lower prices!? Or you could attack restaurants for refusing to let people bring their own wine. In fact, Sugary Sharon, go the whole hog, and attack restaurants for not letting people bring in their own food as well!

I doubt however that Sugary Sharon will be eating much at the moment. With both feet in her mouth, I doubt there will be room for anything else!

Inky fingers

I have just got back from the Blaydon constituency Lib Dem office having just printed 2 leaflets for a nearby local party and two for Blaydon constituency, one of which is for my own ward! Blessedly free of printing hitches so I am back earlier than expected, despite a queue for the machine. Cllr Chris Ord was there when I got to the office printing his own ward focus. Still, despite the hitch free evening, I still manage to come back with ink stains on my fingers that no effort of scrubbing will remove. Past experience suggests they will be gone by Wednesday.

So I am back at the pc now, a glass of apple brandy next to me to help the evening go easier and a Frank Sinatra CD playing in the background. This of course means that I am writing more Focus leaflets, and perhaps I will edit a few more videos after dinner.

But back to the grind now....

BTW - when I blogged a couple of weeks ago that I had just finished a delivery in a target ward, a political opponent posted up a comment asking me which ward I had been working in. Not unexpectedly, I replied that he could ask but otherwise wouldn't get the information he was seeking. After all, I know this blog is read by two Labour MPs, a splattering of Labour members, some people of unsavoury political leanings (at least to my point of view) and, on at least one occasion, a Tory shadow cabinet member (don't ask me how I know that!)

So for your edification, I was out again today in a target ward in Gateshead this afternoon, delivering a survey. You can ask which ward it was. The clue is, it's somewhere in Gateshead. And that's all you're getting.....

When "hostility" to nationalisation means being in favour of it

Another day goes by. And so does another posture from David Anderson, the "working class" former Unison big knob who now trots about Westminster as Labour MP for Blaydon.

Mr Anderson was a fan of nationalisation. Rail, coal, utilities, and plenty of others I can mention and he's called for them to be nationalised in the past.

On 19th November last year, he praised Unison members for "taking action in opposition to privatisation, marketisation and cuts in our public services". Then later the same day he laid into the Liberal Democrats who were by then supporting nationalisation of Northern Rock.

On 12th December he voted against nationalisation of the bank. Let's be charitable and describe his speech as erratic and his claims as unusual on that day. Nevertheless, he put the boot into the government, claiming:

I have a very different ideological view from that of my party's Front Benchers: their view is that public ownership is a good thing and we should have more of it.

Well, that's pretty clear to me. He thinks the government is too much in favour of public ownership. So any attempt to nationalise Northern Rock, clearly ran counter to the heartfelt beliefs of Dave New Labour New Capitalist Anderson. His views may have been different to those he had in the morning but perhaps he simply saw the error of his ways over lunch.

So, in the morning he is for public ownership, in the afternoon he is hostile to it.

Mr Anderson however had spun around yet again by February. Now he's in favour of nationalising Northern Rock after all. Well, at least that's what we assume as he voted for it earlier this week.

He has, however, kept very quiet about this. Nothing on his website about his double u-turn. No public statements. No deeply forensic and analytical Commons speeches about the structural weaknesses of the financial services sector. No, this time he is keeping his head down.

But where's the fun in that? So come on Dave, say something and keep us entertained!

Hold on, what's this!? Just arrived - an email from a worker in Mr Anderson's office. This email is to Peter Maughan, Lib Dem candidate in Blaydon. Peter emailed Capitalist Dave on Sunday to urge him to overcome his hostility to nationalising Northern Rock and to back taking it into temporary public ownership. Here's the reply:

I can confirm that he [Mr Anderson] supported the Government's actions re Northern Rock. Contrary to your comments he was not "hostile" to nationalisation in December but was determined that every avenue should be explored before taking such action.

Funny way to show he was not hostile! I guess we are now back to Socialist Dave.

Brian Paddick in marathon running gear - exclusive photos

I did some photos and video for the Brian Paddick campaign yesterday. He's running the London Marathon and was out training - and challenging Ken and Boris to do the Marathon as well! So here are a few of the pics.

What will be more entertaining?

Having just got onto my (late) train to London, I can now contemplate the day ahead. The same journey to Westminster will be made by Labour MPs who, up til yesterday were vociferously arguing that public ownership of Northern Rock would spell the end of western civilisation as we know it. But today is a different day. So today they will argue something else, probably something along the lines of "nationalising Northern Rock will save western civilisation etc". As I said yesterday, it will be quite an experience watching these non entities eating humble pie as they try to tell everyone that when they said they were completely, absolutely, irrevocably against nationalising Northern Rock, that was clearly a message they were all in favour. Next time you hear a Labour whinger falsely claiming Lib Dems duplicity, just point the drooling Labour hypocrite in the direction of Northern Rock.

The second entertaining story we will experience today will be the court drama of the Diana inquest. Muhammed Al Fiyed will be giving "evidence" to back up his fantasies that Diana was bumped off by MI6 on the orders of the Duke of Edinburgh. As far as conspiracy theories goes, this rates alongside the claims that the moon landings were fake, the Titanic was never sunk (didn't you know it was a damaged sister ship, the Olympic, that was sent to the bottom to claim the insurance!?) and 9/11 was a plot by the CIA.

So much entertainment coming up today!

Anyway, my arms are feeling a bit strained after spending 4 hours in the allotment over the weekend. So, as usual, wake me up when I get to London.

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Hitting the Rocks - the inevitable decision to nationalise

After months of indecision, fed by their fear about their own past, the government has bowed to the inevitable and has announced that Northern Rock will, after all, be taken into public ownership.

The dithering over this has been incredible. The struggle by Brown and Darling to find an alternative to public ownership was doomed from the start. The writing on Northern Rock was all over the wall in the autumn. The Chancellor and Prime Minister could read it but still they chose to ignore it. This is a government that is suffering from creeping paralysis.

But what about all those backwoods (deadwood?) Labour MPs from the North East who put on a veritable display of histrionics in November and December in which they laid into the whole idea of nationalising the Rock?

Watch them eat humble pie over the next few days. No doubt they will need lashings of Brown sauce to hide its bitter taste.

Celebrating in the Cowley St Campaigns Dept - exclusive photos

Okay, not a celebration of the recent well-deserved thrashing of Labour in the Leyton by-election, but a knees up for Sarah Morris who has just completed 10 years working for Cowley Street. Meanwhile, youngster Andrew Reeves, the man behind Brian Paddick's campaign, was beginning life as a 40 year old. Long time to go before I reach that milestone (not!). Anyway, inevitably I was on hand to take the exclusive photos. Here are the carefully censored ones.

A good media day

Just back from doing Tyne Tees TV about the Angel of the North, from the site itself. I had a look at the video when I got home. It seemed to go okay. Just listening to the Radio Newcastle article about the Angel. I recorded a bit for it last Friday.

It has been quite a successful media day. I had a 2 page spread in the Evening Chronicle with the photos I took of the Get Carter car park. And I also had a bit about it in the Journal this morning. Meanwhile one of my press releases got Peter Maughan, our Parliamentary candidate for Blaydon, on the front page of the local free newspaper. And our regional Sunday tabloid, Sunday Sun, has interviewed me about eco towns and wants to take a photo of me at one of the suggested sites.

Photos to the press

I am on the train heading back to Newcastle having spent some time this afternoon emailing some of the photos I took of the "Get Carter" car park last Friday. I sent out a news release last night about the video I filmed. The result was a phone call at lunchtime from the Evening Chronicle, our regional newspaper, who were interested in the photos as well. I'm hoping they'll carry some of them soon.

I am heading home early as I am doing a live interview with Tyne Tees TV for the evening regional news about the Angel of the North statue which is celebrating its 10th birthday. I guess I had better think of some amusing, off the cuff remarks!

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City Fox

I walked up Victoria St this morning, heading to Westminster. As I arrived at Westminster Abbey, a fox ran out across the road, successfully negotiating the traffic and heading towards the QE Conference Centre.

At first I was surprised to see a fox in the heart of Westminster. But there again, the place must be a treasure trove of food for them. All those pigeons and rats. And of course, all that food that people so carelessly throw away.

Coincidentally, I saw a fox outside my house in the London suburbs last night. I wonder whether we will get any in our garden in Gateshead? We have an occasional visit from a hedgehog but no foxes yet.

Frost and mist

It was just starting to get light this morning when I got up. It was only when we left the house that we found the place was frosted up. Sunniside is on top of a hill so as we drove out of the village and down Watergate Bank, we hit the mist that was filling the Tyne and Teams Valleys. When we went past the Dunston Rocket block on the A1, we could see the top half of the building hovering above the mist with the bottom half buried deep in the mist. It would have made a good photo but the camera was packed away in my camera bag, and would have needed a nimble pair of hands to get hold of it and attach the lens in the few seconds it took to drive past the building.

I am now on the train heading to London. It will be a short week there. I am coming home on Wednesday evening as I am on the Tyne Tees evening news on Thursday about the Angel of the North statue, which is celebrating its tenth birthday.

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"Get Carter" car park - exclusive video from the top!

I was allowed up the soon to be demolished "Get Carter" multi-storey car park (so-called as it had a staring role in the cult film alongside Michael Caine) on Friday to take photos and video the building. Demolition will take place in the next few weeks so the fantastic view will be gone soon. The upper storeys have been closed to the public for a number of years. I made it to the top. Here's the video.

What a lovely day for delivering Focus

I have just finished delivering 250 Focus newsletters in one of our target wards. I am just heading back home now. What a gloriously sunny day. Perfect Focus delivery weather! My next job when I get home is to head off to the allotment and do some more back breaking work. I'll either be dead or super fit by the end of this!

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The Interesting Reading Habits of Train Passengers.

Just spotted in the reflection of the window that the person a couple of seats away from me on the train is reading "The Strange Death of David Kelly" by a certain Norman Baker MP. I'm actually reading Harry Turtledove's 'End of the Beginning', the second novel in the alternative history series about a Japanese occupation of Hawaii in the Second World War.

Speaking as an historian.........As for which of the two books being read on the train is closer to real rather than alternative history.......
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Returning home early

I am on the train heading home, thankfully leaving London a day earlier than normal. Tomorrow I have been booked in to do an interview with BBC Radio Newcastle about the Angel of the North, which celebrates its 10th birthday next week.

But as we remember the building of one monster size construction, we note the imminent demise of another in Gateshead. The infamous Gateshead Multi-Storey Car Park, made famous by the classic cult film "Get Carter" is due to be demolished soon. Tomorrow morning I am due to take photos and video of the area that has been closed to the public for some years. The building itself is falling down and the restaurant at the top (it was never used for anything but the plan was that a restaurant would be installed there when the car park was built at the end of the 60s) is very out of bounds. Pity, as I was hoping to get some pictures of it for the historical records. I will be donating a copy of all the photos and video I will be taking to Gateshead Council.

And after that, I have my sights set on the Rocket Block, another monstrosity from the same period as the car park, and also due to be redesigned as rubble. It is a huge tower block but most of the flats in it are unoccupied. Big grey concrete, and like the car park, it reminds me of so many of the buildings I have seen in parts of the former Soviet Union. When I was in Minsk a few years ago, they were still building in the same Stalinist, grey monolithic style.

The Rocket (named as such because it looks like, would you believe it, a rocket!) does however have spectacular views of the Tyne and Team valleys. Some photos and viideo from there would be useful.

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The cheapest meal I have ever bought comes at a price

I left the office in Cowley Street at about 9.15pm and called into Sainsburys on Victoria Street to get something for dinner. It was the cheapest dinner I have ever bought. For 59p I bought a bag of bagels, a bag of pork sausages and an onion. I am not a vegetarian but I rarely buy meat when in London. Meat production is more environmentally damaging than non meat production. Animal welfare is not what it should be. So I largely cut out meat when in London, though I make the occasional foray into the meat menu when eating out. But at 19p for eight sausages, I let the strict regime slip for once.

As I left the shop I was asked by a rough sleeper for some money for a cup of tea. I ended up giving him all my spare change, which came to more than my shopping bill. There again, a cup of tea in London is not cheap. It was only a couple of minutes later that I thought it would have been a good idea to give him some of the bagels I had bought. I had six in total. I didn't need that many. Too late to go back.

So when I got back to the flat I fried 4 sausages and sat down to watch BBC News 24. And there was a feature about intensively reared chickens suffering poor welfare because they grow too quickly for their legs to hold their weight. It reminded me again why I have cut down on meat. Cheap food comes at a price.

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MP's website entry suddenly disappears

Yesterday I blogged about the appearance in our regional press of the story of how Blaydon Labour MP David Anderson had taken two completely contradictory positions within the space of two days on foreign footballers coming to the UK. I also pointed out that his own website explained why, in his own words, he was "facing both ways at the same time". I rather like the term he used and suggested in my blog that the wording may find its way into future publications by me.

Alas, following this, Mr Anderson has rather quickly removed the article from his website. The problem for Dave is - the damage has already been done! Anyway Dave, thanks for the line on this one. You'll see it on literature going out in your constituency soon!

It's not daylight yet

It was dark when I got up this morning. My arms and legs were suffering from the hard work we put in on the allotment over the weekend. But I caught a couple of minutes of BBC Breakfast just after 7am in which the presenter made some comment about the spring arriving early and it already being daylight in London.

Well, it wasn't daylight on Tyneside (just wait til summer arrives - we have much longer days up north!) As for spring arriving early, it didn't feel like that on Saturday when we slithered about the allotment in the snow, or Sunday when I had to be heavily wrapped up to go out leafletting in one of our target wards.

I even took a print run back to my house on Saturday from our office to dry it off in the warmth before returning it to the office in the evening to print the back page.

I am of course now on the train heading to London with the sun streaming in through the window. As usual, wake me up when we get to Kings Cross.

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MP's own goal hits the press

Last week I wrote about the Labour MP for Blaydon, David Anderson, backing an early day motion attacking football clubs for employing foreign footballers. Mr Anderson's support for the motion was at odds with an EDM he himself sponsored 2 days later which attacked the powers that be for not issuing a work permit to, ahem, errr....a foreign footballer to come to the UK to play for Man City!

Well, I am pleased to say that somehow this story hit the North East regional press on Saturday. (I wonder who caused that to happen!?) Our regional paper, the Evening Chronicle, carried it as a page leade, under the headline "MP's own goal"! Joy joy joy! It was interesting reading and quite challenging to follow Mr Anderson's explanation. He was , he claimed, being "consistent" as the footballer in question was a "special case"

Mr Anderson's website also lovingly reproduced Mr Anderson's contortions (not a pretty sight!) and justified why he was "facing both ways at the same time." This was not a term I had used in this context, but thank you very much. I am sure it will appear in a leaflet soon!

Anyway, I have bucket loads more on Mr Anderson's distinctly interesting posturing and contortions on a wide range of issues. I'll be highlighting them on an occasional basis over the coming weeks and months! Enjoy!

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Safari Kenya!

Well, as promised to some people recently, here is the video of the safari I did in December to Kimana in Kenya, near Mount Kilimanjaro.

Tea time on the train

Picture the scene. The buffet car on the National Express train heading north. Customer arrives. Asks for a cup of tea. "Milk and sugar sir?" One milk, no sugar, replied the weary traveller who picked up one small carton of milk and dropped it into the bag that he will use to carry his cup back to his seat in coach E. At that point, the person serving him grabs a pile of paper napkins and a drink stirrer and pushes them into the bag. The customer doesn't want them but is too polite to return them and point out the sheer waste they constitute. Instead, he returns to his seat wishing he had not after all spent one pound 45p on a cup of tea which will produce yet more needless rubbish to fill up a landfill site.

I must stop buying tea on the train I think.

Talking of cutting down on waste, Cowley St colleagues are now providing me with a regular supply of empty jam jars and empty cava and champagne bottles (I use the latter for making elderflower champagne). But some colleagues have also pointed out that the homemade jam has run out in the first floor kitchen. I've got a stock in the flat which we shipped down from Gateshead before Christmas. So to colleagues who read this blog on a worryingly frequent basis, I can inform you that it is jam tomorrow - or rather on Tuesday. As for the other edible goodies I have sort of promised, watch this space......

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Snow doubt about it

I had an email from David today. He had gone home early because heavy snow would make it difficult to get back from work if he left it any longer. But he does work in the wilds of Co Durham.

Then I got an email from a Gateshead Council officer telling me it was snowing and I would be better staying in London!

And tonight I got a text from Richard who is in north Wales rather than looking after the flat in London and, you guessed it, it's snowing there as well.

I'm on the train to Newcastle now and I've just passed Peterborough. Not a flake in sight, so far. Not sure when I will hit the snow, and I just hope David can drive from our village to Newcastle to pick me up from the Central Station when I arrive.

Tomorrow, I am supposed to be shooting a video. I have the people lined up for it. Not sure whether the weather will allow it.

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MP scores own goal

I am not a particularly great follower of football but I was rather struck by what I discovered that the Labour MP for my home constituency of Blaydon has done, in the name of the game. So here it is.

On Monday, Mr David Anderson MP signed up to an early day motion (no. 756) which was actually sponsored by football mad Lib Dem Bob Russell MP. The EDM condemned the huge increase in the number of foreign players now on the books of Premiership teams. Apparently 60% of the players are now from abroad.

The motion went on to say that "this huge increase in players from overseas is to the detriment of the long-term interests of professional football in England and the future prospects of the national team in international competitions."

Now, I'm sure there will be a variety of views on this matter. Personally, if a players is good enough to play for a premiership team, where he comes from should be of little importance. After all, I would think it unreasonable to stop David Beckham playing in the US, for example.

But Mr Anderson has made his stand against foreign footballers coming over here. So there you are. Clear and simple.

Except, 2 days later, Mr Anderson wrote and sponsored an EDM (no. 829) which attacked the refusal to give a work permit to an Iraqi called Nashat Akram. So what, you may reply. And why did Nashat Akram need a work permit? Because he is a professional footballer, playing for the Iraqi national team, and had been signed up for Manchester City!

Apparently Man City manager, Sven-Göran Eriksson (who I understand is originally from overseas) is not too happy with the refusal to issue a work permit.

So Mr Anderson, you can’t credibly attack clubs for employing foreign footballers and then immediately cry foul when a foreign player is refused the right to play here!

Yet again, we have another example of swwitching sides, bad political dribbling and an own goal by Mr Anderson.

Yesterday, Cameron - Conway staying put. Today, Cameron - Conway is dumped

The Derek Conway affair has just taken a sudden and interesting turn.

Yesterday, according to the Daily Mail, a spokesman for Tory Leader David Cameron said, "Derek Conway has apologised fully on the floor of the House. The Whip will not be withdrawn. The proper punishment has been administered."

Today, a Tory press release crosses my desk with Cameron saying, “The usual procedure in these cases is to leave the punishment to the House of Commons authorities, however, having asked the Chief Whip to speak again to Mr Conway and having personally reflected overnight I have decided to withdraw the Conservative Whip from Mr Conway.”

Is this the fastest u-turn so far this year?

Labour donor asks to be left alone

I had a quick read of the front page of The Journal, our regional morning newspaper, before leaving the house this morning to catch the train to London. "Leave me alone" screamed the headline. And the poor victim of needless hassle from the world was...David Abrahams, not so secret donor to the Labour party and the person who kick started the Donorgate scandal.

One of the proxies who was used to transfer the cash into Labour's coffers was a constituent of mine up til 4 years ago when boundary changes transferred her estate from my ward.

Mr Abrahams is complaining about receiving begging letters from all sorts of charities, people and organisations. He is fed up with it all. Ahhhhhhh, poor thing. I don't know why these people have bothered Mr Abrahams. After all, he has demonstrated his donations are destined for an organisation many of us would find hard to describe as a good cause.

Mr Abrahams then went on to blame the government for the Donorgate scandal. All this could have been avoided had a "booklet" been produced to explain what to do and not do when handing over a sum of money to Labour that many people would not earn in a lifetime.

Whether or not such a booklet would have helped Labour's top financial bod to keep within the donation rules is another matter given he knew they were proxy donations but had been trained on the rules.

It seems as though Labour has an arrogant disregard for the rules. Rules, they believe, are for Labour to bring in and others to obey. Alan Johnson's donation story which broke over the weekend is likely not to turn out to be a story of his wrongdoing and my presumption is that he is innocent of any wrongdoing. But the Hain affair is not in the least bit innocent, the Harriet Harman donation is questionable and the Wendy Alexander donation is decidedly dodgy.

It seems all is not coming up roses in Incapability Brown's political garden.

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Does this MP live in a parallel universe?

With the government having recently announced a goldplated handout to the directors and shareholders of Northern Rock to ensure the bank is a tempting, subsidised going concern ready for takeover, I thought I would take a look at what Labour MPs had to say on nationalising it. When I looked at what David Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon (where I live) had to say, I was left scratching my head and wondering if he had slipped over from some parallel universe.

In the Commons debate on the Lib Dem motion calling for a temporary nationalisation of Northern Rock in December, Mr Anderson laid into nationalisation and made the most bizarre claim:

“I have a very different ideological view from that of my party's Front Benchers: their view is that public ownership is a good thing and we should have more of it.”

He then went on to attack previous nationalisations as all the state did was to take over failing businesses.

It comes as a bit of a surprise to me that the Labour frontbench are in favour of more nationalisation! Events seem to suggest otherwise.

Mr Anderson's sudden hostility to public ownership also seems to be at odds with so many of his own pronouncements over the years. I have kindly listed a few below for your edification:

4 October 2002: Mr Anderson said, "People who use public services and the workers who deliver those services are united in their opposition of private sector initiatives and to fat cat involvement.” (Evening Chronicle)

20 June 2003: David Anderson at Unison conference - Talked of “strong opposition to PFI and privatisation” and using “our industrial muscle” against privatisation. “There is an ever-reducing core of people in this country who still support the privatisation agenda.” (Unison press release 20 June 03)

10 Mar 2006: Called on the Government to return the train operating companies to public ownership (Early Day Motion 2005/6 1680)

30 March 2006: described privatisation of the National Probation Service in England and Wales as a fundamental misjudgement (Early Day Motion 2005/6 1907)

30 March 2006: attacks the privatisation of South Eastern Trains (Early Day Motion 2005/6 1923)

30 Mar 2006: expresses concern at the increasing trend in Government for the privatisation of public services and calls on the Government to introduce a moratorium on privatisation (Early Day Motion 2005/6 1940)

27 April 2006: opposes privatisation of search and rescue services (Early Day Motion 2005/6 2004)

16 May 2006: in debate in House of Commons, Mr Anderson calls for the renationalisation of the coal industry.

3 July 2006: co sponsor of an amendment to an Early Day Motion calling for Thames Water to be brought into public ownership (Early Day Motion 2005/6 2426A1)

14 July 2006: in House of Commons debate he attacks the privatisation of water industry

26 November 2006: in House of Commons debate he complains about privatisations of utilities by the previous Conservative government

6 December 2006: supports the rail unions and TUC campaign to keep the East London Line wholly in the public sector (Early Day Motion 2006/7 286)

6 December 2006: notes with concern that defence training is being privatised (Early Day Motion 2006/7 297)

8 January 2007: opposes outsourcing or privatisation of civil service jobs (Early Day Motion 2006/7 530)

3 May 2007: attacks the trend in government towards privatisation and wants moratorium on privatisation (Early Day Motion 2006/7 1376)

24 May 2007: co-sponsor of a Parliamentary motion attacking Lib Dem Hull council for selling shares in Kingston Communication (Early Day Motion 2006/7 1571) (the previous Labour administration had already sold off the majority of shares!)

11 June 2007: opposes the concept of privatisation of British Waterways (Early Day Motion 2006/7 1606)

20 November 2007: congratulates trade unionists taking action in opposition to privatisation of public services (Early Day Motion 2007/8 276)

There are more examples of Mr Anderson's foot-in-mouth experiences. Indeed, there are many more. They will probably be making regular appearances on this blog. Watch this space!

A Hain in the Neck

So Peter Hain has resigned after failing to uphold the laws about donations the government of which he was a member introduced to clean up politics. A rather sad end to someone who, were you to rate him against some other members of the government, has a bit more talent. This is of course relative.

I get the distinct impression listening to people I know in the Labour party that Hain was not well regarded by the Labour grass roots. I was in the members' room in Gateshead Civic Centre today and I overheard one member saying that it was a poor show when Labour are broke but Hain can raise £200,000 for his own deputy leadership campaign.

The fact that a campaign costing close to the price of an average house failed so miserably suggests that Hain's support was very thin indeed amongst the ordinary Labour member. It seems his resignation has been met on his own side by relief rather than regret.

Thank you Mr Brown, but what have I done to deserve this kind gift from the taxpayer?

Mr Brown's New Labour, New Capitalist government has given me a handout. Very nice of them to do so but I'm not sure why I have been given such a generous dollop of cash at the expense of the taxpayer. We are shareholders in Northern Rock and yesterday's announcement of super-goldplated absolutely-no-risk-to-shareholders and investors bond issue has certainly helped to push up the price of the shares, on a day when everything else on the stock market was heading in the opposite direction.

Why I should be a deserving case for burdening the taxpayer is beyond me. Personally, I think there are more deserving cases than me for taxpayer handouts. How about those caught in the rising number in poverty over which this government has presided, separated from the wealthy who are getting richer and richer. How about the police who have been denied their full pay rise because there aint enough money.

And if you want to argue that this is a capital rather than revenue issue, think about what £50 billion could mean to solving the affordable housing crisis. How much of the transport system could be modernised with that sort of dosh?

So thank you Mr Brown. I'm not needy but it was nice of you to be so generous to the shareholders of a failed bank, the same bank whose boss before he left towards the end of last year you were happy to hand over £25 billion in cash from the hard pressed taxpayer.

The biggest gainers from yesterday's announcement have been the hedge funds who swooped on Northern Rock when the share price crashed to Rock bottom. Now they are sitting on a tidy and substantial profit.

Mr Brown, you have certainly abandoned what slither of social conscience your party once had. Get rich quick is the new New Labour catchphrase. And getting rich quick at the expense of the taxpayer is Gordon's very own addition to the mess that Labour is now making.

As an economic liberal, I am appalled at the proposals for the state backed bonds for Northern Rock whilst it stays in the private sector. Brown has created a gigantic private sector quango, unaccountable to anyone other than its private sector owners, paid for by the taxpayer but benefitting only a lucky few.

And meanwhile Britain's social divide widens, our transport crumbles and our elderly freeze in homes they can't afford to heat and for which the state has insufficient cash to insulate.

What a shocking state of affairs.

Boys and their toys

David and I were in York over the weekend. We paid a visit to a model railway exhibition where for the price of £4 we could play the Fat Controller, pressing lots of buttons to may trains stop and go and other buttons that lit up buildings, made cars fall over the edge of roads and so on. And if that wasn't enough, we then went to the National Railway Museum to play on full scale toys! Anoraks at the ready - here are some of the photos!

I normally tell people off when they take photos of people who look tiny in the picture against a huge backdrop. I have made an exception witht he 4th picture above. That train was so huge I have the picture of me next to it just to let people see just what a big one it is.....

Seeing the Japanese bullet train sparked an interest in going to Japan. We added it to our already oversized travel list.

Junket Jones MP and those military flights

I was interested to see that one of the Labour MPs who has reported 80 Tory MPs to the Electoral Commission over the issue of declaring donations from 'patrons clubs' is Kevan Jones, member for Durham North, next to Blaydon constituency where I live in Gateshead.

Mr Jones was a Labour councillor in Newcastle before he was dropped into Durham North by the Trade Union juggernaut that runs the Labour machine in the North East. Jones was also some kind of union hack for the GMB and was a bit of an enforcer for the Labour group on Newcastle Council. I suppose it is a compliment to him to say that Labour has fallen apart in Newcastle since his departure.

The spectacular Parliamentary career that was predicted for Jones by some has not materialised. In the Commons he has reached the dizzy heights of the backbenchers. So that frees him to spend more time stirring up problems within the Durham Labour movement and to attack the Tories (not that there are many Tories in the North East to attack).

But it also leaves him time to enjoy foreign travel, much of it at the expense of the arms industry. A quick scan of his entries in the Register of Members' Interests reads more like a military catalogue and a list of foreign governments keen to buy up British weapons.

So with political warfare breaking out over the funding of both Tories and Labour, I guess Corporal Junket Jones is just the person Labour needs to send into the fray.

Can you hear the echo of "Don't panic" seeping out of the Labour camp?

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Victory and defeat rolled into one

A newspaper hoarding I have just passed on Victoria Street screamed at me "Victory for rebel shareholders" - a reference presumably to the Northern Rock meeting today. Yet as I walk into Victoria Station, I see on the Sky headlines on the huge screen "Defeat for rebel shareholders". Again, I presume it is a reference to the NR meeting.

Interesting how the same story can be so differently reported. I am not sure of the details of what was decided today at the meeting but I do know that only one of the demands of the hedge funds was agreed and the rest rejected.

Whatever the result at the meeting, it is unlikely to have much effect on the future ownership of the company. Nationalisation now looks very likely without a miracle on the financial markets.

So there will be a certain amount of humble pie consumption by the deadwood Labour backbenchers of the North East who laid into the Lib Dems last month for proposing Northern Rock nationalisation. Whether any of them will choke on that same humble pie is yet to be seen.

Meanwhile, did you see Vince on Newsnight last night where Jeremy Paxman was praising our shadow chancellor to his face? And what a waste of space that useless Philip Hammond was for the Tories. Quite what the Tory position is on Northern Rock is as clear as smog.

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Sunrise over the North East

The Monday morning chore - catching the train to London - still finds me getting up in the dark and getting to Newcastle in the dark. I am so looking forward to the start of summer when it starts to get light at 4am. But at least this time of the year I get to experience the sunrise over the North East, even if it is from the train. We have just passed Durham City. I should be in Kings Cross in just over two and a half hours. Wake me up when I arrive!

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How not to drive to the pub

I took this photo of David just before New Year when we were at his sister Sally's house in Kent. We decided to make a visit to the local village pub (for one pint only) which was a couple of km down the road. Sally's husband Michael drove me there in his car, and drove David back.

Room for only two in the car, an Astin Martin drives just a few centimetres above the ground. A rather nice car but it is terrible for increasing your carbon footprint. I'll need to plant another tree later this year to compensate.

YouTube milestone

Having reached a total of quarter of a million viewings on my YouTube videos in December, I can announce another milestone. Today, a video of mine reached 50,000 viewings for the first time.

The video on question is Copacabbana beach, Rio de Janiero. However, Former secret, Soviet submarine base, Crimea, Ukraine video is very close behind on 49,971 viewings.

The next milestone I will announce when I have reached it is half a million viewings overall.

Labour, taxpayers' money and websites

I was interested to read the post by Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice about the use of taxpayers' money (through the Parliamentary Communications Allowance) to pay for a website by Labour's absent minded Peter Hain (it is just so easy to forget about £103,000 one has floating about). Alas, the website turned out to be a bit party political.

The rules on the use of the Communications Allowance are quite clear - party political use of the money is an absolute no-no. Sun tanned Peter was presumably too busy trying to get elected deputy Labour leader, sorry, I mean, being Northern Ireland Secretary, that he presumably didn't have time to check the rules or indeed apply even a modicum of common sense to spending taxpayers' cash.

So well done to Mark Pack, incidentally sitting at the next desk to mine in Cowley Street, for bringing this to our attention (see Hain website).

It has reminded me of a very similar incident where the Tyne Bridge Labour MP David Clelland used his taxpayer funded website to attack me personally. When I pointed out on my own blog in response that this was a rather naughty use of his Communications Allowance and that a letter was on its way from me to the House of Commons finance police, DC suddenly announced that he was no longer taking tax payers' cash to fund his internet extravaganza.

You can read the original post on: Clelland website

Labour defender of right to strike votes to...err...ban strikes

Are there 2 Labour MPs called David Anderson representing Blaydon constituency?

The first one appears to be the one who wrote and sponsored a Parliamentary motion (EDM 1648 2006/7) in July last year attacking moves by the government to end the right of prison officers to strike.

The second is the one who on Wednesday this week quietly slipped through the division lobby in the House of Commons voting to end the right of prison officers to strike.

Could the real Mr Anderson please step forward?

Photos from my recent visit to Kenya

I was in Kenya in November and Kenya (during the election campaign) for a holiday. I left before the troubles started but here are a few of my photos.

It's a long time since I did this journey

The last time I travelled to London on an earlyish Monday morning was in mid November. I have forgotten what a drag it can be to get up so early to experience dark, cold mornings and the joys of National Express operated trains, (the successor to GNER). We are passing Durham now and the sky only just has a hint of daylight.

Lack of daylight also restricted what I could do on the allotments yesterday. Getting 2 derelict allotments back into use is not the easiest of Mission Impossibles! The one I worked on yesterday belongs to our friend Glenys but she is hoping for a large amount of help from us to get it working. I spent yesterday chopping back a gigantic hedge along one side of the allotment. It was almost akin to something from Sleeping Beauty, complete with large thorns (my hands are still painful!) And probably hasn't been touched for 100 years as well. At least now however we have a good supply of logs!

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The Good, the Bad and the Videos

I decided to take a bit of time off this evening from politics and casework to catch up with some of my video editing. I got back from Kenya 3 weeks ago (before the violence flared up). I edited 6 videos from the safari I went on to Kimana, in the shado of Mount Kilimanjaro. These are now up on YouTube and the links are below if anyone wants to see them. I've also added in a couple of links to some Kenya videos I edited last week.

I am also listening to the soundtrack to that classic film "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) by Ennio Morricone. I saw the film again on tv a few days ago and mentioned to David that if he ever saw a CD of the soundtrack, he should get it. The parcel from Amazon arrived this morning. There's efficiency for you!

The video links:
Hippos and Crocodiles
Lions
Zebras
Birds
Giraffes
Elephants
Monkeys staying at our hotel
Wart hogs
Reptiles and me covered in snakes

The wrong windscreen wipers on the track

For excuses, this one is quite original. The windscreen wipers had broken down on my train. As a result the train was turned around at Doncaster. I am now travelling backwards. Such a pity I am travelling in a carriage that contains a child that shrieks constantly with a terrifyingly shrill ear splitting decibel level that would raise the dead. And sitting a couple of seats in front of me are two guys who keep having very loud conversations in which each repeats what the other says. I think I'll go to sleep now and wake up when we get to Newcastle.
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My Highlights of 2007

A bit late but here are my own highlights of 2007. Two sections: political and personal.

Political

1)getting re-elected to Gateshead Council with the biggest vote, majority and share of the vote of any candidate in Gateshead.

2)capturing Labour’s Mugabe-style bully-boy tactics on camera and posting the result up as the “Battle of Trimdon Green” during the Sedgefield by-election. You know you want to see it again!: Battle of Trimdon Green

3)discovering there was to be no election in the autumn whilst out picking sloes near our village of Sunniside – I should have left the blackberry at home!

4)the conference vote for the Trident motion – ever so close but clinched by a last minute intervention from Ming.

5)exposing Blaydon Labour MP David Anderson for spending taxpayers’ money on a personal attack on me and my Lib Dem colleagues in Gateshead – he ended up having to repay the money!

6)experiencing Labour making complete fools of themselves in my ward over a leaflet they put out (in October when they thought there was going to be an election) attacking us (they simply made up ridiculous claims about Lib Dem run Newcastle which didn’t even have a shred of evidence to support them). The editor of the leaflet subsequently denied any knowledge of the contents of the leaflet even though his name was all over it. I’m sure we’ll be reminding everyone in the local elections in May about this, were this person to stand again!

7)enjoying the spectacle of Tyne Bridge Labour MP David Clelland announcing publicly that he has stopped using taxpayers’ money to pay for his website so that he no longer contravened the rules on MPs’ allowances, therefore allowing him to continue to use the site to attack me personally!

8)attending the announcement of Nick Clegg as the new leader. I had to fight with the other photographers to get a place at the front!

9)the shock of learning about Ming’s resignation. We only knew half an hour before it was announced on tv.

10)the Sedgefield by-election campaign.

Personal

1)in November, I welcomed the fact I have now spent half my entire life with David – 22 years!

2)safari in Kenya and seeing African elephants in the wild.

3)visiting a reptile park in Mombassa and having a number of snakes put round my neck. I have a video of this: Snakes and Lizards

4)Kayaking along the coast of Madagascar.

5)snorkeling with turtles over a coral reef on the French island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean.

6)giving my sandals away in Madagascar because they needed them more than I did.

7)giving away most of my shirts to kids who rowed out to our ship when we arrived at the island of Anjuan in the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean. They needed them more than I did!

8)buying enough spices in Zanzibar to keep us in experimental cooking for years!

9)filming wild ponies on the hills above Penmaenmawr in North Wales. Yes, there is a video: wild Welsh ponies

10)Handing on one of my videos to the London Transport Museum for use in an exhibition they were running. The video: A trip on the London Eye

Quarter of a million YouTube viewings

At the end of last week, I hit a milestone on my YouTube channel - quarter of a million viewings of all my videos. It's odd to think that two years ago, I have hundreds of video clips shot all over the planet yet I had no audience for them. Very different now and I still have hundreds of clips to edit and post up, especially after my recent visit to East Africa and Madagascar.

Travel video viewings still outstrip my political ones but the number of viewers I have for the latter are growing. Anyway, here's my top ten with viewing figures:

1) 46,691 Inside a former secret Soviet Submarine Base, Balaklava, Ukraine - I filmed this in October 2006 and surprisingly, it has now grabbed the top slot. If you are in to submarines and nuclear fallout bunkers, this is the video for you!

2) 46,650 Copacabbana Beach - One of the best beaches on the planet, if a little busy with sunbathers and joggers. If you are ever in Rio de Janiero, find time to visit. I made this video in December 2005.

3) 23,297 A Trip on the London Eye - Filmed this in September 2005. If you suffer from vertigo, this is definitely for you!

4) 12,666 Cuba's 2nd city: Santiago de Cuba - Rather surprised this one has such a following. The Havana video I shot on the same trip to Cuba in June 2006 has had less than 1000 viewings.

5) 8,968 Egypt: Pyramids and the Sphinx - I filmed this in November 2004. I was surprised how close the pyramids are to the centre of Cairo.

6) 7,271 Orang utans in Borneo Feeding time for a group of orphaned orang utans in a place called Sepilok, Borneo. I filmed it in November 2002 on a trip to the Far East.

7) 6,154 A view from the Petronas Towers - I think at the time I filmed this on the Sky Bridge on the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, in November 2002, it was the tallest building in the world. It has since been overtaken.

8) 3,206 Gauchos and horse riding, Argentina - This one is rising fast. I filmed it in December 2005 when on a ranch in Argentina about 100km from Buenos Aires.

9) 3,061 Port of Batumi, Georgia - another one that surprises me for being in the top 10. I visited Georgia on the Black Sea in October 2006. I suspect this one is popular with Georgian expats.

10) 2,805 Battle of Trimdon Green - my top political video and the one that probably put an end (for the time being) to the Robert Mugabe style of democracy Labour endorses in their strong areas. This was filmed in July 2007 in Sedgefield when a Labour mob invaded the meeting that was to launch the Lib Dem campaign for the by-election to replace Tony Blair. Labour tried to break up the meeting physically. But once this video appeared on YouTube, Tyne Tees Television and a large number of Lib Dem blogs, Labour dropped these tactics. Don't expect such renewed adherence to open democracy and free speech to last long. The narrow minded Mugabeites of Labour will be back.