Why this union must stop its back-to-the-future approach

The Royal Mail monopoly on postal sorting and delivery ended over three years ago. Parcel delivery monopoly went even longer ago. Yet the Communications Workers Union seems to be reliving the bad old days of the 1970s in which monolithic state industries with a legal monopoly run a fair chunk of the UK economy. In the real world of 2009, Royal Mail no longer has a monopoly and is now open to the harsh winds of competition.

And the result of the strikes organized by the CWU? Royal Mail has just lost the contract for Amazon, its 2nd largest customer. This is not something that can be dismissed. The growth of internet retail sales could offset the huge fall in the number of letters sent. This is the area of growth Royal Mail must get into or otherwise see its business go down the pan. And the CWU needs to wake up to the real world or risk a suicidal course of action that could destroy the business in which its members work.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

From voice of the army to Tory hack

Whilst I accept it was a bit of a coup (hopefully not a military one!) for the Tories to recruit former head of the army, General Sir Richard Dannatt as an "adviser", the guy has instantly undermined his position as a respected voice for the army and our troops. From now on he will be seen as the voice of the Conservatives.

The additional unfortunate point for him is that the Conservatives are not committed to backing his demands for additional troops for the war in Afghanistan. He's lost his independence and may well lose the argument.

What's up Doc? - MPs should check what's behind them in photos!

I was greatly amused by this. Check out the website of Dave Clelland, Labour MP for Tyne Bridge: http://www.david-clelland.org.uk/index.htm.

The 2nd photo down the page is really a lesson in why care needs to be taken with the camera! Check what's behind you. And then reject photos that make you look like you have sprouted Bugs Bunny ears!

And just in case Mr Clelland should have the offending photo removed, I've thoughtfully copied the page.....

Example of a Conference video diary

This is the conference video diary I made for Carol Woods, our candidate for the very winnable Labour held seat of Durham City. The aim was to have just a few minutes to cover the whole of her time at Conference.

A sign of things to come

As a YouTube partner, I find this very interesting. The forthcoming football game between England and the Ukraine will be shown live only on the internet. No terrestrial or satellite channel bid for it. Last week we had the announcement that in the UK, more is now spent on advertising on the internet than on tv. Meanwhile, channels such as ITV are struggling. Is view on demand overtaking traditional viewing habits? Is this a sign of things to come?

We won't be able to answer that for certain for some time but my feeling is that we are moving into view on demand as a major form of communication, possibly the most important individual form. In addition, people are increasingly turning to sites such as YouTube for information. I produce videos on how to preserve or cook wild foods or the produce of our allotment. I get a large number of viewings, far more than my political videos get. People are constantly searching using the term "how to". It's worth bearing that in mind if you are making local political videos.

Candidates absolutely must have an internet presence at the general election or risk losing significant profile. And any videos they do must be full of action and information. It's what people are after. Miss out the internet as part of local campaigning at your peril.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

The Monday morning blog: two different policies in one interview

Boris Johnson is experiencing the same problem as David Cameron. He is all over the place on a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Watching Johnson on BBC News 24, I saw him first demand a referendum on Lisbon now (perhaps he overlooked the fact the Tories can't deliver that from opposition). Then it was put to him that the treaty will be ratified by the general election so an incoming Tory government would have missed the chance to have a referendum on the Treaty. Johnson then said he wanted a referendum on "specific bits" without saying which "bits" the question should be about. Moments later he was demanding a full referendum after the election on the whole Treaty.

All this detracts attention away from the Tories' policy of solving the unemployment crisis by cutting benefits to disabled people (perhaps the Tories believe they have been made "iller" by the NHS so they should be encouraged out of their "work shyness" by making them poorer). In a sense, the growing row over Europe could save the Tories from media scrutiny of their shallow, soundbite policies. There may therefore be, in Tory eyes, a silver lining to this cloud.

And finally, did anyone see Cameron's interview yesterday in which he called his party the "New Conservatives"? Now, what does that remind me of?

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Not quite what the Conservatives wanted

Scheduling the Irish referendum for the eve of the Conservative conference is the stuff of political soap opera. Having hoped for a showcase to display their back-of-an-envelope policies, suddenly the Conservatives' most divisive issue comes back to haunt them like a giant Euro chicken coming home to roost in Manchester.

All that talk of honesty and being straight with the British people comes to nothing if Cameron can't answer the question of whether or not there will be a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all member countries before the general election. Twisting and turning is no answer. Watching Eric Pickles squirm when questioned about this has, of course, provided the entertainment for the evening.

Not quite how the Conservatives hoped to start their conference.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Survey and tabloid in Blaydon

I was in Blackhall Mill this morning helping our Blaydon candidate Neil Bradbury deliver a survey in the village. There was some door knocking and chatting to residents and a useful call into the community centre where a coffee morning was being held. People were happy to talk.

From Blackhall Mill we headed to Rowlands Gill to deliver a couple of patches with our latest tabloid. 400 copies hit people's letterboxes and it was then back to my office to work on the next leaflet. Neil has now headed off to a meeting elsewhere, leaving me free to sort out the next Focus for my own ward and a street letter for the neighbouring ward. That, alas, means a trip to the constituency office this evening to do some printing. At least I was able to take a few minutes off this afternoon to watch Carry On Cleo, a classic of the British film industry.

Tanfield Railway Steam Gala Weekend

If you are interested in steam trains this video will be of interest to you. I filmed it at the recent Tanfield Railway steam gala weekend. The Tanfield Railway is the worlds oldest continuously running steam railway. It is also in my ward in Gateshead.

Up the mayoral creek without a paddle!

Actually, down the Tyne and on a ferry, hired for the evening for a charity fundraising event by the mayor of Gateshead. It's dark and cold outside but the disco is in full swing as we head to the mouth of the Tyne. Not that there's anyone on the dancefloor at the moment. I think everyone is waiting for the pie and pea supper, and possibly some music that is a bit more recent than the mid 60s! Not that I should complain - Elvis has just been played!

Wouldn't it be rather funny if we won the raffle prize of the bottle of House of Commons whisky donated by Dave Anderson, Labour MP for Blaydon who is sitting only a few tables away!? We've bought plenty of tickets - here's to hoping (and winning!)

PS DJ is onto the 70s now. Rod Stewart. Bring back the 60s!
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Photos available: Nick Clegg exhibition tour at conference

This is one of 57 photos I added to my Flickr site last night of Nick Clegg's tour of the exhibition area of Conference in Bournemouth last week. The photos can be used by Liberal Democrat members in Lib Dem literature.

The link to the photos is: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanwallace/sets/72157622496903234/

Singing to keep up spirits

It is the end of Labour conference. I'm watching it now as the socialist brethren attempt to sing their way through the "Red Flag". After a decade under Blair in which the singing of this anthem of the left was likely to result in a knock on the hotel door in the early hours of the morning with delegates hauled off to visit the Labour Stasi, the result is obvious: very few of the "brothers and sisters" know the words. Mumbling from some, suspicious looks at the hymnsheet from others! It looks like a bad X Factor audition! I wonder whether they are singing just to keep up spirits.

I'm not sure whether or not putting up the Lady Harriet as the warm up to the singalong was meant to be a stroke of genius or sheer bad planning. I suppose it depends on your viewpoint. For me, I am in the former category. The more the Lady Harriet is seen by the voters, the less the voters will warm to Labour. Keep up the good word mi lady.

I did however fall off my seat laughing when she tried to make out Nick Clegg constantly changes his mind (no he doesn't) and then went on to claim that Britain was leading the world on bankers' bonuses. This from the party that at a European meeting just a few weeks ago was arguing against statutory controls on, you guessed it, bankers' bonuses.

Anyway, the "socialist" brethren have now ended their jamboree and next up is the Conservative bash. That should be entertaining.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Scare-mongering or heros?

I couldn't let this go by without comment. Earlier this month I moved a motion at Gateshead Council about rail services. It was in response to a proposal by Network Rail that a high speed rail network be built that bypasses the North East. I say "moved" - the reality was that I was shouted down and constantly interrupted by Labour. And I was accused of "scare-mongering" for raising the issue. Quite why raising an issue of major importance is "scare-mongering" is beyond me. Are we supposed to remain silent each time something important happens? Perhaps that is Gateshead Labour's approach.

Anyway, what do we have at the Labour conference at this moment? - a debate about rail on the East Coast! Presumably that means in Gateshead Labour's eyes that Labour conference is "scare-mongering". Or is it just that Labour regards anything we do as "scare-mongering" yet when they raise the same issue, Labour regards themselves as "heros". (And everyone else regards them as hypocrites.)

Anyway, the Labour conference has now moved on to a speech by Defence Secretary Bill Ainsworth. He is a very worthy guy but his speaking style is deadly dull.

I'd better sort out remaining conference photos and video instead.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Labour can't complain

Labour are complaining loudly about the timing of the Sun's decision to switch to the Tories. Whilst I have some degree of sympathy for their case - it was a clear example of creating an alternative political news story to detract from and undermine the Labour conference - Labour can hardly complain. Back in 2007 Brown headed off to Iraq during the Tory conference in what was a deliberate attempt to shift media interest away from the opposition. Having let the chickens out, Labour can't complain when they come home to roost.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

The Sun no longer shines on Labour

The Sun has decided to back the Tories and abandon Labour. That's hardly surprising and the question has to be asked, when was the last time the Sun actually backed Labour rather than sniped at them. The Sun is a classic example of a political weathervane. It always backs the party that looks likely to win an election so that it can claim it was the Sun "wot won" the general election for the party it claims to be backing.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

The Conference Video

This is the video I put together about conference. It is mainly about Northern members but there are other bits of national interest as well.

Chris Rennard speech to Lib Dem rally, Sept 09

Chris Rennard has retired as chief executive of the Liberal Democrats. This was his first speech to conference since his announcement he is stepping down. Chris spoke at the rally at the start of conference on 19th September. He was introduced by Party President Ros Scott.

Voting reform - but not yet

Brown may come to regret his cowardice on this. He boldly announced yesterday he will do nothing on voting reform whilst spinning the message he will do everything. Bringing in alternative vote in place of first past the post for Parliamentary and council elections is a good first start that can be done rapidly. Brown chose to announce merely a referendum on this mild reform will be included in Labour's manifesto.

The reality is that Labour will be defeated and the referendum will never be implemented. He can make the offer to spin the message that he represents "change" (despite 12 years at the heart of government) whilst keeping the dinosaurs and reactionaries of his own party (typically Labour in the North East) happy by making an offer of reform which he knows he will never have to keep.

Spin over substance - how typically Brown. 10 out of 10 for polished spin, 0 out of ten for competent governance.

The interesting point is that voting reform could be the change that saves Labour but if they are kicked out at the general election, they may never get the chance to implement their own survival. After all, the Tories aren't going to bring in AV. Despite the history of the past 12 years, and the huge hurdle they face in going from where they are now to a majority government in one election, a study of elections over the past century shows that the current system benefits the Tories. Too many in Labour are too short-sighted (or too stupid) to realise that.

Charles Kennedy MP speaking at Lib Dem Conference rally 19th Sept 09

This is the video of Charles Kennedy speaking at the rally at the start of Bournemouth Conference last week.

Vote no-change for change

I am currently watching Peter Mandelson giving his speech to the Labour Conference. I am on record as liking Peter Mandelson. His skills have to be admired. He turned Labour from the unelectable bunch of dinosaurs into a great election winning machine (a quality Labour now appears to have lost). Anyone who could achieve that must have impressive skills.

He is also something of a comeback kid. Twice resigned from the cabinet but back for a third time. The question is, can he give Labour the comeback it needs. That may be the mission impossible for Mandy. His argument in his speech is that Labour at the election needs to pose as the party of change. Vote for no change if you want change. That seems to be his message. I really can't see that working.

Nevertheless the attacks on the shallow Conservatives were good stuff. It is likely to be a sign of what will be kicked about at the general election. And as I keep pointing out, whilst I think Labour will go down to defeat, the outcome of a majority Cameron government is not a certainty.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

The Monday Morning Blog - back on National Express, polls and nuts

A strange feeling of deja vu - it is a Monday morning and I am on a National Express train. No, I'm not heading to London. Actually the reverse, I am heading out of London to Newcastle and home to Sunniside. Amazingly, the train is not cancelled! Stranger things have happened.

I caught the Independent poll on GMTV this morning. Labour and Lib Dems both on 23%. I hoped to pick up a copy of the Indie at Kings Cross but WH Smith must have had a run on them. I ended up getting the details of the poll from the Indie website instead.

What was mentioned in passing, but not given sufficient attention, was the low rating of the Conservatives. At 38%, this is short of the minimum they need if they want to become the majority government after the general election. Think back to 1997 and you will recall the stratospheric support in the polls for Blair and the "new" Labour project (perhaps it should be "Labour" that is in inverted commas). Despite this, Labour fell well short of the shares of the vote predicted by the polls, with about 41% when people went to the polls yet there was a gut feeling amongst the majority of the population that the Tory government had to go and Blair and his team should take over. (It was clearly a long time ago!) Anyway, that same gut feeling just does not exist for Cameron. There is no yearning for a Cameron government.

Polls of course should be taken with a great pinch of salt, especially when they come from ComRes. Nevertheless, they can show trends - and in this instance they continue to show that the Tories are comfortably ahead of Labour only because Labour are so comprehensively behind. And it also show that Eric Pickles and his attempt to lovebomb the Lib Dems have failed. Mind you, the attempt by Eric Pickles to pass himself off as a progressive Liberal is like a drunken alcoholic claiming to be teetotal.

Anyway, my long weekend in London is now over. Some of it was spent in park and woodland in Crystal Palace picking nuts - sweet chestnuts to be precise. They are all packed into a box which is coming up to Sunniside with me on the train. All part of the self-sufficiency drive.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Blood on the walls or weary resignation?

The questioning of Gordon Brown this morning about his health by Andrew Marr was unreasonably direct. A bunch of disorganized anti-Brown malcontent Labour moaners twitter away to the press about excuses for Brown to go and the media jumps in feet first. Brown's health is not an issue. His competence to be prime minister is the issue. The intrusion into his health was inappropriate and unreasonable.

Nevertheless, as the gathering of Labour's great and the good (and the not so good, the useless and the malcontents) takes place in Brighton, the question has to be asked: is this a blood on the walls conference or one dominated by defeatist resignation. My guess is that whilst Brown will come out fighting against the Tories with claims of a rosey future and a fantastically strong economy that is leading the world to amazing prosperity unlike anything ever seen before, most Labour people know the reality on the ground is that their chances of a Labour 4th term with a majority is one in a million. I am of course being nice. Many in Labour are looking at the next election as a choice between unmitigated disaster and the slightly better appalling losses.

There will be no blood on the walls in Brighton. Labour don't have the stomach for regicide. They are stuck with a person who cannot lead, inspire or deal with the difficulties faced by his party. Now they must accept the consequences of their own decision to put Brown at the helm. Some more charitable people would say "Good luck" to them.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

I am a star in the BBC Village People video

There was great amusement on Tuesday evening at Conference when it was discovered that I had appeared in a BBC video about Conference called "Village People". No, I hadn't been caught dressed as a new York cop or a builder. Instead, unbeknown to me, the BBC had filmed the photo op I held for campaigners with Simon Hughes and the carbon footprint props.

Despite all the handheld devices we were carrying, we could not access the video and we were away from a pc so viewing it had to wait til Wednesday morning. I'm about one and a half minutes into it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8267930.stm.

Enjoy!

Nick Clegg speech at Bournemouth Conference rally

This is my first video from conference: Nick Clegg's speech to the rally on Saturday 19th September

Still processing those conference photos

I have nearly 4000 photos and 3 hours of video from conference which I spent yesterday processing. The job is not yet finished but some of the member photos with MPs are now on my Flickr site and the rest will go up today. I have had a string of emails from members eager to get their pics asap. If you are one of those people, they should be on Flickr by this afternoon. Check www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanwallace.

Also started is the editing of my conference videos but that job is secondary to sorting the photos. I'll be posting them onto YouTube and this blog when they are done.

I am on my way to Cowley St now to do more sorting, editing and uploading. I won't be back home to Gateshead til Monday. Meanwhile I went to the theatre last night. It was the smallest theatre I have been in, Shepherds Bush. I saw a play called 2nd May 1997, set in the hours immediately after the general election. It followed a Conservative MP and his wife preparing to go to the count knowing he had lost and worried about being seen as a failure, a Lib Dem activist who ended up taking a girl back to his home after an election party but she turned out to be drunk and then discovered she had got off with the wrong guy, and two gay Labour students, one of whom was from a wealthy household who was unconsciously patronising towards the other who was his best friend (who was also 'working class') but the richer one wasn't prepared to give his friend what he wanted. It was an interesting satire of politics as it is nowadays.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Conference is now over

3500 photos and 4 hours of video: Conference is now over and I am on the train heading back to London. A successful gathering and Nick spoke well this afternoon. Such a contrast to Brown. Labour as we know are now leaderless at so many different levels of their party. It will be interesting therefore to see how they cope next week with their own gathering.

I'm staying in London for a few days to sort out the garden. There is likely to be a trip to Cowley St in the next couple of days as well. I don't fancy uploading to YouTube and Flickr all the video and photos via the dongle on my laptop. I've asked the powers that be and I can do that instead from one of the PCs in HQ.

Tonight however is pub quiz night. Since most of the people on my team are Labour members, I'll not mention politics.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Photos galore

Day three at conference and the customers have been rolling through the photo ops. Today the queues were long for Simon Hughes with carbon footprints and the Guardian's 10:10 logo. The 2nd photo op today was with Tim Farron about fair trade and the lack of fair trade for British farmers from supermarket chains. That required an early morning trip to Tescos to buy some props for the event. Alas, all Bournemouth Tescos could offer was one brand of fair trade tea and one of coffee. Seems as though this town is not massive on fair trade - or possibly its only a gimmick for Tesco.

We did a Nick Clegg session with candidates this afternoon. However, this was invite only for key seat candidates - which meant Neil Bradbury from Blaydon was there as well. The really busy one will be on Wednesday. We have an open invite to conference members to have their pic taken with Vince Cable. We are expecting queues - long ones.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Heading off to the Lib Dem jamboree

I'm on the train now, heading to Bournemouth for the Lib Dem conference. Yes, it's that time of year - the Lib Dem annual jamboree, complete with late nights, scans of the directory for events with "refreshments" and a week on adrenalin.

I should arrive at 11am. My first activity is to photo Nick Clegg's arrival. In total I have lost count of the number of events and photo ops I need to photo. I also managed to leave the printed version of my diary in Gateshead Civic Centre. Thank goodness for memory sticks and here's to hoping I can get access to a laser printer at conference!
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Speculating that Brown will remain

Steve Richards in the Indie has an interesting article about Gordon Brown remaining as Labour Leader to the general election. It is interesting because it focuses on Brown remaining as leader as if that were a new concept. Ever since the fiasco of the election-that-never-was, the coverage of Brown in the media has never strayed far from the view that he will not survive as leader. So the article in the Indie is a bit of a refreshing change.

Richards argues that the Parliamentary timetable prevents a Labour leadership election. With virtually no time left before the election, Brown will remain in place. Gordon as Labour leader at the election has been the line I have followed since 2007 (except for one small wobble). Unseating a sitting Prime Minister against his or her will is extremely difficult. It's happened only once in my lifetime. So, Brown remains as Labour leader til the election. Then the Labour bloodletting may, or may not, begin.

The other issue touched on was the actual timing of the general election. Richards rules out June as going right up to the buffers. Clinging on to power to the very end does not inspire as an election slogan. He accepts May, coinciding with the local elections, as a possibility but downplays it. His argument is that it is still too close to the buffers. Instead, Richards believes that April is the likely time, the same month chosen by Major in 1992. He says he has spoken to a number of Labour ministers who favour April.

Whichever date is chosen, the one certainty is that with the party conferences starting tomorrow with our own in Bournemouth, the election campaign has started. Oh joy!

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Back in London

Having smelt the stench of fear on Labour in Gateshead yesterday, today I am giving them relief from their trauma. They can save their running-round-like-leaderless-headless-chickens performance for another day. Today I am in London. I came down last night to sort a few things in the flat before going to Bournemouth for Conference on Saturday.

I need to be at the Marriott Hotel by midday for the arrival of Nick Clegg. It's my first photo duty of Conference. Then I will be on the beach. Alas, this is not to go sunbathing. It is for a photo op we are running about flooding in the North East. And a candidate wants his photo taken there in jogging gear at the same time!

Any other candidates wanting specific photos taken can catch up with me at Bournemouth but be quick, my diary is nearly full.

Meanwhile, I am off to pick sweet chestnuts (as part of my self-sufficiency drive). There are a load of trees here which are ready for picking.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

My badge of honour

I am on the train from Newcastle to London, having just finished a full meeting of Gateshead Council. And what a great meeting it was! I feel energised and even more determined to put an end to Labour rule in the borough. And now that I have given up my Cowley St job, I have much more time to do it.

Today's antics from Labour, led by Cllr Mick Henry, are good reasons alone why they should be dumped at the ballot box. If only more people from Gateshead could see council meetings. They would see how he "leads" his band of merry followers. I proposed a motion opposing the proposals of Network Rail to create a high speed rail network that bypasses the North East. I wrote the motion in the expectation of cross party support. It went on to call on the Transport Secretary to ensure the East Coast was included in any high speed network. There was no criticism of the government, nothing attacking Labour, it was purely a motion attacking Network Rail. As far as I could see, it was fully in line with with Lib Dem and Labour aspirations.

Except that Labour cannot vote for an unamended motion from the Lib Dems, especially one moved by me. So they did one of their wrecking amendments. Every reference to Network Rail was removed, a big chunk of the motion was taken out and then put back, word for word the same and the real teeth of the motion - calling on the Transport Secretary to back the inclusion of the East Coast Line - were axed.

But the really interesting point was that I could barely be heard because of repeated interruptions from Cllr Henry. He even interrupted me before I had said my first word. And every few seconds I was interrupted. The few people who were in the public gallery must have thought Labour were using a barrage of noise, shouting and bellowing to drown out what I had to say.

After the meeting was over, fellow Lib Dems congratulated me. Labour are getting rather nervous now that I'm back. Some members even described Labour as "scared". After all, if I wasn't a threat to them, they wouldn't waste time attacking me so vehemently.

So I am definitely looking forward to the next full council and another Mick Henry performance. I am also hoping far more members of the public attend and see for themselves just what Labour are like in Gateshead. Indeed, I can foresee an article in my next efocus encouraging people to come to the Civic Centre to see Cllr Henry and his band perform.

Meanwhile, I have had a message from a friend saying that I should wear Cllr Henry's attack on me as a badge of honour. I certainly will!
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Conference photo ops

Okay, a message for all those attending Lib Dem Conference in Bournemouth this coming week. Here are the photo ops I am running which are open to all Conference members to attend:

Sunday 20th 3pm-4pm: Lynne Featherstone, knife crime

Monday 21st 10.30-11.30am: Simon Hughes, environment/carbon footprint/Guardian 10:10

Monday 21st 12pm-1pm: Tim Farron, fair trade/farming

Tuesday 22nd 2.30-3.30pm Norman Baker: Labour/Conservative rail failure

Wednesday 23rd 10.30am-11.30am: Steve Webb, unemployment

Wednesday 23rd 11.30am-12.15pm: Vince Cable

In addition, we will have a number of previously used props which we are bringing to conference for use without MPs. There will be two of these “general sessions” in the Tregonwell Hall: Sunday 20th, 12pm-12.30pm; Tuesday 22nd, 6pm-6.30pm. (These two sessions can be used for taking portrait sessions as well.)

There will also be a session for candidates to have their photos taken outside the front of the Bournemouth International Centre on Sunday 20th from 11am-11.30am.

If you have other photo or video requirements, catch up with me at conference.

Food for thought on the phone

There has been a long string of phone calls to the house tonight but the one that stands out was one of those calls from market research companies trying to build a profile of my shopping behaviour. I guess I wasn't much help.

After asking if I could spare a few minutes to answer a few questions, I was asked, "Where do you do your food shopping." "We don't," I replied. "We grow our own food." Silence for a few moments. "I guess you've not had that answer before!" I continued, successfully breaking the awkward silence that had met my answer. He admitted it was a new answer to him.

I was asked a few more questions about my buying activities.

"Where do we buy bread?" - Answer: "We make our own."

"Where do we buy clothes?" - That was a bit more challenging. I rarely buy clothes these days. The last time I went clothes shopping was just before Conference last year. House of Fraser, Victoria St, was therefore my considered reply.

"Where do we buy books?" Amazon (and Waterstones).

So, all in all, I'm not sure, after answering a whole range of questions, whether or not there was a category into which my retail activities could fit me.

Or maybe I am about to be hit by lots of offers for books from Amazon about growing your own food whilst shopping for clothes in a store over 400km away from home! I wonder if someone has written such a book. Well, that's food for thought!

Meanwhile, I am pleased to say that I have just completed and circulated the pre-Conference edition of the Northern Democrat. It comes hot on the heals of Parliamentary Campaigner which I finished over the weekend.

I was planning tonight to write my speech for a motion on highspeed rail I am moving at Gateshead Council tomorrow but I think I'll have a cup of tea instead, leave the speechifying til tomorrow and go to bed.

Nick Clegg visits Newcastle September 2009

Nick Clegg was in Newcastle yesterday. This si the video I shot of his visit.

Nick Clegg on Tyneside

I spent today in Newcastle doing photos and video for the Nick Clegg visit. We met him at the Central Station and then went to look at City Council apprenticeships, then the Newcastle Jobs Fair, the Cyrenians (training former drug addicts, in this instance in gardening) and then to Gosforth for a public meeting. All captured on video. I'll edit it and post it on Youtube tomorrow.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Vince Cable to do conference photo op

The final piece is in the conference photo op jigsaw. Vince Cable will be doing one of 6 that I am putting on at Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth. I will post up the list soon. I can't at this precise moment do so as I am sitting in the Moti Jheel in Whickham waiting to collect my takeaway (it's David's birthday so we are taking a break from homegrown food.) As I don't have the list of photo ops on me you will have to wait.

The Vince event is open invite for all those attending conference.

In the meantime, I have just returned from doing a leaflet delivery in Newcastle North. One hell of a delivery patch as well. Massive posh houses with drives as long as the A1 covered in range rovers and BMW 4 wheel drives. The leaflet is about Nick Clegg coming to Newcastle on Thursday. Having delivered 200 I have now worked up quite an appetite!

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Video newsletter from conference

With Conference now on the horizon, I am putting together the pre-Conference edition of Parliamentary Campaigner. Lib Dem candidates should receive it within a few days. I have included some ideas on the innovations page about how to communicate with people back in the constituency whilst in Bournemouth.

One of the ideas I am suggesting is a daily email newsletter to local members. But that brings me on to another idea I am hoping to test out which is to do a daily video newsletter which I will send to people on my regional email list. Producing this assumes a number of things: that I can work out how to use the new high powered, all-singing-all-dancing laptop I have just got with video editing facilities; that this wonderful new laptop will give me internet access (it is being rather temperamental at the moment but I think it's just the signal strength around here - hopefully there will be a wifi connection at Conference); and finally that I actually have the time to film and edit it all.

The videos will go onto YouTube and then onto this blog. Now that I have a Partner account with YouTube, I can put bigger videos up. So, all very experimental, but watch this space. It may work wonderfully, or is may be a complete failure. Trying it out however will be fun.

Historic setting for a friendly encounter

The world's longest continuous running steam railway, the Tanfield, is in my council ward. Most of the line itself is now a footpath rather than a railway. The bit at Marley Hill that continues to run trains is a tourist attraction as well as a heritage centre.

The whole length of the line from Pontop Pike to the Tyne at Dunston, Gateshead, is now featured in a book and dvd called "Like Taking Coals to Newcastle", produced by Sunniside History Society, based in my home village. They had a repeat launch of the dvd today (I couldn't make the first one because, ironically, I was meeting some historian friends of mine two weeks ago). It took place at Beamish Museum, which is in Co Durham, but near Sunniside.

The guest speaker was Government Chief Whip Nick Brown MP. Among the guests was Dave Anderson, Blaydon MP, with whom I had a friendly word, at the tram stop as we waited amongst the American tourists for a 1923 built tram to whiz us around the Museum! It beats having to get a National Express train to London on a Monday morning!

Anyway, I am back home now. If you are a Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate, watch out for the pre-conference edition of Parliamentary Campaigner coming your way soon. I'm working on it now. (I'm fitting in the work between going to the allotment, editing videos and salting my runner beans!)

Reducing personal debt - we should not be surprised

The media yesterday seemed rather surprised that the UK's level of personal debt fell last month and for the first time since records began in 1993, more mortgage cash was returned by borrowers to lenders than the lenders lent out.

Think back to the early 1990s. Reducing personal debt was then, if not an obsession with people, then at least an aim. Over indebtedness was a millstone around the neck of the British economy and people were worried about their jobs and therefore their future incomes. As debt is taken out against the prospect of continuing income into the future, people were trying to avoid a burden many felt they could not sustain.

There are significant differences between the current recession and the one in the early 1990s. Then, part of the driving force of the recession was high interest rates, brought about to tackle rising inflation, some of which (though not all) had its sources in the reunification of Germany and the absorption of the Ostmark into the Deutschmark. Nowadays, the problem is the opposite in that demand for goods and services has slumped and therefore prices (other than for basics such as food and fuel) have dropped.

Nevertheless, a common thread to both recessions is indebtedness. The credit fueled booms of the late 1980s and the 2000s saw too many people take out an unsustainable level of debt. At some point that money has to be paid back. In boom years, people think they can pay it off on the back of rising house prices. With that gone, now they have to pay it off from income.

Massive personal borrowing is a cause of boom and bust (a problem Brown claimed to have fixed but simply allowed to get worse). The bust is when we pay back for the boom. And with hundreds of billions of pounds owed by UK citizens as consumer (as opposed to mortgage) debt, my guess is that people are going to be paying off more debts than they take out in new borrowing for some time to come.

Off to Cambridge

Having spent most of the week I am now heading up to Cambridge. This required a journey across London this morning. This was a human obstacle course par excellence. It started on arrival at Victoria Station where the queues for ticket machines put wartime Britain in the shade.

That would not have been relevant for me if I did not have to recharge my oyster card. So I joined a queue, took ages to get to the machine and had to have 2 goes at operating it as it was being temperamental. With my card recharged I headed off through a packed tube system to Kings Cross where I was met by a wall of people. Kings Cross must have been celebrating human sardines in a tin day. I am on the Cambridge train now which itself is doing the sardines in a tin impersonation. I should be there in 20 minutes.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Adding insult to our transport injury

The announcement yesterday by Network Rail that they support the creation of a high speed rail link through the Midlands and North West to Scotland is good for those regions. But what about the North East and Yorkshire? Our region subsidises the rest of the rail network - the East Coast Line is the only route where rail companies pay the government to use the line rather than the government pay them. Our region is not on the motorway network either.

So this announcement is something of an insult to injury for the North East.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Oh for some real bread

As I am down in London this week, I am relearning to survive on commercially produced food from supermarkets and restaurants. Some of it is absurdly artificially overflavoured. Some is completely tasteless. I bought bread at a Tesco Express this morning. Frankly tissue paper has more flavour and body to it. We make our own bread back home. You can't beat it!

I have been to Cowley St today for meetings about the photo ops at conference. Comments from people suggested the good life is Gateshead is clearly working for me! Meanwhile I restocked the jam supply for my former colleagues. The cupboard had been bare there for a few weeks.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Spending a penny just got more expensive

It seems as though deflation is yet to catch up with that time honoured activity of spending a penny. The last time I used the toilets in Victoria Station was years ago and cost me 20p. Having just needed to spend a penny in Victoria it now cost me 30p. Whilst Gordon Brown may have let the economy go down the pan, spending a penny seems to be a bit of a money earner for Victoria Station. I suppose I feel a bit pissed off about it!
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Braindead Big Brother bites the dust

I was in a minority when Big Brother was launched earlier this decade. Whilst many avidly watched this programme and its bewildering array of idiotic attention seekers who played up their absurb personal characteristics, I simply fumed about the braindead quality of this broadcasting initiative. Quite what people saw in this voyeuristic claptrap was beyond me.

So the news that Channel 4 is to drop this rubbish is welcomed by me. Viewing figures have collapsed so its got to go. Quite right too. Let's hope no one else buys the rights to broadcast it.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Labour to abandon Trident?

This is the speculation in the Independent this morning. The suggestion is that Brown has been under pressure from Chancellor Darling to change the tone on public spending or risk letting the Tories win the argument on how much the government should spend.

One of the suggestions, and it reads more as an Indie rather than government one, is that the new Trident subs will either be delayed or cancelled altogether. The cancellation of the upgrade is now Lib Dem policy. A couple of years ago we kept the option of new subs open though opposed taking the final decision on replacement until around 2014 when the international situation would be clearer. Nick swept that policy away a few weeks ago, saying that building the new subs was no longer an option. Frankly, the cost of having the symbols of a superpower without the economy of a superpower was no longer a credible option.

Whether the Indie is right on delaying or cancelling Trident is yet to be seen. My feeling is that Brown will not want to reopen the issue. The thing that most scares the Labour leadership is Labour's past. Revisiting something that was so divisive is hardly appealing to Brown and his master Mandelson.

Mind you, what are the crusty old left Labour "socialist" brethren on the backbenches to make of this? After all, a great many of them quietly trooped through the government lobby 2 years ago to vote for Trident replacement. Having swallowed their pride back then, are any of them likely to want to regurgitate it now? Not a pretty thought but perhaps they won't want to be reminded of their anti-nuclear views that still saw them vote for Trident.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Heading down to London

Well, it's groundhog day! It's Monday and I am on a train heading to London. At least it's not first thing in the morning. I certainly don't miss those early morning trains to London. I was however up at a reasonably early hour this morning. Our candidate Neil Bradbury called to have some photos done in Sunniside before he went to work. So we were out on the Front St to catch the rush hour.

At least it meant I had a good start on a piece of literature I need to produce. I was able to finish it before leaving to catch the bus to Newcastle.

An editorial board meeting of Parliamentary Campaigner, which I edit, is the reason for the trip. I'm staying down for a few days so I can sort out the flat and garden there as well. And I need to get some photos around London. So it's not going to be an action packed week.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Frank Fields and the Lady Harriet

Hardly a month goes by without a call from Labour maverick Frank Fields on Gordon Brown to resign. The latest call is a bit different. It includes high praise for the Lady Harriet. It seems that Fields believes Harman will help Labour avoid a crushing election defeat.

As a Lib Dem who has no desire to see the "socialist" brethren continue in office where they operate a reverse midas touch (they seem to be able to convert gold into lead), I back the idea of a Lady Harriet Labour leadership. She really would scare the horses! Her voice sounds like someone dragging fingernails down a blackboard. And whilst Labour would undoubtedly play the anti-privilege card against Cameron, with Lady Harriet at the helm, they would simply come over as an even bigger bunch of hypocrites than they are now.

So, all power to Frank Fields call. The only problem is that in Labour, his support is seen as the kiss of death. Perhaps we should persuade him to come out against the Lady instead!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Photo ops at conference

Those who attend Lib Dem conference and have taken part in the photo ops I have run at past events may be interested to know that we will definitely be holding more events at the forthcoming Bournemouth gathering. Not all arrangements have been sorted yet and not all MPs invited to take part have yet responded.

However, those who have agreed to participate are Tim Farron (theme of fair treatment for farmers); Lynne Featherstone (equalities issues); Norman Baker (transport, possibly rail fares) and Simon Hughes (environment).

North East reps will also have a number of photo ops to attend and information will be circulated in due course.

Anyone holding a fringe event or wanting photos taken in addition to the photo ops should email me at jonathanwallace at compuserve.com.

Photo editing experiment - here's the result

I created this image of the Swing and High Level Bridges between Gateshead and Newcastle by editing together 5 separate images. The version I came up with has a far higher resolution that the above version but click on it to get a better view. The sloping right hand end of the High Level Bridge is caused by my having to rotate through a wide angle to capture the individual shots. Perhaps I should have used my tripod.

This was just the result of my playing about but I was sufficiently impressed with the software I used to share the final, reduced resolution version.

Bromley shows true colours of Tories

So, there we have it, true-blue Tory Bromley is going to subsidise private schools with council taxpayers' money. It is somewhat unfortunate that my London home falls (just) within the boundaries of Bromley and therefore I have to endure, when I am there (not so often these days) a Tory dominated council which now looks set to take from the majority to give to a fortunate minority.

Bromley is also the provider of schools for that part of London. Bromley Local Education Authority are not exactly giving themselves a vote of confidence in their own ability to run schools if they are paying people to escape from them.

And this move hardly smacks of the compassionate Conservatism David Cameron would have us believe his party now supports.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

I picked a fine time to quit London

Today's retail price index is 1.4% in negative figures. Under rail ticket regulation, prices increase by RPI plus 1%. That means prices will come down next year! Typical. Just when I quit London, fares to get there have come down.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

History rather than politics tonight

I have just arrived at the Bridge, one of the historic pubs of Newcastle. It is at the north end of the High Level Bridge, one of the great railway bridges of the UK. I am here to meet up with some historian friends. An ideal venue for such a meeting. We are the first to arrive.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Flower bed petitions and digging potatoes

I walked down to Whickham this morning to print 500 petition forms in our office and then deliver them with Neil Bradbury, our candidate for Blaydon. The petition opposes the decision by Labour to remove some of the flower beds in the area. Labour in Gateshead are the party of cuts though if you listen to their sanctimonious drivel, you could be conned into thinking otherwise. I have just been out to collect the replies. 109 petition forms were returned to us. Not bad.

I spent the afternoon working on another bed of the flora variety - my potato bed. Time to pick the spuds, until the rain set in and we had to give up. I'll finish that job tomorrow.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Osborne as slayer of bonuses - and Hannan a fan of NHS

Are we really meant to believe that little pipsqueak George Osborne believes in banning bank bonuses? Was this not the same person who two years ago was arguing that we needed even less regulation of the City than even Labour's light touch approach gave us? He must be having a laugh. George Osborne as slayer of bank bonuses - next they'll be saying Daniel Hannan loves the NHS.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

It must be the silly season

I thought I would take a few minutes break from picking raspberries in Lotties Wood near my house in Sunniside and catch up on some political blogging. It is of course August and therefore we are well into the silly season (as well as the jam making season!)

The story that is getting the silly season treatment is the leadership "ambitions" of Peter Mandelson. There was a time when most Labour members hated Mandy so much that he was regarded as Public Enemy Number One. It seemed that people like me had a higher regard for him than the socialist brethren. Mandy was regarded by the his Neanderthal comrades as the person who dumped all their cherished beliefs in the socialist utopia, and in the process made them electable (but also devoid of political content). Now, it seems, the socialist dinosaurs love the guy. Labour's Atavistic Tendency is out in force and Mandy is their new pin up.

But this passing love affair is destined not to last. Nevertheless, the media have grasped hold of it by the short and curlies and have blown it into a story of Mandy for PM. The difficulties of dumping his peerage and getting back into the Commons would, you would think, have deterred the media from this daft story, even assuming the Labour party successfully prised Gordon's fingers off the keys to Downing St (and so far every attempt to do so has failed).

Yet, even the return to the Commons of Mandy has been plotted out by the media in the form of the retirement of Hilary Armstrong, the hereditary socialist MP for Durham North West. The former Blairite chief whip, who inherited her seat in the Commons from her father, has announced her retirement at the next general election. The speculation is that she will resign her seat in September to create a vacancy for Mandy's return. It reads more like the storyline of a Jeffrey Archer novel rather than a future reality. But it certainly makes for an interesting silly season!

Brown however has Mandy where he wants him: on side to deter the Blairites from challenging (other than the hamfisted attempted by the Blairite B Team of Blears and Purcell). He is also imprisoned in the House of Lords. You have to credit Brown with something (though not much). He may be an appalling communicator with a temperament totally unsuited to the role of PM, but he certainly has staying power within his own party. The people in the general election however may not care to continue with Brown as the boss. Don't however underestimate Brown. He will do anything required to stay at the top.

Meanwhile, a wild deer has just trotted past me and it's time to go back to picking raspberries (and to blow one at the whole Many as PM story!)
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Delivering petitions

I have just finished delivering a petition in Whickham about Labour's cuts to flower beds in the village. Labour calls them "efficiency savings". They can't bring themselves to he straight with people about what they are doing. Anyway, I am now off to the recycling centre to take a pile of cardboard and then I'm off to the allotment to pick potatoes.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Heading back home

After 4 days in North Wales I am now heading home. The train has just pulled into York. I'm not back til after 10pm and I'm already hungry! I'll get dinner when I get back. In the meantime, I am reading a book about the Cold War by Jeremy Isaacs and Taylor Downing. I am feeling old as a result. Some of the events mentioned from the 1970s I remember. And I certainly remember the autumn of 1989 when Soviet control of Eastern Europe collapsed. By then I was already a Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate (for Hexham). Yes, I am definitely getting old.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Enjoying North Wales

IWe arrived in North Wales on Thursday evening. Yesterday we went over to Llonagllen to walk over the Telford Aqueduct. Look out for the inevitable YouTube video next week! I've just been to Bangor and Anglesey to photograph the Menai Bridge. Watch out for material going onto Flickr soon.

This afternoon I will be at an 18th birthday. Oh joy.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

On my way to Wales - and time to rant again about train companies

I am about to leave London and head to North Wales for a few days. I have just had to spectacle of being stuck in a queue in Victoria for half an hour trying to cancel my London travel card. When eventually I did get served the cashier walked off with my pass and then eventually returned to tell me that because of some obscure "warranty" ithey were not going to refund it and I had to go instead to some obscure office in Cannon Street. I am sure the system is designed simply to make it impossible to get a refund. A sort of full money back guarantee as long as you know the way to get round the complex barriers and hurdles. I'm fuming! But I aint giving up.

Anyway I should be at Euston soon and on the train to Wales. And I aint going to let basket case rail companies spoil my holiday!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Doing tourist type things

I went into Cowley St this afternoon to sort out some photo issues. Now I am at the theatre about to watch Avenue Q. I'm doing tourist type things. I haven't done that in my years of travelling to London but now I can! Tomorrow however I am not being a tourist. I need to sort my garden in London instead.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Hitting Labour where it really hurts - in the motions

This is a classic example of Labour's "don't do as I say and certainly don't say as I do" approach to politics in Gateshead. A little bit of background at this point is necessary.

Gateshead has a relatively high number of people who suffer and die early from smoking related illnesses. Gateshead Labour MP David Clelland is the leading critic of his own Government's attempts to end smoking in public places (he wanted private clubs excluded) and end tobacco point of sale displays in shops. Mr Clelland also has very strong links with the Tobacco Retailers Alliance which is leading the campaign against the ban on retail displays. His step daughter is the boss of the organisation, a fact Mr Clelland failed to declare until he was outed by the Observer a few weeks ago.

This has not made him popular with Labour councillors in Gateshead who quite rightly are very concerned about the appalling effects of smoking to the residents of the borough. The apparent concern of Mr Clelland for the demands of the smoking lobby over the health needs of his own constituents do not seem to win the backing of Gateshead Labour councillors.

Mr Clelland argues he is being "tolerant" and has further argued he does not believe a point of sale display ban would work. Many other people are indeed less tolerant - of illness and premature death caused by smoking. Given the much higher incidence of smoking related health problems of his constituents, Mr Clelland's "tolerant" views are all the more disappointing.

So, come the last full council meeting and Labour has a motion calling on the borough's MPs to support the government's proposed ban on point of sale tobacco displays. The motion was very ably moved by Labour's deputy leader Ian Mearns (I can't help feeling Labour would be in a much better position if he rather than Mick Henry led them on the council.)

I then moved an amendment which simply added to the call on MPs to support the proposal by asking them also to speak in favour of the plans in the Commons. The hysteria from Labour was - well you had to be there it believe it. Council Leader Mick Henry spent most of the debate attacking me personally. By the end of the debate it was difficult to believe that all that was being asked of Labour was that they were being asked to ask their own MPs to speak in favour of their own policy.

This of course was far too much for Labour, "led" by Mick Henry to contemplate. He claimed that MPs could not be asked to speak for something. He gave the scenario of the Council calling on all councillors in Gateshead to speak in favour of council policy.

Interestingly the previous month, "Leader" Mick had made precisely that demand of the Lib Dem group! At the end of a debate on National Express plans to introduce a charge for seat reservations (a debate on the back of a motion I wrote!) Taking-The-Mick Henry alluded to the cross party agreement on the issue and then demanded that the Lib Dems should speak positively about the council more often and include more in support of Labour decisions in our Focus leaflets!

So it's okay for Labour to demand the Lib Dems speak in favour of Labour policy but it certainly is not okay for Labour MPs to be asked to speak in favour of Labour policy!

What a bunch of jokers Labour are turning into in Gateshead. That reminds me, there was another motion at the July Council meeting, moved by Labour Councillor John McElroy. This one was about the media industry in the region and the need to support it. But it was carelessly worded with the result it could be read as offering to give tv license fee money to Sky TV! I moved an amendment which attempted to remove the worst and most careless feature.

I could see, whilst I was speaking, that the penny had dropped with Labour cllrs as they realised precisely what their motion was calling for. They could not of course vote for our amendment. Once their motions are written, they do not accept amendments, no matter how sensible. So they had to come up with another ruse. Standing orders were suspended so that they could reword the motion to rewrite the bits that were clearly going to cause them trouble.

With a bit of luck, whoever wrote the sloppy original motion will be drafted in to write Labour's national manifesto. It would mean a manifesto that truely reflects the nature of Gordon Brown's government - sloppy and falling apart the moment anyone examines it.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Fiona Hall's celebration party

I went to Fional Hall's celebration party this afternoon in the Biscuit Factory (it's an art gallery, not a production centre for dunking materials) in Newcastle. Fiona was re-elected as MEP for the North East last month so we were all in good spirits, especially as the region got the highest Lib Dem share of the vote in the UK. The biggest subject of conversation raised with me by people was the Good Life and how we are coping with self-sufficiency.

Talking of which, I went down to Beggarswood at Lobley Hill this morning to check out the supply of wild cherries. It's not in my ward but I was recognised by some LH residents and ended up getting some casework to do!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Would you believe it - I'm heading down to London

I haven't quite escaped from London it seems. I am now at Newcastle Central waiting for my (delayed) National Excess train to Kings Cross. The trip is for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I need to check my flat there is in good health. Secondly, I am continuing to run the photo ops for candidates at conference and I need to sort out some issues regarding that. Thirdly, I need to take jam into Cowley St. Apparently there is a jam famine there and the troops are ready to rebel if their marmalade and jam demands are not met! And finally I need to sort out my garden in London.

I am there til Thursday when I go up to North Wales for a short break (which also includes taking photos and video of historic landmarks for a project on which I am working.)

I will be back home a week tomorrow. David as usual is holding the fort in my absence.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Another byelection gain from Labour in Redcar

The Dormanstown byelection in Redcar was held yesterday and the count was this morning. Another gain from Labour. Well done to all our people there.

The ward, previously safely Labour, had a byelection in April which resulted in our first gain from Labour. All we had to do was repeat the result. We did just that but the other parties saw their votes fall.

By the way, another North East result with the Conservatives in 4th place. The biggest losers in votes however appears to be the BNP.

Lib Dems 805
Lab 515
bnp 145
Con 73
Turnout 29.8%

April 2009:
LibDem 809
Lab 667
BNP 305
Con 125

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

The Monday Morning Blog: hello, it's me, I'm on the train

I thought I had left early Monday morning train journeys behind me. How wrong I was! Here I am, on the 6.54am train from Newcastle to Carlisle, surrounded by people with backpacks and bikes. As for me, I'm in my suit!

It didn't take long for the party to catch on to the fact I am back full time in the North East. Since I returned, I have had a steady stream of requests to go to meetings, take photos and shoot video. Today, I am off to Kendal, admittedly outside the North East, to help run a meeting of the Lib Dem county group, suitably enlarged following the local elections last month. It was ALDC who put my name forward.

So, I get to see the Lake District and get home this afternoon, in time to go to the allotment and do other self-sufficiency things.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

At the Pink Picnic in the Park

I was asked by Newcastle Lib Dems to help run the stand at the Pink Picnic in the Park in Leazes Park. So here I am on the stand surrounded by muddy paths and squelching ground. Just like being on the allotment! Fortunately the rain is holding off for now.

Greg Stone, our candidate for Newcastle East and hopefully slayer of the ineffectual Nick Brown at the general election, has had to leave suddenly as someone has broken into his car and let off the hand brake. So his car started to head down the bank! Given the stands here at the Picnic are on a bit of a slope, and the ground is rather wet, I also feel we are slipping down the slope. Leazes Lake is getting that bit closer!

Meanwhile, the signatures on Fiona Hall MEP's petition on recognising same sex partnerships across Europe is gathering quite a few signatures. Greg should be back soon to take over the stand, hopefully before we end up in the lake!

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

MP to be smoked out by party members

Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, Mr David Clelland, is not having a good year. There is open speculation in the North East press about his future following his interesting use of the expenses system to give his then partner Brenda an equity release of £45,000 from his taxpayer funded London home. (Shortly afterwards Brenda became Mrs Clelland.) To add to his troubles, it was revealed that Mr Clelland had bought a rather attractive "oriental rug" and tried to get the taxpayer to pick up the bill for it.

Mr Clelland has also been one of the leading critics of the government's policy on smoking. He led the unsuccessful attempt to have private members' clubs excluded from the ban on smoking in public places. More recently he has been trying to incinerate government plans to ban tobacco displays in shops. The Observer recently attacked him for not declaring an interest in the issue. It turns out his step-daughter is head of a pro-smoking lobby group that is financed by the tobacco industry to fight the retail display ban.

Now Mr Clelland's troubles are a bit closer to home. Gateshead Council's Labour group will tomorrow move and debate a motion at full council highlighting the deaths and ill health caused by smoking in Gateshead - pointing out that the smoking-related health situation in the borough is amongst the worst in the country.

Interestingly, the motion goes on to demand that the MPs of the borough support a ban on point of sale promotions of tobacco in shops. Most Labour councillors in Gateshead come from the new Gateshead constituency for which Mr Clelland was narrowly selected to fight the next general election. His Tyne Bridge constituency is being scrapped.

So on the big, high profile issue on which Mr Clelland is battling, his own troops appear not only to be failing to back him, they are demanding he abandons the line he is taking. Is this the opening shot is a Gateshead Labour plot to rid themselves of this MP? Are there ambitious people in the Labour group with their sights set on his seat? Is Mr Clelland about to be smoked out?

Bumping into a "former socialist"

I was in Gateshead Civic Centre this morning to attend Cabinet and bumped into a senior member of the Gateshead Labour party. To spare him his blushes, I will not mention his name! He was talking about his villas in Spain. "How interesting it is to see a socialist engaging in the world of the multiple home owning democracy, even if the homes are abroad!" I joked.

"Former socialist," he corrected me!

I'm sure the company he keeps in the Labour Party is of like mind!

The Monday morning blog - no train journey today

For the first time in nearly a decade (other than holidays and times when I worked from home) I am not spending a Monday morning on the train to London. Bliss! Not that it's very relaxing here. Okay, I didn't have to get up at 6.40am, but I have had to make a trip to the allotment and now I am back home, surrounded by papers I need to read for meetings tonight and tomorrow. Meanwhile an email has arrived asking me to facilitate a meeting next Monday in Cumbria of the county council group.

So I am rapidly back into the swing of things (not that I was ever really out of them.)

Yesterday I paid a visit to Newcastle North constituency, a key battleground in the North East. The news from there is that Little Big McHenderson, the Labour MP (and a definite vote winner - for the Lib Dems) has announced his retirement at the general election. Whether or not this is to spend more time with his burgers (he's on McDonald's payroll as an "adviser") is not clear.

I was also out collecting petition signatures against Labour's cuts to flower beds in Whickham (Labour call them "efficiency savings"). We got about 70 signatures.

I'm off to bake bread now!
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Three quarters of a million YouTube viewings

Another milestone in my bid to conquer the known universe - whilst I was on holiday my YouTube videos reached three quater of a million viewings. Sadly, for the rest of the world hoping desperately that I would get a life, I have over 2 hours of video shot in Paris, Norway, Faroe Islands, Iceland and the Orkney Islands over the past 3 weeks which will all be edited and uploaded to YouTube.

If anyone is short of something constructive to do, feel free to boost my viewing figures further at www.youtube.com/jonathanwallace

---
Sent via BlackBerry

National Express resigns as the Fat Controller

It seems everything happened whilst I was away. Michael Jackson died (we had previously tried to get tickets for the O2 concerts when they were first announced but found they were sold out). Britain had a heatwave (we were getting worried as we sailed around the North Atlantic that all our crops would be frazzled by the time we got back - fortunately they are all doing well.). Cowley St suffered a flood on floor three right next to my old desk. (I always miss the exciting stuff!)

But the big news in my absence was that National Express decided to hand back the keys to the East Coast railway line. Seems as though National Excess couldn't afford the fare. Quite when they will hand over the service is not known but it is rather ironic that just as I stop using the service as a regular traveller, they decide they want to hand over the service to people who know how to run trains.

It is doubly ironic that I should find myself writing this post on the National Express train heading to Newcastle. At least however I am heading home.

I feel sorry for the staff running the rail service. Not only do they have to put up with passengers upset by management decisions to cancel trains, they are about to have their third employer in two years.

The question now is what happens to the franchise. I have seen suggestions that the government wants to offload it as quickly as possible. There are some who want it fully nationalised. There are times when putting a company into public ownership is the right thing to do. There are other times when public ownership is inappropriate or just plain damaging. I certainly don't support public ownership simply for the sake of it. I'll leave that to the Labour dinosaurs. The railways themselves did not do well under state ownership. Remember Beeching was a government appointee with a government remit to hack down large parts of the rail network. In effect British Rail was neglected as governments were not committed to investment and making it a success. There are plenty of faults with the current private franchising operation, but outside Network Rail, the private operators are at least committed to making running trains a success (even if like National Express they make a hash of it.)

I can't imagine for a moment that a Tory government would look on a publicly-owned rail system favourably despite their protestations of support, which we all know is drivel. A rail network fully owned by the public would not fare well under the Tories.

Perhaps what we need to do is work out what the final shape and purpose of a rail system should be and then decide the ownership on the basis of how best to deliver that vision.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

The Monday Morning Blog -Back in the UK

We arrived at Harwich at 8am today and we are now on the coach heading to Victoria. A very pleasant holiday and we are thinking of returning to Iceland to see the country in more detail. The trouble with doing a cruise is the rather fleeting glimpses gained of places visited. Iceland has too much interesting geology and history to do on three one day visits. We need much longer there. Whilst I think it unlikely we will get back to the Faroes, we are likely to return to Norway. It is, after all, only a ferry ride away from Tyneside.

I wouldn't mind returning to the Orkneys, though it would be as a stepping stone to visit the Shetlands. Incidentally, the amusing incident of the holiday was in the Orkneys. The local MP, Alisdair Carmichael, had picked up from Facebook that I had arrived in Kirkwall and sent me a message suggesting we meet up. Alas, we didn't have time to do so as we were only there for half a day. But we did speak on the phone. Facebook, internet, mobile phones. There's no escaping them!

Apparently there has been a heatwave in the UK whilst I was away. And the first thing that happens when we set foot again back here? - it rains. Welcome back! Mind you, I guess the allotment could do with a heavy downpour.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

In the Orkneys

We have just arrived in Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands, having spent a day and a half sailing across the North Atlantic from Iceland. So we've done volcanoes, whale watching, geysers and waterfalls. Today we go to Skara Brae and then it's back to Harwich for the end of this holiday.

Given the poor signal at sea, I turned on the blackberry as we arrived this morning in Kirkwall and got a bucketful of emails.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

MP's staff car travel claim and the Sedgefield By-election

Do you remember the Sedgefield by-election? I do! I went to do the photos and video for the Lib Dem campaign (and managed to write off one video camera in the process when I got caught in one of those massive downpours.)


I wasn't the only councillor from Gateshead to be involved with the by-election. Paul Foy, Labour councillor for Birtley and office assistant for Blaydon MP David Anderson, was there as well. The reason I knew that is down to Councillor Peter Mole, a Labour council cabinet member. At full council on 19th July 2007, on the same day as the by-election, he announced that Cllr Foy was down in Sedgefield helping Labour in the by-election. As is so often the case, Cllr Mole is a useful font of wisdom when it comes to what's happening in the local Labour party!

I was therefore intrigued by the following claim for "staff car travel" made by Mr Anderson on 28th July 2007, just 9 days after the by-election. The amount was for £214.80. That seems an awful lot for one month's car use by a member of staff and, unless I have missed it, I can find no other similar claim anywhere in Mr Anderson's accounts. In other words this claim seems to be a one off.


Now, we all know that an MP's office budget cannot be used for party political purposes. Paying staff expenses to help Labour in a by-election is certainly not a permitted use of taxpayer funded office allowances. Quite what the claim in Mr Anderson's allowance was for, and which member of staff it covered, are not clear from the published accounts. All but the actual amount has been covered up.

So, could Mr Anderson enlighten us with the details as to what the purpose of the "car travel" claim of his staff member was for?

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Norway and Faroes now done

The GPRS signal is rather variable out here as we head around the north of Iceland so whether or not this post will get through immediately or wait in the queue for the signal is yet to be seen. Anyway, we did Norway last week, visiting Flam and Alesund. We were whale watching as we headed for the Faroe Islands on Saturday and we also experienced 24 hour daylight.

We've done one stop in Iceland this morning, to look at lava flows and go swimming in a hot lake. Very relaxing, except we had to get up at 6am to do it. We are now heading anti-clockwise around Iceland and should be in Reykjavik tomorrow.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Dave Anderson expenses - councillor's business benefits

Before going on holiday, I found a bit of time to go through the claims and receipts of Labour MPs in Gateshead. And some very interesting reading they make. So here's the first in a series of interesting highlights.

Blaydon MP David Anderson paid a company from his taxpayer funded office allowance £2056.25 in March 2006 for "consultancy, constituency office support and development, staff development, casework management, media handling and parliamentary reports."

In December 2007 a payment of £4,459 was paid to the same company, this time in connection with Mr Anderson's annual report.

The company in question is Mapset Ltd. I can reveal that the director of this company is a Mr Gary Haley, a Gateshead Labour Councillor.

He had previously been Labour candidate in my ward but at his 3rd attempt at election his vote spectacularly collapsed. He then turned his attention to Dunston Hill and Whickham East ward, a very marginal Lib Dem held seat. During his two attempts to get elected there I am pleased to say that the Lib Dem majority increased substantially.

Mr Haley then jumped wards again in July 2007 to be Labour candidate in Dunston and Teams, a safe Labour ward, which resulted in his election as councillor (it was his 6th attempt.)

I found the following description of Mapset on the Journal website from 12 August 2003:

"Mapset has built up a reputation for high-quality book design for large-scale projects in environmental publicity.

"But it also works on projects including map-based corporate publicity."

Quite how all this fits in with running a constituency office, casework management, media handling and parliamentary reports is not clear.

£6500 of taxpayers' money paid to Mr Anderson's friend's business is a great deal of money. I am a great believer in ensuring as much support as possible goes to local businesses where they are able to supply good quality goods and services at a competitive rate.

So I can only hope that Mr Anderson wanted to ensure other local businesses got a fair chance to bid for the contract. After all, I'm sure Mr Anderson would not want to be seen favouring a business run by one of his Labour chums.

So perhaps he could enlighten us as to the tendering process he used and, without giving away any commercial confidentiality, indicate how many other offers for the same work resulted from the bidding process and therefore how much was saved by opting for Mr Haley's company.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Just arrived in Norway

A very calm crossing of the North Sea. It was more like sailing on the Mediterranean, especially given the temperatures. The last time we sailed across the North Sea to Norway was on the ferry in November 2003 in the middle of a heavy storm. Yours truely was very seasick!

We have just arrived at Flam and we are due to go ashore shortly.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

About to pack

I have just left George Crozier's leaving do in Westminster. Contrary to popular opinion, as implied by one of my regular readers, only a small number of people are leaving Cowley St. We are moving on for different reasons and we are all being replaced! So sorry Kevin, not quite the story you were suggesting!

Anyway, I am heading back to the flat now to pack for our holiday. We leave tomorrow for a cruise to Norway, Faeroes, Iceland and the Orkneys. A chance to take lots of photos and video. The house, allotment and cat Freda are being looked after by Mam, Dad and our friend Glenys. We have decided however that this is possibly not the best time of year to go on holiday, just when the first crops are ready for harvesting on the allotment.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Back in the UK

I am on the Eurostar having just arrived on the UK side of the Tunnel. A pleasant trip and a bag full of digital photos and videos to sort.

Sitting down to have a sandwich for lunch shortly before leaving Paris, and looking at the messages I sent on my blackberry, I spotted a dreadful typo in my blog post yesterday about Labour MP Doug Henderson. I wrote about his being "burghered" (as in the citizens of a town) by Gordon Brown when I meant to say he was "burgered" as in made into the food so beloved of McDonalds! Oh well, time to burger off!

Meanwhile I got a message this morning. A request has gone in that an additional section be added to one of the publications I produce. It inevitably means I will be working tomorrow. Oh joy! This was meant to be my holiday.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Costing an arm and a leg in Paris

As promised in my earlier post, here I am at Montmartre, Paris, having dinner. I have to confess I am horrified at the costs here. £10 for a pint for example. Over £10 for an omlette. Paris has gone up so much in price since I was last here in 2002. But at least the Metro is cheaper than the Tube!

We've done Eiffel Tower, Arch de Triomphe, Pyramid at the Louvre, Notre Dame and now Montmarte. Having broken the bank, we'll try to find somewhere that does not measure its prices in astronomical units. Not even MPs on £400 a month taxfree food allowances could survive here!
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Is MP Henderson about to be burgered by Brown?

Little Dougie Henderson, Labour MP for Newcastle North, could see his Parliamentary salary reduced if Gordon Brown gets his own way. Chairman Brown, no doubt supported by First Secretary Comrade Mandelson, is looking at paying MPs less when they have significant earnings from outside Parliament. Little Big McHenderson is earning a whopping £25 grand a year for "advice" from the capitalist giant that is so loved by the socialist brethren. He claims that he only has to give 10 days a year to the job telling McDonalds how to sell burgers to the great British public.



The talk in the press is of Brown moving to cut the pay of MPs earning bags of cash from outside sources as it is a way of putting in the boot on Tory MPs, so many of whom earn great dollops as directors, company advisors and so on. The problem is that a bunch of Labour MPs will be caught in the same net.



So, is Little Big McHenderson about to be burgered by Brown?



Mind you, Comrade Alan Milburn, part time MP for Darlington and a fan of keeping people in emplyment (he practices what he preaches by having 5 or 6 jobs himself in addition to being MP) looks set to be burghered even more by Brown. His earning from outside interests make Little Big McHenderson's burger money look like chicken feed (which is probably more nutritious than the burghers he promotes.)

---

Sent via BlackBerry

Off to Paris

I'm on Eurostar travelling to Paris, having just left St Pancras. I'll be in France only for a one night stay. It's my first Eurostar trip since the international terminal was moved from Waterloo and having now seen St Pancras, it thoroughly deserves all the accolades it has received.

Not everything this weekend has gone to plan. I had intended sorting my rather neglected garden in London yesterday. I didn't even manage to set foot in it. My excuse is that it was the first day of my holiday.

Anyway, my next report will come from somewhere in Paris, probably from Montmartre.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

Over and out

This is me outside Cowley St today, my last day on the Lib Dem staff payroll. I am busy clearing the last bits from my desk. In a few minutes I will be out of the building......

How to make elderflower champagne

Okay, not a political story but I made elderflower champagne over the weekend. When I made it last year and posted up the recipe, various people spoke to me afterwards, having read about it on the blog. So inevitably, here comes the video!

Last day in Cowley St

I am on the train now heading to Victoria for my last day working in Cowley St. I've already had a leaving lunch and a bit of a surprise party with colleagues in the office yesterday. My main leaving do is in July.

So, there we are, another life changing decision has been taken and many challenges ahead. And of course the opportunity to wreak as much havoc on Labour in Gateshead as possible!

---
Sent via BlackBerry

Leaving Cowley St for the Good Life

This Friday is my last day at Cowley St. I am leaving for the Good Life in Gateshead! Literally! My department is being reorganised and I was offered redundancy or interview for one of the new jobs that will be created. The reorganisation is the result of the Bones Review. Lib Dems will know what that is - in a nutshell, a reformed structure for the party centrally that is designed to deal with the demands now placed on the party and takes the organisation forward. Any sensible organisation must review its structure to ensure it best operates in the current and likely future environment.

The outcome for my job is that my functions are being split between 2 new posts and my current job ceases to exist. My original plan was to apply for one of the new jobs but after a great deal of thought, I realised that now is the ideal time to pick up where I left off 9 years ago when I first started working in London.

One of my big aims has been to become self-sufficient, to grow all our own food. We have made a start with this, taking on a derelict allotment 2 years ago. It is now into production but needs more work. Saving the environment is not just something I want to talk about. We each have to do our bit and for me, I want to do that bit more. Growing all our own food means we will greatly reduce our impact on the environment. I am looking forward enormously to working on this.

But there are other things in the pipeline as well. I will be able to pursue a career as a failed novelist and finish the novel I have been writing for the past 10 years! Finding a publisher may be a bit more difficult. I also have plans to make a series of local history videos and publications. All these have been shelved for years but now there is a possibility of doing them.

And finally, I am much more at home in politics being a field officer rather than stuck behind a desk in HQ producing material for others to use. I have done as much campaigning as I can in Gateshead whilst doing my London stuff but I want to do so much more on my home patch. We have target seats I am now signed up to help in the region. And in Gateshead I will be taking a more hands on role in taking the battle to the Labour party. The socialist brethren had better watch out - I'm back!

So, after 7 years at Cowley St, and 2 before that at the LGA, I'm coming home for good. Deciding to leave HQ has not been easy and I couldn't have asked for a better bunch of people to work with. But there are times when you know a lifetime opportunity is waiting to be grasped and may never come again.

So thank you to all my colleagues in Lib Dem HQ, it's been a great 7 years. And to everyone else watch out for things happening in Gateshead.
---
Sent via BlackBerry

The Monday Morning Blog - Balls and the lack of Tory scrutiny

I see that the Guardian today has interview Ed Balls, the scariest member of the Government and the Chancellor Brown never had. In it he argued that Labour is in danger of letting in the Conservatives by fighting themselves. The bout of infighting means that Labour are not scrutinising Cameron and his party.

Balls, dare I say it, is correct. He is also correct in his assertion that parties that are divided do not win elections. Asking what the Conservatives stand for is a perfectly legitimate question. With the greatest of respects to the Conservatives, being nice and cuddly does not constitute a political programme. Even Blair in his cuddliest days in opposition had some policies, limited though they were. It could be argued that with little of substance in Tory policy, there lurks a bigger danger of old style Toryism waiting to raise its ugly head when it feels the time is safe.

All of this is of course being overlooked whilst Labour engages in its own suicidal civil war. Perhaps the focus on the divisions helps mask the fact that few seem to know what Labour now stands for, reflecting the outlook people have on the Conservatives. Maybe there is method to Labour's madness after all!

"Clinging to Power" is hardly a great campaign slogan. It didn't work for John Major in the mid 1990s and there is no reason for believing it will work for Labour now.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

When an apology is all about saving your skin

Had I been a Labour member last week, I would have been livid at the behaviour of Hazel Blears. Resigning from government is one thing. Resigning on the eve of an election, and sticking the knife in the back of your own party on the eve of an election, all for the sake of your own ego, is unforgivable. Blears, always something of a joke in government, and always with that irritating grin welded to her face, set out to do the maximum damage to Brown. And she did it in the most arrogant of ways.

She banked on bringing down Brown. She believed she had the power to set off the powder keg below the PM. She ended up showing how arrogant and out of touch she is. That's not an unusual description for many government ministers. They've been there so long that they think the world revolves around them. Blears, like Flint, simply had egos that were too big to cope with the situation.

What struck me most when Blears stormed out of the Cabinet was that the people on the ground in her Salford constituency were not in anyway complimentary about her. Yet she was behaving as if her journey back north would be met by acclamation by the people.

I suspect her contrition and apology today have been inspired by the verbal savaging she is likely to have received from local Labour members and constituents. She does of course have a selection meeting coming up and a skin of her own that needs to be saved.

No doubt a week ago she was dreaming of a cabinet position under a new PM. Now she has the nightmare of being booted out of her job as MP by her own party. If that is what happens, I'm sure plenty of Labour members will be happy to see the back of her. The rest of us won't miss her either.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Heading back to Gateshead

I have council later today but instead of travelling home last night, I am heading home this morning. Last night was Greg Simpson's leaving do (he was Director of Policy at Lib Dems). He is off to do a high powered job at the Ministry of Defence. Anyway, the leaving do kept me in London overnight.

Coming up at council will be a motion to be moved by me calling on National Express to drop its new seat reservation charge. I am completely unaffected by the charge as it only applies to open standard class tickets. The tickets I buy to travel between home and London are prebooked and therefore come with an automatic seat reservation. National Express say that unclaimed seats are blocking the chance for other passengers to have a seat whilst travelling. This is rubbish. No unclaimed seat remains empty for long! In reality this is just a way of raising extra income.

Anyway, the big hurdle today for me lies just ahead. When I get to Victoria, I have to get across London to Kings Cross with the Tube on strike and the buses packed out. I've worked out the route I can take on foot instead. Lots of good healthy exercise in all that clean central London air!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Excellent news from the Commons

Brown survived last night, as predicted. Excellent news. He survives to lead the government of the walking dead to Labour defeat.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

The Monday Morning Blog - Brown will survive tonight

Having predicted for two years that Brown will survive to the general election, I did have a wobble last week when Blears self-destructed. All is back to normal now in the sense that Brown is on the rocks but secure in his hold as Labour leader.

The problem for the Labour rebels is that they have no candidate to challenge Brown. And even if they did, they would have to get over the hurdles which have been placed in the way in the rulebook which were specifically designed to prevent leadership challenges. It is also clear from the past week that the Rebel Alliance is a disorganized bunch who have failed to attract big names from the cabinet. With Darling, Milliband and Johnson staying loyal, Brown is safe.

What also holds it together for Brown is MAD - mutually assured destruction. Were Labour to dump Brown now, the demand for a general election would be all-consuming. And do you think Labour would want a general election in the current climate? Their one and only option is to hold on to the bitter end in the hope that the expenses scandal can be sorted and there is an upturn in the economy. Even then, there is no guarantee of improved Labour prospects. The economy recovered under John Major in the mid 1990s but the Conservatives went down to heavy defeat in 1997.

So whether Labour love him or loath him, they are stuck with Brown.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Fiona re-elected in North East

I was at the Gateshead count where we got just under 9000 votes to Labour's 13,000. UKIP were 3rd and the Tories 4th. I got home and waited nervously for the North East result to be declared.

Our fear was that Fiona Hall could lose out to the UKIP surge. Fiona only just won her seat last time round from Labour. Once the picture of Labour collapse was clear, we knew Labour were not the risk this time. As it turned out, Fiona was re-elected with a comfortableish majority. UKIP did surge butt not by enough. Delighted to see her back in.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Houdini Brown strikes again

Watching the news this afternoon is like watching a drama unfold. As it was, when I got back from the verification this morning, I watched the news of the reshuffle and then fell asleep for three hours. I woke up to a back-to-the-future world in which Brown was still PM and Labour were still at war with themselves.

Nevertheless, Brown appears to have seen off the rebellion. The suicide bombers of Blears and Purnell have been nothing but duds. Caroline Flint has failed to spark a rebellion. And she looks absurb anyway following her gushing praise of Brown less than 24 hours earlier. Now, she simply looks like she has thrown her toys out of the pram following a strop caused by not being offered a cabinet post.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet has a ring of something from the nineteenth century. All those Lords. Seems as though Labour have run out of talent in the Commons.

So Houdini Brown escapes again and the spineless jellies of the Labour party are stuck with the person they know is so very wrong for the post of PM. Not that the opposition want him gone before the general election. Time, I guess, to say thank you to all those jellies for their spinelessness.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

All previous predictions are off

Gordon Brown will continue as Labour leader until the general election. That is the prediction I have been making for the past year or so, ever since the rumblings of discontent began within Labour ranks about Brown. The resignation of Blears could well be the final nail in the coffin of that prediction. The Jacqui Smith announcement yesterday was something Brown could survive with a reshuffle. Now I am not so sure. It appears Blears has deliberately attempted to undermine Brown. What a strange time we are living in. I have never known anything like this before.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

More focus deliveries

I am currently walking to Lobley Hill from my village in Sunniside to deliver 500 focuses. It also gives me the chance to check out some casework issues and check on wild food sources on the way! Then I have to get back home to write my final focus for this election campaign.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

The Monday Morning Blog - move over Darling

It's day 23,456,936 of the MPs expenses scandal (or at least it feels like it!) and the spotlight is on Chancellor Alistair Darling. His sin, according to the Daily Telegraph, was to claim on two homes at the same time. Effectively, he claimed in advance for the service charge on his flat and shortly afterwards was appointed Chancellor with a posh address in the exclusive and sought after suburb of Downing St. I understand from the BBC this morning he has paid back the sum in question.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that Mr Darling appeared to have been living previously at no fixed abode - or rather, had switched his 2nd home 4 times in 4 years. What a pity he is presiding over increasing housing shortages and a slump in new house building for everyone else. But at least he's okay (until Brown decides to rid himself of Darling and appoints his chum Ed Balls in his place.)

The sacking of Darling as Chancellor is not that far fetched. Vince Cable has called for it! And if past precedent is anything to go by, Labour will ignore Vince's call, and then a while later will adopt it as their own idea.

No train journey to London this morning for me. No experience of National Excess's cancelled trains. No crawling out of bed at an uncivilised hour of the morning. This week I am at home to help in the Euro elections on my home patch.