Lembit but no Cheekie Girl

The 4th and final photo op I had organised for candidates was held this morning. It was about Labour's post office closure plans. Lembit Opik is the Shadow Business and Enterprise Secretary so the photos were with him. There was no Cheekie Girl in tow.

I spent some time this afternoon putting photos onto the parties website. Most are not taken by me but by Alex Folkes. However, mine filled a few gaps in the coverage.

And so that brings me to this evening. It's the hunter/gatherer phase of the day when we go in search of fringe meetings with good food and, of course, interesting issues for discussion. I missed the first round of meetings at 6pm as I was in a Northern Region meeting. When I got to these meetings, all that were left were empty plates and a bowl of olives! The next meetings start at 8pm.

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Cutting Income Tax

Here's the photo of metaking part in my own photo op yesterday with Vince Cable cutting income tax!

Press at my back whilst Vince saws through income tax

I have arranged to put on 4 photo ops for candidates and campaigners at conference. The first was on Sunday with Norman Lamb MP and a giant tooth. This is for those involved in the health campaign and the photos can be used to illustrate the decay in the NHS dentistry service. Advance notice of this appeared in the Guardian recently!

The second was yesterday with Chris Huhne MP. This involved 2 carbon footprints, one large one, representing people's carbon footprint as it is now, and a second smaller one, representing the smaller carbon footprint under Lib Dem policies. This one had queues of people around the block!

Today's photo op was with Vince Cable cutting income tax - using a saw to cut a banner representing income tax. Again, queues around the block for this one. Somehow, the media took an enormous interest in this event. So in front of me was Vince with a saw and a succession of candidates whilst behind me were press photographers and media cameramen catching anything that moved. So I suspect there are a large number of photos of my rear end and a large amount of footage of me shouting at candidates to stand in a certain way, hold the props at the right angle and especially to keep smiling and stop talking!

What struck me afterwards however was that if the media thought this photo op made for interesting pictures, then they will make interesting pics in people's focus leaflets,which was what this whole exercise was about producing.

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Laws of conference no. 1: get me to the fringe on time

Organisations hosting fringe events at conference have a standard practice for getting people through the doors and ensuring there are bums on seats. It's called "Refreshments available". This is a well tried and tested practice and is a good way of getting people into a meeting about an issues of which they have very limited knowledge or indeed interest.

It is possible to go through a conference without having to buy a meal. But there is a snag. I was due at the Northern Regional Development Agencies' meeting last night. Lots of food and wine available. I had helped promote the event as one of the sponsors had been in touch with me asking for advice on advertising it and I even took their ad and put it in my regional newsletter, The North East Democrat.

But last night, as the meeting was underway, I was stuck in our office in the Brighton Centre uploading photos to the website. By the time I had finished cocking up the process and got it right, I was feeling rather hungry. So I sped off to the RDA meeting just in time for, well, just in time for the speeches! The last of the wine had been sozzled and all that was left to eat was a handful of sandwiches no one else wanted!

I have just had breakfast in the Grand. My first proper meal since breakfast at the Grand yesterday! Expect me to lose weight at this conference!

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Dr Death and the Liberal Democrats

The press cuttings were delivered to my hotel room this morning. A quick flick through told me that David Owen (aka Dr Death) was making a reappearance on the political stage. Sadly for Dr Death, he is a figure that has now been largely forgotten by the good people of the UK. Instead of a front line political career in the Lib Dems when the SDP and Liberals merged in 1988, Dr Death (middle name Ego) decided to storm off into the wilderness to create a shortlived party (SDP Tick) in his own image.

The historical ineptitude of the press today however is amazing. He is variously described as a great figure of the Liberal Democrats, or the Liberal movement. Dr Death has never been a member of the Lib Dems and he has spent most of the past 20 years trying to destroy us. It is no coincidence that on the eve of our conference, he is making pro-Brown pronouncements, almost certainly assisted by the vast Brown spin machine which, far from being dismantled, is growing ever bigger.

A political handshake with Dr Death however is the equivalent of taking hold of a live wire. You are going to get hurt! Owen has shown that he can make serious errors of judgement. He is a person whose ego is far bigger than his common sense. It could of course have been so much different. He could have led the SDP into the merged party instead of throwing his toys out of the pram. Frankly, if Brown wants him, he's welcome to him.

I wonder how Labour members in Gateshead (especially the ones with the big egos reading this blog) are taking to yet another inclusion of an old enemy in the big tent of Gordon Brown. The big tent however is an image rather than reality. It is all for show so that Chairman Stalin Brown can appear inclusive and nice whislt ensuring all power rests in his hands. Perhaps it is more a case of a big top than a big tent with Brown's political circus there to entertain and bamboozle the audience. The question is, who is taking on the role of the clown. Back to Dr Death I think...

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Ming arrives at Brighton - the exclusive photos!

I was at the front of the Grand Hotel in Brighton in the press pack waiting for Ming to arrive. So here are a couple of the pics I took as he spoke to the press.

I had arrived there about half an hour earlier. Alas, whilst the press pack was there in force, it wasn't waiting for me! But my taxi driver was amused anyway!

Heading for Brighton with a studio in my case

I am on the train to Brighton now to go to party conference. It feels like I have a studio's worth of cameras and camcorders in my suitcase. After I added my conference papers and various papers from Gateshead and from constituents I will deal with when I am at Brighton, there wasn't much room for my clothes!

So it's a week of early morning meetings, late nights, minimal sleep, meals grabbed on the move, herding people through photo ops and generally enjoying myself! The drawback is that I'm not home this weekend. So next weekend I will have to double my number of voter contacts when I'm back home.

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Food for thought

There has been some interest recently in a report outlining the findings into research into what people were eating in Britain thousands of years ago. The main focus of attention was on hedgehogs and nettles. There seemed to be a degree of surprise that such foods were eaten, and what's more, they were cooked with other ingredients, not eaten raw.

Much of this was turned into a joke by media commentators. Okay, let's take off the menu any thought of hedgehog. Rather than eating them, I could do with some of them in my garden to eat the snails. But there are a remarkable number of nutritious wild foods in the UK that are widely available and enjoyable to eat. I use nettles for soups and flans. How about dandelion and blackberry leaf salad? How about rose hip tea? How about spicing up a salad with wild garlic leaves? How about roasted wild beech and hazel nuts, or blackberries or wild strawberries for a dessert?

Regular readers of this blog will know I am a bit of an enthusiast for wild food but the treatment of the issue as a bit of a joke by some commentators shows we have lost so much of our traditional foods in this country. That is a shame given we have good quality foods growing wild all around us. Making an occasional meal of them would save our environment so much by not having to import from thousands of kilometres away so much of the food we eat.

So if you haven't tried nettle soup, rosehip and crab apple jelly or a dandelion salad, put them on your menu!

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Last day in office before it all starts

The last day in the office before conference is always a hectic, hair ripping out episode in which everything that needs to be done that hasn't been done needs to be done! My conference diary is only half done, my contribution to a training session the Communications Unit is putting on is not written, I have a mountain of itty bitty jobs to shift for the photo ops we are hosting and I need to back up more data than I can shake a stick at.

Yet after that, conferences nevertheless turn out to be great fun!

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There now follows a short rant about Sainsburys

I needed to go to Sainsburys tonight to get some dinner. So I called in at 9pm, picked up 4 bargain priced bagels (30p for the lot), a bag of salad leaves and a bunch of spring onions. So off to the queue I go. As it is late, there are only 2 tils open. Why is it I always end up behind the person who, half way putting his purchases through the til, suddenly decides he hasn't finished his shopping and therefore disappears off into the store for ages?

I ask if I am able to put my rather meagre purchase through rather than wait for the disappeared shopper to make a reappearance. "But that will mean I will have to void the transaction and do it all again," I am told. Not very helpful for the customers who bothered to do their shopping before getting to the til, but I politely continue to wait until the assistant spots an opening at the cigarette counter. I am sent there to pay for my low calorie salad.

Except there follows another problem. Having handed over cash (yes, some of us do sometimes use it rather than plastic) the cashier then closed the til having forgotten that this old fashioned form of purchase of goods sometimes requires change to be given. So he had to put the next customer through before I was able to get my 52p change from the two pound coin I had originally handed over.

I then had a battle to stop him putting my purchases into a new Sainsbury carrier bag. I had to wave the one I had brought with me to make sure I didn't want another added to the 17 billion free carrier bags stores in this country give away each year.

As I was leaving the store, the guy who had gone off to complete his shopping had still not returned to the til.

I never get these problems when I'm in Somerfield in Whickham or the Chapel Store in Sunniside!

On a cheerier note, I communicated with over a thousand constituents tonight. In other words, I completed edition 43 of my Whickham email newsletter. Only one new video on this one.

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Cowley Street has gone green - literally

This is the landing outside my office in Cowley St. The grey, rather thread bare carpets have been stripped out today and new green ones have gone in their place. Another green initiative to add to the energy audits on the building and the paper, can, plastic and glass recycling bins and lights that switch themselves off automatically if the room isn't in use. Anyway, here's the pic.

Labour council refuses free school bus pass to unbaptised boy

I could hardly believe it when I first read it but the news release below arrived a few minutes ago from the office of Fiona Hall MEP. So Labour are refusing a free bus pass to a child attending a Catholic school on the grounds the child has not been baptised! Surely this must be a breach of the Human Rights Act?

The news release speaks for itself:

COUNCIL REFUSE BUS PASS FOR UN-BAPTISED SON

Despite being accepted as a pupil at St Leonard’s RCVA School, Durham, Elliot Stewart from Brasside who has started school this week has been refused a free bus pass because he has not been baptised.

When Elliot’s mother enquired about a bus pass for Elliot with Durham County Council she was told that he could not be issued one as he has not been baptised. She was then advised by a Council employee to get Elliot baptised in order to get a bus pass.

Mrs Stewart contacted local MEP Fiona Hall who raised the issue with the Council and received a response to say that it is was agreed between the Roman Catholic Diocese and the County Council that for a child to qualify for free school transport both that child and at least one parent must have been baptised, the Liberal Democrat commented:

"I am surprised at the attitude of Durham County Council on this issue.

"Surely if a child is offered a place by a Roman Catholic school it is only fair for the County Council to provide transport to make it possible for the child to attend.

"Whether or not a child is baptised should be a matter for the parents, not the council.

"I am seeking clarification from the Roman Catholic Diocese and from the Schools Minister."

50 years old

Not me! But David is, or was, on Friday. And by coincidence, arriving in my council courier bag over the weekend was a leaflet about events and activities in Gateshead "for those aged 50 and over"! David's turning 50 opens up a whole new world for us as well. I'm really looking forward to a Saga holiday and going to B And Q for the older people's discount evenings. There is of course another decade to go before he can get free off peak travel on the buses!

And so to my weekend's activities, much of which revolved around printing, delivering and collecting surveys on recycling though last night I had a meeting with the leaders of a couple of our local scout groups about the fayres they will be holding next year.

I also made it to the opening of the Whickham Community Association fayre on Saturday. Whilst out delivering survey forms on Sunday, I chatted to someone who recognised me at the fayre. My advice to councillors and candidates - always go to fayres put on by local groups. Not only are they great for buying the best homemade cakes, they are also very useful for your profile.

If you are a Parliamentary candidate, you should have by now the the results of more of my weekend handiwork - the Parliamentary Campaigner was completed yesterday.

And so, here I am, sitting on the train, just leaving Newcastle, heading for London. Ahead of us - the joys of conference!

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Photo opportunities at conference

Speaking with my political communications unit hat on, we are holding 4 photo ops at conference for candidates and campaigners. They will be held in the West Bar, next to the Internet Cafe, in the Brighton Centre as follows:

Sunday 16th September: 3.30pm-4.30pm Norman Lamb - Dentists’ Survey (have your photo taken with Norman and a giant tooth!) This photo will highlight the decay in the NHS dental system.

Monday 17th September: 4.30-5.30pm, Chris Huhne - Environment Campaign (have your photo taken with Chris to show how Lib Dem policy will cut your carbon footprint.)

Tuesday 18th September: 2.30-3.30pm, Vince Cable - Income Tax Cut (have your photo taken with Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable cutting income tax.)

Wednesday 19th September: 11am-12pm, Lembit Opik - Post Offices (have your photo taken with Lembit Opik signing a giant copy of the Post Office petition).

The photos will be taken by me and emailed to you after conference. It would be helpful if you could email me on j.wallace@libdems.org.uk in advance (and preferably before the start of conference) if you are coming to any of the sessions. Please say which ones you are coming to, give us your name (!) and which constituency or local party you are from.

Comfortable win in Crystal Palace

News just in. We have comfortably held the Crystal Palace by-election. I have a slight element of interest in the result as it is where my London home is. Well done to the local team. Result is: Lab 537 Con 398 green 139 LD 1051.
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The sort of email I like to receive

I have received an email from a constituent saying that she is looking forward to "JW" being on the door on No. 10! And then she offered to help deliver our Focus leaflets! Now that's the sort of email I love to get!

Tonight I have been working on the drafts of the North East Democrat (which is emailed to about a third of the members in the North East) and Parliamentary Campaigner (which goes to our Parliamentary Candidates). I can't send out the Democrat until Ming has done his visit to Durham and Newcastle tomorrow. Someone is taking photos and will email them to me tomorrow. The aim is to have the newsletter in people's inboxes in the evening, fresh after Ming's visit.

Meanwhile, if you are a Parliamentary Candidate, you should have the Campaigner with you over the weekend. Note the things in it you are recommended to do before conference!

These 2 publications will inevitably mean I will have a battle on tomorrow to get away on time from Cowley St to catch my train home to the North East. If I miss it I know who to blame.

I wonder what Labour MPs think of Brown's adoration of Mrs T

A statue of Margaret Thatcher has been erected in the members' lobby in Parliament. It sparked this Early Day Motion in February:

"That this House recalls the cruel and divisive reign of Margaret Thatcher and demands that the statue be removed from the Members' Lobby until such time as its erection has been approved by a vote in the House." (EDM 981, 2 Feb 2007)

Given that Gordon Brown has just heaped adoration on Mrs T and now tries to compare himself to her, I wonder what those MPs who signed this motion and backed Brown feel about their Leader's "lurch to the right"!

The power of blogs

My blog post about Labour MP Sharon Hodgson writing an Early Day Motion to praised herself has been well noticed! The Guarian diary column carried it the other day. And yesterday, it was a page lead in our regional newspaper The Journal. Very nice of them to put a big photo of me in it! The Journal story came about as a result of a press release I produced, rather than from the blog. They phoned me on Thursday to do an interview. But the fact the Guardian ran the story having lifted it from either my blog or more likely from my blog via Lib Dem Voice, only goes to show that blogging can be a good way to place a story in the public domain.

I love Lib Dem members

I have just got back from a quick tour of members in my ward. I got two new leafletters, one cake, an invite to a garden party and some useful information I need for some casework. I love Lib Dem members!

I am off to the kitchen now to complete the process of making crab apple jelly. Colleagues in Cowley Street will be sampling it tomorrow. I have 2 videos to edit later. Ones a campaigning video, the other is of a visit I made to the Roman City of Leptis Magna in Libya in 2004. From one extreme to another.....

Fitting a quart into a pint pot

On the train back from London last night, I wrote a list of the things I need to do this weekend. As usual, it was a case of fitting a quart into a pint pot, or to be metric, a litre into a 25 cl pot. So today, I was in our office at 9am printing surveys to give to Peter Maughan at 10am so he could take them to his ward team in Dunston Hill and Whickham East. I then went off to visit some of my leafletters and helpfully take them bundles of leaflets.

When I found one had a broken foot, I delivered her patch for her. Then back home, I wrote a village focus (not for my ward), then went down to the Whickham in Bloom flower show (I bumped into Dad there), then went to print the village focus I had written, then went off to deliver it (to the Labour readers of this blog I'll keep you guessing where). Then back home to catch up with David before heading over to the allotment to water the veg. Then down to an old orchard in my ward to pick crab apples. Then back home to chuck the crab apples in the jam pan. I am about to have a relaxing soak (the bath is running now) and then I have a pile of letters to write to constituents.

Tomorrow I will try to do the things on the list I wrote last night!

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