Shooting elephants (on camera and video)

National Express took over the franchise for the East Coast Line from GNER recently. Having been out of the country for 15 days, tonight is my first experience of their running the route. I am leaving Kings Cross heading home now.

I nearly didn't have my seat though that was not caused by National Express. Instead, I found my seat occupied by a bloke stuffing his face with a big mac and occupying the neighbouring seat with his bag. I politely told him he was in my seat. A significant amount of huffing and puffing followed by the angry packing up of his food took place. He then moved over to the seat behind me, which was also reserved. He then proceeded to have a loud conversation on his phone with someone to whom he was rude, demanding and foul-mouthed.

Anyway, for those interested, I have been in Africa and on the Indian Ocean for the past two weeks. Two weeks of taking photos of elephants and lions in Kenya, visiting a spice farm in Zanzibar, swimming with turtles in the Comoro Islands and paddling a kayak in Madagasgar. I will post up the entries from my diary over the next few days, along with some of the 1100 photos and 3 hours of video I shot. (This is actually 500 fewer photos than I took last year when I went on a cruise around the Black Sea).

I have also just left the Cowley St Xmas party. Photos to follow tomorrow.

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Back to delayed trains

Having just spent two weeks on the Indian Ocean, I have returned to find every train I wanted to catch is delayed. Last night it was the Gatwick to Victoria. Now it is the West Croydon to Victoria, delayed for an unknown reason. I have to catch a train to Newcastle tonight. Troubles come in threes!

I have avoided newspapers, internet and tv for 2 weeks and my blackberry was switched on only twice during the time I was away. So I have no idea about any news from the past fortnight. Has anything happened?
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Leaders neck and neck

As a member of staff I am not in a position to give a view on either of the leadership candidates. However, at the fayre we held yesterday in Crawcrook in Blaydon constituency, members had a good and informal discussion about the candidates. Views were pretty evenly balanced. Yet there was a complete absence of hostility by anyone towards the candidate they were not supporting. So the verdict from Blaydon is that it is neck and neck.

So going to our constituency fayre was the fun thing I did on my birthday yesterday. That and getting a haircut and sitting on the pc until 2.30am trying to clear a large backlog of work.

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Labour MP and the Parliamentary logo

Readers may recall my blog post yesterday in which I explain that the Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, David Clelland, has had to abandon claims to the public purse for the cost of his website because he was using it to launch attacks on me, to slag off the Lib Dems and to post up childishly defaced copies of the Lib Dem logo.

Mr Clelland's spin machine must have got a bit constipated when it came up with the suggestion that this was somehow great news for him as he was now free from the constraints of the rules governing use of the Parliamentary Communications Allowance. A great victory for Mr Clelland as the herald of free speech, though this was only something he came up with after it was pointed out that he was not adhering to the rules about use of the Comms Allowance!

Mr Clelland is now shouting from the roof tops that his website is no long paid for by the taxpayer. Interesting.....But David, you still appear to be using the Parliamentary Portcullis logo. And on a party political site, which yours now is, I do believe that use of the logo is not allowed. You can find the rules relating to the use of the logo on page 32 of "The Communications Allowance and the use of House stationery" issued by the Commons Dept of Finance and Administration in April 2007.

Just thought I would helpfully point this out to you so that you can avoid the trouble the Conservatives had recently about using the logo on one of their websites.

By the way David, many thanks for responding so quickly on your website to my blog post from last night. I am delighted you take such an interest in my work.

And if anyone else would like to read Mr Clelland's raw nerve response to my pointing out he spoke only once in the Commons in the 1997 Parliament and his explanation for his silence, please do visit his site: http://www.david-clelland.org.uk/

Labour MP no longer to misuse taxpayers’ money

Last week I posted a a story (link to Clelland allowance abuse story) about how a Labour MP (Dave Clelland, Tyne Bridge) was using his Parliamentary allowance to pay for a website that he was then using to attack me as a Lib Dem councillor and the Liberal Democrats generally. Mr Clelland also defaced the Lib Dem logo which he then included on his website.

I wrote that I was referring the matter to the Commons Finance Department to enquire into the appropriateness of taxpayers’ money being used this way.

Well, we have a result! Mr Clelland has rather hurriedly announced that his site is no longer to be paid for by the taxpayer. Visit his website for his convoluted and hilarious explanation as to how he wasn’t actually using taxpayers’ money.

Or simply let me summarise his argument. He hadn’t used taxpayers’ money to pay for what went on to his site in November as he hadn’t got round to billing Parliament for the period covering November!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He claims to be ever so grateful to me for bringing his attention to the restrictions that are placed on political comment by the Parliamentary Communications Allowance.

He has, he claims, opted for “free speech” and is no longer going to claim any taxpayers’ money for his website (presumably opting to speak freely before the Parliamentary authorities pay him a visit!)

Mr Clelland states, "If Councillor Wallace thought he could silence me he is mistaken." I have no interest in silencing Mr Clelland. I have to say however it is rather rich of him to refer to silence. In the 1997-2001 Parliament he spoke only once. And that was only 4 words.

I was the person who exposed this and I suspect Mr Clelland has not forgiven me for bringing the attention of Tyneside to his roar of silence.

He was, however, relieved of his governmental duties after the 2001 general election when he was freed to spend more time with his dictionary.

So, Mr Clelland is now to engage in free speech. And that means it will come free to the taxpayer as well.

Labour MP savaged by Daily Mail

Yesterday I blogged about the embarrassingly bad intervention from Blaydon Labour MP Dave Anderson in the Commons debate on Northern Rock on Monday. It seems as though the press were deeply unimpressed by his performance as well. Quentin Letts of the Daily Mail wrote:

"The low point of the day in the chamber came from David Anderson (Lab, Blaydon), a man whose sparse Parliamentary talents are in contrast to his wibbly-wobbly girth. Mr Anderson was displeased by LibDem and Conservative criticisms of the government’s hugely expensive rescue operation for Northern Rock. 'The parties oppositve have a track record of not caring about jobs in the North East,' he cried. Mr Anderson wheezed that for this reason alone Labour must ‘ensure’ that the opposition never again won power. It is at such times that you wonder if modern democracy is really worth the candle. If Blaydon is to send such a dim flame to Westminster, what hope is there for Parliament?"

Perhaps a bit over the top and a touch unkind. But I post it up here for the benefit of readers of this blog who can come to their own judgement on Mr Anderson.

Would you buy shares in this Labour MP?

Put £24 billion of public money into a bank to prop it up and it would be a dereliction of duty not to ask serious and searching questions about whether or not the money can be repaid and if so, how and when. Northern Rock has had more money put into it to save it from collapse that our schools have had over the past year. It outstrips all public spending in the North East put together. So any MP not asking some very searching questions about this money is not doing their job.

It seems that a good many Labour MPs in the North East are pushing the line that anyone who so much as blinks at the thought of handing over to a discredited management who have nearly bankrupted a medium size PLC more money than many government departments have to spend is somehow hostile to ensuring the company survives and is turned around. Labour argue that anyone who asks questions is out to destroy the North East, to take away jobs and, for good measure, eats babies as well.

Let me state my interest in this issue now. My partner and I are shareholders. We have in effect written off this investment. That's what you have to accept if you invest in the stock market. Fortunately the holding was only a tiny part of our portfolio but if you want to enjoy the benefits that go with the stock market, you have to accept the risks as well. That's how the system works.

I also have one close relative who works for Northern Rock. What happens with the company is therefore important to my family. And coming from the North East and refusing to give up on my region which is my home, the future of the company is clearly very important to me. But it does not stop us asking the questions about the financing of the company by the public that has happened.

I am not a fan of nationalisation. But there are times when it is necessary in strategic parts of the economy, such as the banking system, when things go horribly wrong and the private sector is unable to rescue the situation. Even the Conservatives know that - after all under them, the Bank of Credit, Commerce International, BCCI, was bought by the Bank of England.

So Vince Cable is right to argue that the extreme circumstances require a public takeover of Northern Rock, until such time as it is restored to health and can operate again as a going concern. The last thing that should be allowed is for another private operator to step in and buy somethign for less than its true value, leaving the public purse to pick up the difference. Such a huge subsidy to another bank, hedge fund or Richard Branson is completely unacceptable in a market economy. So if the private sector cannot come up with the right offer, the state should step in to protect its now huge interest as well as saving the business and the jobs.

David Anderson is the Labour MP for Blaydon - my home constituency (5000 majority over the Lib Dems, Conservative no chance here). Like other Labour colleagues in the debate yesterday, he trotted out the line that anyone so much as questioning the money that's gone in are akin to the dark forces of evil and need to be treated as such.

The most hopeless, crass and embarrassing intervention in the debate came from Mr Anderson. It was mercifully short which probably added to its potency as one of the worst interventions in a Parliamentary debate I have ever experienced. People’s jaws dropped at how cringingly bad was his performance. And then people just rolled about on the floor in laughter and merriment at such an atrociously poor performance. For entertainment value, it was a 5 star performance. For content and serious contribution to the debate, Mr Anderson is facing a debt almost as large as that of Northern Rock. Hopefully there will be no one willing to buy shares in Dave Anderson PLC. After yesterday’s exhibition, he cannot be regarded as a going concern (perhaps going nowhere concern would be better?) Best put him into liquidation.

Visiting Aunt Margaret

No politics today, other than reading the newspaper political commentaries this morning in the car. No campaigning either. David drove myself and Dad to Teesdale in southern Co Durham to visit his 94 year old sister Margaret. Dad is 17 years younger than Margaret. They first met only 4 years ago. My family has a rich and interesting history and at some point I will tell all about it! But that is for another day.

We met up at the home of my cousin Steven and his wife Stephanie. His brother Tim was there as well. Their mother Primrose is no longer with us. She would be 99 if she was still alive. Primrose married a Dutchman in 1935 and moved to Holland, surviving the Nazi occupation and moving back to the UK after the war. Tim's wife Kate, who was also there this afternoon, is herself the daughter of a German Jew who escaped to Britain in 1938 when the Sudetenland was handed over to Hitler from Czechoslovakia, after the Munich Crisis. (This was a subject I covered in detail in my PhD thesis.)

Margaret gave me a trunk made for Henry Wallace, my great grandfather. We think it was made in the 1870s. Henry was the first County Councillor for Whickham, back in the 1890s. I now represent the area on Gateshead Council.

David dropped me off at Darlington station afterwards so I could pick up the train to London. I am now at the flat. David headed home, with the trunk, which will take pride of place somewhere in our front room.

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More walkabouts

Yesterday saw our carrying out our next village walkabout, this time in Swalwell in the neigbhouring ward to mine. I went along to do the photos and video. These walkabouts are a good way of being seen and seeing what needs to be done. We invited residents to send us their suggestions as to what to look at. From this we produce a list of locations to visit. Last week we did Sunniside, the village where I live. Again, a successful exercise.

When I finished the walkabout yesterday, I went back to Sunniside. I had a long list of people to call on. One of them was aware of our email newsletter eFocus - she has relatives who receive it. She was keen to receive it herself - I have added her to the circulation list. The point is that the reach of eFocus is much wider than those on the recipient list. People forward it on to others and discuss the contents with family and friends. Over 500 households in my own ward now receive it, as well as many other houses in other wards as well. We even have people from outside the constituency asking to go on the circulation list.

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Brian Paddick video

When I went to the launch of Brian Paddick's campaign to be Mayor of London to take the photos on Tuesday 13th November, I also shot this video.

Is it appropriate for a Labour MP to use taxpayers' money to attack the Lib Dems?

I have been attacked by another Labour MP in Gateshead. I think it was Dennis Healey who once described being attacked by Geoffrey Howe as like "being savaged by a dead sheep." I think this is one of those situations! David Clelland is the Labour MP for Tyne Bridge. He lacks the charisma of Geoffrey Howe and certainly doesn't have the ability to issue a quiet knock out blow, as the former Chancellor did with Labour's new friend, Margaret Thatcher.

Readers may recall however that a few weeks ago I took issue with Mr Clelland after he claimed that it was in the national interest that Labour should be in power (despite his constant whinging about how his beloved Labour government was letting down the North East). You can read my original post here: David Clelland and the national interest.

On Mr Clelland’s website, he defends the arrogant view that equates the national interest to the interest of the Labour party. It is frankly what you would expect from the likes of the Labour party in the North East.

Presumably, to take Mr Clelland’s argument to their logical conclusion, he should be arguing for a one party state with Labour being the only party allowed for, to have other parties in power would, under Mr Clelland’s somewhat disturbing analysis, be against the national interest.

You can read Mr Clelland’s attack on me on this link: Clelland website. People visiting it will be able to see the rather childish defacing of the Lib Dem logo.

However, perhaps readers could tell me whether launching a personalised attack on a councillor and attacking another party on a website funded through an MP's Parliamentary Allowance is an appropriate use of taxpayers' money.

I simply ask at this stage out of curiosity. So I took the liberty of looking up "The Communications Allowance and the use of House stationery" issued by the House of Commons Department of Finance and Administration in April 2007. In section 7 on page 27 it specifies that MP websites financed by the Communications Allowance cannot be used "to advance perspectives or arguments with the intention of promoting interests of any person, political party or organisation you support, or damaging the interests of any such person, party or organisation."

I was just wondering whether political attacks on opponents and the defacing of opposition logos fits the above requirements.

So just to be helpful to Mr Clelland, I have kindly raised the matter with the Director of the Department of Finance and Administration in the Commons, just so that Mr Clelland can rest assured that he is operating within the rules.

Exclusive photos from the Brian Paddick Mayor for London launch

I attended the launch today of Brian Paddick's campaign to become Mayor of London to take photos for various parts of the party. So this is an exclusive preview of some of them!

The cold has arrived

I first felt the cold yesterday morning when I did the Remembrance Day Parade in Whickham. Afterwards I went down to the allotment and felt the cold there. The weather forecast showed the North East was going to be frozen overnight - with London enjoying a milder 5 degrees C. So I got up 10 min earlier this morning, expecting to have to scrape the ice off the car. Not a crystal in sight! Despite that, it was very cold. Our cat stuck her head out the door then turned around and headed for the nearest radiator! Winter is coming fast. Nevertheless, I got to Newcastle Central Station with plenty of time to spare.

I am of course weighed down with bags! I was asked if I would donate a set of my more unusual jams as a prize for the raffle at the Lib Dem ball being held a bit later this month. I don't suppose it will compete with the holiday or whatever it is that is first prize. However, it goes head to head with the jams of Gordon and Linda Seekings. Gordon is my opponent in the Cowley Street jam war! I will be most displeased if their curds are made a higher prize than my rosehip jelly!

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Remembrance Day Parade Whickham November 2007

I laid a wreath in at the War Memorial today during the Remembrance Day service. This is the video of the procession and service.

A village walkabout

On Saturday morning I am doing a walkabout with residents and my two ward colleagues Councillors Alan and Marilynn Ord, around my village of Sunniside. I invited people to send us their ideas of what we should visit in our email newsletter and the most recent village focus. We have had quite a few replies so I have drawn up a list and route and hopefully some residents will join us in the morning.

I put a reminder in the eFocus which I emailed out tonight. As each month goes buy the circulation of our email newsletter grows. In my own ward I now have over 500 homes receiving eFocus. We also have a growing number of businesses on our circulation list as well. Avid readers of it include the Labour party, just as they are avid readers of this blog. But more about that on another day!

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I know nothing about racing drivers

I was hoping to break our losing streak at the pub quiz in the pub near my London housee. When I was last here for the quiz, 2 weeks ago, we came last. This time, we have got as far as the first round - the picture round. I know nothing about racing drivers and we have to name 10 of them. Looks as though the losing streak will continue. And to think, I stopped work on my next email newsletter to come here.
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How depressing: dark mornings and evenings

I got up at 6.40am and it was dark outside. So even with the clocks going back, I was greeted by darkness in the morning. It is daylight now as I stand here on the platform of Newcastle station waiting for my delayed train to London but it doesn't let us escape from the fact winter is approaching fast.

Last night when I was out collecting survey replies, at least I had people's private firework displays to keep me company, as I did on Saturday evening when I was in Dunston, one of our key wards. The survey we are doing is about recycling. As of last night, all 3800 houses in my ward have been surveyed and neighbouring wards are all plodding away with it.

The rest of the weekend had its usual array of fayres, site visits, focus deliveries, photo sessions and a meeting with the scout groups from Whickham about next year's fayres. Also three trips into the Team Valley area to help with some local campaigning.

And finally, I gathered in the last wild crop of the year - rosehips. I also found a wild apple tree still covered in fruit so I picked them. Last night I used them to make rosehip jelly. They will end up in a Lib Dem xmas fayre soon!

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Blood on the walls Labour style

I can't say too much about this but those of you who have been following the story of the mad Labour leaflet delivered in my area and the demand by us that the misrepresentations and inaccuracies be withdrawn, will be interested in this.

My house was visited yesterday by someone associated with one of those involved. David was at home to take the message. Basically, following my recorded delivery letters sent last week, there has been an enormous row in Labour. One individual apparently has his metaphorical blood still dripping from the walls of his hallway after this person was told that any repeat of recent events and the use of other people's names without their prior knowledge would not be, shall we say, met with great joy.

Enjoy!
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What did you do with your extra hour?

So the clocks went back over the weekend. Sadly instead of having an extra hour in bed, I used the extra hour to work on the results of the survey we are doing on recycling. Over the weekend we deleivered 1300. It was one of those collect from letter box surveys. And yesterday, when I was collecting in replies, my overcoat went on for the first time in seven month. I needed eagle eyes to be able to see the replies showing in letter boxes. We had back about 200 replies overall.

My train to London is late. I'm still at Newcastle. The train due to leave after mine has already left!

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In a parallel universe, yesterday was polling day

Yesterday was general election day. Well, not in this time line at least! 25th October started off as the favourite date for the general election that never happened, though the date soon slipped to 1st November. It was a possibility because there were a number of problems Brown could have avoided, all of which I have touched on in this blog.

I expected him to prevent the Tories getting the coverage their conference would have generated leaving the Labour conference and the poll boost from it as the last memory of it. I expected him to take advantage of Tory divisions and the loud and growing complaints by Tory backbenchers about Sham Cam. And what has Brown achieved? A massive boost for the Tories, a united Tory party, a successful Tory conference and a Cameron safe in his job who has convinced a large part of the electorate that a single, unaffordable policy can be passed off as a manifesto.

Added to this is the problem of the Ashcroft millions pouring into the marginals. It will take time to pass the legislation to put an end to that.

So, this morning we could have been waking up to a 4th heavy Tory defeat. Instead, we wake up to a stronger Tory party, courtesy of Brown. I do not expect Tory strength to last, but they have a boost in some parts of the country - they are however dead in my area in the North East. Once something is dead, no matter how much stimulus you give to a corpse, it won't bring it back to life!

Nevertheless, I suspect there are many in Labour who are just starting to question whether or not the coronation of Brown as saviour of Labour after the Blair years was the right thing to do.
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My Labour opposite number replies

I wrote a post on Monday about how I had written to the failed Labour candidate in my ward, Mr Peter de Vere, asking him to withdraw incorrect and misleading allegations in a leaflet Labour had produced and circulated in my ward.

Mr de Vere had claimed that Lib Dem Newcastle Council had rushed through a recycling scheme, then immediately abandoned it and in the process wasted millions of pounds. The whole story was made up by Labour and there is not even a fibre of truth in it. Mr de Vere is the "editor" of the leaflet, along with Ms Elaine Dobson, the candidate who lost to us in the neighbouring ward in May. Both are also according to the imprint, the promoters of the leaflet. By all counts, the buck stops with them regarding the ultimate responsibility for the contents. That does not mean others are not responsible as well and it is reasonable to expect them to account for the claims as well.

However, I can now reveal that Mr de Vere has written back to me, denying any responsibility for the leaflet and claiming it is edited by someone else. He also returned my letter to him.

That Mr de Vere is not good enough. Buck passing and denying responsibility for one's own actions are New Labour trademarks. I am not going to accept such nonsense. I will of course be explaining to my constituents that he has rejected my offer to publish in our focus newsletters a retraction by him of the completely incorrect claims he was so prepared to put his name to. I will also be telling my constituents that despite claiming to be the editor of the leaflet, it would appear Mr de Vere is running away from responsibility for the leaflet which bears his name.

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Late trains and videos

Yet again I got the 10pm train out of London but this time it was half an hour late. However, given we normally have the ridiculous half hour delay at York where passengers and crew transfer to a train on the next platform, at least tonight we won't have the hanging around. Whilst waiting to leave Kings Cross I managed to complete all 3 sudoku puzzles in the London Paper.

As a member of party staff I am (quite rightly) not allowed to give my views publicly on who I would like to see as leader. I do however have a number of videos of both candidates I have shot and put on my YouTube channel so at some point, assuming there is no third candidate in the offing, I will do a post with a link to each video. I hasten to add that the videos are all positive. There are a couple from the Sedgefield by election than didn't make it to YouTube and will now go up. It will allow people to compare styles.
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The arrogance of Labour is incredible

Labour MP for Tyne Bridge, David Clelland, claims that the national interest and having a Labour government are the same thing. I found this quote recently on his website: "those who criticised the decision not to go to the polls as ‘putting the party's interests before the country’s’ completely miss the point - we believe the two are indivisible."

Can you believe the arrogance of Labour to make such a boast? And frankly, it is all the more rich coming from someone who spends a great deal of time whinging and whining about what his government has or hasn't done. The above quote comes from his Parliamentary Report dated 11th October. On the same date, and in a different part of the same website, he is slagging off his own government over their failure to upgrade the A1.

(By the way, the website is quite clear that the Parliamentary Report is to the Labour constituency party, not to constituents. In his 22 years as MP here, I am not aware of his ever producing a Parliamentary Report for residents.)

A Kylie Minogue film

I was dragged, admittedly only partly kicking and screaming, to see a film about Kylie Minogue last night. Apparently it was a one off showing of the film, covering the lead up to her return to touring and performing after her illness. I did go to one of the London concerts in January. I always remember it for getting called by Radio Newcastle to do an interview whilst waiting in the queue to get in. We arranged to do the interview by phone the next morning. Whilst the interview was about opencast mining, much of it touch on my views of Kylie Minogue and what I thought of the concert!

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Oop she did it again - Labour MP praises herself for a 2nd time (and recycles her EDMs)

Readers of this blog may recall a few weeks ago I massively raised the profile of the unknown Labour MP for Gateshead East and Washington West, Sharon Hodgson, by revealing that she had lovingly lavished praise upon herself in an early day motion that slagged off Ryanair (MP praises herself)

For those of you who have never heard of Ms Hodgson, she was a union hack who was gifted the Gateshead seat in 2005, only to be dumped as a Labour candidate in the borough 18 months later (she has since re-emerged as Labour candidate for Sunderland - I'm not sure what Sunderland did to deserve that!)

Anyway, thanks to my hard work, Ms Hodgson's self-praise got a page lead in the Journal, our North East morning newspaper, and a mention in the Guardian diary column.

I was, this afternoon, doing some work on Early Day Motions from 2006 and discovered what I thought was a mistake. I found what I thought was the motion proposed by Ms Hodgson listed in the EDMs for the 2005/6 session when in fact she had proposed it earlier this year.

So I checked out the current session's list and there was the same motion except for a small difference: 2006 version slagged off Easyjet whilst the 2007 version slagged off Ryanair. Otherwise, apart from the addition of contact information about Ryanair, and the odd word, the motions were exactly the same.

And both contain the same self praise.

Interesting that recycling has taken off in this way!

Decency, Dignity, Honour

Decency, dignity, honour - 3 words that sum up Ming and he has all 3 in abundance. He has also put party before personal interest.

From the inside I have seen the improvements to the party machinery and policy that have happened under Ming's leadership. It seems so unfair that the real improvements have counted for so little in terms of Ming's image and profile.

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A polite letter to my Labour opposite number

I dropped off a letter at the home of Peter de Vere this morning. He is the Labour candidate in my ward. I haven't spoken to him before. He didn't bother turning up for the local election count this year so I didn't get to speak to him then. Maybe he was totally confident of winning, or maybe he was totally confident of losing. Not sure what his motives for not turning up were but he got 20 percent to my 70 percent so I guess it was the latter.

Anyway, he has decided to promote a Labour leaflet which contains some incredible, glaring inaccuracies and false information. As a result I felt obliged to write to him, and Elaine Donson, Labour's losing candidate for the neighbouring ward who is also alleged to be the editor of this publication, to point out that we are informing our constituents that the information they have circulated is inaccurate. Our Focus newsletter contains language which is a little bit more colourful about their claims!

One of the claims made by Labour is that across the Tyne in Newcastle, the Lib Dem run council introduced a recycling scheme at the cost of millions which had to be abandoned immediately, wasting the millions spent. This whole saga is simply made up by Labour. No such reversal or waste of millions ever happened. This of course makes rebuttal easier!

I am of course willing to be generous and have offered the two Labour candidates the opportunity to have a retraction included in a future copy of Focus!

There was someone in a car on the drive of the house where Mr de Vere lives when I delivered the letter this morning. Whoever it was didn't get out to speak to me. Instead, the person drove off down the street.

Mr de Vere's leaflet also justifies Labour's position on our village Post Office in Sunniside. The village was up in arms earlier this year when Labour kicked out an application to install a cash machine in the branch - it would be the only 24 hour cash machine in the village and I handed in a petition of over 200 signatures in favour of the plan. I found it surprising that Labour have decided to return to this issue. Labour have won no points from the people on their stance. But perhaps Mr de Vere is setting out to make himself the most unpopular man in the village! And Paul, our vlllage postmaster has given us a quote for our Focus which says what he thinks about what Labour have done.

Mind you, no one will be able to respond directly to Mr de Vere. His contact details on his leaflet are actually those for a Labour councillor for a ward miles away. And I have plenty of constituents who want to give him a piece of their mind!

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This train journey is ridiculous

I guess GNER have their reasons for allowing the last train out of Kings Cross only to go to York. The daft system is that everyone gets off at York, including the train crew, and walk over the platform to the waiting train to take us to Newcastle. But we have a 35 minute gap between arriving in York and leaving. So we are all left waiting going no where fast.

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Jam tomorrow

I am on the train heading home now. Tomorrow is Northern Regional conference. I have a stall there selling of all things the latest products from my jam range. The region takes the profits! My jams appear to be in demand. Cowley St today was down to the last scrapings from the last jar in the fridge and there were polite requests that more should be broughts in next week. And the other evening I was asked to donate a set of jars as a prize for the raffle at the annual ball!

This weekend, if I have time, I will make sloe jam. Not one I've tried before but there is a good supply of fruit. If I get round to making it, I guess Cowley St will be the guinea pigs to try it out. Mind you, I am never short of volunteers there!

2 hours to go before I get to Newcastle. The buffet car has just been closed and the trolley service is not serving hot drinks. Not the best situation to be in.

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Ripping apart another Labour lie

Labour in my ward have made the absurd and outrageous claim that Lib Dem Newcastle introduced a recycling policy that immediately had to be reverse at the cost of millions of pounds. The claim appeared in a leaflet they delivered last week (they clearly thought there was an election about to happen!) So I checked with John Shipley, leader of Newcastle Council, to ask him what Labour were on about.

It turns out Labour have made the whole thing up. No policy has been reversed and no millions have been wasted. Indeed, it turns out that Newcastle are pressing ahead with one of the most advanced recycling schemes going which puts Labour Gateshead well in the shade.

These claims come from the same party that claimed in the local elections they were against parking charges in Whickham village centre, after having voted to introduce them! The same party claimed this year that Whickham Comprehensive School was going to be replaced with a new school immediately - the story was complete rubbish and was even denied by the council's education department. The same party claimed to be against building flats on a particular location in my ward and then a couple of weeks later voted for them.

So if you want to see hypocritical, duplicitous, dishonest Labour in action, come to Gateshead where Labour are currently showcasing their worst characteristics.


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2 gains from the Tories

Only just taken delivery of the council byelections for yesterday. 2 gains from the Tories:

Election Results: Thursday 11th October 2007.

Horsham DC, Holbrook West
LD Belinda Walters 602 (43.9; +11.1), Con 554 (40.4; -6.5), BNP 163 (11.9;
+11.9), Lab 52 (3.8; +0.2), [Ind (0.0; -16.6)].
Majority 48. Turnout 32.2%. LD gain from Con. Last fought 2007.

Chippenham TC, Pewsham
LD Mark Packard 493 (58.8), Con 346 (41.2).
Majority 147. Turnout 19.5%. LD gain from Con.

Blair's agent suspended as councillor

Remember John Burton, constituency agent to Tony Blair when he was MP for Sedgefield? well, he's just got himself involved in a little local difficulty - suspended as a councillor for a month.

Whilst Labour have airbrushed Blair out of their recent past, they may want to do the same with Mr Burton. Apparently, he threatened a fellow councillor with deselection if he did not vote for a particular planning application for housing at Trimdon.

Yesterday he was hung out to dry by the Standards Board for a month. You can read more on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7037364.stm

Given this is Trimdon, why not relive the excitement of the Battle of Trimdon Green: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2lrhvLlbB6I

I was expecting not to return

I am on the train to London now. I had expected to be heading down and not returning home for a month. But then Brown called off the election and I haven't any return tickets booked for Friday! Better book up something when I get to the office. I guess that when I get to Cowley Street, my office move planned for today will not go ahead. Indeed, I can envisage having to help move out the furniture I helped put into the war room on Friday!

Meanwhile, this train is delayed due to a points problem north of Newcastle. We are approaching Peterborough and people are desperate to get off the train to catch the train to Stansted. They're all swarming up the train to coach D so that they are closer to the footbridge. They have about 10 seconds to catch the Stansted train once we come to a halt at Peterborough.

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Blogging from the bath: Brown covered in the brown stuff

I am still suffering from surprise, so much so that having just edited another video for constituents and loaded it onto YouTube ready for the coming week's email newsletter, I have taken to a soothing, relaxing bath.

What I find surprising is that Brwon let so much speculation run riot about an election that a climbdown was almost inconceivable. Having done all the preparations, brought forward the announcements, done the expensive (and ilconceived) taxpayer funded election rally in Baghdad, relaunched for the goodness knows how many times the Crossrail scheme, and done nothing to suggest an election would not be called, Brown backs down on the basis of a Tory poll bounce his stupidity helped to create in the first place.

I was strongly of the view that a political leader so allegedly astute as Brown would never let a hare running like this. The idiot has now achieved the opposite of what he intended to do. He has strengthened Cameron at a time when Cameron was on the ropes. Having relied on his opponents to do further damage to themselves (never rely on your opponents to help you win elections - other than Labour assistance to Thatcher in 1983) because of a threat of a general election, Sham Cam has come out as the one who appears (note only appears) to be the one strong enough to win an election, when the reality is that the Tories are very far from winning an election at all. Brown has done a midas touch in reverse. He touched gold and saw it turn to lead.

One of our key messages which we pump out from the Communications Unit is that Brown is more spin than substance. If anyone doubts that now, just look at the last couple of weeks. The spun was spun out of control and got a life of its own and it has just kicked its creator well and truely in the nether region. So Lib Dem campaigning should constantly remind voters of spinning Brown. People have the experience now to agree with it.

So Brown let Brown hit the fan and Labour are now covered in the brown stuff. No number of hot baths for them will get rid of the reek of Brown and his fatal error of judgement. Take decisions on the basis of short term political again and you deserve to be washed down the drain.

Meanwhile where's my plastic duck!?

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I am surprised

I am standing in a field picking sloes to use for gin making and the message has just come through that the election is off. He has bottled it. I am surprised. So much for my predictions. I'll go back to picking sloes. I could do with a drink! Pity the sloe gin won't be available for months!

Incidentally I found the sloes growing when I came to this field this afternoon for the unvieling of a plaque to mark the site of two bell pits that were discovered on the edge of my village of Sunniside earlier this year. I'll have the video on YouTube tonight. Great place to get hugs and kisses and casework from my constituents!

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I still expect him to call it next week

Don't get carried away with the shortening of the Labour lead over the Conservatives in the polls. It should have been expected anyway. Last week was wall to wall coverage of the Labour conference so that was likely to increase the poll ratings for Labour. This week it has been wall to wall coverage for the Tories. So Labour's artificial high has been deflated and the Tories have taken up some of the slack instead. Polls over the weekend will be more interesting but still contaminated by conference coverage.

Those polls however will not be the ones Brown will be studying this weekend. Instead it will be the evidence from the marginal constituencies. After all, they are where elections are won or lost. He will also need to look at their canvass data as well.

Do not expect him to stop the countdown to the launch of the election. He has partly painted himself into a corner and to call off the election now would make him appear weak and Cameron strong. That could have lasting effect.

In addition, in looking at the data from the constituencies, Brown will also be aware of what will happen if he does not go now. More Tory millions will be poured into the marginals, firming up the Tory vote over the winter and spring. The constituency arms race is not one the Labour Party can sustain for too long and with a weakened activist base from a decade in power, getting those who are left out to campaign now will be easier than raising their expectation, dashing them and then trying again in the spring.

Throw into the melting pot as well the slowdown in the economy. Growth will be lower than it was been over the past decade and that will put a brake on public spending. That means bad new stories on services. It could mean some tax rises as well, especially on council tax. And a big increase in council tax next April, a month before a spring general election would be bad news for Labour.

Brown was arguably foolish to let expectation of a snap autumn election build up so much momentum. It is likely he reckoned on a more comfortable general opinion poll lead and positive headlines in the run up to calling the election. It is characteristic of the arrogance of Labour that they could assume such comfort.

So Labour are now in a position in which their expectation is now that they get back simply with a majority, rather than an improved one. Brown let the election expectation rip because he thought he could get an increased majority. After all, going to the country well before you need to just to come back with a more difficult Parliamentary position is the suicidal form of government that doesn't strike me as being the sort of aim Brown would harbour.

Rumours of a Tory poll bounce

There are rumours whizzing round the blogoshere of a Tory bounce in the polls. Ian Dale' blog (http://iaindale.blogspot.com/) talks of rumours of Channel 4's Yougov poll showing Labour's lead dropping to 3 points and the Guardian has a poll tomorrow showing a 3 point Tory lead.

So just when we thought it was a done deal and the starting pistol was being loaded, are all election bets off?

This is like waiting for the launch of the space shuttle! Lots of preparation, it's sitting on the launch pad in full glare of the cameras, everyone is waiting for the roar of the engines as the countdown gets closer to zero. The final possible mission-abort point is 4 second before ignition. I feel we are at about 8 seconds to go and suddenly Mission Controller Brown's finger is hovering above the abort button.

What he doesn't want to do is let it go ahead and then 60 seconds into the flight, tell the crew, "Labour Challenger, you can go throttle up".

The Cameroonie rallying cry

Somehow, I managed to think the Tory conference finished tomorrow. When I was there last year as an observer it did finish on the Thursday. I did however leave on the Wednesday, a day early, simply because it was a dull gathering with nothing happening. They take no votes, debate no motions. It is really a gathering and rally of the Tory faithful. Seems as though they have taken a leaf out of my book by abandoning the final day this year!

Nevertheless, my predictions that Brown will attempt to steal the limelight turned out to be true, even if not quite in the way I expected.

So back to the Tories and their leader. What to expect from Cameron this afternoon? Watch out for more income tax cut promises. The Tories have already said that they will raise taxes on aircraft Well, they need to use that money somehow and my guess is they will make some kind of income tax cut proposal.

The Tories' tax calculations will however all be back of an envelope stuff. The same sort of approach came up with the ludicrous claim that 9 million families will benefit from their inheritance tax plans. If only so much of the nation had so much capital to leave to the next generation. Alas, the reality is far different. The point is the Tories tax proposals have been rushed. It wouldn't surprise me if they came up with their non domicile levy (a 25,000 poll tax on people who can't vote) in a panic last week as they scratched around for some red meat to chuck to the baying Tory blue rinse. In July, Tory Treasury Spokesman Philip Hammond MP was himself attacking the Lib Dems for wanting to bring non doms into the UK tax system, describing them as an "easy target".

So today expect some absurd claims about millions of people benefitting from the Tory tax plans. Their rushed proposals, thrown together for a snap general election, will come unstuck in the glare of publicity. That's already happening with their recent tax announcements.

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Brown's Enron style numbers

Comrade Chairman Brown is on an election tour of Iraq to announce that 1000 troops are coming home. There must be a gap in the audience of soldiers meeting Brown drafted in to his expensive tax payer funded election tour, sorry I mean his completely necessary fact finding visit. The gap consists of 270 soldiers. They're the ones who have already come back home. Yes, here we have another Brown example of spin and double announcement. The figure of 1000 troop reduction actually includes 500 announced in July, of whom 270 are back in the UK.

Brown speak would find a good home in the annual report to shareholders of Enron!

Brown's next election visit: Baghdad

If anyone thinks that nice Comrade Chairman Brown would not do all he can to get the Tory conference out of the headlines, his visit today to Baghdad is all the proof you need to know he will use any instrument he can to manage the news agenda and deny opponents the coverage they would expect to have in a multi-party democracy.

Brown is posing as the statesman and is on a "fact finding" mission to Iraq. Oh yer, pull the other one, it's got bells on! The person who wrote the cheques and could have stopped British involvement before it started knows all the facts he needs already. So this is simply a massive publicity stunt for Labour to keep the Tories off the front pages, a jolly paid for by the taxpayer.

Mind you, given the choice of going to Iraq of Blackpool, I'm not sure which one I would want to do!

Expect an announcement next week in Parliament of a further troop reduction which the formerly pro-the-War-and-now-very-much-against-it Labour party will spin for all it's worth as the end of the Iraq episode. And then expect an election shortly afterwards.

Brown is probably planning something big for this Thursday as well. It could be the trip to the palace or perhaps a major policy announcement. Whatever it is, expect Labour to attempt to manage the news agenda on the day away from the Conservative conference.

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Autumn is here!

A cold morning and my breathe condensing when I stepped out of the house shortly after 7am. The sun had only just risen and the car was covered with condensation. The leaves on the trees were turning brown. Yup! Autumn is now with us. What an ideal time to have a general election! Just think what it will be like in a month's time.

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My last weekend before he calls the election?

The last 2 days may have been the last weekend before the election starts. This did not affect things campaignwise in my own area as we were already in the middle of producing and delivering focuses - frankly a job that never ceases. Still, it did give an added sense of urgency to matters.

So Sunday morning saw me down in our Whickham office printing focus leaflets I had written on Saturday evening. Sunday morning also arrived with an early morning phone call. The chairman of the editorial board of Parliamentary Campaigner was calling to make last minute changes to the urgent edition going to candidates later that day. I had to crawl out of bed and go to the office in my house and make some changes to the document (most of which were corrections to typos).

I suppose I had myself to blame however. The idea of bringing forward the final edition of 2007 of Parliamentary Campaigner by 2 months was mine. This time last week, as I sat on the train to London, I spent the time emailing the editorial board and campaigns dept suggesting this as a course of action and proposing the contents. Having got agreement, all I had to do was write the thing! All the usual pages were scrapped. Parliamentary Campaigner instead became the guide all candidates need to get them started on the general election!

There were some domestic jobs that could not be delayed which involve our food supply. I had a mountain of pears and crab apples I picked last weekend which had to be cooked or put into the compost bin. The freezer was also crammed full of recently picked blackberries but we needed the room for other things. The useful thing about jam making is that I can write focuses, deal with correspondence, catch up with the news headlines, have my dinner and, okay I admit it, watched a bit of The Terminator on one of the Sky Movie Channels whilst the jam pan is boiling away. A case of multi-tasking! It was also the last weekend I could gather in a good crop of hazel. Leave them any longer and the nuts become windfall of get eaten by the squirrels! I gathered in about 5kg. Had I had more time, I would have picked about 3 or 4 times the quantity.

So will he call it this week? I suspect Thursday could be a busy day. Sham Cam gives his speech and at the end of it suddenly there is no coverage. Instead the big story is the election being called. And if that scenario is what happens, the trip to London I am making now is going to be a bit longer that I had planned!

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Carpenters and Cowley Street

Cowley Street was invaded yesterday by carpenters, electricians, furniture removal people and so on. The board room, next to the Communications Unit where I am based, was stripped bare and then refurbished in the space of one day. It is now the war room, ready for the big names to occupy the moment Brown goes to the palace. It was quite fun watching the progress through the day. I should have taken some photos but didn't think to do so! By 7pm, when I was trying to edit an urgent edition of the North East Democrat, I was drafted in to move some furniture into the war room.

Meanwhile, I spent yesterday putting together an urgent edition of Parliamentary Campaigner to go out to all candidates this weekend. My job tonight is to do the final drafting changes. At the moment I am sitting in a hustings meeting for the North East Euro selections. After this I'm off to Whickham where we are having a garden party for all our helpers in the area. Turns out to be good timing - with an election about to be called, we can encourage them to deliver more leaflets!
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New dates for announcing the election

Further discussions today with various people about options for the date Comrade Chairman Brown will call the election. This Monday continues to be an option but some claim Brown could not be so blatant in abuising the system for poliical gain by wrecking the Tory conference. I won't put it past him but consider the following instead.

Suppose he calls it on Thursday, immediately after Cameron's speech? That allows the Tory conference to go ahead but he wrecks Cameron's big day by killing at one stroke the publicity Cameron gets from his speech. And all without the allegation of having attempted to wreck the conference by calling the election during its proceedings. Nice Comrade Chairman Brown allows democracy to prevail! This option comes with the bonus of firing the starting gun when the majority of Tory activists are coralled in Blackpool. Labour (and Lib Dem activists) meanwhile have a flying start back in the constituencies. Your can just imagine government inspired roadworks and rail repairs suddenly being imposed around Blackpool which brings all transport to a halt for a day or so!

The other option is to call the election a week on Tuesday, when Parliament is sitting. Under this scenario, Alistair Darling has published the Comprehensive Spending Review which will be spun for all it's worth (covering up the fact that the next spending round will be much tighter than previously.) There may also be an announcement that Basra has been handed back to the Iraqis, with formerly pro Iraq occupation Labour (and Conservative) MPs tripping over themselves to rush out statement about how they have always been against the war. Having attempted to convince everyone that somehow the war was only ever a Blair personal project that never ever ever had anything to do with Labour, Brown then announces a general election, possibly even giving Parliament a vote on whether to dissolve or not. The whips may have an easy day on that. Not so much a case of turkeys voting for Xmas, more a case of Turkeys voting for Xmas to become a vegetarian feast!

Comrade Chairman Brown is meeting his advisers this weekend to take a final decision on whether or not to hold an election. I find it difficult to believe they will not be able to keep the decision secret for long. I can foresee the decision being leaked through the week with the result many Tories have abandoned their conference to get back home. Cameron may find himself speaking to a rather empty hall.

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Sleep walking into a one party state

Thoughts on the date of the election and the day on which Comrade Chairman Brown will call it vary from one person to another. I wrote the other day that I think he will call it this Monday for 25th Oct. Since then the share value of an announcement tomorrow, Friday, has risen, as has the prospect of the election being on 1st Nov.

If he were to announce on either of these 2 days, it would have to count as one of the biggest abuses of the democratic system of recent years. Wrecking the opposition's conference is the sort of thing you would expect in what is effectively a one party state where opposition parties are allowed but mainly just for show. The reality is that one single party controls the system to its own advantage. A bit like Russia today, or East Germany of old. Were Brown to make such a move, I fear it will be another step, indeed a leap, in the sleep walk of this nation towards what would be effectively a one party state.

A bit extreme viewpoint? Not for those of us who have experienced one party Labour rule in the North East. Whilst they may be feeling the heat in some areas from the Lib Dems (the Tories are dead in the water in the region), Labour remain the dominant party, often attracting people to it who are interested in being part of the establishment rather than actually believing in anything. Labour are of course bolstered by a fraudulent voting system that gives them 94 percent of the parliamentary seats in the region on barely half the votes cast. The same system works in their favour across the country, though not on the scale it does in my region.

There is a possibility after a snap election with the Tories, having performed badly (and then descending into civil war again) and with the prospect of another long period of Labour rule ahead, that Britain sleepwalks into what is in all but name a one party state.

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10 reasons why Brown will call an election next week

Stand by for a snap general election. That is the key message from the Labour conference. Brown could have killed off the speculation with a few words saying there will be no election. He has chosen not to, knowing the consequences will be that the Labour conference will be dominated by the pending election. In other words, the conference is a huge, week long election rally that dominates the headlines to the exclusion of coverage of any other party.

I was previously doubtful about there being an autumn poll but over the weekend, I have looked again at the situation and have come to a different judgement.

I conclude there are 10 reasons why Brown will go for an October poll. Here goes:

1. There is something of a Brown bounce that has put Labour ahead of the Conservatives over the summer in the opinion polls for the first time since Cameron became leader of the Tories. There is no guarantee however that this will last. That brings me to the 2nd point below.

2. The chances are things are more likely to get worse than better for Brown. It's harder to go up in the polls when his support in the polls is relatively strong, but it is easy for the support to slip. No election this autumn and any small loss of support will be viewed as a large swing away from Labour and the talk will be instead of a Brown under pressure who missed his best chance of holding on. The autumn talk will be about his being James Callahan Mark II.

3. Meanwhile, the perception of the Tories is that they are in a mess and Cameron is seen increasingly as a liability who will say anything to get into power (a genuine perception of the truth!) Yet Cameron could, with time mount a recovery. Why would Brown want to give him that chance?

4. Indeed, why give your opponents the chance to build up a bandwagon? One clear lesson Labour have learnt is that a snap poll benefits them. They learnt that the hard way with the Brent East by-election. They put their lesson into practice with Sedgefield and Ealing - another week's campaigning and the results could have been different.

5. A linked point is that there is no cap on what a party can spend in a constituency outside an election. We know the Tories have bags of money being poured into target seats. How better to put a stop to that by holding a poll now, with all the spending limits in constituencies that involves.

6. Which brings me onto donations to Labour. They have the money they need from their super rich backers and the trade union barons who love to spend their members' money. But those donations can't be sustained. Best spend it now.

7. Back to Labour's conference. If this is the first week of the election campaign, by not announcing the election until Monday next week, Labour's conference can hog the headlines without the problem of the Representation of the People's Act (RPA) kicking in (as required once the election is called) which shares out the tv and radio coverage more fairly.

8. And a related point. Brown calls the election next Monday and it immediately cuts the coverage the Tories can get for their conference as the RPA kicks in. No week of headlines dominated by the Tories. All those Tory activists will turn up at Blackpool, be stuck there at a conference that is no longer the focus of media attention. Meanwhile their opponents are back in their constituencies fighting the ground war.

9. Talking of ground wars, Labour have performed well in council by-elections since Brown became Labour leader. The Conservatives have done poorly and Lib Dems reasonable (though last week was poor - that's what happens when your activists are at conference and not in the ground war). What the results show is that Labour support has lifted since Blair resigned. But this may not continue as the "newness" of Brown erodes with time.

10. Brown wants what he reagrds as his own mandate.

We are told Brown is a cautious person. He doesn't want to take a risk with his premiership. I can quite believe it. Given the circumstances, cautious Brown is not likely to want to risk loss by holding out for a later poll. So be ready for a snap election. It's coming your way and should arrive on your doorstep next week.

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Jam later today

Oh just great! A bridge has collapsed onto the main East Coast line near York. So here I am stuck at Newcastle. Many services have been cancelled. I was told that this is because GNER want to avoid lots of train delays. How best to avoid a delay? - cancel the train!

I've spent the last half hour making urgent calls and emails to various people.

Rumour has it the collapsed bridge was called the Cameron Bridge - a rather old structure with a lick of glossy paint. Apparently the paint couldn't hold it together and it gave way. This is of course just a rumour!

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Here I am stuck in traffic

A few minutes makes all the difference between getting straight through to Newcastle and getting stuck in congestion. We are in the latter at the moment, stuck between Sunniside and Lobley Hill. Fortunately my train is not til 9am. And of course it is raining. A good start to the week!

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Packaging lunacy

And today's rant is about GNER's on board catering. I have just been to the buffet car for a tea (a technical fault on the trolley means it's only serving cold drinks). I also wanted some fruit. All they had was sliced apple in a packet, a snip at just one pound fifty. Apart from the fact this is a seriously high price for a bit of apple, it is also absurdly over packaged. And add to that the slices will go off faster than a whole apple. This is lunacy wrapped up as product presentation.

One of the train staff has just walked past me with a large plastic sack collecting rubbish. There's plenty of it!

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Fruit baskets and the Cowley St kitchen

I arrived in Cowley St this morning to find a gigantic basket of fruit in the kitchen. A present from Ming and Elspeth to us hard working staff who ensured conference went well. At 8pm Chris Rennard walked into my office and said that nearly all the fruit had gone despite there being far fewer people that normal in HQ. The Communications Unit had by then carefully removed all evidence of apple cores, grape stalks and the other debris of a fruit feast!

Onto other things. Some of my conference photos were put into circulation today for local campaigners to use though the big job on that begins next week when I have to email out all the photo op pictures, of which there are over 1000. I used a couple from the North East in my next members' newsletter which I will be printing in our office in Gateshead tomorrow.

And that means that I am on the train heading North now, though I am about to ask the person sitting behind me with a muffled clunk, clunk, clunk coming from his ear phones to turn the music down.



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Photo op photos

These were taken at the photo ops the Communications Unit arranged at conference for campaigners. I have taken the liberty (ego?) of including those of me except the carbon footprint one. I didn't get a photo of me with Chris Huhne so I have included one of Peter Maughan, who represents the neighbouring ward to my own and who was at conference on Sunday and Monday.

I posted up the cutting income tax pic earlier this week.

A few photos from the Glee Club

I normally avoid the Glee Club at conference, but the opportunity to get some photos was too much to resist. So above: Lembit take to the stage; Paddy tells the same joke as previously told at Glee Clubs and Team Sedgefield serenades the gathered masses.

Photos of Ming's speech

These are some of the photos I took yesterday morning.

Lembit Opik MP at the Glee Club

For those of you fortunate enough to miss the Glee Club at conference on Wednesday, here's Lembit Opik's performance......

The Ming speech

As usual I was in the photographers' scrum for Ming's speech. Good inspiring, uplifting stuff. Now could the doubters shut up!?

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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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