Vince Cable's speech to regional conference with video and photos

Vince Cable was our guest speaker at the North East Liberal Democrats' regional conference in Gateshead yesterday. You can see the video of his speech below:



As you would expect, I also took some photos which are now of Flickr. A few of them now follow:



Me and Vince after the photo op with candidates. Thanks to Greg Stone for taking charge of the camera at this point.



Carol Woods, candidate in Durham City briefs Vince on a few local issues.



Vince addresses the conference. My rough head count was 130 members present.



Food for thought at conference.

The full selection of photos can be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanwallace/sets/72157622606549030/

North East regional conference

I have just left Gateshead Civic Centre where the North East Lib Dem conference has now finished. We were in the council chamber, all feeling rather happy, with Vince Cable as the guest speaker.

Down the other end of the civic suite, in a smaller room, Labour were meeting. You could tell who were the Labour members. The "socialist" brethren were the glum looking ones!

Vince spoke well but don't just take my word for it, judge it for yourself. I have Vince's speech on video and will be posting it up on YouTube later today (hopefully). As you would expect, I did a load of photos so they will be posted up shortly.

That however will have to wait whilst I do something more important - get my hair cut and the grey removed. Amusingly, my hairdresser has moved to new premises in Blaydon. The former occupant of this building was the Blaydon Labour Party. The purpose of this building has now improved enormously. Pity I missed the official opening of the hairdresser shop. Apparently they got through 40 bottles of champagne. Not that they drink that in Labour offices any more!
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22 photos in this publication

I am currently working on the Northern Democrat, the email newsletter which is emailed to members in the North East but which also finds its way to members in Yorkshire and Cumbria. 7 pages now written and I will do the front page tomorrow evening after the regional conference in Gateshead.

I remember years (okay decades) ago when I first started editing publications - amongst my first lessons was that the photos are very important. And when I first wrote Focus leaflets, the often didn't have photos in them. Those days are well behind us but I wonder if I am doing photo overkill in the current edition of the Northern Democrat. 22 photos on 7 pages of A4 seems an awful lot.

Anyway, this publication will be put to bed tomorrow and hopefully members attending conference will be able to read about it (and see the photos) by the time they get home tomorrow evening and check their emails!

My old mate Dave Hodgson, now Mayor of Bedford

Congratulations to Dave Hodgson, announced today as the Lib Dem victor in the mayoral by-election in Bedford. The fact I have known Dave as far back as the mid 1980s does not appear to have damaged his political career!

I still have memories of going to Dave's parents' house in 1984 in Bedford for a party back in our Young Social Democrat days, which really does mean it was a long time ago! As for those house parties we went to in Liverpool and Washington........

More recently Dave and I were colleagues, both working for the party. We have both now left: Dave to run Bedford, me to run my allotment!

Well done Mayor Hodgson, I know you'll do a great job.

Vince Cable in Gateshead tomorrow

Regional conference in Gateshead tomorrow and the guest speaker is Vince Cable. The conference has already had record advance bookings. I will be there to do the photos and report on proceedings by video. Watch this space!

It is also an excuse to post up this photo:



It was taken at Bournemouth conference on my camera at the end of the photo op for campaigners with Vince Cable. I think it is only one of two photos of me at Conference.

The Monday morning blog - on the bus to Kielder

Today's blog comes live from my local bus service! It makes a change to blogging from the train to London or from my bed before I get up in the morning. I am off to Kielder Reservoir, owned by Northumbrian Water, to look at the facilities of the biggest man made object in Europe and one of the few man made structures that can be seen from outer space. Okay, that's the interesting but otherwise unimportant facts over with. The bus is taking me to Gateshead Civic Centre where I pick up the coach to head to north Northumberland. I am going armed, as you would expect, with cameras.

To other things.

So, the government's fireside sale is starting. Seems a stupid time to sell off assets, at the bottom of the recessionary curve when prices are low. I don't object to the Tote and Student Loans Co being in the private sector but there is a duty of care on the government to ensure the assets of the taxpayer are giving us the best return.

And finally, the loss of Stephen Gately. I have to confess to still having somewhere my Boyzone poster from the 1990s. Stephen was always my favourite. You will be missed.

Bus is about to arrive at Gateshead. I'll blog more later.


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Is that an escape route I see before me?

I belong to the cock-up school of history, not the conspiracy one. I believe events are not pre-ordained. They happen by chance. Nothing is inevitable. But.....

The story of Gordon Brown's eye problem is leaving me with the feeling that the ground is being prepared and an escape route is being created. In the soap opera of politics, has the excuse for his departure been set?

The fightback at Labour conference would suggest otherwise. Or maybe the fightback was the final stand and if recovery did not follow, he would go without the palace coup that would otherwise be required.

The odds are he will still be there at the general election. But.....
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Ward work

10am this morning I was with Cllr Peter Craig on Oakfield Rd in Whickham to do a street surgery. About 40 people came along. The issue that was attracting attention was the planning application for the shop on the road to extend its opening hours. This is one of those situations where the legitimate concerns of residents have to be balanced with the legitimate right of someone to carry on their business.

After this we went down to Chase Park to meet up with other Whickham councillors to take some photos for the forthcoming Focuses about the move to set up Friends of Chase Park.

Then off to Washingwell School to do an interview for our Video Focus with Peter Maughan about the local schools review. Once that was done I met up with Neil Bradbury, our Blaydon candidate, to sort a few activities for the coming couple of weeks.

Glad to say this afternoon I spent some time on one of my other favourite activities: foraging for wild foods and cooking. I picked a load of hawberries and made hawberry ketchup. Watch out for the forthcoming video on this!

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For a limited period only, Compassionate Conservatism

On sale today from the new, improved Conservative Party - Born Again Compassionate Conservatism. This time limited offer has been brought to you by CP's chief salesman David Cameron.

Buy now whilst stocks last.

(Warning, may contain nuts. Seek advice before purchasing.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Example of a Conference video diary

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

A sign of things to come

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

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

Candidates absolutely must have an internet presence at the general election or risk losing significant profile. And any videos they do must be full of action and information. It's what people are after. Miss out the internet as part of local campaigning at your peril.
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The Monday morning blog: two different policies in one interview

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

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

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

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Not quite what the Conservatives wanted

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

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

Not quite how the Conservatives hoped to start their conference.

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Survey and tabloid in Blaydon

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

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

Tanfield Railway Steam Gala Weekend

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

Up the mayoral creek without a paddle!

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

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

PS DJ is onto the 70s now. Rod Stewart. Bring back the 60s!
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Photos available: Nick Clegg exhibition tour at conference

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

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