Liberal England

Vince Cable interviewed in Total Politics

2009-11-21T12:59:00.000Z

Iain Dale: So you don't do what Ming Campbell used to do every morning when he was shaving and think: "God, I wish I'd stood against Charles Kennedy?"
Vince Cable: No, absolutely not, I genuinely don't. I quite enjoyed the 'acting leader' period, and did quite well, but I've got a very full role.

Read the whole thing in Total Politics.

Headline of the Day

2009-11-21T12:13:00.000Z

From BBC News:

Cocaine-snorting rabbi "lonely"

Scottish Lib Dems HQ, Clifton Terrace, Edinburgh

2009-11-21T11:03:00.000Z

I am at the first Lib Dem Bloggers Unconference, which is being held at the Scottish party's office in Edinburgh.

Steve Winwood, Ronald Reagan and Jacques Derrida

2009-11-20T22:10:00.001Z

How can I resist this essay on The Rumpus?

It is a meditation on "Higher Love" - which is not one of my favourite Winwood songs either - and takes in Reagan, Derrida and Levi-Strauss:

I would volunteer the hypothesis that no matter how abject the pop confection is, there is often a moment of the sublime hovering in there somewhere ... and that Steve Winwood, with his rather thrilling past, his past of greater accomplishment, was calling forth this possibility of music, that it can fuse us to some more interesting set of forces and meanings, something more comprehensive than just what’s happening on the surface. A dreadful song, therefore, with a useful philosophical nugget concealed deeply within.

The comments are worth reading too.

Incidentally, I have never heard Winwood live but I did hear Derrida.

The shorter Iain Dale

2009-11-20T20:39:00.001Z

Disgusted, Tunbridge Wells.

House Points: Pork Pie Poujadist or Stilton Stasi

2009-11-20T20:22:00.000Z

I am posting this from the first class lounge at Euston. I shall fulfill a long-held ambition and catch a sleeper train later this evening, waking up in Edinburgh for the first Lib Dem Bloggers Unconference.

Meanwhile, here is this week's House Points column from Liberal Democrat News.

The Queen's Speech

They’ve gone again. Only four weeks after the end of the summer recess, the Commons had a break before this week’s State Opening. Some observers seethed about MPs’ long holidays; cynical old hands reasoned that at least it limits the damage they could do.

But the real problem is that, however long they spend at Westminster, there is little MPs can do to hold the government to account. And few with only a few months left until the election, there is little the government can do either.

Which is why Nick Clegg was right to call for the inevitably electioneering Queen’s Speech to be abandoned (David Cameron forecast it would be “shameless”, which conjoured up an unwelcome vision of Frank Gallagher on the throne) and the remaining time to be devoted to some reform of the Commons itself.

If you doubt that reform is needed, listen to the Labour MP Kevin Barron speaking in a health debate in Westminster Hall last week:

Members of Parliament are sent to the House because our constituents want a representative of the state. That is the whole point of the exercise and why we are sent to Westminster, whether we are in government or opposition ... We are the state's representative in our constituencies.

You could say that he was just being a socialist, but MPs of all parties have to be careful not to fall into this trap. They must always remember that they are not at Westminster to speak for the government or their party: they are there to represent the electors who sent them there.

Which is why I have some sympathy for the Norfolk Tories – the very term “Turnip Taliban” is redolent of metropolitan contempt for the provinces – who felt Liz Truss had been wished upon them by Conservative Central Office and that they had been told less than the full truth about her.

Imagine their chagrin when they discovered she had conducted an affair with a married Tory MP and –worse – was a former Liberal Democrat who used to write rude articles about the Royal Family.

And if that identifies me as the East Midlands equivalent of the Turnip Taliban – a Pork Pie Poujadist or a member of the Stilton Stasi – then so be it.

Market Harborough autumn

2009-11-20T07:35:00.001Z

David Curry, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee, resigns

2009-11-19T23:02:00.000Z

From the Daily Telegraph this evening:

David Curry, the MP who heads the committee responsible for policing Commons expenses, has claimed almost £30,000 for a second home that his wife has banned him from staying in.

Mr Curry has resigned his chairmanship of the Parliamentary Standards and Privileges Committee and told the Telegraph that he will refer himself to the Parliamentary Commissioner.
The newspaper goes on to allege:

The Conservative MP is accused of having an affair with a headmistress in his Yorkshire constituency and using a taxpayer-funded cottage to meet his lover.
A Telegraph investigation has learned that four years ago, after discovering the affair, Mr Curry’s French wife Anne demanded that he does not stay at the Yorkshire property as a condition of the couple’s reconciliation.
However, the former Conservative minister has continued claiming thousands of pounds a year for the house – which he could expect to sell for a substantial profit after leaving Parliament.

Irfan Ahmed implodes

2009-11-19T22:52:00.000Z

Many readers will remember Irfan Ahmed, the enfant terrible of Liberal Democrat blogging. He removed his blog from the LibDemBlogs aggregator a few months ago and little has been heard of him since.

But it seems that his idiosyncratic views have landed him in trouble and that he has closed his blog down as a result. Full details on Political Scrapbook and in the Burnley Citizen.

I hope we will see an older, wiser Irfan return to blogging one day.

Statues at St Pancras

2009-11-18T18:14:00.001Z

I was down at St Pancras today for a business lunch - there is a phrase you would not have written a few years ago - and noticed that Paul Day has now added a frieze to the base of his giant statue The Meeting.

It does not make me warm to the statue, but it the frieze itself is a striking piece of work. I did not have my camera with me today, but Londonist has posted a video of it.

The photograph above, which I took on an earlier visit, shows Martin Jennings' charming statue of John Betjeman.

Labour MP denies he is dead

2009-11-18T17:52:00.000Z

From The Journal:

A North East MP has insisted reports of his death are an exaggeration after rumours swept his constituency that he had died.
Whispers grew across Blyth Valley from Sunday night that Labour MP Ronnie Campbell had had a fatal heart attack.

But he would say that, wouldn't he?

Lib Dem Bloggers Unconference: A reminder

2009-11-17T22:01:00.000Z

Don't forget the get together for Lib Dem bloggers in Edinburgh on Saturday.

The details are on Lib Dem Voice and a number of Leading Scottish Liberal Democrats have promised to look in.

I hope to see you there.

Britblog Roundup 248

2009-11-16T20:54:00.000Z

With Clairwil.

Liz Truss and my sneaking sympathy for the Turnip Taliban

2009-11-16T20:46:00.000Z

News has just come through that Liz Truss's selection has been confirmed this evening by a substantial majority. But I find myself with a sneaking sympathy for the Turnip Taliban in South-West Norfolk, if only because the very name is redolent of metropolitan contempt for the provinces.

What appears to have happened is that Liz Truss was presented to the local party as a model Cameroon candidate. Only after she had been selected did the locals learn that she had a) conducted a widely publicised affair with a married Conservative b) is a former Liberal Democrat activist who used to write articles attacking the Royal Family.

I imagine that b) was more damning than a), but it is quite possible not to approve of adultery without being a prude.

Yes, it is easy to laugh at South-West Norfolk Tories - I myself RT'd a tweet saying something like "Don't they have the Google in Norfolk?" - but imagine it it was you? Wouldn't you feel a little used by Central Office?

We Liberal Democrats are vocal about our local candidates for local people, and localism was one of the more attractive aspects of Mark 1 Cameronism. So I don't feel too guilty about my sneaking sympathy for the Turnip Taliban.

Edward Woodward and 1990

2009-11-16T13:50:00.003Z

I was sorry to hear of the death of Edward Woodward.

There is an obituary on the BBC website, but it does not mention his series 1990.

Child migrants to Australia

2009-11-16T13:47:00.002Z

As this story is in the news again because of the Australian government's apology, it is time for a quick plug for the column by Professor Strange that I posted here in June.

Chris Farlowe: Out of Time

2009-11-15T20:40:00.001Z

Like Friday on My Mind, this is a song I have always known but would have been hard pressed to tell you who sang it until I looked it up.

Chris Farlowe, one of the great underrated voices of British blues and soul, topped the singles chart with this Rolling Stones song in 1966.

Farlowe has his own website and is still performing. A work colleague saw him and Alan Price in a concert a few weeks ago.

Road Sign of the Week

2009-11-15T09:26:00.001Z

I suspect the one across the road used to have this explanation too.

Bishop Hill wins Quote of the Day

2009-11-15T00:16:00.000Z

Well done, Your Grace:

The mindset of most of the writers at Liberal Conspiracy is not that of the liberal. It is that of the conservative. These are people who hate diversity, who despise people who don't think like they do. They are Tories of the left.

Judge for yourself.

The Corridor: Mortimer Also on Jackanory

2009-11-14T23:01:00.001Z

A bit of cricket-related children's TV nostalgia from me over at The Corridor.

Later. Note the comment by Tim Rice's brother.

Does Eric Avebury own a big cat?

2009-11-14T17:07:00.001Z

The latest issue of Fortean Times carries the news that an American tourist saw "a largish, dark creature moving slowly up the mound" of Silbury Hill back in July. The magazine also has pictures showing "the usual ambiguous black blob against the famous prehistoric hill".

As we revealed a couple of years ago, Silbury Hill - a man-made earthwork - belongs to the Liberal Democrat peer Eric Avebury.

This is a good opportunity to send our best wishes to Eric Avebury, who is recovering after breaking his hip last month. He has recently posted X-rays of his injury on his blog - this is the sort of transparency we should encourage in our politicians.

J. W. Logan in Punch

2009-11-14T09:15:00.000Z

A bit of Googling reveals that my hero J. W. "Paddy" Logan, former Liberal MP for Harborough, was mentioned in a poem in Punch in 1891.

The poem is prefaced by a quotation from Logan, who had just gained the seat from the Tories in a by-election:

"Believing firmly in the absolute justice of woman's claim to the 'Parliamentary' franchise, I shall at all times support that claim."

The poem is long and facetious to modern tastes, but its ending is worth recording here:

And now there comes another name
To raise for Shes the party slogan.
Well, trust, dears--if you like--to LOGAN;
He "will support you _at all times_!"
Keep your eye on him! SHAKSPEARE's rhymes
Tell you "Men were deceivers ever."
M.P.'s wise, foolish, crass, and clever,
Are--nominally--on your side,
And--privately--your cause deride.
Take the straight tip, my dears--I glean it
From private talk--_they don't half mean it!

Logan had two spells as Liberal MP for Harborough. One of the people who held the seat for the party in between them was Rudolph Lehmann. Lehmann was a regular contributor of poetry to Punch, but I have no reason to suspect that he was responsible for this.

The furries and Monty Python

2009-11-13T19:56:00.000Z

There is an article in the Magazine section of the BBC News website today that looks at the furry scene.

It explains:

No standard definition exists but generally furries are people who have a fascination with anthropomorphic animals. These are animals that are given human traits, like walking and talking. They can be anything from cartoons characters like Bugs Bunny to computer game personalities like Pokemon.

The scene has its own art, animation, comic books and literature, but activities are largely conducted online - where furries adopt "fursonas" for role playing.

But for some it is about meeting other furries in person. Groups around the world meet regularly and there are conventions in the US, UK, Germany, Mexico, France, Russia and Brazil.

There's more:

But, inevitably perhaps, there's a sexual element too. In a recent court case in the UK, two men who met on a furry website, and shared sexual role-playing fantasies, were convicted of plotting to kill one of the pair's adoptive parents.
Christopher Monks, from Lancashire, and Shaun Skarnes, from Cheshire, were found guilty of meticulously preparing the killings via the internet. They are currently awaiting sentence.
Furries will not thank the pair for casting their hobby in a negative light, and tend to argue the sexual side is hugely overplayed.

The BBC takes it all terribly seriously - and look out for "Species Identity Disorder" in the comments - but I was reminded of a Christmas early in the 1970s. I was given a Monty Python LP and it contained the sketch "The Mouse Problem":

Linkman Yes. The Mouse Problem. This week 'The World Around Us' looks at the growing social phenomenon of Mice and Men. What makes a man want to be a mouse.
Interviewer, Harold Voice, sitting facing a confessor. The confessor is badly lit and is turned away from camera.
Man (very slowly and painfully) Well it's not a question of wanting to be a mouse... it just sort of happens to you. All of a sudden you realize... that's what you want to be.
Interviewer And when did you first notice these... shall we say... tendencies?
Man Well... I was about seventeen and some mates and me went to a party, and, er... we had quite a lot to drink... and then some of the fellows there ... started handing ... cheese around ... and well just out of curiosity I tried a bit ... and well that was that.
Interviewer And what else did these fellows do?
Man Well some of them started dressing up as mice a bit ... and then when they'd got the costumes on they started ... squeaking.
Interviewer Yes. And was that all?
Man That was all.
Interviewer And what was your reaction to this?
Man Well I was shocked. But, er... gradually I came to feel that I was more at ease ... with other mice.

Watch the rest for yourself...

David Dimbleby and Question Time: Shock new poll findings

2009-11-13T19:19:00.002Z

An opinion poll asked who should chair Question Time if David Dimbleby were to be injured by a bullock again.

The results were as follows:

John Humphrys - 17%
Jeremy Paxman - 14%
Jonathan Dimbleby - 6%
The bullock - 63%

Shropshire rheas: The nightmare continues

2009-11-13T19:05:00.000Z

It seems I spoke too soon.

From the Shropshire Star:

Two giant birds, which were part of a flock of rheas that ran amok in the Shropshire countryside, are still on the loose.
Their owner, farmer Tom Evans, is calling for anyone who might have seen the 6ft birds to contact him so he can capture them and return them to their rightful home.
The other birds have already been returned.
Mr Evans, of Wheatcommon Lane, Ashford Carbonell, near Ludlow, made the appeal after the birds escaped and attacked a member of the public.