My seven top things of 2006

Norfolk Blogger wants to know the seven things that tickled my fancy most in 2006.

I could easily just list seven of the gigs I've been to during the year. For me little beats the excitement and atmosphere of live music.

But I guess Nich is interested in a list of rock bands.

So here goes:

1 More time with the Family. A phrase with connotations for politicians, but I mean it in the positive way it should be meant. As a workaholic by nature I have consciously tried to take more time off to see more of themissus and our three kids. The eldest is not always as keen as she used to be to spend time with her Dad, but the younger two love it.

2 Carry on Camping. As a consequence of 1 I've also had more holidays this year. The best holiday (and the cheapest) was a week's camping at a small family site in Somerset with the younger two. They love camping and we had a great week.

3 For Those About To Rock. An excellent year for rock gigs including the Download Festival headlined by Tool, Metallica and Guns 'N' Roses, Fairport's Cropredy Convention and the returning Monsters of Rock one dayer headlined by the ever brilliant Deep Purple at Milton Keynes Bowl. Other gigs included a fantastic gig by Steve Hogarth on his solo 'h natural' tour, Deep Purple, Porcupine Tree, Muse at Wembley, Iron Maiden at Earls Court and another h gig at Swindon.

4 TV Dinners. There has been a lot of fantastic telly in the last few years - some strong BBC dramas such as Spooks and Life on Mars, the brilliant new Doctor Who and its several spin-offs and the rebirth of American Sci-Fi including Battlestar Gallactica. The onset of digital TV with its tendency for each new show to be given three time slots has made it much easier to follow series properly. (On Demand is even better for this - I'm rewatching series 3 of Spooks while typing this). So after many years on not being able to follow Tv series properly because of working so many evenings I am now able to keep up and, as Christoper Ecclestone's Docor would say - it's Fantastic.

5 Promotion bid. I applied for the vacant Director post in the Campaigns Department and, despite not getting it, found the process of applying, thinking through what I think needs to be done and about what I want to do, very positive. The feedback I received was very positive and I am looking forward to working with Hilary Stephenson who will be a great Director of the Department whilst, I'm sure, keeping her feet firmly on the campaigning ground.

6 Helping Oxford East Lib Dems. Our candidate in Oxford East is Steve Goddard and you couldn't meet a more genuinly decent chap. Steve reduced the majority of the Blairite former cabinet minister Andrew Smith from more than 10,000 to less than 1,000 votes at the last election. Steve was reselected early in the year and it has been a pleasure working with him to build up the campaign team and win excellent results in the City Council elections. We've just appointed a new team of staff to support local campaigning so we'll have capacity to do even more next year.

7 Book ends. I spend a lot of time on trains and I try and spend as much of it as possible reading books. This year I re-read a large chunk of the Virgin Doctor Who New Adventures series - the books that were published after the good Doctor left our TV screens for a few years - along with books five and six in Stephen King's Dark Tower series and the hilarious Husbands by my good friend from University days, Adele Parks. I also spent a lot of time reading various Dr Seuess and Enid Blyton books to the kids along with the genuinly funny Horrid Henry books. I also read a few of the new Doctor Who books to Jimmy.

So that's it. Except for the films which came eighth. And the blogging.

Looking at the list I probably ought to take up some less sedentary hobbies.

I hope Nich finds this interesting ;-)

Dishonourable honour

It is utterly astounding that John Scarlett, the author of the 'dodgy dossier' that has led to so much death and destruction in Iraq, has received an honour.

I've always been uncomfortable with the idea that senior civil servants are given honours purely for having done their job for many years, while everyone else has to do something over and above the call of duty.

But the idea that someone is honoured who has clearly failed in the single most important task of their career makes a mockery of the whole system.

Every single person who has served in Iraq has a stronger claim on an honour than John Scarlett.

Justice for Gurkhas

As I was walking past Parliament yesterday I happened upon a large contingent of Gurkhas along with a few of my Lib Dem firends from Folkestone.

They are campaigning for the Government to honour a promise made two years ago to give equal rights to Gurkhas when they retire.

They have launched a petition to the Prime Minister on the whizzy new Downing Street petitions website.

I've signed it and would urge you to do so to.

Find out more about the issues here.

More New Labour irony

New arrivals must conform to Britain's standards of tolerance, Tony Blair warns in a major speech.

Yup - we're very tolerant as long as you do exactly what we say!

More h-tunes

Just listening to the latest h concert downlaoded from his nifty 'h-tunes' website.

This gig was recorded in Liverpool's Cavern Club on 1st March this year.

Just h and his piano singing a mix of his solo and marillion songs as well as a large selection of covers including beautiful vesrions of Wichita Lineman (his Dad's favourite song), Famous Blue Raincoat, Too Late and The Whole of the Moon.

h is clearly enjoying himself and sounds delighted to be performing at the home of The Beatles. He also covers Beatles numbers Help, Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby.

I never cease to be impressed by h's vocal ability. I can't wait for the London gig to be available. I had a front row seat at that one.

The other thing with these gigs is that all the between song chats are included - including one or two lengthy stories and bits of his life story.

Great stuff.

Common sense on Trident

I am delighted to see this very sensible policy being put forward by Ming Campbell and the Trident Policy Working Group.

Their proposal - to maintain Trident for the time being but cut the number of warheads - is a balanced approach to the current system and far more sensible than the Government's plan for an expensive replacement.

The lib Dem position sends out exactly the right signal to the rest of the world - that we are prepared to reduce our nuclear arsenal in line with international non-proliferation policy as we ask others to do the same.

The Government's attitude risks the UK (along with the US) telling the rest of the world - specifically Iran and North Korea - to do one thing while doing the opposite ourselves.

Teeside Tin Tin

I have rarely laughed as much as when I found these.

I don't know who did the voice but he doesn't half sound like my brother after a few ales.

WARNING: Contains lots of very bad language.

And the biggest tossers of all are ...

So just days after suggesting that young people in debt are all 'tossers' the Tory Party turn out to be the biggest tossers of all.

According to the latest figures from the Electoral Commission the Tories owe a total of £35.3 million pounds.

Of this £3.6 million is owed to 'Lanners Services Limited', a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, £3.5 million to Lord Laidlaw and £2.5 million to 'Morain Investments UK Ltd'.

Around half is owed to the Allied Irish Bank.

The total includes large loans to local Conservative Associations including Harrogate & Knaresborough, Kingston & Surbiton and St Ives. I assume some of those are related to property, but clearly some local associations overstretched themselves printing all those leaflets claiming that the Lib Dems don't know how to manage money properly.

There is a serious issue here. The Conservatives spent money like there was no tomorrow with the aim of unseating Lib Dem and Labour MPs at the last election. It is now clear that they were spending money they didn't have. Would voters in those Tory target seats have been so keen to switch had they known that the Tory campaign was being paid for on the never never?

Labour are clearly deep in the s**t too.

Clearly they should have had Gordon in charge of the pennies rather than Tony.

Labour owe more than £10 million to the Co-operative Bank and more than £4 million to the Unity Trust Bank, a vehicle through which the Unions lend money to the Labour Party.

Much of the rest is owed to wealthy individuals, many of whom were coincidently put forward for peerages by Blair.

Labour's big problem appears be that their income from donations is drying up. This is due to their over-reliance on big donors, many of whom seem to have become somewhat shy of late. (And who can blame them)

This raises the same issue as it did with the Tories. Labour spent millions during the last week of the campaign last time in an attempt to squeeze down the Lib Dem votes. If they had spent within their means they wouldn't have been able to.

Would they have won seats like Islington South, Oxford East and Watford if they hadn't borrowed all that money?

While the Lib Dems do have some debts there are two key differences with the other main parties:

1 The Lib Dems have consistently reported their loans to the Electoral Commission in line with the advice they sought several years ago.

2 The overall level of indebtedness is much lower, compared to regular income, than the other parties.

That is why the Lib Dems are continuing to expand their professional campaign organisation and support on the ground.

Muse - bombtastic mate!

Sometimes, just sometimes, you get to see a band when they really are on top of their game.

Queen on the Magic tour in '86, Guns 'n' Roses on the Use Your Illusion Tour, Metallica on the Black Album tour.

If you are a fan of live music you will know what I mean.

Last night I saw Muse at Wembley, and boy do they rock.

They do bombast, they do stadium anthems, they do it loudly and proudly. They are hitting heights they they can only have dreamt of when they got going in Teignbridge only a few years ago and they clearly know it and love it.

They wear their influences on their sleeve, coming on to U2's Vertigo and with pretty obvious nods to Queen and others along the way.

And with their new single 'Knights of Cydonia' about to be released they can even claim to be bringing prog rock to the masses.

Enjoy...

Spot on

The new Lib Dem video - which you can see on the right - has got the message spot on.

Unlike the spin and imagery of the other parties the Lib Dems stick to the issues, and rightly so.

At the end of the day what really matters in politics is getting the judgement right.

On Iraq Brown and Cameron followed Blair into the lobbies to vote for the invasion.

Ming Campbell and the Lib Dems voted against.

On the environment we have had hot air and gimmicks from Brown and Cameron.

Only the Lib Dems have come up with solid, workable policies.

On the NHS Brown and cameron have continually supported the ideological push towards privatisation and endless reform.

Ming Campbell and the Lib Dems have taken a far more sensible approach.


At the next election the public will have a simple choice: Brown/Cameron spin or Lib Dem substance.

Victory for Webb, Fawcett goes down fighting

Barring something very odd happening in the recount Democrat challenger Jim Webb has taken Virginia by a small margin.

I soent the early hours of this morning in the company of Ken the Militant Moderate and various assorted Oxford students round at Richard Huzzey's gaff.

As well as watching the utterly bizarre Jim Pinkerton (who, I assume, is what Democratc bloggers mean when they call someone a 'wingnut') on Sky we were glued to the Virginia State elections site which added up the votes as the precincts reported. It was nailbit9ing stuff with Webb trailing by anywhere beteen 38 and 20,000 votes as the morning progressed.

I left Oxford at 4.30 ish and listened to the much more sensible Radio 4 coverage on my way home and arrived to put CNN on who were then showing a small Webb lead.

Having had a few hours kip I found Webb's victory speech which is very good and also a good demonstration of some of the differences between us and them. [It doesn't work in Firefox for me but does in Explorer]. Claiming victory at the earliest opportunity is always sensible in these situations as it immediately makes your opponent look like a sore loser if there is a rerun.


Sadly my namesake, and by far and away the better candidate, didn't make it in CO-05. although he did record a very respectable 13% swing from 2004.

In praise of Ruth Archer

At least The Archers provided brief respite from the mounting election excitement.

And, indeed, a respite from mounting altogether.

I was pretty sure Ruth would end up doing the decent thing. I mean, Radio 4 were never likely to, you know, have people, like, 'doing it', were they?

I've been listening to The Archers for as long as I can remember. It was staple listening when, as a child, I used to go with my Dad down to his allotment and he would have it on his radio. I still listen to it regularly now, and it always makes me feel nostalgic, in a good way.

Is the US really in a position to lecture anyone about democracy?

There has been much discussion about the US elections - and just now it does look like we are going to be in for an interesting night. (I will be heading for Richard Huzzey's shortly to watch the results with him).

Reading the blogs today - particularly the various threads on Daily Kos - I have been astounded at how the richest country in the world, the only remaining superpower, the country that wants to export democracy to the rest of the world - can't even organise for its own citizens to vote.

There are widespread reports of people having to wait hours to vote, of inadequate staffing, of various types of electronic voting machines that don't work, of election staff who don't know the rules about ID and more.

And that's without the robo-calling, the intimidation of latino and black voters, the deliberate misinformation and the Republicans distributing leaflets claiming that they are democrats in Democrat areas.

Maybe they should restore confidence in theor own system before lecturing the rest of the world?

Fawcett for Congress

Obviously it is always sensible to vote Fawcett.

But as this debate shows it is even more obvious if you live in Colarado 5th Congressional District.

(It gets really interesting about 25 minutes in.)



Or you can visit Jay Fawcett's website.

"the wrong signal"

According to Margaret Beckett having an inquiry into the Government's decision to invade Iraq will send 'the wrong signal'.

What a pathetic argument from a pathetic Government.

The signal it would send is that our Parliament realises that mistakes were made and that they want to find out how and why.

To me this is a pretty good message to send to our troops who know full well that they were sent for the worng reasons and are probably quite keen to see their political masters held to account.

And given our Government's stated aim of helping to establish a stable democracy in Iraq, what better way to help do so than demonstrate how accountability works in a mature democracy?

If that is the best argument the Government can come up with they deserve to be taken to pieces.

Keith Olbermann (whoever you are) I salute you

This is brilliant:



And this is quite funny too:



YouTube is a wonderful thing.

Are Labour playing party politics with hospital closures?

The London Times had a story the other day about how the Government's hospital closure programme (only 24 hours to save the NHS etc...) is targeting hospitals in Tory or Lib Dem held seats.

I'm not convinced that there is a conspiracy in the way The Times suggests, most Community Hospitals tend to be in rural areas which tend to have Tory or Lib Dem MPs.

The bigger issue for me is whether the policy of closing or cutting community hospitals, and reducing the services available at district hospitals, is actually what people want.

I am sure this policy makes sense to NHS management - it much be easier to manage a smaller number of large units and enable economies of scale in equipment etc.

I can understand that many doctors will argue that it is better clinically because it enable a higher level of specialisation in centres of excellence.

What the policy misses out on though is the voice of the public.

Because while the above arguments may be strong ones, it may also be the case that a large proportion of the public actual put a greater value on local access to health services.

Yes the John Radcliffe in Oxford may have better facilities in its Maternity wards for that small minority of mothers who have serious problems during labour. BUT the vast majority may prefer to give birth in a local maternity unit in Wallingford (where my younger two were born) or Wantage, in a small, friendly unit with staff they can get to know.

Yes the John Radcliffe might be needed for the major operation or to deal with a serious illness, but once the elderly patient is recovering from that treatment they may well want to be looked after in Abingdon where they live, and where their elderly friends can visit them without having to get two buses to the JR.

Or maybe the majority will disagree.

The point is that the voice of the patients and public should be heard in this debate. It should be up to local people in each area (Oxfordshire in my case) to decide what it is they value when it comes to health care.

Labour were elected to 'save the NHS'.

Nine years on we are facing the loss of local community hospitals, the loss of services at district general hospitals and, in Oxfordshire's case, hundreds of job losses.

It's a shame Labour don't seem to believe that the public should have a voice.

The thin end of the veil

I have refrained from commenting on the 'debate' about whether Muslim women should wear the veil or not as a) many others have done and b) I have genuinely mixed feelings on the issue.

Having now heard from Phil Woolarse and honest Tony on the issue my initial reaction that Straw's comments had a rather insidious whiff about them has been confirmed.

There is a genuine issue about whether the wearing of the full veil is helpful or appropriate, but of much greater concern is the tone of Blair and his various Minister's comments about the Muslim community.

Woolarse's comments are simply despicable. He must have known better than to comment in such a way while a tribunal is ongoing. It is quite unacceptable that a Minister should intervene in this way.

What I find distasteful about Blair's comments is the suggestion that it is the responsibility of the Muslim or other minority communities to strike the right balance in terms of their integration into 'our' society, whilst failing to mention the responsibility those of us in the majority community have to help integration and to be tolerant of differences.

I object to the idea that ordinary Muslims should be harangued about dealing with extremists in their midst as if they ought to have some magic solution to the problem. It was wrong when all Irish people were treated with suspicion when the IRA were active and it is equally wrong to label all Muslims in the same way.

And now University staff are apparently being asked to keep a particular eye on Muslim students in case there are signs of them being radicalised. That's really going to encourage young Muslim students to feel fully integrated into University life, isn't it.

The obvious results of all of this are that more Muslims will feel that they are being discriminated against by the Government and their reaction is likely to be that they will highlight their 'separateness' even more, sympathy for the extremists is likely to grow rather than lessen, and those inclined to go round pulling veils of Muslim women's faces or other racist activity will feel encouraged.

One final point, if a Muslim woman came to my surgery wearing a veil I would consider it extremely rude to ask her to remove it.

Special Relationship my a**e

I continue to be astounded by our Government's failure to secure the release of British residents still being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Large numbers of people, including some brits, have already been released. Most were incarcerated for years and ultimately let go with no charges being made against them or, as far as I can tell, any actual evidence that they ever did anything wrong.

If Iran or Syria were to kidnap hundreds of people of other nationalities, lock them up without charge, restrict their access to lawyers, torture them and propose to try them outside their normal legal system the US and UK governments would be expressing outrage and probably send in the armed forces.

But because it is the US doing it the best honest Tony can come up with is to describe the torture camp as an anomaly.

The US Government appear to want rid of the British residents. They have offered to send them back in return for a promise that they will be kept under 24 hour surveillance.

Our Government apparently believes that this would be too expensive, or illegal, or something.

Personally I would have thought that the opportunity to win the release of 10 people against whom there is quite obviously no evidence (or else the US would want to try them) might be just a tad more important than the cost of surveillance.

Or even that a PM with any balls at all would agree the US Government's terms and then allow the courts to rule the surveillance illegal on their return.

On this issue, as on so many others, Tony Blair has shown himself to be a spineless lackey of George Bush. They have a Special Relationship alright, but not one that is in the interests of Britain.

Where's the evidence?

I see that gentle John and honest Tony have been berating the opposition parties for their opposition to Labour's authoritarian proposals on terror suspects.

The point they still haven't answered is why, if there is hard evidence that the individuals concerened have been involved in terrorist activity, they haven't been charged with any offence?

Either there is evidence that these people are terrorists, in which case they should be charged, or there is no evidence, in which case they should be free.

If it is the case that sufficient evidence does exist for their freedom to be restricted, gentle John and honest Tony should be explaining to us why they are not pushing for them to be prosecuted.