I have spent the past two days in glorious Edinburgh. ........sadly without internet access.The place is buzzing with chat about the elections and I was interested to talk to a Labour supporter on Thursday night who put the lack of student fees and free care for the elderly firmly down to us, which got me pontificating again about the idea of coalition. Heresy maybe......but we have had a week of speculation! I think it would be madness for us to even hint that we may be prepared to do a deal with Brown, but even if coalition isn't a starter next time, if we ever get anything like PR we will have to grasp this particular thorny nettle (or should that be stinging nettle??!) The other topic of conversation was Charles Kennedy. I lose track of the number of people who still bemoan his passing.........not only friends and family, people on the train, London taxi drivers, anyone frankly who discovers I am a Lib Dem. And so it was this week.
Yesterday I had some free time in between meetings so I decided it was better for my health, and bank balance, if I offered my services to the Scottish Lib Dems. As my taxi driver dropped me off he told me that there was a life size inflatable Trident doing the rounds in the city........so of course I arrived my mind full yet again of thoughts of Trident. I started chatting about this when someone, maybe concerned about where this conversation was headed, said.........by the way Ming's wife is next door. OK, I wasn't going to say anything about Ming, but it reminded me of the almost universal opposition to Trident in Scotland, have they all had to be whispering their opposition for fear of upsetting Elspeth? So I spent some time helping out on Siobhan Mather's (our prospective candidate for Edinburgh Central) campaign before heading off to my meeting across the road with Young Scot.
And then off to Edinburgh Airport............switch off now if you don't want to hear my ramblings from last night while I was waiting for my yet again delayed plane to take off....................................
These new ' security' measures are doing my head in. Ok.....so I have always been a bit of a closet conspiracy theorist but honestly!!!! Whenever the British people are in danger of becoming complacent about the terrorist threat...no worries....just introduce a new security measure to put the wind up them......remember
'light tanks' at Heathrow??? Now its liquids and boots and for good measure jackets. I joined the long queue at Edinbugh this evening expecting the worst......a young man running up and down the queue handing out regulation size plastic bags. Do you have any liquids in your baggage? Would you dare? (Actually I did dare once, just to see what happened and had to suffer the humiliation of being swabbed for explosives!) And ' you are only allowed one item of hand baggage madam' 'yes I know......broken record syndrome kicks in......I will put my handbag into my case when I get to security' I don't add 'and take it straight out on the other side' I ask you! I follow this routine all the time...........so what was the point of that? Equally I get wound up about this 100ml rule......in a 100 ml bottle......I love winding them up with bottles that don't say how much is in them......what a palaver while they try to decide how big the bottle is.....and then there is the less than half full 150ml bottle.....sorry madam, can't take that thru......u see 75ml of liquid plus 75ml of air.....is potentially very dangerous.......to anyone out there who is offended by my flippancy, I'm sorry.....but honestly!!!! When all this nonsense started you may recall it was no liquids and no electronic equipment. Clearly that vast army of city commuters put their collective feet down........expect us to spend 55 minutes in the air without our laptops.....on yr bike Mr Blair! And you may be willing to go back to dental powder.....but please.....we need our Colgate to give us that ring of confidence. So it all changed............
So, here I am in the queue, relieved to see no one is taking their shoes off, phew, a bit of a drama with me silly boots. I take my coat off and reminisce about the time I was asked to take my suit jacket off too. No I hissed, too embarrassed to admit that I had nothing on underneath......well, there are limits. But wasn't it just Jack's law......I arrive and get asked to take my boots off (but no one else is taking off their shoes - no its random - but its always me!)- then, my suit jacket - er sorry, say I, but I can't my zip on my dress has bust and currently the fact is being hidden my my jacket......to do so would be frankly indecent! I steal myself to be arrested and carted off for interrogation, ah yes will say the ex Stazi interrogator......that's a new one, broken zip.....I don't think so. But the charming young security guard saves my blushes and makes an exception so now here I am waiting for EZ whatever to call me. Everything is running late. Delayed 45 mins......on a Friday night when all I want to do is get home and crawl into my bed.
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