101 things you never knew about Lembit...........

............well, you may have known some of them.............but not all!

1 Lembit is a keen astronomer, and his Grandfather was a world renowned professional in the field, and is mentioned in Bill Bryson’s book “A Brief History of just about everything.”
2 In 2004, Lembit was awarded “Hardest Working MP in Wales” by the Western Mail
3 Lembit has the highest recognition levels of any Liberal Democrat amongst under 30 year olds.
4 The largest assembled audience Lembit has addressed is 120,000.
5 Lembit’s first word was “vaata!” which is Estonian for “look!”
6 Lembit has not had a cup of coffee in 9 years.
7 Lembit was runner up for National President of the National Union of Students in 1987 AND 1988 and served on its National Executive.
8 Lembit was the Global Human Resources Training & Development Manager for international firm Procter & Gamble.
9 Lembit achieved 21 points on BBC’s Mastermind in 2005.
10 Lembit was the first MP of Estonian heritage ever to enter British Parliament, and is fluent in Estonian.
11 Lembit was awarded GovNet Alternative Politician of the Year in 2008.
12 In September Lembit was identified by independent think tank Liberal Vision as the most Liberal MP in the Party.
13 Lembit caused the British Government to hold an inquiry into the handling of the deaths at Deepcut Army barracks, and continues to campaign for a full independent inquiry, believing that the recruits were murdered.
14 Lembit is one of the most recognised politicians in the Liberal Democrats.
15 TWO of Lembit’s former female staff have gone on have full time careers in politics – Fiona Hall MEP and Jenny Willott MP.
16 Lembit’s car has covered 379,000 miles – most of them on Party business!
17 Lembit went to school at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.
18 Lembit used to go swimming in the North Sea for health reasons when he lived in the North East, but gave up when he contracted pneumonia as a result of this activity.
19 Lembit has played chess competitively, and won over half his games.
20 Lembit broke his back in 12 places in a paragliding accident in 1998, and nearly died, but has made a full recovery.
21 Lembit has trained numerous activists in public speaking and many of his trainees are now Prospective Parliamentary Candidates and MPs.
22 Lembit has written 497 consecutive weekly articles for the Shropshire Star.
23 Lembit expressed his intention to stand for President in 2000. He did stand in 2004, losing to Simon Hughes, after which he said he would stand again in 2008. He is keeping that promise now.
24 Lembit is one of the best pinball players in the United Kingdom.
25 Lembit was President of the University of Bristol Union in 1985.
26 Lembit is a professional training designer and has worked on 4 continents.
27 Lembit believes in positive campaigning and has repeatedly warned of the dangers of running other politicians down – because in his view it is a viscous circle that darkens politics as a whole.
28 Lembit’s best friend, David Hamer, died unexpectedly at the age of 46 on 6th August this year. Over the summer he was devastated by this loss.
29 Lembit has spent a total of four and a half years in Leicester.
30 Lembit has the most libertarian voting record in the Lib Dems.
31 Nobody has exceeded Lembit’s parliamentary majority in Montgomeryshire for 46 years.
32 Lembit was Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats from 2001-2007, during which time the Party doubled its number of MPs in Wales.
33 Lembit believed Charles Kennedy should not have been forced to resign in 2006 - and publicly defended him until the very end.
34 Lembit’s brother died suddenly at the age of 37 in 2005.
35 Lembit has played harmonica with a band supporting the hit group Razorlight at an environmental concert this year.
36 As chair of the all party Baha’i group Lembit has helped secure the release of dozens of Baha’is from prison in Iran.
37 Lembit has appeared on Question Time and on Any Questions at least once a year on average since he was elected to Parliament.
38 Lembit has been a successful election agent in many local government elections.
39 In October 2008, Lembit signed up 6 new members in Glasgow in under 3 hours.
40 Lembit has had an environmental audit of his house and is implementing its recommendations.
41 As Senior Vice President, Lembit is Number 2 to President Simon Hughes and has chaired the federal Executive effectively on a number of occasions.
42 Lembit’s favourite book is “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.”
43 Lembit worked actively to help Estonia set up its post Soviet police and security services in 1990-2.
44 Lembit was Youth Spokesperson in 1997 and was one of the two key MPs who helped found the UK Youth Parliament.
45 Lembit was Vice Chair of the English Liberal Democrats in 1995.
46 Lembit has two Japanese motorcycles dating back to the 1970’s.
47 Lembit has attended every single federal Party conference since 1990.
48 Lembit was a speechwriter for former Party President Robert Maclennan.
49 Lembit participated in a special edition of a Panorama programme called Referendum Street as part of a pro-Euro currency team. They won the referendum.
50 Lembit is Vice-Chair of the All Party BBC Group – and its longest serving member.
51 Lembit believes people to be fundamentally good, and says this underpins his view of politics and the future.
52 Lembit is left handed (and as my dad always says, only 10% of the population are left handed, but 66% of geniuses are!)
53............to be continued.............

It's not just Henley that needs Stephen Kearney as their next MP...Its the Country!

Greetings from Henley, where, along with fellow bloggers Millenium Elephant, Alex Wilcock and Helen Duffett, I have just had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Kearney.

Any one who knows me that there is one sure fire way to my heart........talk about young people and youth work.....did someone tell him?!

I got to ask the first question which was to ask Stephen what motivated him to get involved in politics. His answer was inspiring and, it has to be said, music to my ears!!!

Stephen told the story of how as a teenager he had got involved with a project called Focus. He and other young people had been hanging around on the streets and got to meet a youth worker, one committed to experiential learning - who worked with the young people to develop a Cafe and Theatre and other groups from a building they took over. He reflected that the young people themselves were empowered to run everything, they became directors, managers, developing a huge range of skills in the process. And then as the youth club fell into disrepair the youth worker worked with them to reflect about what had gone wrong and what they needed to do to resolve the problems - linking what we do to the impact it has and making the link between personal growth and actions. This learning had influenced the rest of the course of his life. Learning how you influence policy, support communities and encourage them to take action.

Through the work he was doing through Regenerate and his contact with politicians like Alex Carlile, Simon Hughes and Lembit Opik, he came to the conclusion that the Lib Dems were the party that listened most. Following a meeting with Peter Luff in Henley in 2002 he made a commitment to put his heart into politics and devote the next 20-25 years of his life to seeing the Lib Dems move from a third force in politics, to government.

Stephen's commitment to young people shone through, his understanding of their needs and our responsibility to take those needs seriously as a key to dealing with many of the underlying problems in our society was a breath of fresh air.

The other theme that ran through what Stephen said, was his understanding of and commitment to, listening to and empowering communities. Apparently he was trained in the 90's by the same people who trained Barack Obama and has clearly put a lot of that learning into practice in the way he has developed his charity and also, impressively, has a clear route map of how he would do the same in politics.

His challenge was that politicians had to up their game and that as Lib Dems we could head the way through not only listening to what people and communities were saying but also by creating networks of people within communities to help us deliver. One of his first priorities after being elected would be to create his own listening team within the constituency who would work with him to explore concerns and implement solutions. His first task on a Friday morning after returning to the constituency would be to meet with this team to report back on what he had been doing in parliament and to get feedback from them about what they were doing, reflecting on concerns and deciding on actions.

He said a lot more and I will drip feed some of the specifics, for example on policy, later. But to start with I wanted to get the message across very clearly that here is someone we absolutely MUST GET INTO PARLIAMENT!!!!! Seriously guys, if you were feeling demoralised after Crewe and Nantwich......now is the time to get your pecker up, dust down your walkin boots, polish up your Lib Dem rosette.........AND GET DOWN HERE - ASAP. Or if it is too far, pick up some of the telecanvassing. I am absolutely convinced Stephen can win this, he has the style, personality, drive......and above all a proven deep commitment to making life better for everyone. If elected he will be a breath of fresh air for our parliamentary party, but far more importantly a breath of fresh air for our country. In a climate where politics is stale, people are disillusioned and have lost faith, here is someone who can inspire them and show very clearly........it can be different!