Jack on the March..................................

As a regular Stop the War marcher, anyone spotting me on the Operation Banner march past yesterday may have been a bit puzzled. But as I have always made clear, I may be against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I believe absolutely that we should support and honour our forces who have no choice in where they serve.

For anyone who served in Northern Ireland yesterday was a day overdue. A day to draw a line under 38 years of suffering and bloodshed. The hopes and prayers of all of us that this really does mark an end of 'the troubles" Along with pal Jill I was lucky enough to get tickets and to be part of an historic event. It was the first time I had been to a service in St Pauls and it was truly a fitting setting, I especially appreciated the guard of honour they laid on for me (as you can see in the pic!). Before the service began I had been looking out for Nick Clegg, but could only spot David Cameron. I did toy with the idea of going and asking him to give Nick a message, but then spotted him so was able to give him my own message........it's OK - I didn't mention the T word, so there was no need to bring in the Royal Marines to separate us!

The service was extremely moving, I can't imagine how painful it must have been for those who were there who had lost loved ones over what was the longest ever deployment of British Forces. Let's hope Afghanistan doesn't break that record. After the service there was to be a march of veterans to the Guildhall (odd to think of myself as a veteran!)I had hmmmmmd and aaaaahed about whether to march. Did I really want to make a fool of myself?! When serving I can remember being told off for not being able to tell my right from my left leg and on one occasion when marching in to get my pay, the officer bellowed "March in, don't mince!" and sent me off to come in again, so marching isn't really my strong point..........Anyway, why not break with convention, how many others have ever marched in shocking pink boots? The retired Para behind me asked incredulously if I was intending to march. Yes say I, in those? says he....I joined the ranks quite near the front and unfortunately behind someone very tall. Now had we had time to organise properly - in height order, I would have been in my rightful place - in the middle at the front. That way you are close to folk of a similar height. But sadly not yesterday, I was behind someone a foot taller, as you can see from the pic. I did my best, but the combination of stilettos and being 'vertically challenged' ensured I had to break step every so often and do a little run to catch up - hopefully not caught on camera! Then to a delicious spread at the Guildhall with more than enough champagne! Yet again I heard a tale of what I regard as a failure of duty of care of injured soldiers. A unit in Essex is raising funds for a young man who lost his leg in Afghanistan so he can have a bionic leg as the country doesn't make up for the fact that we have sent him off to risk his life, by ensuring he gets the best.

I had to leave early for another meeting (more later) but I have to say, knowing the tickets for this event were well oversubscribed I felt very privileged to have been able to take part.

President Palin.....what if?

An interesting take from Frank Shaeffer.

Following the death of President John McCain from cancer (March 13, 2010) Vice President Sarah Palin was sworn in as President. The following is a partial record of her first cabinet meeting that has been reconstructed from files that survived World War III.

Secretary of State Dr. James Dobson: Madame President could you outline your priorities and approach to our Middle Eastern and Israel policy?

President Palin: Sure Jim, here's a few points that all us ordinary Americans from small towns know in our hearts are important. Please open your Bibles and follow along.

1. Attempts by Jewish groups to destroy the Dome of the Rock and rebuild the Temple have my support.
2. Any attempt to rebuild the Temple will very likely ignite an apocalyptic war with Muslim terrorists worldwide and bring back our Lord and Savior.
3. The case for rebuilding the Temple is based on the biblical belief that only through the reintroduction of the sacrificial system can Jewish people atone for their sins.Secretary of Defense, Pastor Hagee: Madame President could you outline the priorities you'd like to have the Pentagon pursue?

President Palin: Sure Mr. Secretary. I have asked the Department of Defense to review the following biblical passages: 2 Samuel 7:1-17; John 4:21-24; Hebrews 9-10; Ephesians 2:19-21; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 21:9-27.
After this meeting I am asking all members of the cabinet and all our fine generals to review the following questions for further military planning study:
1. What role did the Temple fulfill under the Old Covenant?
2. How will the future Temple in Jerusalem undermine the militant Muslims we have to fight and win against?
3. What does the Bible say about the Rapture?
4. I want all our intelligence assets pulled off whatever they're doing now to draw up a list of likely locations for the return of Jesus Christ so we'll be ready.
Read the Signs of the Times gentlemen! Armageddon and 'I'm a gettin' out o' here' is on the way!

Secretary of Homeland Security, Reverend Franklin Graham: Madame President, How should we defend the homeland in the light of Christ's return?

President Palin: Don't worry Franklin, Jesus is on our side! So just be watchful. Be faithful. I want you all to note what this hockey mom has had laid on her heart this morning. Follow along, please!
1. The Left Behind books have created a great opportunity for the Lord to work.
2. The End Times world view must shape US foreign policy in the Middle East destabilizing the so-called peace process and all that East Coast global warming crap too.
3. Armageddon is a biblical reference to an apocalyptic nuclear holocaust AND the cosmic battle between good and evil! The United States of America will win that battle gentlemen!

Secretary of Education Sean Hannity: Madame President any word for our non-union school teachers?

President Palin: Yes, Sean. Instead of science and all that global warming crap I want every American student to make a personal study of Christian Zionism which was first revealed by God to the British associated with JN Darby and Edward Irving in the 1830s. See? It's history too, as in HIS--that's Jesus!--STORY! This was brought to the United States by God where it became enshrined by the Lord in Dispensational Bible colleges and, for example, the Schofield Bible in 1909. These truths faded in England, but were anointed by God in the USA...

All members of the Cabinet: USA! USA! USA! USA! US...

President Palin: Enough! That's it Gentleman! You have your priorities now! Go forth! O, one last thing: The official position of the United States Government is henceforth the traditional premillennial dispensational eschatology believing the ingathering of the Jews to Palestine to be the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. All international policy, economic and military planning is to reflect this truth, did I say "this truth"? No gentlemen! Correction: THE TRUTH!


Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back. Frank wishes to thank Stephen Sizer for letting him use some material in this blog from the book Zion's Christian Soldiers

Nick Clegg - 150% RIGHT!!!!

I have to confess that I have not been best pleased with Nick's public musings on tax. I knew this was something we were unlikely to ever agree on, although I hadn't expected it to be elevated to such a defining issue for those of us who regard tax as a means to an end rather than an end in itself. So credit IN SPADES where it is due. Today Nick has announced the appointment of two new advisers, Fiyaz Mughal and Meral Ece. Both are well known in the party, both London councillors, Meral was a candidate in the GLA elections and Fiyaz stood as our candidate for London mayor. Both have contributed enormously to the party over the years and each has their own particular expertise that will be invaluable to Nick and the wider party. Nick has clearly put his money where his mouth is, diversity in the party as far as I am concerned is one of our MOST pressing issues. Fiyaz and Meral are well placed to ensure we actually begin to make progress. Here is the press release in full: Nick Clegg announces new BME advisors Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg today announced the appointment of two personal advisers on black and minority ethnic issues. These appointments are part of Nick Clegg’s commitment to build even greater links with the UK’s minority communities. The new team will engage with minority groups on a variety of issues, and will report their concerns directly to Nick Clegg, as well as to other senior party figures. The two new advisors are: · Cllr Meral Ece, who has been appointed the Leader’s Adviser on Community Cohesion (Ethnic Minority Communities and Minority Rights) · Cllr Fiyaz Mughal, who has become the Leader’s Adviser for Interfaith Work and Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism Commenting, Nick Clegg said: “I am proud of the links that already exist between the Liberal Democrats and minority groups across Britain. However, I am very conscious that we have to do more to engage with minority communities and this team will help us do that. “For over a decade, Labour’s clumsy and heavy-handed approach to issues such as immigration, detention without trial and income inequality has alienated minority communities. “Meanwhile, it seems clear that David Cameron’s Tories are still set on blaming struggling families for their problems rather then helping them. “I know from travelling around the country that there are so many members of minority ethnic communities who share Liberal Democrat values, and I’m delighted to have such a talented group focusing on the crucial issues which affect them.” Liberal Democrat Leader’s Adviser for Community Cohesion, Meral Ece, said: “Nick Clegg is committed to making the Liberal Democrats far more representative of the communities we serve. “I am very proud of and committed to supporting those efforts, using my experience of working for many years with ethnic minorities in the inner cities. “The Liberal Democrats are the only party who have the vision to take community cohesion seriously, by taking the lead on engaging with minority communities.” Leader’s Adviser for Interfaith Work and Tackling Radicalisation and Extremism, Fiyaz Mughal added: “The Liberal Democrats have a vision of community safety and tackling extremism and radicalism which does not isolate certain faith communities, but actively tries to engage with them. “Labelling or isolating communities merely exacerbates feelings of alienation that can feed radicalisation. I am proud of the vision and leadership that Nick and his front-bench team have shown on these issues.” FIYAZ MUGHAL Fiyaz Mughal was part of the Working Groups that made up the Extremism Task Force which was convened by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, after the 7/7 bombings. He is an accredited national Peer Mentor with IDeA on preventing violent extremism. An Oxford City Councillor in 2002-2004, Fiyaz is now a Councillor in the London Borough of Haringey and was also the Chair of the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats from 2002-2006. He was also appointed as one of a number of Deputy Presidents for the Liberal Democrats in 2006 and was one of the party’s Prospective London Mayoral candidates in 2007. Fiyaz founded Faith Matters (www.faith-matters.org.uk) in 2004 and works on interfaith, conflict resolution and Preventing Violent Extremism programmes within faith communities in the UK and internationally. MERAL ECE Born in London, Meral Ece is second generation Turkish/Turkish Cypriot. A community activist and a much respected and high profile figure in the Turkish speaking communities in the UK, Meral was one of the first women from her community to be elected as a local councillor. She served 8 years as a councillor in Hackney, and has been a councillor in Islington since 2002, where she was Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care between 2002 and 2006, and is currently the Chair of the council’s Overview & Scrutiny Committee. Meral is Chair of the Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats, and is a member of the Liberal Democrats Federal Executive Committee. She currently works as a consultant working with charities and local government. In May 2008, Meral was appointed by Minister for Equalities, Harriet Harman MP to the Government's Taskforce for increasing the number of ethnic minority women councillors across the UK.

If you don't read or listen to anything else this week........

Being a Radio 4-o-phile I listened to this Point of View from Katharine Whitehorn this morning. It is excellent and one of the best critiques of the deification of the market I have ever heard. Should be required listening, but if you don't want to listen -

"Heard the one about how many economists it takes to change a lightbulb? The belief that the market would take care of it has been shaken, says Katharine Whitehorn. I was brought up by a classical father who believed, with Socrates, that "where the wind of the argument leads there we must follow without fear".So it's not surprising I dislike fundamentalists: that's to say, anyone who says "That's it, it is known; shut up and don't argue." But the kind of rooted conviction I hate isn't confined to religions. I'm not keen, for example, on Richard Dawkins' atheist assertions, much as I admire him; he doesn't know, any more than anyone else does.

And there's a more everyday kind that's been around for at least 25 years that seems to go almost unchallenged, and that's the conviction that the market will take care of everything. At least, it wasn't much challenged till this summer; but now a seemingly unlikely combination of two economics editors, Larry Elliott of the Guardian and Dan Atkinson of the Mail on Sunday, apparently feel the same. Their book The God That Failed is subtitled "How blind faith in markets has cost us our future".

Do you remember the light bulb jokes? "How many New Yorkers does it take to change a light bulb? Two - one to call the electrician and one to mix the martinis" or "How many therapists? Only one but the light bulb has to really want to change." I recently found another in an old notebook: "How many economists does it take to change a light bulb? None; the market will take care of it." The only trouble is, it won't.It's not just the markets as such, though that make me grind my teeth; market forces may be fine when they apply only to the markets. It's the conviction that commercial principles are always the most efficient; that anything done for private profit and in competition must always be better and more effective than anything done for any other fudsy old reason such as the common good.

Sometimes I feel as if I'd spent the first half of my life being told, without any obvious evidence, that anything run publicly, by government or the council or whatever, had to be better than anything run commercially; and the second half being told, equally without any evidence, that anything run for private profit must be better - and evidence of the fallacy of this pious belief piles up all the time.This summer we've had, for example, the complete failure of the outsourced firm that was marking the exams of our schoolchildren.

The latest Home Office loss was achieved by a private company that misplaced a memory stick.And in the past there was the now widely mocked Internal Market at the BBC, and the privatisation of the railways, which even those who believe in the principle think was done the wrong way. The Potters Bar crash had Nina Bawden blaming Tony Blair for the way he allowed the railways to operate - it was a private firm that had failed to repair the track properly.It's said that part of the trouble is that the public sector people who commission the private companies aren't good at writing tight contracts and checking at every stage that the company has come up to scratch. This may well be true - I suspect that it's probably because of their blind faith in private companies that they take too much on trust.

Someone, years ago under Margaret Thatcher, thought it would be a very good idea to farm out the cleaning of hospitals to private companies. Before that, the cleaners may not have been particularly well paid, but they belonged to the hospital, had pride in what they did, and were the hospital's grapevine.When I wrote How to Survive in Hospital in the early 1970s, I said: "It is well known that most patients get all their information from that splendid woman with three teeth who sweeps under the bed in the mornings; it comes as a shock to realise she isn't actually a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons."Under the bed? When I visited a friend in hospital a while back, I happened to drop a book. Retrieving it from under the bed, I also found, to the delight of its owner, a slipper that had been lost for more than a week. The company in charge may make decent money, but the cleaners aren't well paid and often have no sense of belonging. No wonder they're not that keen to be clean.

Yet we're more and more faced with the idea that competition and the inclusion of private involvement will be the saving of the health service. One article of this faith is the substitution of many GP practices by polyclinics. Polyclinics can provide things like X-rays and blood tests without troubling a hospital, and their supporters hope they'll give more patients easier access to a doctor.The opposition, which includes the BMA (who got over a million signatures from patients in support of their stance), worry that continuity of care will suffer badly. The doctors will be on three-year contracts, and even over the three years there'll be no guarantee of seeing the same one.A stranger with a screen and a list of your ailments and drugs is not best placed to deal with the vast amount of non-specific illness, which usually needs, especially for the elderly, a continuing understanding of the patient and her problems.My local campaigning group is worried, too, about the reputation of the insurance company primed to run the clinics. Even if they were pure as the driven snow, they would still have to find profit enough to cover their directors and administrators and shareholders. Hardly a bargain for Primary Care Trusts that commission them.Political correctness has long been condemned, often unfairly, for the absurdity of always saying person rather than man or woman, for trying to be polite to minorities, or for refusing to call anyone top of the class for fear someone else weeps for being bottom.But this isn't the real political correctness - what's really been the only politically correct thing to say under Mrs Thatcher, and under Tony Blair, is to assume that competition is better than co-operation, that it's the only useful spur to action. Since too many people don't believe in God these days, they can still have the spiritual comfort of believing in The Market instead.

Jane Jacobs, an American whose books such as The Economy of Cities influenced - via the mind of Keith Joseph - much the most humane side of Thatcherism, wrote one about ethics called Systems of Survival.She thought there were two distinct streams. The commercial stream, which valued honesty in fair play and fair pay, but was not concerned with social effects; and the other stream, which went with running communities, looking after people and their commitments and casualties, governing a country and so on.She thought you got into big trouble if you tried to mix the two. She cited a scheme for getting cops to catch more crooks by paying them extra for every crook caught. No marks for guessing what happened. They certainly caught more people - but omitted the little detail of making sure they were actually criminals.

Judges were once paid by results, in the sense of getting money from the winning side - well, making sure the winning side was the one that had paid up. Even my idol, the essayist and philosopher Francis Bacon was supposed to have taken bribes. It took centuries to get the judges to stop.We are heading, it seems, for bad times such as we had in the 1970s. Then the main trouble was that the unions could disrupt anything and everything at will, and flabby management seemed unable to do anything about it.

But we still had the best broadcasting in the world, a health service which had only suffered two exasperating reforms, an education system widely respected and an efficient civil service not subject either to the stodginess or the questionable integrity of civil services elsewhere.I have always thought history will find it odd that, in those circumstances, Britain decided to copy the practices of commerce, and model all its institutions on the thing it did worst.

Bringing in market forces and competition was deemed to be the cure for everything, just as laudanum was prescribed for any ailment in the early 19th Century. A lot of women - the sisters and wives of the Lake poets, for example - were sick much of the time from the effects of heroin, because that was what laudanum consisted of. And when they were ill they were given more laudanum.For the healing properties of laudanum substitute "the saving magic of the market" - and let's stop believing in it so blindly."

Nick Clegg on Westminster Hour

Nick on the wonderful Westminster Hour explaining the inexplicable and accusing those who don't get it of "splitting hairs". Well at the risk of splitting hairs, my reading then is that £20 billion is first for reallocation and second for tax cuts. Please can we have some more meat on the Bones (excuse the pun!) - if we are going to have a bun fight over this I would really like to know where exactly it is we are aiming our buns.

Despite my differences with him on this issue I have to confess that Nick came across very well and if I was a little righty as opposed to a little lefty (something he has accused me of being before!) I would probably be dancing on the ceiling..........

He has promised to protect and enhance spending on education and other frontline services. He argued health was more complicated given our commitment to decentralise.

So, I await with mounting interest the debate next week.

To quote Nick Clegg - Hold your Horses!

There has been a rather tetchy debate going on over at LDV, so I thought I would put me 10penneth in. In The Sunday Telegraph today they tell us that Mr Clegg has announced that he will cut £20 billion from public spending, which will be ploughed into tax cuts for middle earners. "We are now in a process of identifying what I believe will be the most radical package of tax- cutting measures for people on middle incomes," Now, as others have pointed out, I don't remember Nick having this as one of his objectives in the leadership campaign. Also he is going a lot further than what is promised in Make it Happen. I have no problem with Nick showing his leadership, but I do believe if he is going to pick a fight with a large cohort of the party now is not the time to do it.

As I have said before, I backed Nick because in terms of nearly all his objectives I am totally on the same page. But that doesn't mean I think his methodology is right. Of course no one can be against tax cuts in principle, but please please let's not make the means to an end an end in itself. What is it we want to achieve, what is our number one objective? If it is just "cutting taxes" then why bother with any public services at all? If it is about redistributing the tax burden in order to address the inequity that sees the poorest paying the highest proportion of tax, that is a noble aim. But that isn't what he is saying.

I would argue that if we did a proper cost benefit analysis of all public expenditure we could make long term gains that could be ploughed back into reducing inequality. Of course there are savings to be made, the vast sums spent on consultants, PFI, privatising public services, Trident. But I don't see these highlighted in Nick's proposals. Are we seriously suggesting that there is not a need for greater investment in neglected services? That we honestly think all our public services are adequately funded?

So, to quote Nick back to himself, my plea to him is "hold your horses!"

Why we do what we do - don't we?

I have to confess to feeling a bit low over the past few weeks, probably spending so much time visiting a psychiatric unit may ironically have something to do with it! If these places depress me, what on earth impact do they have on those being treated there?

So, yesterday I had a powerful reminder of why I guess we all do what we do. I got off the train at Bedford and met a woman I hadn't seen for at least a couple of years. She was evidently really pleased to see me and told me how she had never forgotten what I did for her when I represented her (as Unison Branch Secretary). She said she had been in real turmoil but after her first meeting with me she felt so positive about the situation, one which we went on to resolve. It reminded me of all the other people I had had the privilege to represent during my term of office, both individually and collectively. Usually on low wages, treated unfairly and or exploited. The worst case was a private care home where the women (who the owner referred to as the "village idiots") were paid below the minimum wage, where a 17 year old was left on her own to care for all the residents overnight, where one woman got an extra 20p an hour to go and do the shopping in her own time, where the fire escape was locked with no key and where one of the women called me in tears one morning to say that when she had called in with gastroenteritis the owner had told her she had to come in or lose her job. When she said that would be putting the residents at risk she was told - we'll just have to take that risk!

So meeting this woman yesterday certainly cheered me up and made me more determined to carry on the fight and seek to be a voice for those who are so often marginalised, exploited or just plain ignored, for whatever reason. It reminded me that whilst a lot of the time we may feel our heads are frequently coming into contact with brick walls.......there are occasions when the bumps and bruises are all worth it!!!

Will Tony Blair step in to help?

Will he?

Faith Beyond Despair

Next week a new book by Elias Chacour will be launched. The book is "Faith Beyond Despair" and I am feeling a little bit proud because the cover of the book (OK....you have to look carefully at the bottom!) includes a picture of pupils at Mar Elias School that I took! Well, this is a great honour for me, basking in a wee bit of reflected glory..........

So, a book well worth reading. Elias's first book Blood Brothers I do think should be required reading for anyone, regardless of their political position, if they want to understand the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Red Arrows - Too "British"?

I received an email yesterday asking me to sign an e petition about an apparent decision to dump the Red Arrows for the 2012 Olympics.

Anyway I visited the site to sign the petition and note that the government has added a disclaimer thus "The e-petition asking the Prime Minister to "to Allow the Red Arrows to Fly at the 2012 Olympics" is ongoing. This is a response in advance of the closing date from the Government - This allegation is not true. The Government has not banned the Red Arrows from the London 2012 Olympic Games. The organising committee of London 2012 will decide what to include in the Opening Ceremony and other celebrations - but with almost five years to go, decisions are yet to be made on what these will look like.And of course the Red Arrows played a memorable role in the celebrations for 2012, when they flew over Trafalgar Square to mark London winning the Games."

Interesting to know where this idea came from, but I have signed anyway since if this idea has been muted the organising committee may well decide to exclude them. An example of what the good burghers of the Sun may see as "political correctness gone mad"? Well, guaranteed to cause a storm anyway. I am the first one to object to racist/sexist/homophobic jokes that reinforce negative stereotypes, however, I can't abide the oversensitivity that "bans Christmas" etc. This, if true, seems to fall into that category. The Red Arrows are part of our heritage, if the great and the good are in a tizz about whether they may offend some, my feeling is GETALIFE! Their sensibilities are at best ill judged and at worst praternalistic (no, that is not a misspelling!)

Lib Dem Bloggers of the Year...........

Phew......never one to regard a deadline as anything other than something to think about with 15 minutes to go.........I have surpassed myself and got my nominations in with 33 minutes to spare, am I impressed with myself???? Am I!

Who did I nominate..........(?) hmmmm, that's to be winkled out of me over a J2O at conference (!), but suffice to say I went through the list and picked out those I enjoy reading but aren't the usual suspects, given that my top of the listers will have already been nominated by others.

I think it is great that we have seen a veritable explosion of new bloggers over this year, Alasdair, Irfan, Steph, Helen to name but four. I hope this trend continues, sorry to sound like a broken record, but I hope this time next year we will reflect our diversity more accurately.

In the mean time.........more sloppy kisses to one and all!

Sloppy kisses all round..............especially for Alex Wilcock!

Congratulations to everyone on Iain Dale's list, I was especially pleased to see that our top individual blogger was Alix and to see that so many more women are taking this blogging lark more seriously! That is not to denigrate you guys (would I????) but it has always frustrated me that the gender imbalance in Westminster is reflected in the blogosphere. So especial congrats to Steph Ashley as one of the newcomers who has done so well.

And........sloppy kisses to all those of you who voted for me.........without prompting too! I might lobby and canvass hard to be elected to this and that (er.....European Parliament, FPC et al) but I have a blockage about my blog, probably because it is more personal.

Anyway, a tad late, I also finally get round to saying which of my posts I am most proud of. Actually these are the ones which have been recommended by others. If a post ends up in the golden dozen by virtue of the number of clicks (or the outrageousness of its title!) that is cool, but I am always so much prouder when one of my blogging heroes recommends something I have penned.

So - most proud must have been when sparring partner extraordinaire Alex Wilcock described my post on the Lisbon Treaty vote as "the most sensible I've read on the issue" ......... Alex, describing me as sensible, what an accolade! And I still chuckle to myself about Alex's fury when I did this post about gender and the by elections and then went off to Belfast!

The one and only Burbler has been kind enough to describe this post on multiculturalism as a "blinder" - thanks Paul!

And the awesome Stephen Tall has kindly nominated some of my blogs in the "ones you may have missed" from time to time.

If I may be permitted my own indulgence, I quite liked this one on locking up our children, it is one of the things I feel most passionately about.

And thanks to you all for giving me a nice warm glow yesterday, having had a difficult few weeks it was much appreciated!

Conference ...... what's the point?

I have just voted in the LDV poll. Of course I would have preferred a poll that allowed us to prioritise, I also enjoy the socialising, fringes, general buzz..........but of course the highlight for me is the debate. Despite my occasional :-) moanings about stuff, I am rather proud that we do still have a process in policy making that involves the membership. If political activism is about anything it is surely based on the premise that collectively we can achieve more than we can on our own. When we lose the link with our grass roots to my mind we not only lose our legitimacy we also make worse decisions. I know there are some in our parliamentary party (because I have heard them) who would rather cut the feckless activists out of the process altogether, life would be so much easier wouldn't it. Yes, but we would fast turn into a think tank of the great and the good who never go near the great unwashed but presume to have something to say on how to make their lives better.....oh yes, just like Labour and the Tories!

There are flaws in the current process that I would like to see something done about. For example, I don't like the fact that parliamentary spokespeople can effectively block any motion/amendment they don't like. I believe we should have a system where the membership has a say in the policies they want to debate. This could either happen by sending out all competent motions to local parties to prioritise, or by reserving the last day of conference to debate motions prioritised by conference reps (rather as we do with emergency motions). Of course this would give some in the party the heeby jeebies - heavens we might have to debate a really controversial issue.........but I believe it would engender more involvement in the policy making process. As someone who has never had a motion accepted by FCC, I know how demoralising and demotivating it is. In fact the only motion I have ever had debated was one submitted for emergency where the activists prioritised it. Of course FCC may counter by accusing me of writing crappy motions (!)

So, let's see what happens with my various amendments......

What I am pleased about is that an apparent drift towards less policy making and more chatting a la Labour/Tory, seems to be off the cards. At the moment we seem to have it about right.

So, of course I am looking forward to a lively and interesting conference. Will it be possible to amend the motion on Making it Happen? Will we support the status quo in Afghanistan? Will Nick Clegg send us off with fire in our bellies and a song in our hearts???!

More on Free Gaza and Liberty

Latest press release about the Free Gaza and Liberty, knowing Palestinian students who have risked their lives and been injured getting out of Gaza to start university here, I am particularly pleased to hear that the boats will be taking Palestinian students with them when they leave tomorrow:

The FREE GAZA and LIBERTY will leave Gaza for Cyprus on Thursday morning at 9:00 am. Several Palestinian students who have been denied exit visas by Israel will travel to Cyprus on the boats. One Palestinian professor will finally be able to go back to teaching in Europe and one young Palestinian woman will finally be reunited with her husband. Several of the Free Gaza international human rights workers will remain in Gaza to do human rights monitoring.

By freely traveling to Gaza, on Saturday, August 23rd, in two small wooden boats, the Free Gaza Movement forced the Israeli government to issue a fundamental policy change regarding their military and economic blockade of Gaza. Until now, Israel has wanted absolute control of Gaza with no responsibility. Israel has managed to maintain this situation, in spite of international law, because its policies have never been challenged.

When the FREE GAZA and LIBERTY approached the waters of Gaza, the Israeli government had to decide whether it wanted to publicly acknowledge that Israel remains an occupying power in Gaza, in which case Israel would be responsible under international law for its actions, including war crimes. In the face of intense, public scrutiny, Israel instead chose to acknowledge the inherent right of Palestinians to freely engage with the world. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign affairs publicly announced that humanitarian and human rights missions to Gaza will no longer be stopped or threatened by Israel. With the end of the Israeli siege of Gaza, Palestinians are free to exercise their rights without fear of being stopped or killed by the Israeli military.

Since the organizers of the Free Gaza Movement will not be entering Israeli territorial waters, and since they will request an inspection from the Gaza Port Authority, they expect no interference on the part of the Israeli authorities when they leave Gaza. By Israel’s own admission, it has no authority to inspect the boats or the passengers when they leave Gaza.

With the collapse of the Israeli blockade, the Free Gaza Movement will quickly return to Gaza with another delegation, and invites the United Nations, Arab League and international community to organize similar human rights and humanitarian efforts. The Free Gaza Movement will continue to work to ensure the free passage between Gaza and the outside world will remain safe and open.

SS Free Gaza and SS Liberty break Gaza blockade

Spending a few peaceful days in the wonderful Swaledale but just picked up this news from Gaza

GAZA (23 August 2008) - Two small boats, the SS Free Gaza and the SS Liberty, successfully landed in Gaza early this evening, breaking the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The boats were crewed by a determined group of international human rights workers from the Free Gaza Movement. They had spent two years organizing the effort, raising money by giving small presentations at churches, mosques, synagogues, and in the homes of family, friends, and supporters.

They left Cyprus on Thursday morning, sailing over 350 kilometers through choppy seas. They made the journey despite threats that the Israeli government would use force to stop them. They continued sailing although they lost almost all communications and navigation systems due to outside jamming by some unknown party. They arrived in Gaza to the cheers and joyful tears of hundreds of Palestinians who came out to the beaches to welcome them.

Two small boats, 42 determined human rights workers, one simple message: “The world has not forgotten the people of this land. Today, we are all from Gaza .”

Tonight, the cheering will be heard as far away as Tel Aviv and Washington D.C.

“We recognize that we’re two, humble boats, but what we’ve accomplished is to show that average people from around the world can mobilize to create change. We do not have to stay silent in the face of injustice. Reaching Gaza today, there is such a sense of hope, and hope is what mobilizes people everywhere.”

--Huwaida Arraf.

“We’re the first ones in 41 years to enter Gaza freely - but we won’t be the last. We welcome the world to join us and see what we’re seeing.”

--Paul Larudee, Ph.D.

“What we’ve done shows that people can do what governments should have done. If people stand up against injustice, we can truly be the conscience of the world.”

--Jeff Halper, Ph.D.

Am I turning into a Tory?

Wednesday, having been remiss in the washing clothes department, I scoured the bottom of the wardrobe. I went to work in a smart pair of black trousers, a high necked pink jumper and flat shoes. What has this got to do with the price of eggs? I hear you ask! Well, two of my colleagues independently commented. They had never seen me dressed so conservatively - what was happening?! Perhaps it was also a subliminal reaction to hearing George Osborne on the Today Programme and finding myself unable to disagree with much he said. Am I metamorphosing into a Conservative? Have I had it wrong all these years, is it the Tories who are the real progressives? Are they, as George Osborne claims, the ones to deliver a fairer society?



Well, listening to him I have to say, even though there wasn't much to disagree with, motherhood and apple pie and all that, I still couldn't help finding myself squirming at that underlying Etonesque arrogance that has always been the trade mark of so many Tories. So I was interested to read this article by Steve Richards in the Indy, comparing the tactics of New Tories with those of New Labour in the 90's. "Mr Blair made intoxicating speeches in the mid-1990s that seemed to develop an argument when he was actually avoiding one. Mr Osborne follows a similar path."



And later Richards argues -



"Like some of his other senior colleagues, Mr Osborne has read the New Labour manuals assiduously and probably knows off by heart the speeches delivered by Blair and Brown en route to their 1997 landslide. They declared that the new divide in the mid-1990s was not between high and low taxation, but fair and unfair taxation. It sounded like a moment of definitive change. But what did they mean by fair and unfair tax? What did they regard as levels that were too high? An apparently defining argument hid a thousand more important debates.


Mr Blair opened the door to Mr Osborne in other ways too. Towards the end of his leadership, he argued Labour had become too obsessed about the means in politics rather than the ends. But it is the means that are the cause of the divide between parties. Mrs Thatcher argued that her policies produced fairer outcomes compared with Labour. The arguments were over the means. No party claims that it wants an unfair society. In suggesting that the means are unimportant Mr Blair gave the Conservatives the freedom to argue that their approach is progressive because they seek fair outcomes. Every politician in Britain seeks fairer outcomes.


One of the reasons why Mr Osborne's speech is politically clever also relates to Mr Blair. The ultra-Blairites will agree with every word, the vaguely defined means as well as the ends that no one would disagree about. Out of genuine conviction as much as pragmatism, the heirs to Blair, Cameron and Osborne, cause mayhem in the Labour Party. Whether revisiting the politics of the mid-1990s is a successful route to power is another matter."



Absolutely! This is why I am uncomfortable, of course outcomes are important, but they are dependent on the means and getting the means wrong because of an underlying flawed premise, will result not only in failure but also in the kind of unfairness we have seen in both Tory and Labour Britain.

From a Nick Cleggophile...........how's he doing?

Conference season draws on apace. Given the cursory attention given to Spring Conference, the media will no doubt be pontificating postulating and palpitating about Nick Clegg's performance at conference. Activists will be looking to him to give a barnstorming performance, the media, armed with microscopic magnifying glasses, will be searching for flaws in that performance.

Shortly after conference last year we were thrown headlong into the drama of a leadership election. At the time I nailed my colours, somewhat firmly, to the Clegg mast. So, am I regretting my decision?


At autumn conference three years ago I was interviewed by ITN about Charles Kennedy (the chat at the time, you may recall, was about whether he was a leader or a chair). At the time I expressed the view that he was doing a great job, but that at the time of the next election we may need someone with different skills. Maybe Charles was the Moses who had lead us to the edge of the promised land, but in the run up to a General Election we may need a Joshua to lead us in! (apologies to those who don't know their Bibles, you'll just have to go look it up!)

Do I still think Nick Clegg is Joshua to Charles Kennedy's Moses? Well, I have had my differences, over taxes, over Trident, over marketization, over...........????? And therein lies my point. I do disagree with Nick on some issues, issues upon which I will no doubt have a bit of a barney with him and others at conference...IF I AM ALLOWED TO SPEAK!!! But on so many issues I absolutely agree with him and will continue to support him. Be that education, crime, mental health, most foreign policy, civil liberties, human rights, localism, diversity. The list is endless.


OK, so I agree with him on loads, I agree with lots of people on loads, but does it mean I think he has cut the mustard as leader? He has received a fair bit of stick from friend and foe alike, most notably the honourable Mr Huhne. He has occasionally dropped himself in it (tho this obsession with how many women he has or hasn't slept with and not just in the gutter press, leaves me cold, sorry, if there aren't more important issues for people to worry about frankly get a life!)

So, my view thus far? Well, you don't plant a sapling and then blame it when it starts to sway a little in the wind. Any new leader needs time to bed in. In Nick's case he has strong enough roots to withstand the buffeting...........and given time will become the mighty oak we are all looking for! He has enormous energy and resilience. He has the fleetness of foot and ability to spot and exploit opportunities that I have been crying out for. Nick has substance where Cameron is all smoke and mirrors. If you will forgive my mixing my metaphors, Nick is the house built on the rock, Cameron is building on sand.

Today he has hit the headlines twice on two different issues. Anyone remember when that has happened before? Firstly he threw down the environmental gauntlet on renewable energy, great coverage, great messages. Secondly he has been the only political leader (anywhere in the world as far as I know) to tell the truth about the Olympics and China. This evening on The World Tonight he showed his metal and did what a leader is expected to do...........speak on behalf of those he leads, I don't know about you, but he certainly spoke for me. He demonstrated that he is not a fairweather politico, he spoke with passion, intelligence and a depth which is almost absent elsewhere. He accused political leaders of being naive, making a mistake, gambling on the idea that this was a way of advancing human rights. He rightly in my view, reflected that this may in fact have the reverse effect. He worried that once the games are over the regime may in fact take the opportunity to act with brutality in Tibet and elsewhere. And of course, given his background, he speaks with some knowledge and authority about China. He rightly challenged the naive notion that the Olympics have nothing to do with politics and feared that Gordon Brown would be swept up with the euphoria of our medal success and would abdicate his responsibility to take the opportunity to speak out against Chinese human rights abuses.

So, in the foothills of conference season I am reminded of comments from my streetwise daughter. Last year she attended her first hustings in Cambridge, her comment at the time "I felt like Chris was talking to the audience and Nick was talking to me". Then, coming out of Nick's conference speech in Liverpool, her total belief that if only everyone, especially her friends, could hear Nick's speech, they would be bound to vote for us.

In conclusion. I don't and never will agree with Nick on everything. I will attract his and others ire for speaking my mind, sorry, I am too long in the tooth to become a default sycophant...........but, he is our jewel in the crown, he can and will be the "Joshua" we need. Watch this space!!!

Dear Fellow Bloggers...........

I have been deeply touched by the comments left by fellow bloggers on my post about my sister last week. Thanks so much to all of you, mental illness can leave the families as well as the sufferers feeling isolated and misunderstood and you have so encouraged me.

As someone who occasionally "shouts the odds" about all sorts of things, this is something I feel I have not shouted about enough. There are excellent campaigning organisations out there such as Mind, Young Minds, The Mental Health Foundation and others. But their campaigns so often fall on deaf ears. It takes a tragedy for the media to even make a passing reference to mental health care so what hope to put this issue any higher up the political agenda? The irony is that the cost of continuing to relegate mental health to the bottom of the political agenda is a cost to us all. A financial cost (for example 90% of prisoners have mental health problems) but more importantly a human cost.

At the moment I am not really in a good state to think through what we could be doing (ask my work colleagues whether I have listened to a word they said today!), but I am serious about doing something, however small, to change things. First step is a Facebook Group, second step may be a little more radical.......ideas on a postcard (or an email) please.......

Can we rethink police targets please?

The other morning I caught a piece on Today about police targets and how they were having a damaging impact on policing in England and Wales. This follows on from a Civitas report in May about police targeting trivial crimes in order to meet targets.

This caught my ear because I had been having an interesting conversation with a youth worker from Manchester earlier in the week. He was telling me that the police were being withdrawn from preventative work with young people in his patch because they weren't meeting their arrest targets with crime falling. Is this arse-backwards or what? It is a bit like the nonsensical targets for ASBOs - surely high numbers of ASBOs being issued is a sign of failure not success? This young man also told me about a really disturbing incident. Three young women were walking home and were stopped by the police and told to split up since there were three of them. One walked home on her own through a park and was raped.



What worries me about this obsession with targets and measures such as dispersal orders and exclusion zones is that they are all too often blunt and inflexible instruments that at best have little impact and at worst actually do harm. All the time the media and consequently politicians, are driven by perception rather than reality we will be showered with these window dressing, playing to the gallery, initiatives. Try putting "anti-social behaviour" into Google..........and see where else in the English speaking world it is such an obsession!

A time to dance..............

It has been a roller coaster couple of weeks for a number of reasons, which meant I never got to post about something to celebrate in the midst of quite a lot of sadness and anxiety.

Two weekends ago we travelled north to West Auckland for the wedding of Sophie and John. It was a family affair, Lara did Sophie's hair, Sumaiyah was bridesmaid and I had the great honour of signing the register and doing the "father of the bride" speech.

Throughout the weekend whenever Ravi would get a call from a friend he would explain we were at a family wedding. Like many young people I have worked with over the years, Sophie has become part of the family. This means a lot to me, that my children never saw any of my relationships outside our blood family as a threat. On one occasion, when Lara was doing a Saturday job in a local hairdresser's this had amusing consequences. Another young woman whose own mother had died but had always seen me as another mum, had her first baby. Lara had obviously been talking to a elderly woman whose nails she was doing about this. When I arrived to collect Lara to visit Rosalyn and the baby she beamed at me "Congratulations!" she said - I asked if she thought I was a grandmother, which she did, Lara had told her her sister had just given birth. I tried to explain that Rosalyn wasn't my real daughter, I had young people across Bedford who regarded me as a second mum, but the poor woman became more confused, "so is Lara your real daughter?" she asked!

So Sophie's wedding was a great blessing to me and a reminder of why I regard youth work as so important. She had a very difficult time during her teenage years, but my commitment to her was never based on "targets" and didn't evaporate when she moved away and I changed jobs. In the sixteen years I have known her there have been times when she has needed my support on a daily basis, then there have been months when we haven't spoken.

She has met and married a lovely young man and I find myself feeling rather like the contented mother that she is settled and secure and embarking upon a wonderful future with him. And she is a reminder to me that there are so many young people out there who, with the right support and encouragement, at the right time, will overcome any challenge. Certainly a great excuse to dance!

Mental Health - the last taboo?

Last weekend my sister came to stay. She wasn't in a good place, but although there were warning signs I wasn't alarmed enough to seek help. On Tuesday evening, whilst away at a training course, I got a call from another sister. She had been on the phone to my mother when someone had knocked on the door to say they had found Sarah very distressed in a nearby country lane. At this time it wasn't clear what had happened, but it soon became very clear.



Sarah (as I explained last year) has a history of mental health problems. A few weeks ago it appears her medication was changed, but with no monitoring. On Tuesday she had reached her wits end. She left a suicide note and went over to visit my parents. When she left she drove to a country lane and tried to take her life by attaching a hose pipe to her exhaust. Thankfully someone, the person who knocked on my mum's door, found her, and went for help. But in the mean time she believed she should gouge her eyes out. She is now in hospital, hopefully being stabilised. We are hopeful, but will have to wait to see if she has lost the sight in one of her eyes.



As you might imagine we have been devastated. However sick Sarah has been in the past she has never ever tried to hurt herself before, this is a frightening twist in her condition. Yet again we have come up against a system that seems to regard mental health care as a Cinderella service. Her medication was changed without informing anyone in the family and without any monitoring. Had she succeeded in taking her life, or even taking someone else's in that condition, no doubt there would have been much wringing of hands and platitudes and enquiries. The fact is, it seems the systems just aren't there either to protect patients or to protect the public.

She is now thankfully in a very nice and secure unit near the family. But, her greatest fear is to return to the unit I described last year. We have promised her she will not be sent back to that hell hole. Frankly I would sacrifice my political career by chaining myself to the railings or doing whatever else was necessary to stop that happening. Because of her injuries this is not on the cards for a couple of weeks, but yet again, patient choice does not extend to mental health services.

Mental health issues touch us all in some way or other. Most of us will have family or close friends who have suffered. Whilst we may have moved on in terms of our attitudes to disability, the same cannot be said with relation to mental health. At the Labour Party conference last year I collared Ivan Lewis (the minister responsible) about this. He agreed with me, particularly about my concerns about mixed wards in psychiatric units, but there wasn't anything he could do. So, what can we do? I am proud that this is an issue our party is prepared to speak out about. In a few weeks time when my sister hopefully will be home, there will still be thousands of our fellow citizens, already tormented and distressed because of their condition, whose condition will be exacerbated by a system that regards them as second or third class citizens. Sadly there are few votes in campaigning on mental health issues, but my, perhaps old fashioned view is, a society should be judged by how it treats those who are most vulnerable. Right now I don't think we are doing that well.

A time to mourn...........

In the age of the cult of the celebrity and the accompanying shift in values, as I commented a few days ago, we all too often lose sight of what is truly good and what really should be celebrated.

Last week a wonderful young man called Jon Dye lost his long battle with cancer, four and a half years after his father died of the same condition. He wasn't a celebrity in the normally accepted sense, it seemed that for some inexplicable reason his life was cut short. But, like so many young people with short lives - although his was a short life it was a life complete. Even through his death he will continue to touch many, to remind us all of what is important in life and to move us to value the precious gift we all so often take for granted. On Sunday I was moved to hear that our local paper, Beds on Sunday, had refused to take payment for the notice of Jon's death since he was so well known around town. Even through his suffering, sometimes in excruciating pain, he continued to live life to the full, he loved much and was loved so much in return.

To quote from his mum "Jon lived life fully with enormous courage and determination right up to the end. On July 20 he went up Snowdon on the train and picnicked at the top with his aunt and cousin. A few days earlier he was sea fishing and caught sea bass. Over the period of his illness, he snowboarded in the French Alps four times, visited Morocco twice and southern Spain (in May this year). He had a special day fishing in Shropshire with TV’s Matt Hayes courtesy the Willow Foundation and made numerous visits to Sarah, his sister in Bournemouth. I cannot imagine life without him. He was my beautiful son and the pain of his loss is unbearable to contemplate though I am so glad all his earthly suffering is over. He is at peace, but life here goes on………."

Yesterday I was privileged to be at his graveside, as he was buried with his wonderful father at Elstow Abbey famous for being the place John Bunyan was baptised in 1628. The thanksgiving service at Russell Park Baptist Church in Bedford, where his father was pastor until he died, was so moving. The church was packed to hear his mother, my dear friend Gill, speak with such strength about him. She reminded us that she had been stood in the same place such a short time ago to speak of her husband. She told us wonderful stories of Jon from the moment he was born when he snuggled into her shoulder, a foretaste of the loving child and young man he was to become. She told us of how he displayed his extreme sport tendencies almost from the beginning. She told us her reply when they visited the Royal Marsden hospital recently, when they knew there was nothing else that could be done for him, except perhaps the trial of a new drug, not due to start until September. She was asked how her faith was holding up, her response was about how it was her faith that was holding her up, her strong sense of the love and grace of God that was enabling her to come through. Jon's sister Sarah had produced the most amazing combination of Jon's photos and favourite music (some of which I doubt has been heard in church before!) and had created a memory tree where everyone was encouraged to write on a leaf their memories of Jon. The only time Gill lost her composure was when two young Muslim friends arrived, and as she finished by reading the same lines from Pilgrim's Progress she had read at Peter's funeral.

I spent this morning with Gill and Sarah and continue to be inspired by their faith and resilience. They were both able to remember Jon, and Peter, sometimes with tears, sometimes with laughter. I have to say the most amusing thing for me was to learn something I had never known. Apparently the Anglican church buries everyone facing the same way. Except if you are a minister. Then you are buried with your feet facing the other way, so that on the day of resurrection you will be facing your congregation! Well, Gill had explained this to the funeral director, but after the burial he came to apologise to her. Sorry, he had given his men strict instructions, but unfortunately they had buried Jon the same way as his father, was this OK?

Jon's father was probably the only minister of a church who has ever been able to cope with someone who doesn't quite sit in the box (yes I have a propensity to join institutions, the army, the church, unions, political parties that I then find my self on the margins of!) When I went to the House of Commons to protest against the war with Iraq. with red paint in my bra (a fact that was splashed over the front of the local paper) I got a few sideways looks from fellow Christians, Peter's response was "I know your heart Linda". Peter, like Jon, brought people together. He not only organised meetings for church leaders across the town he also built strong relationships with the Muslim community. In the lead up to the Iraq war when we had a march through town he shared a platform with Muslim leaders to speak against the war - his topic "Not in His Name". He was fearless in challenging Christian Zionism and with Gill, founded Elijah Trust to support the work of Elias Chacour and later Mossawa.

And finally a word about Jon's mum Gill. In my life I have been privileged to have some of the most extraordinary and wonderful friends any one could wish for. Gill is the most extraordinary and remarkable. She is one of the most loving, caring and non-judgemental people I have ever met. She has such a compassionate heart, which of course also means the pain she is suffering right now is excruciating. Yet, having been through the agony of nursing her husband through months of deterioration, she has now with great courage gone through the same with her son. As a mother I cannot imagine the agony of losing one of my precious children, I know I would be in bits. But Gill continues with great dignity and continuing concern for others, drawing on a faith which has not been dented in any way by her suffering.

Jon and his dad touched many lives, their legacy is in the lives they have touched. Their true memorial written in our hearts.

(More pix at Jon Dye - Remembering the good times!!!)

View from the top updated....................with a little help from Polly Toynbee!

Having spent most of my working life in drafty decrepit youth centres and on badly lit street corners (as a detached youth worker I hasten to add!)............the grandeur of Canary Wharf never ceases to amaze me. Cheek by jowl with some of the most deprived areas in the country, this fantasy city looms out of the mist (aka smog)..........a private estate, squeaky clean, towering metallic structures housing a virtual small town of 70,000 plus people. The virtually relocated "city" doesn't on the surface appear to have suffered due to the credit crunch. The classy jeweller still sells pieces for £1000's, the caviar bar is still packed, more and more posh shops are opening, rather like The Truman Show, everything seems just a little unreal. Yesterday I had a meeting at Barclays, where their meeting rooms on the 30th floor have stunning views (sadly it was raining so the pic isn't that good), set amongst all the other towers, HSBC, Citigroup, Bank of America..........the list goes on. Here, in the heart of the "city" the place where many of the decisions that have lead to our current problems are taken, the lack of connection with the reality of people's lives is palpable. The fact that for the past few years the only politician warning of our present reality is Vince Cable is something we should be very proud of. It is a fact that the media had often gone to Vince for a comment rather than George Osborne (who he?!). Let's hope that it isn't just the Tories that get the message that they don't have the competence to deal with the economy, but the country at large. However badly Darling is doing, I fear our present problems would look like a walk in the park if Mr O ever took over as Chancellor.

Since penning this piece my pal Martin alerted me to this article by Polly Toynbee which says what I was trying to far more eloquently!

"Focus groups with the super-rich, most of them in the top 0.1% of earners, commissioned for a book I have co-written with David Walker, threw up more questions than answers. How did these people succeed in setting their own terms with government? They were ignorant about the society they live in and indifferent to any but their own kind, and it is now plain that their own financial incentives encouraged wild risk-taking in banks and funds. Alan Sugar-style brutishness rules the roost, though most of these yahoos are not entrepreneurs at all, but market followers who receive their bonuses irrespective of whether results are good or bad.

Adept at frightening the Treasury, they fight even modest attempts at curbing tax avoidance or taxing non-doms, and the Treasury often retreats. Questions will be asked about who ruled Britain in this decade, just as in the worst days of over-mighty trade unions."

What really matters

Last night I travelled home pontificating on a possible response to the one and only JG and his temperate (?) comments re Nick Clegg and his alleged detractors......(could this be the same Mr G who had a pop at me less than 12 months ago for not giving Ming a chance?!). Well, I had two sobering calls during the evening, one from a very dear pal, who is very disabled and unable to work and has found herself in £60,000 of debt. The other from my sister who regular readers may remember was very poorly last year, and was distraught having just broken off her engagement. Just before 6 this morning I got a text from another dear friend to let me know that her son had just died, this only four years after her husband had died from the same condition.

So fisticuffs with Mr Graham seemed a lot less important. Which got me thinking about how easily we lose sight of the important things in life - so many of which motivated us all to get involved in politics in the first place. We find ourselves entangled in the detail when the big picture is what is important. We fiddle fart about arguing about the means when surely it is the outcome we should be focusing upon? We judge others for not doing things as we believe they should rather than seeking common cause to end the injustices and inequalities we all abhor.

Well, this is where I am right now...............but I have no doubt I will return to kick ass tomorrow!

Melanie Phillips and why the Tories don't cut the mustard

While I have been away Melanie Phillips, a woman more likely to make me grimace than sit up and listen, has metaphorically thrown down a gauntlet for the Tories - "We want a new start, proper leadership, a fresh vision. We are unlikely to get these from yet another Labour leader. The big question, however, is: who will deliver them? " - but a gauntlet that could just as well have been thrown our way.

Now, the problem she has identified is that the Tories are not picking up what she sees as the key issues -

"What are the Tories saying, for example, about the fundamental onslaught upon the integrity and identity of the United Kingdom posed by both devolution and our membership of the EU, which aims to reduce nations to regions controlled from the centre by the super-state of Euroland? They are silent.

What are they saying about Labour's ruinous levels of public spending? Pledging to match them.

What are they saying about the obsession with global warming which has produced ruinous policies on land use which have pushed up the cost of food? They share it.

Far from providing a clear and principled alternative, the new model Tories still defer too much to fashionable opinion; are still terrified of offending that opinion - particularly in the BBC; and are still following rather than leading.

The problem is that, while people know what has fallen, they are not sure what if anything has risen in its place. It is a vacuum which spells danger, not just for the beleaguered Mr Brown but for us all."

Of course, I agree about the vacuum, I agree that the Tories are far from well placed to fill it, but for quite different reasons.

For an intelligent woman her tabloid shallow analysis of our role in Europe is not only pitiful it is wrong. Her concerns about public spending are not accompanied by any intelligent arguments about what she would cut and why. Her view on global warming is plain ostrich like and her ridiculous over inflation of the power of the BBC, a shrinking fish in the global media pool, is laughable.

But the valid point she makes is about the vacuum and the fact that the Tories are ill placed to fill it. That leaves...........us. If the SNP can do it, so can we.

The Dreyfus affair..............a boring update

A few people have been asking for an update re the Dreyfus affair. Well, I have to confess I am reviewing my previous scepticism about whether or not he was working for the security services. This having chatted to someone for whom I have enormous respect and who has some professional insight.

However, I have now spent almost a whole day with the Metropolitan Police, giving a statement and trailing through hours of CCTV/video, a key section missing. I also saw stills that I have to suspect have been tampered with. I don't think I can say any more about the matter except to express alarm that this man has not been suspended from a role which by all accounts is a sensitive one. This frankly makes me more not less suspicious.

This case is being investigated as part of the overall investigation into the George Bush STWC demo, an irritation for the police apparently. Let us see what the outcome is, but I for one am not holding my breath.

Good King Billy, Peter Tatchell, Iris Robinson and David Cameron

I am just back from a couple of days in Belfast, attending one of our training courses in Springfield Road. As always I enjoyed the opportunity to peruse the Belfast Telegraph and the Newsletter for an Irish take on the news.

Big news is Peter Tatchell (who was over for an Amnesty International lecture) has really set the hares running by suggesting great hero of the Unionists, King Billy, had gay lovers. A DUP "spokesman" said "This is the kind of deliberately offensive and provocative comment and shock tactics that he has used in the past." Allied to this story of course is Iris Robinson's outburst. The waiter in my hotel raised this with me, he was outraged that she appeared to have got away with it, something he didn't believe would have happened on the mainland. A letter in the BT suggested that Iris Robinson's comments were made with the sanction of her husband, who allegedly is "now trying to address the problem of Free Presbyterians defecting from the DUP" and was using her in a "missionary role".

And there has been a fair bit of comment on the proposal for a merger between the UUP and the Tories. As I raised a couple of days ago, my concern is that by muting this possibility the Tories give the impression of supporting sectarianism, a view not expressed in the newspapers, but one I found was shared by friends in Belfast. The major problem the Belfast Telegraph sees is that Sylvia Hermon will not be happy since she is more sympathetic to Labour and the consequence may be that the UUP lose their sole MP. However, the overtures being made by David Cameron to the party are seen as throwing them a lifeline.

Flying back last night, over the green and gold rolling hills of County Down and the sparkling still waters of Strangford Lough, I reminisced about leaving over 30 years ago when I had planned to go back to teach once qualified. My life inevitably took a different turn, but I still think Ireland is one of the most beautiful places on earth, blessed not only with wonderful landscapes but also wonderful people. I trust that the sectarianism and bigotry that still exists will not scupper the undoubted strides that have been made towards a real and lasting peace settlement.

What the MPs really get up to on awaydays..........and other stories from Jo Swinson!

One of the great things about the Blogger's interviews is meeting other bloggers that you feel you have at least got to know a little through their blogs. So I was really pleased to meet Alasdair on Monday when we interviewed Jo Swinson. The adorable Milly, Helen Duffett and her son George were also there. Milly and Alasdair have already covered a lot of what Jo said, so I will just pick up on a few things that particularly interested me.

One of the little asides that appealed to my sense of humour was her insight into the recent MP awayday. Apparently one of the things they did was tell each other, one thing they should stop doing, one thing they should start doing and one thing they should carry on doing. Hmmm, sadly we got no more detail than that!

Given Jo's position as chair of the Gender Balance Taskforce, the issue of discrimination in all forms came up, for her age was still an issue she still had comments made about her youth in the House.

Her view was that on gender we had made great strides, with women in 29% of winnable seats, however the support was still not perfect and finance, particularly for child care, was missing.

On dealing with diversity in regard to BME representation in the Parliamentary party Jo's view was that we were rubbish. She was disappointed that having not recruited a diversity officer the post was replaced with a diversity adviser. Her view was that an officer would have had a more action orientated role. Whilst it was encouraging what has been achieved with regard to women, much more needed to be done at all levels of the party to increase our ethnic diversity.

Jo also talked further about the barriers to selection that women still face, herself having been asked by a member when she was seeking selection about having children. The reality is that women still disproportionately take on the caring responsibilities and it was notable that of our women MPs 5 had grown up children when they were elected and the other 4 have no children. She felt that lack of confidence was a barrier we can and are doing something about. Some of the other barriers, like for example being able to attend conference and even the cost of clothing, were more difficult to overcome.

Role models were important and Jo felt it was easier for her after Sarah Teather's election in Brent, people could then imagine a young woman as an MP.

Jo talked quite a lot about foreign policy, I was particularly interested in what she said about Iran and Israel. She felt there was gross hypocrisy in the way it appeared there was a one rule for us another for them in the way no one was asking Israel to give up their nuclear weapons but talking about attacking Iran to stop them having the same.
Her concern was that the region was a tinderbox and attacking Iran would be very dangerous. But her view was that if there was an attack it would be Nov-Jan once the US elections were out of the way and before George Bush stood down.

I asked what had been done in relation to the motion passed at conference on Israel/Palestine and heard that so far nothing had been done. However Ed had raised the issue of the blockade in Gaza and they had met with the Israeli ambassador and CAABU.

What was striking about Jo was her ability to comment intelligently on any issue. This, combined with her undoubted people skills and generosity of spirit, made me recall some of the comments that others have made about her being a potential future leader. I certainly came away very impressed.