Given my recent blogging hiatus we’ve missed a number of things I could have included in my Random Thoughts series of posts. So here is a bumper catch up of thoughts I should have posted over the last two months.
Various thoughts I should have posted in November
At the beginning of the month I found this handy flowchart for working out where you should post your status on social networking sites. Much truth in graphical form.
The organisers of London 2012 have released a series of Olympic posters designed by contemporary artists. I liked the nod to classicism in Chris Ofili’s poster and the sentiment in Tracey Emin’s, but my favourite is the Rachel Whiteread.
No posts for a few days so I thought I would catch up with the first dozen edition of my ‘Random Thoughts’ posts featuring a few name checks of people who have done cool things on the internet recently.
I was really pleased to see the excellent Islington Councillor Tracy Ismail profiled in Liberal Democrat Voice’s Local Liberal Heroes series. I ran a Committee Room from her home during the 2006 local elections and she was very tolerant of my minor explosion of panic when we had a significant computer failure half way though the day. As a novice candidate then she displayed qualities of calmness and taking things in her stride which I imagine have helped make her a very effective local councillor!
Talking of great female politicians, this week saw the launch of the Counting Women In campaign that aims to work towards the equal representation of women at all levels of politics.
I noticed that another excellent Lib Dem played a key role in exposing a PR scam that hoodwinked several national papers last week. William Summers (@william_summers), the party’s candidate for North West Norfolk at the last election and the creator of the What The Hell Have The Lib Dems Done? website, spotted that the ‘customer’ featured as the accidental purchaser of a 7ft monster slipper (I’m not kidding) bore an uncanny resemblance to the web manager of the ‘Monster Slippers’ company itself. Polly Curtis on the Reality Check blog has the full story.
Finally, some photos. I rather liked the look of the new ‘Liberal Drinks’ beer mats available from Martin Tod (@mpntod):
I also thought Helen Duffett’s (@helenduffett) emergency replacement for Twitter for those suffering from Blackberry failure during the recent outage was a winner:
I’ve been working through my list of things to follow up on after last weeks trip to Birmingham for the Liberal Democrats’ Autumn Conference, including writing up various blog posts. To speed things up a bit I thought I’d use this edition of ‘Random Thoughts’ to round-up all those things from conference that I want to note but that don’t really deserve a blog post of their own.
Given I was traveling down on the Saturday morning I missed the three consultative sessions. I made up for that a bit by writing my response to the local government finance paper on the train. But there was also the ‘what went wrong?’ session on the May 2011 elections that I missed.
Perhaps missing it was just as well as Alex Wilcock in previewing it describes it as”perhaps the most depressing talking shop ever put on a Lib Dem Agenda”. Alex’s post on how we should ‘Never Mention “STV” Again‘ is worth a read.
Elections to the House of Lords
After arriving at my hotel on the Saturday my first priority was the debate on elections to the House of Lords. Due to getting caught in a rainstorm and then slightly lost alongside one of Birmingham’s many canals I missed nearly all of the debate. I got into the hall just in time to see Mark Pack give the final speech. But I was in time to vote in support of the motion.
Missing the debate was a shame because I didn’t get to see the excellent speech by former Liberal Democrat leader Ming Campbell who in a strongly worded statement directly addressed those recalcitrant Lib Dem peers and demanded that they “do their duty” and support Lords reform. However, I was able to catch up with the speech on YouTube:
I went to a fascinating fringe on the Monday lunchtime that looked at higher education and the music industry. Organised by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and the Association of British Orchestras it had a first class range of speakers including Simon Hughes MP, the Government’s Advocate for Access to Higher Education.
We heard from Darren Henley, the Managing Director of Classic FM, who has just completed an independent review of music education for the government. I’ve learnt that this is a crucial moment for music education. The government are due to publish the National Plan for Music Education this autumn. They have also committed £82.5 million for music education in schools up to April 2012, but funding beyond this date is uncertain.
The meeting also heard from Louise Teboul of Common Purpose who had some interesting things to say about creating spaces that help to stimulate creativity. Talking of creative spaces, I was also impressed with the CBSO Centre itself.
Reforms to internal election regulations
Due to adverse circumstances I was unable to be in the hall early on Wednesday morning as I had hoped to be to vote on the rule changes to relax the restrictions on campaigning in internal party elections. I support these changes and have written about them here. However, I am pleased to report that they were voted through without opposition. This is good news for the health of the Party’s internal democracy.
Nick Clegg’s Speech
The closing act of conference is of course the Leader’s big set piece speech. Overall I thought it was extremely good. I had issues with one or two aspects of it but those aside it was probably the best speech I have heard from Nick.
This is the tenth of my “Random Thoughts” posts. Since I started doing these back in March they have been less regular and more, well, ‘random’ than I had intended. But I do think they have added something to the blog. The main purpose of recording things that I find interesting but haven’t the time or the inclination to write a full blog post about is being fulfilled. So I think they will continue.
This edition has links to various bits of quality writing by people I vaguely know and an opportunity to indulge in a quality pleasure.
First we turn to the economy. Nick Thornsby has a very insightful post on ‘Why the cuts are necessary, and the chart that explains (nearly) all‘. He gives one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen of the facts and historical background that underlie the government’s economic policy and shows how facile much of political debate is about this issue.
Part of why this post is so good is that Nick clearly understands the difference between debt and deficit. This enables him to make this strong point:
“the suggestion, made by some, that the current deficit is not high by historical standards is clearly nonsense. The deficit in 2009-10 was much higher than at any other time since the second world war, and almost double the usual level in previous recessions.
While it is true that the national debt is currently not particularly high by historic standards, that would soon be untrue were we to continue borrowing at the current rate.”
Cllr Richard Kemp says goodbye as he stands down from the post of the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Local Government.
In line with my recent theme of considering the future of the Electoral Reform Society, James Graham has delved into ERS’s past to come up with this challenging, but convincing, recommendation for changing the Society’s objectives.
Sarfraz Manzoor’s favourite album is by Bruce Springsteen. I didn’t see that one coming.
Finally, that guilty pleasure. I admit to being a little uncomfortable with the ethics of laughing at beauty queens, but still I did find what follows very amusing.
A tweet from @lordbonkers led me to the excellent Open Culture website, which in turn led me to an article which I thought I would share. It has two videos, one of which is a spoof of the original, and they are very funny – but at the same time – the whole thing is more than a little frightening. I won’t say any more but do go and find out what the responses were when the Miss USA 2011 contestants were asked the question “Should evolution be taught in schools?“.
There is a bit of a TV theme to this collection of ‘Random Thoughts’.
I was pleased to see that BBC4 are repeating ‘The Killing’ (available on iPlayer here) which means that Dectective Sarah Lund and her extraordinary jumpers are back on our screens. This is not the US remake that Channel 4 have been showing, but the original Danish series where the hunt for the killer of a young girl gets mixed up with political intrigue, difficult personal relationships, and chunky scandanavian knitwear. Despite it being a thoroughly enjoyable drama I’ve not decided whether I want to rewatch the series, with 20 episodes it is a bit of a time commitment, but if you didn’t see it first time around it is well worth catching now, and not just for the jumpers.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Hour which finished it’s run on BBC Two last week. Apparently it received a rocky critical reception, including complaints about historical accuracy. It certainly wasn’t perfect. I thought the plot relied a little too much on coincidence and unlikely connections between the characters. It also may have suffered from it’s description as “the British Mad Men”, which it wasn’t. Still it looked good, had interesting things to say, and brought us into a world, TV news in the 1950s, that was both new and familiar at the same time. I thought that world was evocatively realised.
Thinking about it, the plot was in some ways curiously old fashioned. Given our current preoccupations with the role and behaviour of the media it was a reminder that in some stories journalists can be brave seekers after truth confronting a secretive establishment.
As to the historical accuracy of that world – well a bit of research told me how it was inspired by real life. The late 50s are an interesting time in the history of British news broadcasting. It saw the beginning of the change from the deferential “London calling the Empire” era to a style of reporting we are much more familiar with today. This changed would be typified by the beginning of Panorama and the rise of Richard Dimbleby to the role of national icon. It seems the character of Bel is partly based on Grace Wyndham Goldie who sounds like a fascinating and formidable pioneering woman and was at the centre of those changes.
The restrictions imposed on reporting the Suez crisis depicted in the series are also solidly based on fact. The history of Panorama on the BBC website has this;
“At the time, the BBC was working under a 14-day rule which meant that nothing due for debate in Parliament in the next fortnight could be discussed on television.
Dimbleby and the team got around this by broadcasting the reaction to the crisis from around the world, omitting Britain. The programme came under attack from politicians in favour of the invasion, but a BBC investigation found in favour of Panorama and the 14-day rule was suspended for a trial period by Parliament. It was never applied again.”
The Hour also had some fantastic performances from a great cast. I did like the brief appearances of Hetty Baynes who was perfect as Bel’s blonde bombshell mother. But the stand out one was Oona Chaplin as the wronged society wife.
Talking of great TV performances I was a few days ago, for reasons I now no longer remember, searching for information on Victoria Wood’s classic series “as seen on TV” and was reminded of the fantastic Susie Blake’s role as the announcer. Sadly her famous apology to “viewers in the North” is not on YouTube but I did find this which is almost as good:
Now, for some politics.
Good news as Liberal England reports on the promotion of two of the new intake of Liberal Democrat MPs. Particularly pleased for my good friend Simon Wright who becomes PPS to Children’s Minister Sarah Teather. Simon is a former teacher so he will bring real experience of the ‘chalkface’ to the governments’ education policy.
Also very pleasing was Nick Clegg’s clear statement on his approach to the human rights last week. In his article in the Guardian he gave a strong defence of the Human Rights Act. This was a realistic and sensible defence. After all “There is no human right to fried chicken”. But it was a clear single to the more rabid parts of the Conservative party that the Liberal Democrats will work to ensure that the proper rights of the British people will remain protected. If you want to know why, despite its difficulties and uncomfortableness, I continue to support the Liberal Democrats role in the coalition government then it is for things like this.
My mood seems to be as variable as the weather at the moment but since my last ‘Random Thoughts’ I have been finding stuff to cheer myself up with. Watching the media coverage of the London riots hasn’t been helping with this of course, nor has the sight of those seeking to make political capital out of them hasn’t helped much either. But if you will excuse me I am going to ignore all that in this post and just concentrate on positive things.
Firstly, I have just got through finishing watching Waldemar Januszczak‘s excellent documentary series looking at the artistic revolution brought about by the Impressionists. I found this fascinating and informative. Januszczak pulls off the difficult task of combining an explanation of the lives of the artists, their characters and personal motivations, the social and historical context in which they worked, the ideas and meanings they were trying to convey, and giving you an appreciation of the art itself. I also like how he talked about the technological and scientific innovations that made the art of Monet, Renoir, Degas and the like possible. If you missed it you have a few days to catch up on the series on iPlayer.
Oh, and don’t worry if you aren’t that much into art. The series is hugely entertaining. To give you a flavour, and to show one of the highlights, the video below is of the opening of the first programme:
I loved the musical sequence in this clip, so went off to find out more about it. The music is from French group Hold Your Horses who did an original video for their song ’70 Million’ recreating famous paintings which is also on YouTube. They also have recently released an EP which has been my soundtrack for most of the last few days. (iTunes / 70 Million on Amazon)
I’ve also been a little inspired by what my friend Ali Goldsworthy has written in her list of ‘20 things to do in the next ten years‘. Number 4 made me laugh out loud. It made me start jotting down potential items for a list of my own. Such an exercise seems appropriate given recent significant birthday and other events. However, not entirely sure if it is a good idea. For me such a list is in danger of becoming a list of things to feel guilty about not having done anything about!
I am always pleased when I find something written by Alix Mortimer and so it is good news that she is now doing stuff over at Dale&Co. I am even more pleased when she hits upon something I 100% agree with; ‘Won’t Someone Think of the Librarians?‘. The future of libraries in our communities is often a very emotive issue, but one where debate and decisions are commonly distorted by misconceptions. Alix is spot on in pointing out that the unique thing about libraries is not the books, or the buildings, but the librarians. Librarians are cool.
Finally, a quick hello to Spidey at Spiderplant Land who has been added to the blogroll, mainly because she said nice things about me.
Well it was all a bit too good to be true wasn’t it?
Having gone on about how well I was coping with my election defeat, how it was time for new plans and looking to the future, and with a burst of energy going into new projects and writing on this blog, on reflection it seems inevitable that I would have some sort of crash. Well it happened. The last few weeks I’ve been a bit rubbish, both mentally and physically.
I’ve had a major change to my life imposed on me and it was perhaps a bit naive to expect my reaction to that to be only positive. So I’ve been on a bit of a down slope. Lacking energy, getting behind with tasks, over worrying about things and generally not being on top form. This of course includes failing to blog, the last post here being back on the 13th July.
That doesn’t mean that my general feeling of being OK with things has changed. That still holds true, it is just that I am a bit more bruised by the experience than I thought. I think the jury is still out on whether turning 40 at the end of June has anything to do with it. It also doesn’t mean that nothing positive hasn’t been happening. In fact quite a few cool things have happened since I last blogged.
I’ve been on a short business trip up to Yorkshire, wished the outgoing head teacher of the junior school where I am a governor good luck on her retirement, attended the lovely wedding of a good friend, and achieved one of my ambitions by seeing Eddie Izzard live. I’ve also been getting used to my new iPad – although too much of that has been becoming addicted to the game Settlers – and trying out various apps, I’ve started experimenting with Google+, and I became friends with a cat on Facebook. More seriously I have been watching with fascination the development of the News International scandal and the political reaction to it as well as the unfolding of the financial crises in Europe and the US.
I have also been collecting various random links, some as inspiration for blog posts that now will never be written, that I will now dump here:
Also posted on Lib Dem Voice was this video. I know it is now a cliche to refer to a West Wing clip whenever there is a big US political story but this does just feel so appropriate:
Talking of the school where I am a governor, I have written about my small part in the merger of Downside Infants and Juniors here, but it is still a bit of a shock that the new primary school will be opening its doors in only a months time. The latest news, as reported in the local press, is that the new school building is open and working well.
One of my long standing drop of the hat rants is about how we should respect and value the suffragists far more than we do the suffragettes. However I doubt that I’ve ever put it as neatly as Jennie has in her post for Emmeline Pankhurst’s birthday.
Other new iPad users who may be getting frustrated with some of the limitations with it’s built in web browser may find the following article I wrote useful; Bookmarklets in Safari on your iPad.
Finally, like most people I was horrified by the tragic events in Norway. It is difficult to know what say about something that awful, but I was moved by what Alex has written on his blog;
“Whatever party you’re in, whatever tradition you come from, whatever philosophy you believe in, now’s the time to encourage young people to stand up and be counted, not to tell them what a terrible place the world is and that all they can do is cower under batons and battier laws.”
Its been ages since I did a Random Thoughts post and I think this one may be a bit more random than most.
They unveiled a statue to US President Ronald Reagan in London on Monday. Reagan’s legacy, like Thatcher’s, is an uncomfortable one for liberals but there is no doubt that, often underestimated in Europe as he was, ‘The Gipper’ was a master of the political arts. I had a look for this clip of him at his best:
Talking of the political arts I wanted to highlight an important truth posted a while ago on Mark Valladares’ blog
“Someone of immense wisdom suggested to me the other day that the Liberal Democrats are at their best when the three drivers of Party activity – organising, campaigning and thinking – are all heading in the same direction at the same pace. In order to do that, you need people in each of the three strands who understand the value of the other two, and who are influential enough to make it happen.”
This, a thousand times this! So true and so often lacking, and this doesn’t just apply at the national level but to local parties and council groups across the country.
Sadly, I am rather excited by the newly released version of WordPress. The new interface has a touch of class that makes it rather appropriate that they have named it ‘Gershwin’.
Luton is to get a new Wetherspoons and it is to named after the man who brought hat making to opened the first hat factory in the town.
Finally, my friend Laura’s lovely tribute to Liz Rorison who passed away recently. I only really knew Liz in her role as the Glee Club pianist. I have to say the musical quality did decline sharply after she stopped doing it a few years ago.
I liked this piece from Olly Grender on the man in the centre of what is likely to be one of the most fascinating political battles of the next couple of years.
“Sarah Teather, the children’s minister, comes across as genuinely passionate about helping children with special needs. So much so that at one point in the interview, she got quite cross.”
David Boyle on one reason why the Merlin agreement between the government and the banks won’t work. This is more evidence for the view that I have held fo a while that ee need to go much further with structural refrom of the banking industry.
If you look for it Vince sort of agrees with David Boyle above on the flaws in Merlin and promises that stronger action may be an option in the future. Less good news is his warning that there is a real potential for a further serious financial crash occuring in the world economy some time in the future.
I haven’t done a ‘Random Thoughts’ post for almost a month so this is a bit of a catch up on links related to the aftermath of the May 5th elections. Mainly for reference purposes to be honest.
It would have been better to have put together a post with a round up of the best of the commentary reacting and analysing the results a bit nearer to the local and other elections. But I wouldn’t have done any better than the round up that Stephen Tall put together. So go read Stephen’s instead.
However, one of the posts that Stephen includes I think is worth highlighting is this one from Nick Thornsby; “If there is one ‘lesson to learn’ from Thursday’s various polls it is this: there is no ‘progressive majority’ in Britain.” I strongly agree with much of what is said here and it echoes some things that I have been thinking and reading about recently.
I’ve got the strong impression that those involved in the Yes campaign for the AV referendum have had a rather rough time and not just because they were on the losing side. This frank document released by Andy May, “the National Manager of the Regional Staff for the Yes Campaign and formerly National Organiser of Take Back Parliament”, makes for painful reading. But there are lessons in there not just for possible future referendums but for anyone organising any kind of political campaign. For me the single most shocking fact in the document is that no professional fundraiser was employed by the Yes Campaign.
A collection of more links and resources on the Yes to AV campaign is available on the WhyWeLostAV blog.
I thought Norman Lamb’s interview on the Politics Show last Sunday was a superb piece of political communication. Norman was rational, moderate and even handed but at the same time made a strong political point with clarity and in language everyone can understand. What is more he demonstrated how what he was saying was rooted in principle and that he was prepared to back what his words with action. This is how to do it.
Julian Astle has some wise words about the circumstances the Liberal Democrats find themselves in. I agree with much of this.
“[Clegg's] party is already recasting its image in the public eye. In doing so, it is addressing important and long-standing brand weaknesses. It is making the difficult transition from the politics of protest to the politics of power, swapping public affection for public respect. The fact that the former takes less time to lose than the latter takes to win explains the party’s current malaise.”
Well it seems this series of ‘Random Thoughts’ is going to be erratic rather than regular. But still worth doing I think. So on with the second edition:
On Tuesday the BBC’s political editor begins his second Radio 4 series looking at British Prime Ministers starting with William Pitt the Younger. I hadn’t realised that the whole of the first series is available on iPlayer – handy as I missed it when it was on.
It seems, according to Mark Valladares, that Esther Rantzen has gone from chasing votes in Luton South to chasing ambulances in Creeting St Peter.
Videos
If you missed the Liberal Democrat History Group’s meeting on reform of the House of Lords at the Spring conference, which I did, do not despair as the fascinating discussion is available online:
My brain is often visited by thoughts of a random nature. Whether sparked by something I’ve read, a conversation I’ve had, or just from idle day dreaming. Quite often these thoughts are generated from something found on the Internet. Occasionally these thoughts are interesting enough, at least in my opinion, to be shared.
I want to update this blog more regularly than I do but often find it difficult to find the time to write full articles. So I am going to try out putting some of these random thoughts, and the links that have triggered them, into a regular post. My “Random Thoughts” post will be weekly, sent early on Friday morning, and will consist of links to other websites alongside a short piece of commentary.
In short, something of an old fashioned web log. I don’t claim that my random thoughts are original!
So here is the first, of what I hope to be an ongoing series, of my “Random Thoughts”.
Great interview that resonates with the essential Paddiness of Paddy Ashdown. Loved the bit about the competitive ski races with his grandson and definitely an Apple not a Windows man.
“I’ve been concentrating recently on the economic, rather than the environmental, case for the transformation to a low-carbon economy. And it’s a compelling one”. It becomes more and more apparent that a key part of making the coalition government a success is how far we can push the agenda of ‘green led’ economic growth.
I was pleased to see Luton’s libraries getting a mention in this report from the BBC’s Click technology programme on the future of libraries. Luton librarian Fiona Marriot is interviewed about half way through.
Jonathan Calder on Liberal England is concerned that through the use of “aqua” the Liberal Democrats appear to be turning blue. He illustrates his point with a rather familiar graphic.
At the beginning of the month I found this handy flowchart for working out where you should post your status on social networking sites. Much truth in graphical form.
I rather liked this Magna Carta word cloud; hat tip to Liberal Burblings.
30th December 2011
14:51
)
