Jennie Rigg: a-kickin' & a-gougin' in the blood & the mud & the beer

They're talking about it on PB and UK polling report. Tory lead now down to 2 points. I think this just illustrates that although nobody likes Brown, nobody much likes the alternative either. This is clearly a once in a lifetime opportunity for a third party to make headway if they have policies the voters like. And we have those, due to the unique way the BBC is funded we make policy.

So what are we going to do to seize this election by the bollocks, fellow Lib Dems?

Let's call an urgent meeting...

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According to Kerry McCarthy MP, Dr Evan Harris has a 90 minute debate on libel laws and the reporting of parliament tomorrow. As she says, undoubtedly this will touch on trafigura and Carter Ruck, but I suspect it will also be mentioning Simon Singh.

I am a HUGE fan of Evan, my views coincide with his on pretty much everything, and I could not be more pleased about this.

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Saturday is an interesting day for me; amazing_holly is at her dad's, and I don't have to be at work till 4, so I can lie in bed and listen to the radio. This generally involves dozing through Saturday Live and Excess Baggage, waking up for the Beyond Westminster, dozing a bit more until Sandi, and then listening to the repeat of Any Questions from Friday night, which I generally miss due to not leaving work on time - or, more accurately, catch the end of in the car on the way home.

So I'm lying here, listening to the award-winning Jo Swinson repeatedly pwning Eric Pickles and Andy Burnham, and wondering when the girl is going to get a promotion. From a personal point of view, I liked her answer best to the Gordon Brown question - and I'm not just saying that because it sounded suspiciously like a quote from this blog (I can haz plug next tiem, pls Jo? *puppy dog eyes*) - but from a political point of view, the way she had facts at her fingertips about the health question (when her portfolio is foriegn affairs) that completely stumped Andy Burnham THE FRIGGING HEALTH SECRETARY... That just made me cheer happily at the radio.

There's a quote which is often attributed to Israeli leader Golda Myer (among other sources) that a woman has to work twice as hard as a man to be thought half as good, and I suspect that in the Gentleman's Club atmosphere of parliament this will have applied to Jo. She also has the double handicap of being young, and suffering the indignities meted out to The Baby of the House (now some no-note Tory). On the maths of this, Jo must be working ten times as hard, because she made all the boys on the panel look like eejits. Much applause coming from Yorkshire this morning.

It's time like this when I feel proud to be a Lib Dem :D

((And I haven't forgotten that post about gender balance in the blogosphere I promised you and Count Packula, Jo. I'll get round to it soon, I promise))

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I'm going to put this in small and easily understandable words for the hard of thinking (of which there appear to be many in the media and on t'intarwebz). I might, therefore, oversimplify things a bit. If I do, I'm sure my fellow Lib Dems will pile in and correct me.

At Lib Dem Party Conference, the membership decides party policy. Now, I realise that's a difficult concept for most of you to grasp because you still haven't fucking grasped it, so I'm going to unpack that a little for you. It goes like this.

1. Someone has an idea for a policy - might be the Leader, might be Vince Cable, might be me, might be ANY party member.
2. They submit this idea to Federal Policy Committee - elected by the membership - who have a look at it and decide whether or not it's sensible enough to put before conference. If our hypothetical policy has some merit, and is properly researched, and has evidence backing its viability, FPC will put it before conference.
3. Conference then debate it, and then vote on whether or not the party should adopt it

Now, there's still room for some misconceptions here so I'll clear those up for you:

• The leadership's policy ideas do not just get "nodded through" - see the bloody nose they got on tuition fees this week.
• This is not a "spat" or "infighting" or "indecision" or "confusion" or "disloyalty". It's a proper, open, transparent decision-making process, so that not only does everyone know what our policies are, but they know how we arrived at the conclusions we did.
• Conference is not a grandstanding opportunity for media-savvy scripted speeches, it's a DECISION-MAKING PROCESS

Is this clear enough, or are people still going to make lazy straw men? No, don't answer that, I think I already know.

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So, this morning I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed at stupid o'clock, even though I will be working till midnight tonight, so I could go and participate in what is laughingly referred to as an Action Day. For those of you who are not politically active, an Action Day is when a whole bunch of activists get together to deliver leaflets to a given area. After about an hour or so of having my knuckles scraped by ridiculously snappy letterboxes, and falling over on uneven paths, and generally feeling pretty battered and bruised and grumpy, I got to a house where a skinhead with no shirt on and a BNP tattoo set his dog on me.

I haven't been bitten because I vaulted his garden gate. I'm glad I am pretty physically strong and have good reaction times. It might possibly have helped if my hands weren't already bleeding from booby-trapped letterboxes, but it might not. I've come home now so that I can have a panic attack in peace.

I do not ever want to deliver leaflets ever again. Ever.

I suspect that this is a big part of the reason political parties are haemorrhaging membership. The expectation that people risk their own personal safety for nothing on a regular basis is not a rewarding experience for the activist. Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to have a bath. Shaking, sweating, and vomiting is not good preparation for an eight hour shift at work.

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So, the worried emails have started coming in because I haven't been internet active, and I thought I ought to post something...

I have, however, made some progress on cleaning the house, done more in the garden, done lots of DIY, done a fair bit of Lib Demming, worked lots, and had two evenings of fun and frolics with friends - on Thursday last week we were pleased to entertain a state visit from the Glorious Leader of the People's Republic of Mortimer, which involved much drinking and playing of silly board games, and was fun all round. And last Friday I met up with an old school friend whom I haven't seen since I was 18. Worryingly, he hasn't changed in the slightest.

However, the main reason for this post is that Lib Dem Blog of the Year is nearly upon us and I get news from the entrails that people are nominating me... Why? Why would you do that? I treasure my seat on the Perpetual Losers' Table, heckling those who are acceptable to the Establishment! Stop being so mean!

Here's who I would vote for if I was Establishment enough to be allowed on the voting panel:

• Best new Liberal Democrat blog (started since 1st September 2008)There's only one contender for this, isn't there? Mark Reckons.


• Best blog from a Liberal Democrat holding public office (The Tim Garden Award) In the absence of El Presidente, and since my beloved sponsor won it last year and is therefore ineligible, the only choice is really between Lynne Featherstone and Steve Webb. Of the two, I'd vote for Lynne. She's more consistently informative than Steve, and I prefer her writing style.


• Best use of blogging / social networking / e-campaigning by a Liberal Democrat I remain mystified as to the purpose of this award. It's too broad and ill-defined to reach a consensus on unless there's something monumental, like Brian Paddick's use of twitter in his mayoral campaign. Can this category be retired next year for something more entertaining? Like Most Entertaining Blog War (Lady Mark versus Irfan Ahmed, oh yes!)?


• Best posting on a Liberal Democrat blog (since 1st September 2008) has to be Mark Reckons's post about the expenses scandal with graph, which started off a national debate.


• Best non-Liberal Democrat politics blog Crust of the Grouch. She's always entertaining, her art is wry and witty, and she's one of a handful of blogs on my must-read list. I fully expect one of the pointless gossip blogs to win this, though. Y HALLO THAR, MR DALE.


• Liberal Democrat Blog of the Year We all know who should win this. We all know who should have won this several times already, but due to irrational establishment prejudice against fluffy toys, he keeps getting passed over. Millennium arranges the blogger interviews, he has razor-sharp policy analysis, he's a mainstay of the blogging scene, he has a column on Lib Dem Voice... If there was any justice, Millennium would win. However, there isn't any justice. For this reason, Daddy Alex hasn't got a cat in hell's chance either, and nor has Lady Mark or the very lovely (and very hairy) Andrew Hickey. Which is a shame, because they are all excellent. Boys, I'll be joining you at the Perpetual Losers' Table. I trust Chateau Montifaud Cognac is acceptable to you all? The gravelly-voiced sex pot has been thrown back in the pool this year as well, but I suspect that people won't vote for him because he's already won.
  
  The smart money says that this year, Blog of the year is between Costigan Quist, the afore-mentioned Mark Reckons, and Charlotte Gore. Mark already has two awards from me, so I'm not going to vote for him for a third. Costigan... Costigan is lovely, and a brilliant blogger, but my vote would go to Charlotte of these three. For no other reason than that it would annoy her nearly as much as it would annoy me to win...

Other little things that I ought to mention: since I have been utterly rubbish at blogging recently, and I don't think he really got his money's worth, I am giving Peter a month's extension to his sponsorship deal. Also, I haven't been reading any blogs at all properly for about two to three weeks, so if there's anything important I have missed, please let me know? Number of unread emails is now topping 350. And... I have a load of stuff to blog about. Remind me on Monday?

And now I go back to listening to the cricket. Not only are England doing grand in the final Ashes match</a>, but Yorkshire are kicking Lancastrian Arse in the Roses match! YAY!

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... but WHAT THE BLUE BUGGERY FUCK is Our Glorious Leader doing writing for LabourLost?

Seriously, who thought that would be a good idea? He's pissing off the Labourites (Google for the post and look at the comments, I'm not linking to it and bumping up LL's Wikio ranking) and he's pissing off his own party. Lose/lose. If you're going to put something up on the site of another party, here are some ideas to make it NOT an exercise in shooting yourself in the foot:

1. Tell your own people you're going to do it first, so it doesn't look like an overture to defection
2. When the Tory press are already sowing rumours of a Lib/Lab coalition, and telling people that if they vote Liberal they will be supporting a failed government, for FUCK'S SAKE don't pour petrol on the flames.
3. Crosspost it from a Lib Dem site, to drive traffic TO us, rather than doing this which drives traffic AWAY from us
4. Don't pick the most discredited, hated and partisan of the other party's sites as the host for your post

It's a shame the mechanics of the post made it such a tactical cock-up, because the post itself is quite a good one. Oh well.

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Several of you have said that you will miss my netcasts on LC. Well, PHEAR NOT! Starting today, I shall be doing a replacement feature on here. It'll probably end up being three or four times a week, rather than daily. It will be five link items (blogs or news items or whatever else floats my boat) and one meme. And because I hate the word netcast I shall be calling it something else:

The Blood Is The Life!

Fresh squeezings from the veins of the internet

(Somehow, that just seems so... me!)

I'll be making an icon later, but for now, here are today's picks:

• To be filed under you've got to laugh or you'll cry - George Osbourne's £47 Expenses Claim for Two DVDs. The Evening Standard reports that George Osborne claimed £47 of taxpayer's money for two copies of a DVD of his speech - and the speech was on "value for money". - hat tip Stephen at Lib Dem Voice/lib_dem_voice_feed.


• Weaker Copyright Benefits Society. Michael Geist summarises a Harvard Business School Report on intellectual property which has interesting findings - hat tip Amused Cynicism/amused_cynicism_feed and Slashdot/slashdot_feed


• The Flower of Power. Click on the petals which apply to you and see how blue (or yellow) you are. I have 7 blue petals, two yellow, and one blue AND yellow because I am a special snowflake bi.


• Positive Thinking Does More Harm Than Good for some people. I recall saying this (less eloquently) to several people when they told me that all I need to do to land the job of my dreams and be rolling in money is "think positive". Maybe they'll believe me now I have The Economist on my side - via andrewducker


• El Presidente Ros Scott has written a pamphlet for Unlock Democracy. It's about Local Government, and you can download it here. It has been described as a brilliant, hard hitting review of recent government policy towards local government and should be essential reading matter for anyone who cares for our democracy. by a COMPLETELY impartial person.

And today's meme: Mugs

Do you have a mug or mugs which is/are Your Mug(s), at home or at your workplace? Describe it/them, upload pictures, tell us why it is special to you. - via innerbrat

Home: I have three mugs that I get upset if anyone else uses them. The first, and most important, is the Wile E Coyote Capricorn mug that Sarah H bought me for my 18th birthday. I can't find a picture of one online, but the picture on it is similar to this one. The text on it is so faded it's barely legible now (because Ian used to put it in the dishwasher), but it reads Capricorns are ambitious and self-confident, and zealously persistent, but shouldn't go off half-cocked because that could be hazardous to their health. It's special to me because it was a present, and because it has my favourite cartoon character and my star sign on, and it's very me. It's very faded and old, but I still love it, and if it ever got broken I would cry lots. It's also advice I could probably do with bearing in mind more often...

The second is a Snape/McGonagall mug that anisiriusmagus bought me for another birthday. I was heavily into RP at the time, and I used to play McG.

The third is one I bought myself from the WB store in Manchester, when it was still there. It's green, and has all the WB cartoon characters on it, and holds a pint, which makes it perfect for sinister milky drinks at bedtime.

Workplace: the pub I work in only has one of these left - the traditional half-pint dimpled beer mug - and I treasure it. It keeps the beer cooler than the fancypants newfangled tulip ones, and it just feels RIGHT. My dad used to drink beer out of the pint version when I was a kid. If it got broken, I think I would actually have to buy some more, after saving up for a few weeks.

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Charlotte Green's dulcet tones really cheered me up this morning, as I was reluctantly dragged from the arms of Morpheus. The 9am news bulletin on radio 4 went like this:

• The Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg says Chancellor Darling should resign
• David Cameron says he is willing to look at the Liberal Democrat idea of recall elections
• Labour are third behind the Lib Dems in a general election voting intention poll for the first time in eleventy billion years

... and then the first item on BH was a nice long interview with Nick Clegg in which there was much talk about Vince's forensic dismantling of Darling in his *shudder* Daily Fail column. Add to that that the Observer has endorsed the Lib Dems for the Euro election, and CiF has a piece by Andrew Rawnsley about how we are the only party which is serious about electoral reform, and we seem to be dominating the headlines today.

So what are the top stories according to Newswire on LC? Not a single mention of the Lib Dems. Oh dear. I think the mice have been nibbling his cables again.

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Today's political website is a MUCH BETTER effort: takebackpower.org is simple, effective, and impactful. If I was to make two tiny criticisms, they would be that I'd have made it relative rather than fixed-width, and text rather than images; and that (again) the navigational structure isn't clear. From an accessibility point of view, images are bad, and most of the site is text so doesn't NEED to be images, and if you want people to read your shit, first you have to make it clear that links are links. Also: unflagged .pdf files are BAD. If you are linking to a .pdf, TELL people you are linking to a .pdf.

But, you know, it looks pretty and isn't all bright white eye-hurty glare like google and the sodding BBC, and is simply and effectively laid out. And it's got one of my favourite songs into my head:





C+ for this one. Would have been a solid B had they done the sensible thing and gone for STV over sodding AV; which is not really the web designer's fault, but it NARKS me anyway.

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