Stand with Alliance against mindless thuggery and threats

There were a few things that made me cry yesterday. Seeing the way Bangor Councillor Christine Bower jumped when the glass fell out of her window, clearly fearful of another attack by so-called loyalists on their home was one of them. It breaks my heart to see a young couple, whose first motivation is to serve their community, intimidated in this way.

They are not the only Alliance politicians to face violent repercussions over the decision by Belfast City Council to fly the Union Flag only on a designated number of days every year.The non-sectarian Alliance councillors had helped broker a compromise and are paying a heavy price. MLA Stewart Dickson's offices in Carrickfergus were subject to an arson attack, another Councillor, Laura McNamee, had to leave her home because of threats as did East Belfast MP Naomi Long.

Now, I'd bet yo anything that the very same people who carry out this mindless intimidation, these thugs, aren't particularly in favour of something I feel really strongly about. It would never occur to me to do anything other than use my words, reasonable words, to discuss the issue with them. I'd never go to their houses, never threaten them or the people they love, never do them any harm, even if they blocked it. And in fact, reading Stephen Glenn's blog, few politicians in Northern Ireland are prepared to stand up for the LGBT community. I was horrified that one DUP politician refused to speak to him because he was wearing a rainbow badge.

It pains me to hear these people described as loyalists. They clearly don't share the liberal, tolerant values of the UK and its people so what the hell they think they're being loyal to I have no idea.

Alliance Party members have responded to the attacks on them with great courage and dignity. Activist Stephen Donnan penned this for the Belfast Evening Telegraph:

I understand and I encourage protest, that is how democracy works, as long as it is peaceful. Intimidating our Councillors into leaving their homes, burning down the offices of our MLAs and Ministers and sending sectarian abuse over Twitter to our supporters is not 'engaging in the debate', it's mob mentality.

This is not a protest, this is criminality and barbarism. You just lost the argument.

The whole article is full of shock and raw emotion as well as a clear statement that they're not going to give up doing the valuable work they are doing.

I think it's important for those of us who believe in freedom and democracy to stand with the Alliance Party, which is the sister party of the Liberal Democrats. I have therefore made a donation to help them with their work and I hope that you will too by clicking here.

I'll leave you with the words of my friend Donna Dwyer on Facebook. I posted Stephen's article there and this was her response:

  I spent my holiday in ireland this year. Ok it was the south but we drove through the north. I remember the pound changing into tje euro and the miles turning into km.

But at no time did the people change. I couldnt tell you from sight who was Irish, Scottish etc let alone catholic or protestant. They were all the most welcoming lovely people .I am fortunate to be blissfuly unable to understand what and why this is still going on. So as a scottish catholic i can only hope and pray that all of ireland finds the peace it so desrves ... This is such a beautiful land full of fantastic people its such ashame that its spoilt by idiot thugs and evils. Having diffrent beliefs dosnt meenn we cant live in respect, love and peace. I get that what I've said is a tad simplistic but it doesn't make it less true .

 

The Question: what would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Apologies for the links not being right - I'm doing this on my iPad and I Aven't quite worked out how to do it properly. I'll fix it in the morning when I get ack on the laptop.

Anyway, The Question is a meme set up by Stephen Chapman at The State of the Nation UK . He wants bloggers to answer the same question on the same day. This month it's 'what would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Where do you start with that? I thought about literary success J K Rowling style as a means to getting loads of money to do good with. Jennie had a similar idea, though.

Then I thought about going to Israel to get them to stop treating the Palestinians so appallingly to bring peace to that Region.

But what I actually decided upon was being able to really get it into boys' heads that the images of how women should look that they are bombarded with are complete nonsense, created with the express aim of making money for somebody; that pornography which portrays women as receptacles is dangerous & if they actually listen to their partners, everyone will have more fun; that there is never any excuse for mental or physical violence (of the non consensual variety, anyway). The potential for that to create happier, more fulfilled individuals, who then have more energy & motivation to make the world a better place, is very appealing indeed.

Update: and of course I forgot to come and put the links in. Thanks to Stephen Glenn  for nudging me for my lack of etiquette so apologies all. Anyway, here's Stephen's answer to the Question.

Farron rocks it at the Glee Club - the photographic evidence #ldconf

The Glee Club is the traditional end of  Liberal Democrat Conference get together. Hundreds of us cram into a room that's way too small and usually hideously hot, drinking lots of beverages for cooling purposes only and singing entirely respectful songs about our triumphs and tribulations over the years. Any similarity to the tv programme Glee is entirely coincidental. I doubt that resident hosts John Bridges, Gareth Epps and Richard Clein have anything in common with pyschopathic cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester. Or at least not much.

I haven't been to a Glee Club in 12 years. I was looking forward to it probably more than anything else in the entire week. You kind of wonder if time has made you look at it with rosy coloured spectacles and could it possibly be as good. Yes, frankly, it was.

It started off all sophisticated like - a jazz band, The Superinjunctions, accompanied by John Hemming.
It was wild, many of the jokes were terrible, but it was such a laugh. Singing all these old songs, plus some new ones, really gets the endorphins going.

And then there was the guest appearances. Lembit Opik was owned by Linda Jack on a spoof of Just a Minute. Simon Hughes did a wee turn. So far, so very 12 years ago. But there were the new Glee Club regulars to come. First of all, the Party President Tim Farron doing his own inimitable version of the Ting Tings "That's not my name."

Paddy Ashdown also appeared to tell the same joke he apparently tells this year. I was quite alarmed when he threatened not to tell it at all because the last time I was at the Glee Club he was party leader and I'd never heard it. He said that he would only tell it if we didn't laugh at all at a different joke - which, ironically, I had heard him tell before. I won't repeat either in case it spoils your enjoyment of next year. He was in really good form and stayed around for quite a while after his turn.

Our party has always been very good at taking the mickey out of itself. Three decades ago, when the predecessor parties merged, some funny old Liberal people rewrote the 12 days of Christmas to suggest that the Social Democrats may not have given a great deal to the Liberals. The climactic five gold rings became B***** All, for example. Naturally, this was adapted last year to "The Twelve daysof Coalition". The gift on the first day was "A referendum on AV." Two additions to that line, made up from the floor, "which we lost" and "badly" will, I suspect be added to the "official" script for next year.

And I close with a picture of the Irish mob on stage singing Danny Boy, led by our very own Stephen Glenn.

Liberal Democrat win: UK to implement EU Human trafficking directive

Via Nick Thornsby, I discover news that makes me want to jump up and down with happiness.

The UK Government is going to start the process of joining in the EU Directive on Human Trafficking, something which didn't look likely last September when Stephen Glenn wrote so passionately about the issue. This has to be a major Liberal Democrat win within the Coalition.

It seemed like the Tory truculence on Europe was the only reason holding the Government back from signing up to a very useful document that helps to tackle a horrible abuse of vulnerable people. Its announcement is here and below is a summary of the measures it brings in - including important support for the victims. Imagine if you'd been smuggled into the country by someone you trusted who promised you a better life and ended up forced into prostitution or pornography. What you need in that circumstance is looking after, not condemnation. The wicked people who orchestrate these things need to be punished and the Directive will help that cause by making a common definition across Europe and working together to more effectively find and prosecute those responsible.

• CRIMINAL LAW PROVISIONS, including a common definition of the crime, aggravating circumstances and higher penalties, as well as non-punishment of the victims for unlawful activities such the use of false documents in which they have been involved for being subjected to by traffickers.

  PROSECUTION OF OFFENDERS, including extraterritorial jurisdiction (the possibility to prosecute EU nationals for crimes committed in other countries), use of investigative tools typical for organised crime cases such as phone tapping and tracing proceeds of crime.

  VICTIMS' RIGHTS IN CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS, including specific treatment for particularly vulnerable victims aimed at preventing secondary victimisation (no visual contact with the defendant, no questioning on private life, no unnecessary repetition of the testimony, etc.), police protection of victims, legal counselling also aimed to enable victims to claim compensation; special protective measures are envisaged for children such as holding interviews in a friendly environment.

  VICTIMS' SUPPORT, including national mechanisms for early identification and assistance to victims, based on cooperation between law enforcement and civil society organisations, providing victims with shelters, medical and psychological assistance, information, interpretation services. A victim shall be treated as such as soon as there is an indication that she/he has been trafficked, and will be provided with assistance before, during and after criminal proceedings.

  PREVENTION, including measures aimed at discouraging the demand that fosters trafficking, i.e. employers hiring trafficked persons and clients buying sexual services from victims of trafficking, training for officials likely to come into contact with victims, and of potential victims to warn them about the risks of falling prey to traffickers.

  MONITORING, providing for the establishment of National Rapporteurs or equivalent mechanisms, which should be independent bodies, in charge of monitoring the implementation of the measures foreseen by the Framework Decision. Such bodies should have further tasks including giving advice and addressing recommendations to governments.

  
  

   

Flippin' Eck - ways of celebrating Pancake Day

It's not really Pancake Day - we should I suppose call it by its proper name, Shrove Tuesday.

I am a bit over-excited tonight, having discovered that I am a tiny bit awesome in the pancake making department. Enough previous attempts have ended in disaster to convince me that I simply can't make pancakes but, at the suggestion of my husband, I used a different pan tonight and they turned out really well.

We had savoury ones with a chicken, white wine and tarragon sauce and sweet ones with maple syrup and ice cream. I am now so pleased that I have found my pancake making mo-jo that I am determined to make Crepes Suzette on Saturday. I'll let Bob do the setting on fire bit, though. There might not be enough luck in the world for me to manage it without burning the house down.

So that's us. I was thrilled to see Stephen again at the weekend. Since he moved back to Northern Ireland, he's gone from geek into purple clad, fairer votes advocating geek. And now, today, he's transformed into pancake flipping purple clad fairer votes advocating geek.

Take a look at this. I discreetly flipped mine with a palette knife. This is something else. What a show off!

Happy Birthday Stephen Glenn

It's Stephen Glenn's birthday today. Last year he celebrated his 40th at Liberal Democrat Conference in the company of such illustrious people as Jennie, the Elephant, Nick Clegg, and my cute little soft toy dog, Schnauzoo.

Like me, he's also not at Liverpool and we're both missing it a lot.

Anyway, happy birthday, Stephen, and enjoy playing with your new iPhone:-)

Stephen Glenn goes over the sea to Ireland

At around now, assuming that he hasn't overslept, my friend and fellow West Lothian Lib Dem and blogger Stephen Glenn will be heading back to Northern Ireland for the next few months.

The next series of Strictly just won't be the same without him on the other sofa commenting on the attractiveness and attributes of the competitors technical qualities of the dancing.

Stephen has been a part of our lives now for 8 years and we will really miss him. So will the Scottish Liberal Democrats for all the work he's done and the hundreds of thousands of leaflets he's delivered, very often putting the party above his own health. He's worked in Linlithgow and East Falkirk, Falkirk, Livingston (during the by-election especially), Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Edinburgh South and Edinburgh North and Leith. Much of our friendship has been punctuated by me driving him to various parts of the country, giving him a large bag of leaflets and refusing to take him home until he's delivered them.

Anna gets on really well with him. One day last year when I was ill, he spent 3 hours keeping her amused while I slept. When I got up, they had not only created a whole new country, but written down its laws and drawn a picture of it. He's inspired her inner geek and encouraged her to read Hitchhiker.

Of course we'll keep in touch by electronic means - and the friendly rivalry between us as bloggers will continue, but we'll all miss having him around.

So, Stephen, good luck in this new phase of your life and, as they say, haste ye back.

Fun and frolics at Wagamama

I had an absolutely brilliant time at Wagamama in Livingston last night with Andrew, Stephen and Elspeth, It's my birthday on Saturday so we had an early celebration.

Elspeth is a long time fan of Wagamama and I've really enjoyed the meals I've had there but it was a new experience for Andrew and Stephen. I ended up mistakenly ordering a vegetarian dish, the yasai yaki soba, which had egg, beansprouts, peppers, onions and garlic with fried shallots, pickled ginger, sesame seeds and coriander vinegar. Despite the lack of chicken and shrimp, which Elspeth had, it was absolutely delicious - packed with very well balanced and individually defined flavours. I think I might even order that one again.  Andrew and Stephen had the Katsu curry, which I'd tried before and liked - it's basically a big chicken nugget (or butternut squash and aubergine as Stephen had it) with curry sauce, a big pile of sticky rice and salad.

We'd ordered 3 side dishes, but ended up with 4 by mistake. Elspeth and Andrew weren't keen on the gyoza which, for their information, contained grilled chicken and vegetables, saying that they had a bit of a weird aftertaste. I have to say I've always had the deep fried duck version before so the softer, almost soft rubbery texture of the steamed ones was different. They didn't look very appetising to be honest - a bit like chyrsalises in a way, but they were fine to taste although by far the most bland dish of the night. We also had tori kara age - fried chicken with chilli and garlic and another delicious chicken dish from the specials menu that was packed with chilli and garlicky flavour. Our bonus prize was the ebi katsu - deep fried breaded prawns with a spicy chilli and garlic sauce. They really don't hold back on their garlic there - a practice I admire as I think there are some things you can never have too much of.

When it was time for pudding, I thought that I was going to be in for a difficult decision - I'd had the white chocolate and ginger cheesecake with the chilli and toffee sauce before and it was amazingly good. Vying for my attention, though, was chocolate cake with dark chocolate wasabi sauce which I'd also been very keen to try. Fortunately, my mind was made up for me because they'd run out of the chilli toffee sauce. The cake itself was soft and rich and topped with a thin layer of creamy frosting and while you got a kick from the sauce, the wasabi didn't overwhelm it.

All this was washed down by a lovely bottle of Pinot Grigio for the three non drivers. The company was excellent and lots of laughs were had. Mr Reeves only occasionally lets the world know on his blog what a smutty mind he has, but in real life that's very different.

It was the sort of night that makes you forget about the actual pain of turning 43 for a little while.

Alex Cole-Hamilton to fight Edinburgh Central for the Scottish Liberal Democrats

Alex Cole-Hamilton has been selected to fight the marginal Edinburgh Central constituency for the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the elections next year.

Siobhan Mathers ran a brilliant campaign in 2007 and reduced the Labour majority, laying a strong foundation for the coming campaign.

Stephen Glenn was on the shortlist for the seat and he's given a real insight to what it's like to seek nomination, going round every party member. He fought a strong campaign and I don't want to make his head swell too much, but I had very good reports from all sorts of people about his campaign and thoughtful and intelligent hustings performance.

We had 4 super applicants and I'm sure they'll all be involved in the campaign in Central. Alex will be an excellent candidate and he knows how to run a motivated and energetic campaign - he was Kevin Lang's campaign manager in Edinburgh North and Leith in the run up to May and before that he was a fantastic list candidate in Mid Scotland and Fife, only narrowly missing out on election. He's also worked as Edinburgh West's constituency organiser.

I first met Alex in the run up to the 2001 general election campaign when we were both involved in organising Charles Kennedy's final stop of his election tour at the Gyle Centre. He is a passionate liberal with first hand knowledge of the problems young people face and how to resolve them. The Scottish Parliament would be a better place with him in it and I hope that he wins in May.

Tour de France: how I became fascinated by young men on two wheels!

The short answer to that question is that it's all Stephen's fault!

Last Summer, when I was so poorly that I could only rarely stay out of bed for a whole day, Stephen came to visit me. He is a huge Tour de France fan, so being a polite hostess, we watched it. I liked the scenery, even if I didn't really have a clue who anyone was or what was going on. There were even some times when I watched it when he wasn't here.

Stephen's enthusiasm wasn't the first time I'd come across Tour fandom. My friend Alex loves it, and Lance Armstong in particular and she and her husband have actually been in Paris for the final stage, which must have been an amazing experience.

This year I decided I was going to follow it from the start, to have half a chance of understanding it, so I set up the infernal wickedness of Sky Plus to record the highlights every day and go the iPhone app. Not the one that gives you the GPS positions and the live updates which costs £5.99, but the free one which gives maps of the stages and brief details of the teams.

It just goes to show that you don't need a V8 engine to be exciting. The first 4 days have been absolutely thrilling.

First up on Saturday was just a wee taster. A short time trial through Rotterdam. Yes, I know that's not what you'd call a well known French city, but the Tour often starts outside France. It even started in London one year. The weather was far from Summery which meant that Britain's Bradley Wiggins ended up further down the field than he would have liked.

Day 2, on Sunday, and the Tour went on to Brussels. That was not without its dramas when some idiot decided it would be a good idea to take their dog along to watch and said dog decided that running out to play with 200 racing bikes at full speed was a good idea. That could have been really nasty, but, thankfully it wasn't. Typically, British people being soft on animals as they are, people were e-mailing into the ITV4 highlights show asking if the dog was ok. The ride continued relatively uneventfully until a killer hairpin bend on the outskirts of Brussels. Imagine 200 racing bikes coming down a hill, along a wide straight boulevard into a reverse sharp right hand bend. The potential for carnage is every bit as high as you might think and Mark Cavendish was caught up in it, although he was thankfully able to continue.

The third stage saw the first climbs of the Tour. I know enough French to realise that the word Col is synonymous with pain to a cyclist and there were a few of them that day as the peloton headed towards Spa, home of one of my favourite F1 tracks. In the long ago days when I used to climb hills, getting up was generally bloody hard work but that was nothing compared to the trauma of coming down. It played merry hell with my knees and it's not great when you have zero sense of balance and are coming down on virtually vertical gravel. After one particularly gruesome Sunday afternoon, I decided that the Burn of Sorrows had earned its name.

Anyway, it was on the damp descent from one of the climbs that the crashes started to happen. There was one particularly spectacular pile up that seemed to involve most of the peloton. For whatever reason, they decided that enough was enough and they weren't going to participate in the sprint finish and all cross the line together. I'm not sure to be honest why they did that - surely it's not the first time they've come down a mountain in the wet?

After dogs, bends and mountains, what more could the organisers do to inflict pain on the peloton? Ah yes, make them cycle on cobblestones on day 4, 13.7 miles of them. Still nursing bumps and bruises from the day before, I can't imagine that bumping along the long cobbled roads of northern France can have been in any way pleasant. Lance Armstrong seemed to enjoy it though - it was losing time on the main roads that caused him to slip down the leader board.

Anyway, four days in and I'm hooked and looking forward to the final 17 stages.

Bloody Sunday; Cameron apology helps as victims exonerated

It's taken Lord Saville 12 years to hear all the evidence and compile a report that's 5000 pages long, so I feel I need to be a bit careful about commenting on the events of Bloody Sunday in a quick blog post.

I thought the House of Commons was at its most grown up this afternoon as David Cameron made his statement, revealing the dreadful conclusion of the Saville Report, that 13 British citizens had been killed by the British Army in an act that was "unjustified and unjustifiable".

I didn't agree with everything that David Cameron said this afternoon in the House of Commons but I feel that he went with a good attitude. He was about 5 years old when this happened, and so was his Deputy PM - and so was I for that matter. I'm glad that he clearly and unequivocally delivered a genuine apology on behalf of the Government for the mistakes that were made. There was no weaselly use of language, no trying to wiggle out of it, just a very clear and straightforward "I am deeply sorry".

Governments have traditionally been slow to apologise for the actions of their own or their predecessors' mistakes. I'm just glad that a Conservative Prime Minister, of all things, was sensitive enough to the needs of the families and other people in Derry this afternoon, to say, with feeling, the words that they required.

One thing that Cameron said kind of worried me - basically that this would be the last time we'd spend so much on such a huge enquiry. This needed looking into, though, and if there is a similar issue which deserves such scrutiny, then the Government's and agents' of Government's actions have to be properly investigated. I'm not saying it should last 12 years and cost £200 million, but the Government has to be properly accountable. Let's hope, though, that nothing like this ever happens again.

I really felt for those families today. I was struck by the fact that it was nieces, and daughters and sons and brothers of those who died that day who came forward to proclaim their innocence in front of the Guildhall. The parents had not lived to see the day that had exonerated their children 38 years ago and I felt especially sad that they had not received the little bit of peace that today would have given them.

I have to say that if I had been in Derry at that time, I would have felt minded to be on that march, against the practice of internment. I think it is a pretty shameful part of our history that authorities acting in our name arrested people they suspected of being in proscribed organisations and kept them locked up without trial.

Bloody Sunday was just one violent day in a violent 38 years for Northern Ireland. Many, many innocent people lost their lives in all communities and I have the same sympathy for all of their families. Nobody in 1972 would ever have envisaged a DUP/Sinn Fein coalition running Northern Ireland. That situation took too long to bring about, and the events of Bloody Sunday only made things much worse.

I remember as a 9 year old hoping that the peace movement, set up by Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, would bring a swift end to the violence. I remember being awed by the work that those women did at the time, at the huge crowds on the streets asking for peace.

The work towards peace and reconciliation is an ongoing work and I'm just grateful to everyone who has played a role, however unlikely, in bringing the current situation about.

I was struck by something Labour MP David Cairns said in the House of Commons today, talking about how the main issue in the General Election in Northern Ireland was water rates, and that was a sign of how much progress had been made.

For all those who are calling for the prosecution of the soldiers involved, I just feel that we have to be quite careful what we say. Politicians shouldn't be making decisions on who to prosecute - the judicial and political systems are separate for a good reason. Every case has to be decided on the evidence and it's the Northern Ireland Prosecution Service which is the appropriate body to make those decisions. I am certainly sympathetic, though, to the soldiers involved being stripped of any medals now that a major investigation has said that their actions that day were wrong.

I hope that Stephen, who wrote about Bloody Sunday today from the point of view of a child growing up County Down, feels that today's report will enable Northern Ireland to take another step forward in its peace process.

Summer's here........

See, a week into a Liberal Democrat coalition government and what do we have? Brilliant sunshine. Surely this never happened under Labour.

Unfotunately, I can find reason to whinge because I am not going to be spending the day lying in the garden soaking up rays, but will be ensconced in a Scottish Liberal Democrats' Executive. And it's bound to go on for ages because people will want to talk about the election and the aftermath. It will be great to see people though and no doubt we'll end up in the pub at lunchtime.

Not, of course, that I'm in any fit state to be going to the pub. This week was horrible healthwise. Yesterday was by far the best day, the only one all week I'd actually felt human. If I'd had any sense I'd have made the most of that advantage and gone to bed nice and early and woken up all fresh faced for today.

Some hope. One of the nicest parts for me about Summer is sitting out in the garden late at night. I got to do precious little of that last year because even if I felt well enough the weather was rubbish. So, last night I allowed myself to be led astray by my husband - he just wouldn't stop filling up my wine glass - and sat out till very late while he played his weird music and showed off his glitter ball and his new solar powered fairy lights and his funky thing that projects images onto the side of our house that he got for next to nothing in a Maplins sale. Consequently this morning I feel a bit jaded - although am not as hung over as I deserve.

I'm all excited about tonight too - for the first time in 10 years, we have a barbecue. Bob built one at our last house and every year we used to have a big Summer party which was great fun. If I ever get this house tidied up, we might do the same this year. Anyway, Stephen is coming across to road test it and watch Doctor Who and the Dorothies.

So, whatever you're doing today, take some time to enjoy the sunshine. It may not be with us for long.

Has Livingston Conservative candidate breached Data Protection Act?

All of a sudden, West Lothian seems to have taken over from Rochdale as Gaffe Central in this election.

First of all, a few weeks ago, Linlithgow and East Falkirk Labour candidate Michael Connarty put out a leaflet in which he had failed to fill in his name - confused local voters have apparently been searching Twitter and Facebook for someone called yourname. Scott at Love and Garbage has more.

Then Jeff over at SNP Tactical Voting found himself in some potential hot water over a post (now deleted) didn't see (not having the time to read too much at the moment) but which I gather contained a bit of gossip about a postal vote count with Linlithgow being mentioned again. This came hot on the heels of Kerry McCarthy, Labour's Twitter "czar" blabbing some actual figures on Twitter. I have to say I have some sympathy with Jeff. He's a fairly new member of the SNP and not an experienced political activist and I doubt he's ever been near a count in his life. I have none, however, with Kerry McCarthy who as an experienced candidate should be more aware of her responsibilities under the Representation of the People Act. For future reference, here it is:

66A Prohibition on publication of exit polls
(1)
No person shall, in the case of an election to which this section applies, publish before the poll is closed–
(a)
any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted at the election where that statement is (or might reasonably be taken to be) based on information given by voters after they have voted,

Stephen reports this morning how annoyed he is at the accusation by SNP agent Martyn Day that the "London parties" indulge in gutter politics.

Not to be outdone, Livingston Conservative candidate Alison Adamson-Ross has now committed a bit of a howler of her own. I'm not sure if she's actually breached the Data Protection Act, not being a lawyer and all of that, but she has certainly given me personal information about other people that I shouldn't have.

Yesterday I took 2 minutes to e-mail my local candidates asking what they would do to get rid of the nasty Digital Economy Act which gives Government the power, basically, to come with their scissors and cut off your internet connection. Or, rather, they could block mine and my daughter's access to the internet if my husband downloaded something he shouldn't. Not that he does, but it's a hypothetical example of how unjust this law is, a law which was rushed through Parliament after Labour and the Tories stitched it up between them just before the election.

I remember people being highly unimpressed on Twitter at the time of the debate, citing examples of MPs patiently explaining what an IP address was to others in the chamber who clearly hadnt a clue.

I was somewhat surprised to get a response very quickly from Alison, which I print in full below.

Thank you for getting in touch about the Digital Economy Act. I certainly share your anger about how the Government rushed through such an important piece of legislation in the dying days of the last Parliament. There was absolutely no reason why they couldn't’t have introduced the Bill earlier into the House of Commons, where MPs would then have been able to debate it at length. It just shows the contempt in which they hold both Parliament and the industries affected by this Act.

As you know my Party did support many of the measures in this Act. For instance a single age rating system for video games was needed to help parents understand what sort of games are appropriate for their children, and Channel 4 needed an updated remit. Most significantly, something needed to be done to try to reduce online piracy which was estimated to have cost the UK 39,000 jobs in 2008 alone.

We believe that the Act sets up a proportionate and measured response to this problem and that it contains sufficient safeguards through an appeals process and Parliamentary scrutiny for consumers to be protected. It is important to note that only the most serious and consistent offenders will face the threat of disconnection and this will only be done after they have received numerous letters and gone through an appeals process. So although I understand the strength of feeling on this proposal I do not want to rule out temporary disconnection. I will listen to the debates in Parliament and closely follow the drawing up of the codes that will govern this process to make sure that the interests of legitimate users are upheld.

In terms of website blocking I believe that in some circumstances such measures may well be needed. It cannot be right that websites are set up purely to make money by facilitating online piracy. Again though, these proposals will be consulted on and debated in Parliament so I look forward to taking part in that process.

Although I understand that we may not agree on this issue I am very happy to consider all aspects of this important debate. As such I would be more than happy to attend any meeting on this subject should I be elected on 6th May.


Yours Sincerely,
Alison Adamson-Ross
Scottish Conservative & Unionist Candidate
Livingston

I'll tell you something, she absolutely doesn't share my anger about the passing of the bill - how can she when her party stitched it all up with the Government and mine opposed it and has called for its repeal? I also have absolutely no guilt about sharing a private response when it bears a startling resemblance to the Tory responses from around the country posted here. The creator of that site, by the way, is my husband's cousin Alistair, grandson of the lovely Auntie Patsy I've mentioned elsewhere on here before.

So basically she just churned out the Tory standard response without thinking. That's not all, though. It came in a Word document attached to an e-mail. Unfortunately, what Alison didn't do was BCC. She replied to me and nine other people who had contacted her on the same subject. I now have all of their e-mail addresses and they have mine.

I quickly e-mailed her back to point this out and she apologised, saying she was a self confessed technophobe. She had assumed, she said, that as we were all part of the same campaign, that we all knew each other. The fact that there was a huge stooshie about this law and over 20,000 people wrote to their MPs as it was going through Parliament was clearly completely lost on her. I'm sure I know a fair few of those who took part in that initiative, but not all 20,000! Out of touch or what?

Alison now knows from our correspondence how to do BCCs if she didn't before, but I kind of despair that if she were elected to Parliament she would be in a position to make laws on people's access to the internet when she clearly understands so little about it.

I did get one other response, from my local Liberal Democrat candidate and very good friend of mine, Charles Dundas. I can't reproduce it here, because it was highly personalised, and full of the sort of cheek that only a man who knew my vote for him was safely in the post could give. Charles Dundas and Stephen Glenn are the only candidates standing in West Lothian who can be trusted to try and get rid of this bad, bad law so if you're undecided and this issue is important to you, do vote for them.

Update: Thursday 6 May. Bob's cousin Alastair has alerted me to the Edinburgh North and Leith Tory candidate's response which is even funnier.

A Future Fair for All: Take 2

Just in case you missed take 1, telling you how slightly tipsy I was, here it is.

When we heard the slogan, Stephen's mind went to free fall.

Mine, well, I thought fair couldn't possibly mean what we Lib Dems mean by fair.

If it was, well, then people undergoing Cancer treatment wouldn't be told they were fit for work.

People wouldn't be placed under virtual house arrest without being told what they were being accused of.

Children wouldn't be locked up in immigration detention centres.

Struggling families wouldn't be forced to pay back huge amounts of tax credits overpaid by official error.

The poor wouldn't have got poorer and the rich richer and the gap between the two stretched.

I mean, this lot have had 13 years to sort that out.

No, it has to be a fun fair they are talking about. One with stalls, and waltzers, and a helter skelter and a bouncy castle and candy floss and goldfish - and stocks where we can throw custard pies at Gordon Brown or guacamole at Peter Mandelson - and a coconut shy.



The idea is from my head and beautifully brought to life by Stephen.

Thanks also to Labour for choosing a slogan that is just so mickeytakeable - it almost makes "Have you got the guts to vote SDP?" which many of us in SDP Students had to endure in 1986 seem vaguely adequate by comparison.

Thank you for Scotblogs votes

I have to say I always knew I had the best readers in the whole world. I would like to give each and every one of you a big cuddle, but that would probably scare you so I'll just leave it at a polite thank you to everyone who voted for this blog in the Scotblogs Awards. Anyway, the Scotblogs Top 5 Liberal Democrat blogs were posted this morning and I was very pleasantly surprised to be in there.

The top 5 include the witty, irreverent and occasionally slightly smutty tales of Lib Dem campaigns past found over at John Ault's Alter Ego blog. I love the way he intersperses his campaign memories with serious stuff, even if he did slag off one of my favourite movies in one of his first posts.

Then there's the fabulous Stephen. He has an originality and a sharpness I couldn't match in a million years and I don't know how he carries all the stuff he knows about in his head. It must be bigger on the inside. He writes on a fantastic range of subjects and isn't afraid to dig deep inside himself to show what he means. I particularly liked this one where he took Jan Moir apart, word by poisonous, bigoted word.

Willie Rennie's blog has a local focus, but he also writes about issues affecting our forces and victims of miscarriages of justice. He traced the progress of his Bill giving the power to suspend driving instructors convicted of serious offences. He's currently campaigning vigorously against Rosyth being turned into a nuclear submarine dump and this post highlighted the reasons behind a Government adviser's departure - I think there are parallels with Professor Nutt's situation here with an arrogant Government refusing to listen to its specialist advisers. He also raised the issue of cleaners at T in the Park not being paid for their work and highlighted how tight fisted the Government is being about allowing children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster into the UK for much needed holidays in fresh air..

Last and by no means least, there's Andrew. He always writes passionately, from the heart, whether it's sharing the appalling violence he suffered as a young gay man, or about awful cruelty to animals, or raising awareness about Pancreatic Cancer after his mum passed away. Politically, he's shown Labour's erosion of our freedoms by highlighting how taking photos of buildings can land you in big trouble and how a baby's DNA was kept on the database. However, for all sorts of smut related reasons, this this is one of my favourite posting of his from last year.

So there you have it, a smorgesbord of the top five Scottish Lib Dem blogs. We should all be very afraid, though, because, on the horizon is a newcomer that's probably going to whip all of our backsides next year. Only a week old, Alistair Carmichael MP's new blog is right on the money. Alistairs's tweets and Facebook status updates have brightened many a dull day for us for some time and if Burning My Boats is half as good as these, he'll take the blogosphere by storm. His second post made it into Lib Dem Voice's Golden Dozen last week - hardly surprising as it highlighted those who share the blame for the Iraq war but who will not be scrutinised for their actions. I hope he finds the time to keep it up.

Tweeting Bloggers, Blogging Tweeters...

When you put it like that, it kind of sounds like you're making a euphemism for sweary words, but, no. A Very Public Sociologist has published a list of the top 100 Tweeting Bloggers in the UK.. I'm in there at number 82, but Scotland's finest Lib Dem blogging tweeter (or whatever) is none other than Andrew. As far as I can see there are only 4 Scots, the others being the ubuiquitous Tom Harris and Greener Leith..

However, this list doesn't pretend to be and isn't exhaustive. For example, Stephen with 845 followers to my 773 should be nestling up around number 75. I have pointed out A Very Public Sociologist in the comments.

Happy Birthday, Stephen Glenn

Forty years ago today, in Northern Ireland, the phenomenon that is Stephen Glenn was born. He was raised in the beautiful seaside town of Bangor, home to some of my favourite relatives, but he doesn't seem to know any of them and made his mark in both athletics and then bowls over there.

I first came across him in the run up to the 2003 Holyrood elections and started a trend that has been a bit of a recurring theme in our friendship - driving him to unfamiliar locations in the pouring rain and dumping him with a pile of leaflets.

This man's capacity for work is incredible and I expect there will be quite a custody battle for him in the build up to the election.

He's also been this blog's sugar daddy, always on hand to provide technical support.

I am just relieved that he hasn't mentioned having a Cold. When he came over to pick up the cuddly toy that's representing me at the Blog of the Year Awards tomorrow night, I was probably at my worst with the cold that's laid me absolutely low this week.

Anyway, he's in Bournemouth where some people are throwing a 5 day birthday party for him. If you're in Bournemouth, then you're sure as hell not going to be reading this, but if you aren't, go to his blog, or tweet @stephenpglenn and wish him a happy new decade.

Tales from my sickbed

The last couple of weeks has seen the worst health I've had for a while, hence the very light blogging.

I'm glad to see, however, that Stephen has been keeping us all challenged and entertained with some excellent stuff - getting into the Daley Dozen two days in a row is quite an achievement. Being recognised by one of the UK's top bloggers as having produced one of the best blog postings that day is quite something.

Also, I hope that Jennie's recent spate of postings means she's back to blogging regularly. I've missed her and her posts really cheered me yesterday.

I am also constantly amazed at the many creative ways Andrew Reeves finds to motivate Lib Dem activists and persuade them to help in elections. See how he's trying to attract us to Glasgow North East.

I was feeling miserable enough yesterday without having to read the rather traumatic reading book Anna had been given from school. She was quite upset by it and when I got her to read it to me, I wasn't surprised. In very simple terms, it's the story of a young girl's abuse and murder, accidental or not, at the hands of her stepmother. An escalating series of incidents to which the girl's father turns a blind eye "for his own comfort" culminates in the girl being tied with vines to a tree at the bottom of a ravine for failing to watch a cooking pot. The ravine then fills with water and the little girl drowns.

Anna's well used to my feminist rants about the portrayal of women in children's books, particularly any Disney Princess story you might care to mention. I took her to a fabulous play at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe a few years ago which smashed the Disney myth. The heroines decided they didn't need men or marriage to find fulfilment in life or sort their problems out and did it all themselves.

She also knows that I get furious about the portrayal of stepmothers as wicked, child abusing women. You have it in Cinderella and Snow White and all over children's literature. In the world of Disney mothers are generally absent, or dead, and the women who take their place are pure evil. I really hope that there are no girls in her class whose fathers are in a new relationship - that book will probably scare them senseless.

I accept that as she gets older, she's going to have to read much more challenging material, covering difficult concepts. I'm not trying to wrap her in cotton wool - I mean, she read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a book which scared me as an adult when I first read it, well over a year ago. I just felt that this choice from school was a bit beyond the pale for 10 year olds.

Some things are more important than Iain Dale and his lists

As I said yesterday, I'm really happy to have risen 23 places in the Total Politics Blog Poll and am so grateful to everyone who voted for me.

However, that result is not the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the last 48 hours.

There are indeed much more important things than Mr Dale, or his lists, not that you'd think it from a brief look at the blogosphere.

Imagine my excitement, while recovering from the exhilaration of seeing the Brawn boys (and it was Rubens who got top slot, yay!) reclaim their rightful place at the top of the leaderboard in the first free practice session of the European Grand Prix, at getting a Follow Friday on Twitter from this lot!

Look at this:



(The provision of this image is possible only after Stephen responded to my plaintive cries for help on Twitter this morning. I almost had to send him a DM asking him where Paint was, but thankfully I found it on my desktop:-))

For those of you not familiar with the custom, it's tradition on Fridays in the Twitterverse to recommend people whose tweets you enjoy reading. I had a feeling that a Twitter friend of mine with contacts "on the inside" might have had something to do with it, but they are denying all knowledge.

Anyway, whatever I did to deserve it, it did cheer me up incredibly. So thanks.

And as if that wasn't enough, Stephen phoned at the back of five to ask if he could come to visit. A few minutes later, he appeared with this



and these which I thought were going to be disgusting, cos I hate haggis, but if you read the ingredients, there isn't any in them. They are, in fact absolutely delicious.

and this



He stayed for food and wine and as usual he royally entertained my daughter. Anna adores him because they seem to be completely on the same quirky wavelength. A few months ago, he came over and I went to bed cos I was feeling so ill. When I reappeared 3 hours later, they had invented a Kingdom, drawn out a map and made up its laws. Not bad for an afternoon's work. Last night, I again got quite tired so I was lying on the couch listening to them act out Build A Bear's Got Talent (with Stephen doing the voices for all 3 judges), and then Stephen telling this shaggy dog story that seemed to go on for ever. At one point I had to intervene, hissing that this "better have a happy ending" when a bunny was fatally injured. However, Anna, who adores animals and hates the thought of anything bad ever happening to them, was laughing all the way to the really bad punchline.

So, thank you, Sugar Daddy, for a lovely evening. Remarkably, there's still a little bit of chocolate left, so I'll savour that during free practice this morning.