Daring to whisper the D word as I see reports from Oldham East and Saddlworth

The Liberal Democrats' chances of winning tomorrow's Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election were long ago written off by the media. Only thing is, somebody seems to have forgotten to tell local people.

I've seen enough reports, most recently from Andrew and Paul's been there too. The polls show that there's everything to play for.

Team Scotland has been out in force in Oldham over the last few days. My Facebook feed is filled with pictures of a buzzing HQ full of activists. I hear of us winning the poster war by some margin. I hear upbeat reports of a very warm and friendly reception on the doorsteps. I also have the experience of having spoken to enough voters by phone to see this for myself. I was actually shocked at how positive they were. I'd read the polls, you see, and I wasn't expecting to have virtually every single person tell me they were voting, or already had by post, for Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins.

I've seen many elections before which are very different to how they are reported in the media. My mind wanders back to almost exactly five years ago - in fact, I think it is exactly five years since we moved into our campaign HQ. There was absolutely no way, according to the press, that we had any chance of winning. The fight was between SNP and Labour and we had a nerve even thinking we had a chance, especially when we didn't have a leader and it seemed as though every half hour a new tabloid scandal engulfed one of our MPs. It was not the best national stage on which to fight a by-election, particularly one which had been caused by the untimely death of a well-liked and respected Labour MP.

Nobody, and I mean absolutely nobody outside our own campaign HQ expected us to win. The weekend before the election a procession of journalists were guided round our offices to see the scale of our operation for themselves, but still nobody expected us to pull off a victory to the extent that the BBC's graphic for the first couple of news bulletins after the result showed the constituency coloured in red.

Seasoned campaigners, though, who have a nose for which way things are going, started to dare to think we could actually do it. After a very busy polling day, that I was sitting in the petrol station at Duloch Park in Dunfermline, when I took a phone call from an ecstatic friend who said we'd done it!

The moral of the story is that what's happening on the ground may not always fit with the narrative the media is trying to shape. I think that there's a similar thing going on in Oldham where people are utterly sick of the Labour Party. They have been lied to by the previous Labour MP, who tried to stir up racial tension in order to snatch victory for himself and his party, something neither Ed Miliband nor the current candidate have apologised for. They know fine that Labour's record in Government is nothing to be proud of, leaving the country with a huge economic mess, of ruining our international reputation by taking us into an illegal war in Iraq, making the gap between rich and poor even wider. They like Elwyn Watkins, they know that he'll fight hard for the area and they like the contribution that the Liberal Democrats are making in Government.

I'm not going to make any predictions about what's going to happen tomorrow, but I am sure that the final chapter of this story, unlike the mainstream media suggest, has not yet been written. Oldham East and Saddleworth may have more than beautiful scenery in common with Dunfermline and West Fife.

#F1 Brundle promoted and joined by DC in BBC Commentary shake up

In exactly two months' time, we'll have seen the first couple of practice sessions of the 2011 season in the yawnmaking Sakhir international circuit in Bahrain. Last year's race belied the fact that the season was to be one of the most exciting ever, with the championship being decided by a(nother) Ferrari strategic slip up in the last race. Wouldn't have happened in Ross Brawn's day.....

One thing which was almost perfect all the way through last season, and the one before that, was the utterly fantastic BBC coverage. On both radio and television, the BBC excelled themselves with, to my mind at least, the best sports reporting team ever.

Today they've announced that they're changing things to make them even better. Jonathan Legard is leaving and his space in the commentary box is being taken by David Coulthard.  I'm sure Mr Legard is a very nice man, but his commentary was dull and uninspiring and a lot of the time not even knowledgeable. And he had absolutely zero chemistry with his co-commentator Martin Brundle. It would be completely hypocritical of me to even suggest that I am sorry to see him go - although I hope that he finds a lucrative outlet for his talents. He comes across better in writing, I think.

I have worshipped at the Altar of the Blessed Brundle for 14 seasons now. He seems to have an instinctive sense of what we want as race viewers and is able to give it to us. He can be laddish at times, but has a fabulous balance of humour and cynicism to throw into the mix with his unrivalled inside knowledge.

There are some who aren't impressed with the new line up, but I think it'll work. Duncan doesn't think that Brundle will cut it as lead commentator, but I disagree. He's actually been a commentator for as long as he was a driver. His point of view has rounded in those 14 seasons.

We know that he has a good on-screen chemistry with Coulthard, and that the Scotsman is himself very articulate and good at expressing his opinion. The pair have been friends for years and I think this is a good move. My only worry about it is that we'll have to forego the sparky banter between DC and Eddie Jordan during the build-up. There's also the issue of DC's clear bias towards Red Bull - lucrative when you want access and insight, but not so helpful when it's just him and a microphone. Let's hope he can temper that a bit.

I wonder who they're going to give EJ to bounce off - or whether that post will go as part of the austerity strategy at the BBC.

Anyway, this is welcome news in the middle of the four month off season. It's only 3 weeks till the first pre season testing in Valencia - and only 6 weeks after that until the season kicks off.

Panda-ing to a cruel and brutal regime

Awww, cute! We're going to get pandas at Edinburgh zoo, just down the road from us. Anna is already excited at the prospect and I suspect we'll be taking out a membership for the first time in a few years so we can keep tabs on Tian Tian and Yuanguang when they arrive. Especially if they take to heart the romance Scotland's capital city has to offer and produce some ultra cute baby offspring.

So why am I not jumping for joy? Well, The Burd got there first, and she puts it very well:

The burd is not some political naif.  I get the arguments for economic and diplomatic engagement with China – huge population; if not us; better to encourage reform from the inside etc – and on one level they make sense.  But do we have to?  Are we so unsure of our place in the world and the role we could play that we feel impotent to control and direct our relationships with other nations?

The Chinese regime is brutal with scant regard for human rights. Its citizens don't have the basic liberties we take for granted. They aren't allowed to write blogs criticising their government, and if they protest in the street they literally take their lives in their hands. They don't have the luxury of unrestricted Twitter to talk nonsense on, and when they do a search on Google, they don't get to see anything the Government doesn't want them to. They aren't even allowed the basic human right to decide for themselves how many children they wish to have. And as for conditions in which many of the goods imported here are made - well, have a look at this article which states that the Goverment doesn't do enough about the fact that young kids are put to work in gruelling conditions. 

On the whole, international trade is a good thing, which encourages bonds between nations and gives opportunities for dialogue and understanding. Should we not put our foot down at times, though, and minimise our dealings with governments who treat their people so badly? It would be hard to find a country which is completely sin free. We don't qualify for that accolade ourselves and in centuries past have been guilty of monstrous atrocities.

It seems to me that China is getting too much of its own way on the international scene. It's taken five years of high level diplomatic negotiation for us to get two pandas. Surely we should be more ambitious in our expectations of behaviour in our trading partners.

If I see "made in China" on anything that makes its way into this house, my first emotion is guilt. I'll no doubt be seeing a lot of Tian Tian and Yuanguang over the next few years, and I reckon a bit of me will feel bad every time.

Labour MPs' DNA test views shows their authoritarian instincts

It's often thought that the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are much easier partners than the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, that we have a lot more in common. That's not the case. Certainly there are some aspects of social policy where we agree, but philosophically, we are a million miles apart. Both Conservatives and Labour have aspects to their basic rationale which turn my Liberal Democrat blood cold.

With the Conservatives, it's their instinct to protect the rich and powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. Without the Liberal Democrats to take the sting out of them in Government, there would be absolutely no measures to help the poorest at all.

With Labour, it's the fact that they don't see people as individuals with their own minds and opinions. They just see as as an amorphous blob to be controlled, rather than trusted.

I want to see the person who murdered Bristol architect Jo Yeates behind bars. Make no mistake about that. Whoever did this needs to be locked up before they strike again. However,  I am dismayed if not surprised that Kerry McCarthy, a Bristol Labour MP, has come out and said that she would support the DNA testing of every man in Bristol if the Police thought it was appropriate. Tom Harris, Labour MP for Glasgow South, agrees with her. 

That horrifies me for two reasons. To my mind, the state should only have access to such information about you if there is actual reason to suspect that you have done wrong. Being male is not sufficient grounds as far as I'm concerned. If this was done on a voluntary basis, is the guilty person actually going to put themselves forward? Who says they live in Bristol anyway? Do you then assume that people who object to such an infringement of their rights have something to hide? Would conscientious objectors be persecuted? The implications of that approach are chilling.   Do we stop men from going out or restrict their movements just because most violent crime is committed by men? Taking DNA from the whole population is the start of a very slippery guilty until proven innocent slope and the very mention of the idea should have us up in arms at such an affront to our liberty. 

Apart from the obvious civil liberties implications, what a waste of time and resources it would be. Surely such a mass effort would be much better spent on actually trying to find the culprit. There are, according to population records, not far off half a million people in Bristol.  Around half of them will be men. So, how many people are going to collect the samples from these quarter of a million men, and get them processed. Say only a quarter of them volunteered - that's still over 60,000. The capacity of Celtic Park in Glasgow is something like 60832 (thank you, Wikipedia). Imagine that whole stadium chock a block full of people to be tested. And then you have to process the results. It would cost an absolute fortune and you may still , and in fact, I'd go as far as to say you probably will not find the killer. 

Private sector job creation must not be at the expense of employee rights

So, David Cameron is going to sit down with major employers today, like the supermarkets and John Lewis, and try and persuade them to create more jobs. I have to say I'm slightly concerned that the jobs those companies are likely to offer are less skilled than the public sector ones which will be lost. He surely needs to talking to innovative environmental and technological companies who can help to provide the much needed infrastructure for a sustainable, greener future. Let's see a bit of ambition, for goodness' sake.

No doubt those big companies will use the chance of having a Prime Minister wanting something from them to have a bit of a moan about how they could provide an awful lot more jobs if they didn't have to give their employees so many rights.

These sorts of complaints are music to Conservative ears but sound all sorts of alarm bells to Liberal Democrats. It is right that employees are treated well and should have decent recourse if their employers fail to meet acceptable standards of behaviour, regardless of the economic circumstances.

The same BBC article also says that the Government is going to consult on employment rights with a view to doubling the amount of time, to two years, that an employee has to be employed before they can have recourse to an industrial tribunal. This doesn't apply if an employee is making a claim for unfair dismissal for something pregnancy related, but even so, it sends the wrong message to employers - telling them that they can treat employees as badly as they like for up to two years.

If you have given one year and eleven months of good service to an employer, how would you feel if they sacked you unfairly and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it? I tend to think that if an employer breaches employment law, then you shouldn't have to have any sort of qualifying period to seek redress. Why should the law only apply after a certain period of time?

Worse than that, however, is the idea that people seeking the intervention of an Employment Tribunal should have to a pay a fee. Bear in mind that these people have just lost their job. If they were going to access the courts, they would get some sort of Legal Aid or fees exempt status. There is no way that they should have to pay to seek justice against an employer.

A company has no more valuable resource than its people. If employers don't realise that, they have to be made to. I expect Liberal Democrat ministers to ensure that employees' rights are not eroded by this Government.

Could Scotland host the start of the Tour De France?

I was very glad to see a report in yesterday's Scotland on Sunday which said that Scotland was bidding to hold the first stage of the Tour de France, possibly in 2017. I've become a big fan of the event in the last couple of years and the thought of such a major international sporting event taking over the country for a week is very pleasing to me.

This is just one of the competitions EventsScotland is trying to lure here - apparently moves are afoot to make good use of new arena and facilities being built for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games by having curling, gymnastics and equestrian championships in the country. I also like the idea of capitalising on Andy Murray's success by giving him a home tournament to play in.

All this is a great way of extending the tourist season by attracting people to the country outside the normal May to September time.

If we're going to do this, though, we need to make sure that our own up and coming athletes have the proper training and facilities to enable them to compete in these championships on level terms. It's about time decent resources went into sports outside football.

A must read post on Gabrielle Giffords and Gun Culture

I've already had my say on how I feel that yesterday's awful events in Arizona should make politicians on both sides of the Atlantic think again when they use, or just as importantly, fail to condemn the use of violent metaphors in political debate.

Thanks to my friend Maria Wolters on Twitter, who pointed me in the direction of this moving and wise post from one of Gabrielle Giffords' constituents, an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Arizona, who lives about 5 miles away from where the shooting took place. If you do nothing else today, please read it. In a relatively short article, he describes:

• his emotions while watching the events unfold, including the terror at thinking that some friends of his might have been caught up in it
• the appalling racism that is never far from the surface in Arizona which is so bad he doesn't feel that he wants to raise a family in that state
• a snapshot of the intimidating gun culture there
• an account of an intolerant, febrile and deeply unpleasant political climate
• a warm appreciation of an excellent Congresswoman

A friend on Facebook last night described a trip to a Wal-Mart in Arizona, where the guns were casually piled up for sale next to the fruit and veg, and anyone over 18 could buy one. I'd be terrified to go out if I lived there, I think.

If you have time, you might also want to read the previous post on his blog, which says that Arizona has cut funding for state funded transplant operations, giving a death sentence to people on low incomes who need such surgery.

Ted's blog post on yesterday's events aptly describes the elements in the crucible which ultimately led to 20 families being thrown into absolute turmoil. The list of people killed is here. It's so heartbreaking, but especially so that a 9 year old with a new and blossoming interest in politics and citizenship, taken along by her neighbour because they thought she would enjoy it, was caught up in it all.  Being taken along to meet a very positive role model for public service might have inspired  her on a path to achieve great things. It's so awful that she won't get that chance.

Violent metaphors have no place in political debate

We're now slowly getting more information about the horrific events in Tucson, Arizona. The welcome news is that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is hanging in there after surgery & the hospital's trauma director says he's as optimistic as it's possible to be in the circumstances. However, it's completely heartbreaking that a 9 year old child has died. The poor wee one. I can only imagine what his or her parents are going through & I feel for them so much.

Much discussion is taking place on Twitter about an item on Sarah Palin's website which appeared during the recent mid term elections. It showed a map of the US with crosshairs over the constituencies of 20 Democrats who had voted for health care reform. I don't think for a minute that Sarah Palin actually meant anyone to actually go & shoot any of these people, but it was undeniably vulgar, tasteless and completely unacceptable.

I find this sort of violent rhetoric extremely disturbing. During the tuition fees protests, effigies of Nick Clegg were hanged. At the time that absolutely gave me the creeps. How horrible for his wife & young kids to see that for a start, not to mention the messages it might give out to others.

Whatever your political disagreements with people, they are still real people. No matter how far apart on ideas, most politicians are good people. Certainly you have to look very hard to find good in some, but, still, they're human beings & don't deserve to be portrayed in violent imagery.

Let's hope that this tragic & appalling event leads to politicians on both sides of the Atlantic taking a long hard look at some of the language they use & that in the future debates are confined to robust analysis of the issues.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Shock at shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

I'm feeling really sad at the moment as I see the news from the US that 40 year old Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot at a "Congress on your corner" event at a supermarket in her Tucson, Arizona, district. It had been reported that she'd been killed - and I waited until the BBC said it before I posted it, as they usually get facts like that right - but she's apparently in surgery and in a critical condition. Let's hope that she pulls through.

At the time I'm writing this, it's not known how many other people have been injured, but it's thought that possibly 3 or 4 members of her staff are among the casualties.

I spent 4 years working for an MP and the absolute best part of the job was when we went out and about talking to people.  We all loved it and always relished our surgeries or events at the places where people were, supermarkets and shopping centres.  We were aware,  of course, of what could, rarely, go wrong. Everyone knew about the killing of caseworker Andrew Pennington at then Cheltenham Liberal Democrat MP Nigel Jones' surgery. I remember how shocked and upset I felt that Friday night in January 2000. Then there was the stabbing of Labour MP Stephen Timms at his surgery in May last year. Thankfully he made a full recovery.

Gabrielle Giffords' enthusiastic tweets about this event and her first week back are now very poignant. My thoughts are with her husband and family, and all of those close to the other people who were injured.

#PAD photos 1-7 January

I've decided to try and take a photo a day in 2011, to create a visual record of my life. I'm uploading them to my Flickr stream - I'm CaronLindsay on there if you want to add me as a contact.

I thought I'd do a weekly summary on here so you can see what I've been up to. I didn't have the idea to do this until I saw other people's on 2nd January, so I posted two on that day, but the first had been taken in the early moments of the year.

So, here we go:

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Caron's Corkers - 7 January 2011

I haven't done one of these in ages, although I keep shoving stuff in a folder to link to later and never getting round to it so some of this stuff has been waiting for a while.

I liked Stephen Fry's letter to his 2 millionth Twitter follower.

On St Andrew's Day, the Burd reminded us of Scotland's other patron saint, St Margaret. How come the boy with the tenuous link to Scotland took priority over the girl who lived here?

More recently, the Burd turned her attention to the current baby swap plot in EastEnders. She was spot on and I agreed with every word. This isn't the first time the programme has tackled this horrendous subject. I remember that they did it much more sensitively with Sue and Ali Osman's second son died in 1985.

Another oldie - the Gorgeous Elephant v the Beardy Weirdy

Jennie says it all about a mother's love. 

Meemalee discovers that between the idea of good customer service, and the action, there is a fairly big shadow where The Fat Duck is concerned.

Gia Milinovich is a successful tv producer. In the sexist world in which we live, she finds that she plays second fiddle to her husband. Every woman in politics, science or business will find something to empathise with here. Not only that, she hilariously describes how she copes with the fact that women go mad for her other half, Professor Brian Cox.

And finally, Dan, Dan the Falchikov man finds that Norman Tebbit gives voters in Oldham East and Saddleworth a good reason to back Liberal Democrat Elwyn Watkins.

My Daily Essentials

Inspired by Ellen, who asked what our Daily Essentials were, I very tastefully arranged the photo above. That'll do for today's Photo A Day. I'm determined to stick to posting one photo every day this year so I have a complete record of 2011.

The photo is not exhaustive so we'd probably best start with what's missing.  I have a policy of not posting photos of Anna on my blog, so she isn't in it. Closely related to her, are cuddles. My absolute favourite moment of Christmas Day was when she happily and unexpectedly came and gave me a cuddle rather than dive headlong into her Christmas stocking.  Whatever we've done, whatever mood we're in, I couldn't imagine a day without her. I know I'm stoking myself up for some sort of really major Empty Nest Syndrome, but we'll deal with that when it happens. As things stand, she says she's never leaving home, but I have at the back of my mind that she may well want to go backpacking with a boyfriend called Scum all too soon.

Of course there's Bob, too. We always speak before he goes out to work (even if all he gets is a sleepy snarl if I'm not ready to open my eyes) and there's usually an exchange of e-mails during the day. There's not been very many days in the last 23.5 years when I haven't spoken to him at some point. If we're apart we tend to speak several times on the phone. The exception to that was when I went to New York, pre mobile phone and internet days.

I do like my sleep, and plenty of it. There are many things I don't get about Margaret Thatcher, but her ability to survive on 4-5 hours' sleep a night comes close to the top of the list. That can't be good for a person and it must affect your decision making capability. If I get less than 8 hours, I find it tough the next day. If I get less than 8 hours on two consecutive nights, then I turn into the Witch Queen from Hell, and if it goes on any longer, you really are best off not being anywhere near me. I did think about dragging the duvet into the picture, but decided against it.

But going on to the picture, in the background is the television. I do watch too much of it, I know, but having been stuck at home for quite a lot of time being ill over the past couple of years, it's been an essential companion, from rolling news channels, to Doctor Who to the trash you all know I love to decent drama. That reminds me - Lark Rise to Candleford starts again on Sunday and I haven't watched the last episode of the last series yet. It's been waiting for me on the Sky Plus for months so I'd better get it watched over the weekend.

Going to the photo now, the tin is for Earl Grey teabags. I seriously could not survive without the stuff. Much to the consternation of certain people, I put milk in it. It's warm, delicate flavour is exactly what I need to get me going and keep me focussed throughout the day.

Then there's the car keys. There's nothing like a spell of illness where you can't go out to make you appreciate your mobility when you have it. I don't use the car every single day, but knowing that I could if I needed to is really important to me.

Also in the photo is a notepad and paper. For all the electronic gadgetry I have, if I'm making notes about something, or making a list, I feel much better writing it down the old fashioned way.

Then there's a copy of Liberal Democrat News to symbolise how important the party is to my life. Sad and pathetic though it may be, there haven't been many days in the last 28 years when it's not been in either my thoughts or timetable at some point. Whether it's writing a blog, or being part of an election campaign, or going to a fundraiser, or seeing one of the very many lifelong friends I've made through being a Liberal Democrat, the Party is always there in the backdrop of my life. Even when things happen that I don't like, I can't imagine ever not being a part of it.

Underneath that, there's a copy of a certain monthly politics magazine. I would never want you to get the idea that anything Iain Dale produces is essential to my life, but it's there to symbolise two things, a thirst for information and gossip about all sorts of politics and also a need to read. I could easily have put one of the many books that threaten to take over my living room, bedroom, kitchen and landing. In the worst days of my illness, I found it hard to concentrate on books which was horrid, and instead read lots of newspapers and magazines, with their shorter articles and many photos. Thankfully normality is being restored now and my Amazon habit is flourishing. I literally have been a bookworm since before I could walk and I can't see that ever changing. Again, I'm a bit old school on this and would much rather read an actual book, or magazine, or newspaper, than a gadget with the same stuff on it. So, Rupert Murdoch, you can stick it with your pay wall. If I want to  read your paper, I'll go and buy it.

And, finally, there's my iPhone. My friends and family are incredibly important to me and being able to keep in touch with them is vital. It's all so much easier these days with Facebook and Twitter. I know that if I have that little box of tricks with me, I can contact my nearest and dearest whenever I want, or they can get hold of me.

What are the things you couldn't live without?

Why I'm jealous of Nick Clegg

I feel quite envious of Nick Clegg today. Not, of course, of the appalling abuse he's taken recently from the sort of political neanderthal who thinks hanging effigies of someone passes for legitimate political debate, or of the hours he has to work, nor of the undeniable tensions in his current role, nor of the fact that for the next 6 months, his age will be one year older than mine.

No, the source of my jealousy, and, to be fair, a good old dollop of pride, is that he gets to spend his birthday telling us how he and his Government colleagues are going to actually make happen things that he's believed in for his whole life. He is the prime mover behind a series of reforms which will free citizens from state interference where it has no business to interfere, which will restore the civil liberties that Labour had no problem in stripping away.

He made a keynote speech today fleshing out exactly how the Government will spend 2011 restoring our freedoms. The speech in full is here, but I wanted to highlight the bits which struck a chord with me.

First of all, we see just how deeply Nick's passion for civil liberties is rooted:

My family, like so many others, was marked by the extremes and conflicts of the last century. My mother spent part of her childhood in a prisoner of war camp. My father’s mother fled the Russian Revolution and found refuge here.

That family history made sure that my brothers and sister and I grew up certain of one thing: you must never take your freedom for granted. And you must treasure and love this country for precisely that reason.

Then there's an interesting analysis of the different instincts on freedom and the relationship between the state and the individual which sums up in a nutshell why I feel so uncomfortable about the Labour Party's ideas:

It would be easier to forgive Labour if it had simply been a lack of diligence on their part.

But the problem ran much deeper. There is a divide in politics between those of us who trust people and those who trust only government.

It is a line that divides progressive politics into two camps: old progressives, who value a powerful state, and new progressives, who value powerful citizens. Labour is on the wrong side of that divide.

Because, if you believe that the state has all the answers, you will always be pessimistic about citizens.

If you believe everything must be controlled from the centre you will protect central power at all costs. Even when that cost is basic British freedoms.

Liberals, and this Government, take a wholly different approach.

Liberals believe in the dispersal of power: in the raucous and unpredictable capacity of people and communities to make the right decisions for themselves.

We believe that social progress is driven not only by government, but also by confident, free individuals and communities, able to seize opportunities and take risks.

People cannot do that when the state is forever on their back; when their freedoms are denied and their autonomy is undermined.

So this Government is going to restore British liberties.

 Raucous and unpredictable capacity of people - that's a distinct change in tone from the last 13 years. In fact, what we are seeing from this Government is the most positive give away of meaningful power to people I can remember in my lifetime.

But of course, the irony is that to restore freedom, you have to use more central regulation.

By next month we will be putting forward a freedom bill: legislation that will bring together a number of measures, for example to better regulate CCTV; to properly control the way councils use surveillance powers; to limit the powers of state inspectors to enter into your house; and to end the indefinite storage of innocent people’s DNA

If you want to know why that's necessary, in Scotland, too, have a look at my account of a Labour Council abusing its powers by turning its CCTV cameras to film parents peacefully demonstrating about school closures. It's Robert Brown, Glasgow's Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP, who did something about it - in much the same way as he spoke out when the SNP, Labour and the Tories all nonchalantly agreed to quadruple pre charge detention in an afternoon. As an aside, if you live in Glasgow and you care about freedom, you need this man back in Holyrood in May, so even if you don't normally vote Lib Dem, do so on the list ballot paper. There is nobody I'd trust more with justice and liberty and we need him in there.

Back to Nick's speech, there's really good news in that England's appalling defamation libel laws are going to be reformed:

It is simply not right when academics and journalists are effectively bullied into silence by the prospect of costly legal battles with wealthy individuals and big businesses.

Nor should foreign claimants be able to exploit these laws, bringing cases against foreign defendants here to our courts – even if the connection with England is tenuous.

It is a farce – and an international embarrassment - that the American Congress has felt it necessary to legislate to protect their citizens from our libel laws.  

This Government wants to restore our international reputation for free speech.

We will be publishing a draft defamation bill in the Spring. We intend to provide a new statutory defence for those speaking out in the public interest, whether they be big broadcasters or the humble blogger. And we intend to clarify the law around the existing defences of fair comment, and justification.

I'm just wondering what the Government is going to do about bloggers who aren't humble. Not one of Guido's qualities, as far as I can see.

Nick also spoke about reforming Freedom of Information to ensure that Westminster bodies are covered by the sort of Liberal FOI laws you get when you have Liberal Democrats in Government. The Scottish FOI law was much more robust than that in England because of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in the first Holyrood coalition.

On counter terrorism measures, I'll bet you that the Guardian will be suggesting that his comments about balancing security with liberty signified a backing down on control orders. Those are the same people who would be calling the Coalition soft on terrorism if it diluted the measures put in by their Labour pals. Nick didn't give any details today but he was clear that "Control Orders cannot continue in their current form. They must be replaced."  I have to be honest and say I'd prefer he'd said scrapped, but we'll see what happens when the Government's review reports. Whatever happens will be an improvement, though, and I won't be taking any lectures from Labour on the subject.


The other small section which caught my eye was on extradition:


 In September, the independent review of the UK’s extradition arrangements we commissioned will report.


I hope that means that the unfair extradition treaty with the US which threatens Gary McKinnon will be scrapped. It certainly would be unjust to allow such a vulnerable person to be extradited before then so I hope it means he's safely here for at least the next 9 months. Having said that, I do think that he and his family have suffered for long enough and the Government should be clear that he's not going anywhere and if he is to face a trial, then it should be in a British court.

The measures Nick announced in his speech, from scrapping ID cards, to doing away with the DNA database to ending child detention to regulating surveillance, to reducing the number of criminal offences, to really taking individual liberty seriously are all measures that will make Liberal Democrats and anyone else interested in personal freedom very happy. They will make our society and our democracy much healthier in the long term.  I'm not sure if he deliberately planned to give this speech on his birthday, but the way it's worked out, he's giving an invaluable gift of freedom. Being able to make that sort of difference, will, I'm sure, make him feel that it's all worthwhile. 

Tim Farron blasts "sulky teenager" Miliband's 100 days "doing nothing"

Party President Tim Farron had hit the ground running in his new role before he even took office and his first official week in the job has been busy. He spent the first day of the year in Oldham East and Saddleworth. The last time I was there, the Labour campaign was one of the nastiest I'd come across so you need a robust figure to deal with the flack they're flinging.

It's fair to say that our Tim isn't best impressed with new Labour Leader Ed Miliband's first 100 days in office.

“Ed Miliband has spent his first 100 days doing exactly nothing. No answers, no policies and no apology for the mess that Labour made, just indecision, head in the sand economics and a blank piece of paper.

“In Government he failed on the economy, in opposition he’s failed the people of Oldham and Saddleworth by promoting a disgraced MP who spread racially divisive lies.

“People in Oldham and Saddleworth deserve better than an MP from a party that would’ve stood idly by and watched Britain head towards Irish-style collapse. Tough decisions protect Britain, not opportunistic complaining and blank pages.

“This New Year the Liberal Democrats are making the positive difference in Government. We’re all working to clean up after Labour’s disastrous 13-year house-party, Ed Miliband’s still the sulky teenager trying to pretend it wasn’t his fault.”

And all that was before Newsnight revealed that Ed Miliband had twice argued in favour of raising VAT while a Cabinet Minister.  

Crying Babies: Why picking them up is good for them

My friend Helen Butler posted this super article from the Analytical Armadillo website on Facebook and I wanted to share it with you.

It cuts through all the myths about how crying is good for babies' lungs (how on earth were we ever taken in by that one in the first place?) and that babies are manipulative creatures who are just at it. 

It's a good introduction to the rationale behind attachment parenting and it shows, funnily enough, that babies whose cries are responded to quickly grow up to be more emotionally balanced and secure. It's quite obvious, really.

I like this paragraph particularly:

When faced with a crying baby, it may be prudent to ask yourself the following questions: Why am I choosing this response? Do I want my baby to stop crying because he feels comforted and safe, or do I want my baby to stop crying for the sake of stopping crying? What is my baby learning about me and the world when I respond in this manner? If I were a baby and was upset, how would I want my caregivers to respond? 

I've always thought that if we want to do something kids are growing up with mental health or behaviour problems, becoming susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse, encouraging responsive, rather than regime orientated parenting is part of that solution.

Where I blog

Subrosa has tagged me in a meme where you are supposed to post a picture of where you blog.

Well, I would normally have pretended I hadn't seen it, because the kitchen table, where I normally type, is usually a tip. I expect Stephen and others who know me well, will be shocked at the photo I'm about to post. I was determined that we'd eat our Christmas Dinner around it, so I had a good clear out before the holidays.

The kitchen, to me, is the heart of the house and I'd much rather be down here than shut away in the study upstairs. And there's a tv in here (or at least there is until we go digital - I have a notion that there isn't a little digital box on the market which will bring our ancient portable into the 21st century) which means I can listen to the news of PMQs or whatever as I type. I also have access to Bob's stereo down here, but don't tell him, because he doesn't like me playing what he considers as inferior music on it.

Having said that, these days, I tend to head for the sofa in the lounge with the laptop if I want to watch tv and tweet or blog at the same time. At those times, I'll be blogging from here, but, clearly, with no polar bear.

The bear, along with the books on the kitchen table (Stephen Fry's autobiography and a Doctor Who visual dictionary) are the results of a trip to the shops yesterday to spend our Christmas vouchers. I've always believed that a house can't have too many books, and Anna has now added cuddly toys to that adage. Trouble is, there's hardly any room for the people to live.

Subrosa said that she was interested in my set up because I "am clever with social networking equipment". There's not so much to tell here. The white cable you can see is for my iPhone, which I used to take the photo. That little box of tricks is undoubtedly the best gadget I've ever had in my life. It gives me the capability to keep in touch via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter wherever I am and its app store has endless fascination. All that, and, thanks to iTunes and their free 12 days of Christmas downloads, I can now watch The End of Time Part One anytime, anyplace anywhere.  I have the BlogPress application which I occasionally use so in theory I could write a post wherever I happen to be. To be honest, though, the keyboard on the iPhone is a bit on the small side for typing long posts, and I haven't yet figured out how to use it for linking and posting photos which I assume it does. I suspect it'd all be a lot easier on the iPad. Maybe 2011 is the year I'll get one of those.

So that's about it, really - a wee snapshot of my natural habitat. Some will suggest that there should be a glass of red wine there, but this photo was taken before breakfast.

Why I'm not going to Oldham East and Saddleworth

I won't be joining the huge number of Liberal Democrats from all over the country who are flocking in ever increasing numbers to Oldham East and Saddleworth - and I'm absolutely heartbroken about it.

In 1995, the last time there was a by-election in the area, I spent a substantial part of the campaign there - we even had our Summer holiday staying in a wee farmhouse bed and breakfast somewhere between Shaw and Delph, I think. I was trying to find it the other day with no success.

Anyway, we had a marvellous time there and totally fell in love with the beautiful countryside. I met friends for life there, too.

I would totally love to be there again just now, but dodgy health and snow are two insurmountable barriers for me and I'd be more of a liability than a help. On this occasion, I've had to stick to making a donation to support Elwyn Watkins' campaign.

I have huge respect for Elwyn for taking on the Labour Party and Phil Woolas, whose lies blighted the General Election campaign. Labour's nasty campaigns have often made me shudder over the years, and there have been a number of occasions when they have gone way too far. It's good to see that they have been finally brought to book over it.

There's no getting away from the fact that this is a challenging election for us. All the reports I've heard from people who have been out on the streets across the whole country have been very positive and indicate that our vote is holding up. Whether there's been enough time, in a brief campaign in the middle of the harshest Winter in living memory, to get the message across of the positive influence the Liberal Democrats have had within the Coalition remains to be seen. The more Liberal Democrats who go to Oldham and spend hours delivering leaflets, the better.

It's all down to whether people want a good, local MP, who will fight hard for them, as Liberal Democrat MPs are renowned for doing,  or a representative from a Labour Party who behaved in such an illiberal and authoritarian way in government, who takes no responsibility for the economic mess the country is in and who would have made similar cuts in public spending to the coalition. Remember it was Alistair Darling who talked about the necessity for cuts bigger than Thatcher's. Don't think for a minute that Labour would have abolished tuition fees or protected universities from cuts in teaching staff. Remember that their own manifesto stated that they'd make similar cuts in housing benefit to the Coalition's (not that I support that, but that's another story). Labour's entire strategy seems to be to oppose everything the Coalition does without telling us what they would do instead. It's deceitful, cynical and opportunistic and I hope the voters will not react well to being manipulated in that way.

I am gutted that I can't be down there supporting Elwyn Watkins' campaign. I'm hoping that at least one of you, who wasn't intending to go, will head  there in my place between now and next Thursday and campaign for Elwyn.

As an added incentive, I know how Liberal Democrats are into their science geekery. And you never know whose door you could be knocking on. I have no idea whether Professor Brian Cox actually lives in the constituency or not, but he was born in Oldham and was certainly there the other day, as this tweet shows:

I guess there's only one way to find out.

Please, BBC, give us more Stargazing Live

If, for some reason - maybe you've been on the streets in Oldham East and Saddleworth, in which case you have an excuse - you've missed the BBC's excellent Stargazing Live, broadcast over the last 3 nights, then don't miss the chance to catch up with it on iPlayer. 

If the aim is to make all this geeky sciency stuff mainstream, then I'm probably the target audience. It is a huge challenge for anyone to explain anything to do with Physics in particular in a way that my brain can understand. I really enjoyed Chemistry at school and got an A for my O Grade but I was always more inclined towards languages and social sciences.

Physics, though, was my absolute nightmare. I wouldn't say it was my worst subject at school, because there's no contest with Art for that dubious honour. It was a complete mystery to me, however.

However, there have been occasions in my life, when, if you don't call it Physics, I can quite enjoy science. And I do tend to come down on the side of things there's evidence to prove. Reading John Diamond's Snake Oil some years ago purged me of any sympathy I might have had for homeopathy.  I've always been fascinated by space, stars and planets, which you can expect of someone who's such a Doctor Who and Star Trek fan. As a family we've huddled on the Meadows in Edinburgh on a cold Spring night during the Science Festival looking through people's telescopes.

Because of the snow, the pile of presents I had for Bob looked a bit pathetic, as various Amazon packages hadn't arrived. I saw Professor Brian Cox's book Wonders of the Solar System in Sainsbury's one day and bought it for him, thinking it would be as much for Anna. He literally didn't put it down until he had finished it. Coincidentally, BBC4 was showing the tv series in the week between Christmas and New Year so we're watching them too. It was originally on during the election campaign which is why I have only just discovered the wonders of Brian Cox, although something tells me that at  some point Jennie was quite complimentary about him.

You think of tv scientists as being a bit bonkers, a bit eccentric. Magnus Pyke was the stereotype in the 70s with his wild hair and mannerisms. I used to love watching programmes like Don't Ask Me and Tomorrow's World. You think of scientists generally as being quite humourless, rational and devoid of heart and emotion. The overwhelmed and excited look on Brian Cox's face when he was talking to the astronauts on the International Space Station on last night's show proves that they can be human after all.

What pleasantly surprised me about Stargazing Live is that I understood (or at least I think I understood) a fair bit of it. I understand what  Coronal Mass Ejection is and why it might knock out our electricity. Seriously, that term was trending on Twitter on Tuesday night, partly because it might sound a bit rude, and partly because Dr Lucie Green explained it all so well. I wondered if Earth Rotation Aperture Synthesis would  catch on last night, but sadly it didn't.

Fair play to presenters Dara O' Briain (who is a former physicist) and Brian for doing a great job, but they were completely trumped by Liz Bonnin who managed to remain coherent despite being at a very high altitude on Hawaii. Brian Cox said that he'd filmed there a couple of times and the footage had never been used because the altitude basically made him behave like he was drunk. Liz managed to cope with all the demands of a live broadcast including interviews.

I think the main success of the programmes were that they managed to instil a sense of wonder at what's out there but still showed how the universe and its laws have a relevance to us today. I was quite relaxed about budget cuts for space exploration - I mean, it's more important, surely, to put limited resources into supporting the poorest. That's still my gut instinct, but listening to Brian talk about how studying what happened on Venus, which is now the hottest planet in the Solar System, and its our next door neighbour, might help us tackle climate change made me question that approach.

I hope that the BBC is going to make more shows like this. This 3 night taster made me want much more. The night sky changes so much throughout the year, and interesting celestial events are easy to predict. The presence of Jupiter, a meteor shower and a partial eclipse of the sun made 3 nights in freezing January a good time for an introduction, but the shows only scratched the surface and there's so much more that can be done. I'm sure they could get away with doing it once a quarter. This is the sort of quality tv we pay our licence fee for. It had everything - even a comedy moment as a meteor came down behind the oblivious reporter and was only picked up because everyone mentioned it on Twitter. That reminded me of the infamous occasion when Margaret Thatcher appeared behind an oblivious John Sergeant.

So, come on BBC, you've hit your target audience and whetted our appetites - now give us more.

Scottish Political Blogs on Wikio Top 100 - January 2011

The Wikio rankings are out for January 2011 and sadly only 8 Scottish blogs remain in the top 100 as we bid farewell to the Cute Greek Baby and to Stephen.

Again, I nag any Scottish political bloggers who haven't registered with Wikio to do so  - for example I mean you Set in Darkness, you Midlothian Liberal and you, Burdzeyeview, you Bellegrove Belle, you Paul Edie, you James Taylor, you Joan McAlpine, you Love and Garbage and you Indygal. If you haven't registered with them, already, please do so here.

So here are the rankings:

1. And Another Thing - Tom holds on to his top spot, just, falling to 18

2. Alex Massie is not far behind him at 21

3. Subrosa rises to 47

4. I rise to 48

5. Underdogs Bite Upwards is still in twice at 69 and 74, rising both times

6. Andrew Reeves rises to 81

7. Lallands Peat Worrier rises to 91

8. Better Nation falls to 95

Have your say on MPs' Expenses and make sure constituents count!

Yes, I know I said light, but I thought it was worth flagging up to you that there's a consultation going on here by the body which now runs MPs' Expenses. They want to know what we all think about what MPs should be able to claim for.

The consultation document is lengthy - 61 pages - flagging up all sorts of issues. A brief scan, though, makes me think that the people who really matter, MPs' constituents and their needs who they are there to serve, don't figure too highly. There's plenty reference to taxpayers and making sure that they get value for money but not of the thousands of people a year who approach their MPs needing help. These people may have been told to repay thousands, often in error, by the Tax Credit Office. They may have been waiting for ages to have a Child Benefit claim, or, even more urgently, a claim for JobSeekers' Allowance processed and may have no money at all. They may be living in horrendous housing, or have been subject to an unfair decision by the UK Borders Agency.

They may have come across a particularly unfair or worrying situation which requires a change in the law. It was a letter from a constituent,outlining her terrible experience of having been sexually assaulted by her driving instructor, seeing him convicted and then the next day hearing that he was back out working, which led to Willie Rennie introducing an act of Parliament which ensured that driving instructors could be suspended from the Register.

By the time people come to their MPs, they will usually have been through many other channels and their cases are incredibly complex. MPs must have the resources in terms of staff and equipment to ensure that these cases are properly dealt with. I know that there are many people who think that MPs shouldn't do as much casework and should concentrate on making laws. I think that if you're making laws, you need to understand their effect on people, and how things can go wrong. It's a vital part of holding the Government to account.

My point really is that I know that a fair few people reading this will have experience of working for MPs or with MP's offices, maybe from a charity or advocacy organisation, or maybe people who have been helped by MPs themselves who will know of the invaluable assistance that MPs can give. Government departments are not quick to admit where they've made a mistake and it's vital that MPs have the resources to properly pursue these complex cases and ensure that errors are rectified. I'm hoping that all of you will respond to IPSA's consultation which goes on until 11th February and let them know what you think it's important for MPs to have.

In the aftermath of the MPs' Expenses scandal, the mood was very much looking for a punitive system which would stamp out excesses. I think now is a good opportunity to review how the new system is working and ensure that the people who matter most, constituents, are properly served. Any one of them could need their MP to help them pick their way through an official minefield, whether it's to help with a family member stuck abroad or with their own dealings with Government agencies.

I'll come back to this when I've had time to read all 61 pages in more detail but I wanted to give you the heads up on this as soon as I could.

My New Year Scottish Roundup

Just in case you're missing me, here's a link to the Scottish Roundup I did on Sunday which includes everything from resolutions, to predictions to instructions on how to build an igloo. Let's hope we don't get the chance to put that one into practice for a while.

Blogging light until Monday

Just popped in to say that blogging will continue to be light until Monday 10th. I doubt I'll be completely silent, but Anna is still on holiday so I want to have some fun with her.

Normal service will be resumed next week.

Scottish Tory Leader Annabel Goldie in "bullshitters" shock

Twenty years or so ago, I may have been a little surprised to read in Kitty Kelley's biography of Nancy Reagan that then White House Chief of Staff James Baker had apparently used some fairly serious swear words at the first lady in response to one of her excesses, but I was young then. It was probably more of a shock because of the more obvious piety of the US politician and was an early lesson that things may not always be as they seem.

Like most of the rest of us, politicians swear. So what? Nothing to see here.

John Major, one of the nicest people in politics, called his some elements of his parliamentary party and cabinet colleagues bastards. To be fair, I quite agreed with him at the time.

But 15 years on from that indiscretion, Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie has taken some stick for using the word "bullshitters" in an interview.  I suspect that the outrage has more to do with her being a slightly posh, matronly lady than anything else. I don't remember the National Campaign for Courtesy jumping on David Cameron for saying "shit happens" or on Tavish Scott for saying "bollocks".

My husband is a lovely man, but he, who worked down the pit for 20 years for goodness sake, has an issue with women swearing. I've made it my life's work to desensitise him from that notion, with limited success. He will no doubt be very proud of Anna, who has decided that her mummy swears too much and if she can't stop it, she's going to at least make some money out of it.

Yesterday she wrote out a list of swear words - not the actual words,  you understand, because she doesn't use them, but, as you'll see, the words they rhyme with.

For those of you who can't read her writing, we have:

Rhymes with duck (and all variations)                 50p
Rhymes with hit                                                  25p
Rhymes with banker                                           10p
Rhymes with muddy                                           10p
Rhymes with rugger                                            20p
Rhymes with snitch                                             10p
Rhymes with white                                              25p
Rhymes with custard                                           10p
Rhymes with hiss                                                 10p
Rhymes with brass                                               15p
Rhymes with carse                                               15p

I'm sure Annabel would applaud the entrepreneurial spirit shown by an 11 year old.

No doubt the rest of you will have dismissed me as a thoroughly bad mother by now. In my defence, although the list is wide ranging, I am actually able to spend most of my time stringing fairly articulate, profanity free sentences together.

Annabel's genius, of course, has been to use a naughty word, probably knowing that the media would throw their arms up in horror that a lady would behave in such an ungenteel manner, thus deflecting attention from what she actually said:

The Tories, on the other hand, are going to "tell it as it is," said Goldie.

"There is going to be no bullshitting… (and) you can use that," Goldie told Scotland on Sunday.

"I think people are fed up to the back teeth of politicians, who dance on a pinhead, who are evasive…are ambivalent." 

If you were looking for industrial strength bullshit, Conservative Party HQ in Edinburgh is the first place you'd go. They do talk a lot of nonsense. Up here for the last four years, they've been nothing but Salmond's wee helpers in the Parliament. Their Borders MSP John Lamont was for the Borders Rail Link before he was against it, he stood for the Westminster Parliament while an MSP despite David Cameron saying that shouldn't happen. The Tories go on all the time about how they support business, but when they had the chance to put their money where their mouth was, they voted against a Liberal Democrat motion to give help to businesses struggling with huge business rate hikes.

And then there was Annabel's last foray into straight talking - last January, when she basically told the Scots that it didn't matter what they thought, David Cameron would get his majority without them.  Thankfully that didn't happen, and we have Liberal Democrats in Government working every day to take the sting out of the Tories, delivering on ending child detention, making the tax system fairer, giving deprived kids a better start to their education, restoring the Pensions/earnings link, giving justice to Equitable Life policyholders, kicking the renewal of Trident into the long grass for hopefully long enough to build a consensus that we really don't need nuclear weapons in this country, giving more powers to the Scottish Parliament and much more.

Liberal Democrat Blogger Rachel Olgeirsson passes away

I am really sad to hear that Liberal Democrat blogger Rachel Smith, who blogged as Rachel Olgeirsson, and was also on Twitter as @rachelolgeirsso, passed away in the early hours of yesterday.

We knew that she'd been undergoing treatment for Leukaemia, which she'd faced with great bravery, raising money for charity since her diagnosis last Summer.

I never met her in real life. I just got to know her over Twitter, where she was unfailingly kind and generous and very, very funny. We tweeted through lots of episodes of the Apprentice and Strictly together. When I wasn't well last year, she was always full of encouragement and positivity. I know I wasn't alone. Just looking back through her Twitter timeline just now, and can see where she's had a sympathetic word for others even when she was in hospital herself.

My thoughts are with her husband and boys.They'll be going through hell, and nothing will give them solace at the moment. Maybe it'll help them at some point in the future to know how widely liked, respected and appreciated Rachel was.

Update: Spidey has also written a lovely tribute to Rachel and also given a link to her Christmas fundraising page.

Update 2 Sara Bedford has also written a beautiful post on Liberal Democrat Voice.

Update 3: And Rob has also paid tribute to Rachel.

Are Control Orders about to be scrapped?

The Guardian is reporting that the Cabinet has agreed plans to scrap the appalling system of Control Orders, which restrict the movements and communications of terrorist suspects.

I hope that this is true. It's not long since it was being reported that the Government intended to keep them, something which would be completely unacceptable to most Liberal Democrats.

It's not that we don't think terrorists shouldn't have their activities curtailed. Of course they should. The system of control orders, though, is the absolute antithesis to every tenet of justice and natural law that there is. It sets a very dangerous precedent.

Just imagine that, under interrogation far far away, a terrorist gives the authorities your name as an accomplice, or maybe the Police make a mistake and confuse you with someone else they're looking for. You have done absolutely nothing wrong and are a perfectly decent, law abiding citizen. All of a sudden, you could be under house arrest, with all of your movements and contacts with your family permissible only by the Home Office who may not be amenable to the idea that you might want to spend a child's or a parent's birthday with them. You'd find yourself tagged, you could be forced to submit to searches of your home at any time without need for a warrant. You wouldn't be able to have a phone or internet connection to contact the outside world.

Your life could be turned upside down overnight without you even being allowed to know what you were suspected of. A major punishment is inflicted on you without you being able to defend yourself, or without any need for you to be prosecuted. If you're in any doubt, read this account from the Liberty website by someone who had to live under one and how it wrecked his life.  And all this was introduced by the Labour Party!

The Tories alone would have kept Labour's shameful system in place. If indeed control orders are to be scrapped, it will be a significant win for the Liberal Democrats, and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

New Year Message from Tavish Scott

Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Tavish Scott has sent out his annual New Year Message. In it he talks about his priorities for the year - building a sustainable economy, restoring excellence in education and giving people more control over their public services.

I want so much better for Scotland in 2011 than we’ve had. And I don’t just mean the weather.  People want a Scottish Government where we take the right, long-term decisions for the country, not for any political party. Take decisions that can build a stronger, better and more prosperous Scotland. So I want the New Year to start the process of building a better future for our country: to protect and create new jobs, to give real control to local people over the public services they depend on and to restore Scotland’s reputation for excellence in education.

As leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats I want to achieve more for our country. A Scotland that creates the most innovative and entrepreneurial economy in the world; where our children are among the best achieving in the world with kids from the most deprived backgrounds reaching double the current levels of attainment; and where we move towards a low-carbon, no-carbon country with Scotland being in the top 5 countries for energy efficiency.

Politicians can’t do this. People across Scotland can. People working in the private sector, voluntary bodies and communities of Scotland. Teachers in schools. Nurses in hospitals. Bus drivers getting us to work. It will be a Scotland where we co-operate, trust and respect each other’s contributions.

It will be a Scotland where hard work and innovation are rewarded, but one where Government will invest, educate and support to make sure it is fair.

That’s the Scotland I want to begin to build and 2011 is the year to begin.

Real DIY and the Disappearing Amazon Snow Shovel

I know this is locking the stable door after the horse has bolted, but we ordered a snow shovel from Amazon, mainly because there was no way on earth we could get out of our street to buy one, at the beginning of December. We were assured that the seller, Real DIY, had dispatched it and it would no doubt get here some time. I first contacted Real DIY through Amazon on 20th December to tell them that it hadn't arrived. They didn't bother to reply.

We're now at a stage where every single thing, including things ordered from other sellers on the Amazon Marketplace at a much later date, has now arrived. So, I tried to send the sellers another e-mail via Amazon this morning. I had an almost immediate response saying that they couldn't pass it on as "this seller has left  marketplace". I know that I'm not alone as I know other people who ordered the same product from the same seller and it hasn't arrived either.

This is, thankfully, the only bad experience I've had with Amazon in many, many transactions, and we should get a refund through their a-z guarantee. However, you only get 5 lifetime claims so I'm not impressed at having to use one of them like this.

Has anyone actually had a snow shovel from these people arrive?

The Morning After...........and a New Year's Day Quiz.

I have accepted the fact that I'm not going to get back to sleep this morning, so have come downstairs and made the first of many cups of Earl Grey I shall drink in 2011. That's a prediction that's bound to come true.

I couldn't believe that I was awake at 8:17 when I didn't get to sleep till 4. It doesn't seem fair somehow. Mind you, I'm not going to complain too much because the Sinusitis I had yesterday responded to the drugs and seems to have shuffled off with its tail between its legs and because last night was absolutely brilliant.

We went round to our friends Martin and Susan's house. There were 17 of us in total, 9 kids and 8 adults. I did slightly feel as if I'd landed in some sort of surreal alternate universe, because it's not often you see our friend Stevie with a cup of tea at a party. Unfortunately, though, he's working today and as I sit in my nice warm kitchen typing, he'll be up a mobile phone mast somewhere in the cold and rain. So if you are using your mobile phone today, it might well be because of him that it works.

We had a real laugh, including a lengthy and very funny game of charades. We also discovered the joys of putting wild hibiscus flowers in our champagne (or Elderflower Fizz in my case). I felt very brave as it looked absolutely disgusting when it first went in - a bit like an evil looking insect. However, it gave a very pretty pink colour to the bubbly and was delicious to eat.

It was just a really, happy, relaxed time and I'm really grateful to Susan and Martin for having us, feeding us such delicious food and drink - and for all the clearing up they are doubtless going to have to do today.

One thing we didn't get round to doing was the Quiz. When we went to Pippa's earlier in the week, Susan had asked us to make up 10 questions each to have in a competitive quiz, but we never got round to using them. It's a shame to let that effort go to waste, though, so you can try it instead. You are absolutely not allowed to use the internet or anything else at all to research your answers. You have to guess the answers and put them in the comments. There is also no prize, but you might learn something you didn't know already - and which will be of absolutely no use to you in the future. The person who gets most answers right, or comes closest, will get an honourable mention though.

So, if you are wanting a little gentle mental exercise, here goes:

How many moons does Saturn have?

How many medals did Great Britain win at the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010?

Name all the Von Trapp children in the film The Sound of Music

How many followers does Stephen Fry have on Twitter (as at 13:55 on 31st December 2010)

Coronation Street and EastEnders both had major anniversaries in 2010. On 2 January 2011, the Archers celebrates a major milestone.   Add together the number of years each programme has been going.  What number do you get?

According to the 2010 Sunday Times Rich List, how much is Simon Cowell worth?

What is the length of mainland Scotland’s coastline in miles according to the British Cartographic Society?

Where will the first F1 Grand Prix of 2011 be held?

What number, according to a famous science fiction book, represents the meaning of life?

How many balls were used at Wimbledon this year?

Have fun!

Happy New Year!

Have a brilliant 2011.