Spend an extra hour campaigning to thank Nick for killing Snoopers' Charter

Before I even start, I know there are many Liberal Democrats up and down the country for whom giving an extra hour to the campaign would mean having to re-write the laws of time and physics and nature. But then, you are not likely to have time to read this post if you're in that situation. This is aimed at those of you who maybe don't have elections or aren't directly involved in a campaign.

I'm a great believer in showing appreciation when someone has done something good, even if you think it's something they should have done anyway. It's polite and everyone likes being thanked for stuff. We can sometimes be pretty quick to take someone down when they do wrong, but not quite so fast to give credit when they do right.

After the secret courts fiasco, I had fully expected to have to spend the Summer fighting a new and equally pernicious Communications Data Bill. That was never on the cards as I understand Nick never had any intention of letting it go ahead. I don't think this was entirely due to the fact that he knew the membership would freak out completely if he did. I think he actually had learned his lesson from the outcry last April when the problems were pointed out to him.

This is a very good example of the party working together to deliver the right result. The fact that people like Julian Huppert and Dr Jenny Woods were able to get in there right at the start, before it had gone too far, helped. The role of that infamous and fractious phone call between the great and the good and some humble bloggers can't be underestimated, either. Essentially, everyone listened, learned and kept talking. This is a good thing and lessons must be learned for the future before any legislation is agreed to. I've been saying for a long time that there has to be more attention paid to consulting the party before we agree to legislation. The Queen's Speech in two weeks' time will be an indication of whether that's been done for this year.

But, back to the point. Nick has done well and has earned our thanks. We need to make him feel some sort of tangible reward. So, what I'm asking is that those people who have time to read this spend an extra hour delivering leaflets, phone banking or otherwise helping the local election campaign, over what they were already planning to do in order to show our appreciation. If you have no elections where you live, you can make phone calls easily by signing into Connect and spend time speaking to some voters. It couldn't be simpler.

We could make thousands of calls in that extra hour if we put or minds to it. How will you spend your extra hour?

Oh, and by the way, Richard Morris has it right - The Divine Helen Duffett deserves credit for organising the bloggers' call in the first place. If you want to show your gratitude to her, cake should do it. Where's Sara Bedford when you need her?

My unhappiness with Danny Alexander....

...or his diary secretary, whoever they may be, knows no bounds right now.

Not that this is any of their fault, but I want to have a moan.

Right now, I should be out having dinner with my husband while Anna is at the cinema with her friend watching a preview screening of the Hunger Games. This is the latest teen sensation movie. Its subject matter is very, very dark and a reminder of why you need liberal values and people willing to fight for them. The kids have read all 3 books in the series and are engrossed in it.

So, Bob took them down in time for the start at 7:45 because I was busy listening to Danny Alexander's brilliant webinar on the Budget.  It had never occurred to me that the kids would need ID. They're obviously 12, Anna was wearing her school uniform still - and you can't get into secondary school up here unless you're 12. They were accompanied by an adult who could vouch for their age, but they still weren't allowed to go into the cinema unaccompanied. So, poor Bob, who hasn't had anything to eat, had to go in with them.

Now, if that Danny Alexander webinar had been an hour earlier, I'd have been able to take the girls down and I would have had Anna's passport in my handbag because we're off to Cardiff tomorrow for the Doctor Who convention. Her friend had her Young Scot card with her so she'd have been fine. And Bob and I would have been sitting together in Wagamama now over a yaki soba and some white chocolate chilli cheesecake.

Yes, I know that this is down to my own incompetence. I guess I'm just not used to this whole ID thing. She's seen 12A films before, but always with me. It's not a mistake I'll be making again, you can count on that.

On the upside, Danny was really good tonight. Relaxed, friendly, insightful, informative. The Party has to do more of these sorts of events with different ministers and key figures. Why not one with Lynne Featherstone during the Equal Marriage consultation, for example? Or with Shirley Williams just because she's her?

The other star of tonight? If Helen Duffett does not replace Dimbleby on Question Time, I'll be very disappointed. She was very good at making the whole thing sound exciting - and I liked the interactive polls that went on through it.

Seriously, if you think that this week's efforts on internal comms have been good, please let the people in the party who influence such things know. Farron would be a good place to start as would Chief Executive Tim Gordon (tim.gordon@libdems.org.uk). Fill their inboxes up with happiness.

The Budget - a triumph for Liberal Democrat internal communications people

Danny Alexander talking right now to Party Members

I have got to say, I think the party has been fantastic in the way it's been getting information out to members about the Budget.

I still wake up in a cold sweat at the memory of some of the horrendous e-mails that went out in the early days of the Coalition, but these days I'm having more and more confidence that when I see a party e-mail in my inbox, all stress toys within the vicinity will be safe and the information within it will be useful.

The Party has bent over backwards to make sure that we have the information we need when we need it. No, I'm not going to tell you all that they've done, but there has been a willingness on the part of some Very Important Bubble People to actually talk to scumbags and lowlife like me to explain the thinking behind some of the stuff.

What was really good was an e-mail dropping in to our inboxes just in time for people going out canvassing tonight with detailed information on the age related allowances as the "Granny Tax" is more appropriately called. The only thing it didn't have in it was to say that Labour had been freezing this allowance themselves for their last couple of years in office as Sara wrote on Liberal Democrat Voice, but it was probably all written by the time that post went up. And if our friendly bureaucrat had got his post out earlier, then they might have been able to include his conclusion that nobody is going to really lose out because those on higher incomes don't get the allowances, those on the lowest don't pay tax and those in between will have their losses more than made up by the additional state pension.

And I'm just about to log into a "webinar" with Danny Alexander - just me and 1000 Liberal Democrat members from around the country.

So, I'm feeling kind of snuggly and cuddled and appreciated by the party at the moment. I only wish they'd thought about this for the Health Bill or the Welfare Reform Bill - we might have spared ourselves some resignations. I'm really feeling that them inside the Bubble are getting what we need to know and bothering to give it to us.

I suggested back in January that the party take note of what was happening for Obama's State of the Union and it seems that they have taken note. They've done really well on this. They can maybe think about how to extend it to engaging with the general public. So far in this webinar, Danny Alexander hasn't said anything he couldn't say in public, so maybe at least bits of it could find their way onto You Tube?

So, a big thank you and promise of ice cream and/or alcohol to everybody who has been involved in this excellent effort.

Is Lib Dem HQ doing secret experiments on party members?

Bear with me. I know the headline comes out in green ink, but this is seriously not as irrational a question as it might sound.

I base my theory on a conversation with a friend of mine who was complaining bitterly about the over-long subject line on Tim Farron's e-mail yesterday. You know, the one about the tax cuts Nick Clegg wants for the lowest earners. (BTW, if you haven't signed the petition on this, please do so here).

"Over long subject line?" I said, "Are you having a laugh?" Because, you see, mine said "Sneak Preview." I discovered that hers had said "An extra £60 in your wages each month - preview our Party Political Broadcast". You kind of run out of breath before you get to the end of that.

Why would they do that unless it was some weird experiment as to how many people opened and clicked through on each different subject line? I'd be willing to bet my secret stash of chocolate and my new Paul McCartney album that it would be the short and snappy line that was more effective.

It would be rudimentary if they weren't keeping tabs on which style of e-mail worked. Mark Pack and I had a small difference of opinion on Simon Hughes' e-mail last week.  This week's from Tim rightly attracted a whole load of praise from Mark - and his seems to have had a third variation, "Sneak Peak". I wonder if he and I were just being geeky and obsessing too much, though, because the increases in signatures for the petition each week were pretty much identical.

I think we would all agree that there has been a huge improvement in the information sent to members since the dire early days of the Coalition. Helen Duffett has worked wonders in the year she's been Internal Communications Manager. I am fairly certain that nobody who works for a political party thinks they'll ever  reach the summit. Things are constantly changing and we are always having to think of new ways to up our game.

For me, the thing I want to see most is more effective rebuttal. I'm sick of untruths about the Coalition's actions becoming established truth because we haven't quickly enough got our side of the story out there. We've taken lots of hits on welfare reform and not all of them are deserved, for example. We need to give our members more effective material to use on the doorstep. It helps in confidence if you feel that you have something positive to say. They'll get there, I'm sure, but I just wish it was a bit quicker.

It all makes you wonder, though, what other experiments are HQ running on us?

The Divine Ms Duffett appointed as Lib Dems Communications Manager

One of the highlights of the last few weeks for me has been finding out that Liberal Democrat Voice's and London Region's Helen Duffett has been appointed as the Party's Internal Communications Manager.

This is probably the most sensible decision that the Party has made since the Coalition was formed. I don't know any party members who haven't groaned at the useless patronising guff that's been landing in our inboxes as news from key party figures. They would be almost fine if they were accompanied by things that we could actually use.

One example I can think of is on tuition fees. It wasn't until late on in the debate that Nick Clegg came out with the comparison that someone on £21000 would pay £74 less per month under our scheme than under the current system introduced by Labour. That figure should have been framing the debate from the start to all of us. We could have used it to show how Liberal Democrats might not have got what we wanted, but we showed where our hearts lie by securing a better deal for the poorest.

Helen really understands the Party. She's been an ordinary member, a candidate, a member of her Regional Executive, involved in SAOs and a blogger. She totally understands what we need to be hearing.

She also understands that proper communication is a two way process and that the party should have two ears and one gob/keyboard. She also knows how to keep what she says relevant and real.

The poor woman has already had one long e-mail from me whinging  setting out some constructive ideas for improving the information the Party sends out. I hope that it hasn't put her off.

I wish her all the best in her new role, for which she is ideally suited. I'm glad that she's also staying at Liberal Democrat Voice as it would have been very sad to lose her. The boys are great, but there are some things that they just don't get. This post, on why the obsession with leaders' wives was missing the point, is just such an example.

So, good luck, Helen. You're not going to be able to sort the whole party out on your own, but there's nobody better for this job, and I feel a lot more confident knowing that you're there.

Total Politics Top 100 Journalists Poll - Write-in campaign for women bloggers

I decided, seeing as my health seems to have taken a bit of a dive this last week, to have a quiet Saturday morning with Earl Grey and bacon sandwiches working through my online to-do list of blog posts to write and surveys to do.

The first of these was the Total Politics Top Political Journalists poll, which closes next Tuesday, 2nd November. My only worry was that I wasn't quite feeling charitable enough this morning to do a fair job of it. Actually, I gave much higher marks than I expected to. You have to give each individual journalist marks out of ten which is actually very satisfying, much more so than I'd anticipated.

I only gave one perfect 10, to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg because I think the quality of her work, particularly in the aftermath of the election, has been outstanding. She is the clear star of the year for me.

There was a question about bloggers, too. Do not underestimate the intensity of the tantrum I threw when I realised that only two women had been included on the whole page, and those were Kerry McCarthy and Nadine Dorries. There are four women in the Total Politics Top 50 blogs of 2010. Admittedly, Laurie Penny was rightly included as a journalist earlier in the survey, but there was no Charlotte Gore, or Anna Raccoon, who deserves recognition for her work, even though she has recently given up.

What about Lynne Featherstone, a well known blogger who has written for years as a campaigner, an MP and now a Government Minister actually making things happen? Leaving her off that list is And Jennie, who has been writing about this sort of thing for ages, and Sara, and the Divine Ms Duffett, Tracy Cheetham, Mary Honeyball, Claire French, Caroline Lucas MP,  Subrosa or Kezia Dugdale? Much as I love the Liberal Democrat Voice boys Mark Pack and Stephen Tall, I don't see why they have been included in the list and Sara Bedford and Helen Duffett haven't.

I've thought of a way that we could raise awareness of these and any other wonderful women bloggers you might read regularly while also enhancing the Total Politics survey.  What I'd suggest is that you complete the survey as normal. On the last but one page, there is a space to include anyone that they'd left out or forgotten. Use that space to add in as many good female bloggers as you can. Then encourage as many people as you can to also fill in the survey. That way, they become aware of more female bloggers, and their survey has more credibility because of increased participation. A win all round, I'd say.

Anything you can help to boost the signal of this post would also be appreciated.

Remember, the deadline is Tuesday, so let's get the word out quickly.

Helen Duffett chairs Presidential Hustings with Susan Kramer and Tim Farron

I have just had an e-mail from them at Lib Dem HQ alerting me to the fact that the online presidential hustings I mentioned the other day is now up on You Tube here.

Helen Duffett did a fabulous job, clear, assured and confident, of keeping the two candidates under control - although, to be fair, there was just high quality debate.

You already know that I'm supporting Tim Farron, and I'd recommend you read Sara Bedford's endorsement of him which she's posted today. 

Anyway, sit back with a cup of tea and a biscuit and enjoy the almost hour long hustings in full, where the candidates talk about how to maintain our distinctive message, grassroots campaigning, the AV referendum, tuition fees, diversity and keeping members onside.

Should obstetricians be trained in forceps deliveries to avoid Caesarian Sections?

Childbirth has been a feature of this week twice for me. Not personally, obviously, but there are a couple of things I wanted to share with you.

Firstly, I was taken by this report on the BBC today that apparently doctors need more training in forceps deliveries to avoid caesarians. Apparently there's not enough time for training due to the pesky Eurocrats, but it would be so much better if doctors could just yank babies out rather than put the mother through surgery. Frankly, if that was the choice available, I'd prefer taking the pain and the risk of the op rather than giving my baby a very sore head and possibly some injuries to welcome them to the world, but what do I know?

I know that there are times when heavy medical intervention in the childbirth process is necessary and it saves lives. However, I wonder if it wouldn't be better if there were more time given to learning traditional skills, like turning babies manually, or learning newer techniques like optimal foetal positioning. That sort of ante natal preparation, combined with a supportive environment to go through labour in, can avoid complications during birth.

On Monday, the Divine Helen Duffett popped up on Iain Dale's LBC show. Not, this time, representing Liberal Democrat Voice, but to talk of her experience of giving birth to her two youngest children at home. I don't like giving credit to Nadine Dorries, but in the spirit of being fair to everyone that I try to espouse on this blog, I have to say that she talked a lot of sense in encouraging this and saying that women should have the right to choose themselves whether they want a home birth.

There aren't very many men on this planet who can talk comfortably about childbirth, but I have to say Iain did well. I generally define doing well in those circumstances as not asking any really crass questions or pretending that you have a clue what it is like. Having said that, I'd have loved to have seen his face when Helen was describing the purchase of large plastic sheet from B & Q, which she later lent to a friend. A little bit of raised eyebrow did creep into his voice at that point, but he pulled it back.

Anyway, I found another aspect of what Helen was saying very interesting. She talked about how her first baby had had a fairly dramatic entrance into the world because he got stuck. The same situation occurred with her third baby, but the midwife attending to her at home suggested a simple manoeuvre (which probably wasn't that simple to perform in the circumstances, I grant you) which got the little one safely into the world without trauma. Helen pointed out that along with her being able to choose the birth she wanted, she'd also saved the NHS £4000 - an argument she thought would appeal to Mr Dale.

My own experience of giving birth (don't worry, I'm not going to get gory) went through 3 hospital shifts. At the start, I had to hide for an hour and a half from a doctor who was a bit over eager to get things moving. That was not a nice experience. Things improved with a midwife who had the time and knowledge to support me through the hard bits, a female doctor who saw something a little abnormal but didn't panic and a lovely companion who anticipated almost all of my needs and responded immediately to my barked out commands when he didn't.

It's easy for me to see how the actions of the health professionals actually led to me having the intervention free birth I wanted. There were a couple of critical points when they could have made some different choices. That would have led to an avoidable and ultimately unnecessary medicalisation of a process which was proceeding perfectly well on its own. I was very lucky to have that kind of care and I want to see that available to other women.

If we're going to be giving doctors more training in birth, then I think it has to encompass methods which encourage and promote a more natural approach. By all means teach them the skills that they need to use in an emergency to save a mother's or baby's life, but that's by no means the whole story of what they need to know.

Tim Farron's video presidential pitch

Blogging has been light and may well continue to be so over the next few days. This is purely because it's the school holidays and I'm having some Mummy and Anna time. I also seem to be having a lot of sneezing time this morning, much to my annoyance. I won't be able to avoid some comments on the Spending Review, and I'm thrilled that we've kicked the replacement of Trident into the long grass - a big Lib Dem win for the coalition - but I'll be quieter than usual.

However, just in time for the Presidential Election ballot papers to slip through the doors of Party members (and a particular hello to the thousands of you who have joined the Party since May and are doing this for the first time), that nice Tim Farron has produced this video to entertain you in my absence. It's all very nice and atmospheric with music and everything and I think it shows why we need him as President. I think he has, and will have, his finger firmly on the pulse of the Party, being accessible to members and he is exactly the type of no-nonsense bruiser we need to cut through the bile our opponents are throwing at us.



The Party's having an online hustings tonight at 7 pm, chaired by The Divine Ms Duffett from Liberal Democrat Voice. We'll be able to see it on You Tube later, but you can submit questions in the comments thread here by 5pm today.

The Divine Helen Duffett writes for the Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging

Not only is the multi-talented Helen Duffett  busy doing all she does for Liberal Democrat Voice, although I doubt dressing up as Count Packula in a fright wig is one of her roles, she has also written a chapter of  the forthcoming Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging. 

Her subject was Twitter. "Do Tweets win Seats?" she asked in an opening sentence that was exactly 140 characters long. Very clever.

I even get a mention in it as well, although I didn't in Stephen Tall's State of the Lib Dem Blogosphere,  I'm not bitter though as I was in some very good company - there are plenty other Lib Dem blogs written by women who weren't mentioned either, like Spiderplant, Rachel Olgeirsson, Virtually Naked, Singing my Song, Sara's Always win when you're singing, Ms Duffett herself and Lib Dem Child.  His article was very good, but could have been better with a bit more acknowledgement of the growing number of Lib Dem female bloggers. 

And while I'm on the subject, my copy of Iain Dale's Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging arrived today. I was muchly dischuffed to see that in 20 pages of the chapter Who's Who in political blogging, only 3 women were mentioned, none of them Liberal Democrats. I wouldn't get ideas above my station and think I should be in there, but what about Helen, Sara and Lynne Featherstone? Honestly! 

But going back to Helen's article, it is excellent and very well researched. She's talked to all sorts of people,journalists, bloggers and MPs and her conclusions are well worth a read.

Helen Duffett rocks on the radio

I am lying on the couch listening to Petrie Hosken's show on LBC. For a Scottish girl, I spend plenty time catching shows on London radio!

Tonight the Divine Ms Duffett was on with 2 MPs who were so bland and interchangeable that it was hard to tell them apart. Helen added her customary wit & originality to an hour which would otherwise have been very boring indeed.

Two things she said made me laugh. Firstly, she told one of the MPs off for his misuse of Twitter. He had been moaning about how his staff made him join Twitter & how he'd given up cos he was sick of the toilet tweets. Helen rightly told him that he wasn't doing it right.

The panel was discussing whether ministers should be allowed to tweet after William Hague used his Twitter feed to say very robustly that a big lie had been nailed.

Having read the tweet in question, I didn't see what the fuss was about. I decided to have a wee delve round his Twitter cos I've seen plenty tweets from him but none replying to other people. I don't like it when people tweet & don't engage.

Well, Hague certainly seems to have grasped the point of Twitter as last night his feed was full of cheery replies to people. Check it out here.. I'll put the link in later when I have the energy to get to the laptop. (now done)

My other favourite Duffett moment was when she gave a bit of radio publicity to the Facebook campaign for people to put Tony Blair's book into the crime section in bookshops.

I want to see her do a whole radio show with Iain Dale. Or the Come Dine With Me she said she'd like to be on. It would be brilliant fun as they both make me laugh!

If you missed the show, you may be able to download it here from the LBC website.


------------------

When Helen Duffett met Iain Dale

Why would a woman from Scotland spend a Monday evening listening to a local London radio station? And why would she consider making it a regular date? Every Monday at 8, LBC has a bloggers' panel. Last night it was chaired by the one Jennie refers to as the Egregious Tory Tosser who was sitting in for the regular presenter who was sick.

I hesitate to say anything nice about the King of the Tory Blogosphere, but he's unlikely to read this, nor is anyone who knows him and is likely to tell him, so I'm fairly safe, but actually, he's really good at this radio presenting lark. He's assured without being a prat about it, interesting, witty and very engaging. I was so interested that I actually kept listening until the end of the show at ten, when the subjects under discussion were the Greencoat Boy incident (of which more later) and Martin Amis' comment that only depressing books win prizes. It was quite funny to hear Iain suddenly remember that he'd chucked Martin Amis out of Politicos for smoking. I mean, who would smoke in a book shop? Nothing there could catch fire, could it?

The panel comprised Tory Bear, Alex Hilton and my reason for listening, my mate Helen Duffett. Not only did she have to engage in sparky debate for an hour, she also had me stalking her via Twitter. She mentioned the word elephant within the first 5 minutes, so I challenged her to get the first word I associate with elephants, Millennium in as well. And she did it, in the dying moments of the show.

The subects under discussion ranged from spending cuts, to William Hague's surprisingly friendly toned comments about Europe, to the election of the deputy speakers in the Commons.

I rather liked Helen's first major contribution to the debate (after a plug for the Lib Dem Blog of the Year Awards) in which she said that that it was people that mattered, not pounds. That sort of commitment to protect the vulnerable is what the Lib Dems bring to this coalition.

Another great moment for her came when an idiot phoned in saying that Child Benefit should be scrapped because it only encouraged people to have children. Helen stepped in and said that she had 4 children, and she certainly didn't do it for the money. Iain Dale very cheekily asked her why she'd had 4 children, like it was any of his or anybody else's business and she replied, quick as a flash, "to pay your pension, Iain." I relayed this exchange via Twitter, Iain Dale saw it and read it out on air.

He read out another tweet of mine on air a bit later, too, when discussing the Greencoat Boy. Now, I think that what happened to LGBT Labour, when they were effectively refused service on Saturday night, was absolutely appalling. The company who owns the pub does seem to have been falling over itself since then to make it up to them, to their credit, but it should never, ever have happened. On this issue, I am completely on LGBT Labour's side. However, I am still pretty darned livid at the way in which Labour tweeters through buckets of bile at David Laws last week when understanding would have been more appropriate. If it had been a Labour minister who had had the same circumstances, I would have backed him or her up. So, I tweeted that I wondered whether the LGBT Labour people would have more sympathy for David Laws having suffered such homophobia themselves. Iain put that to the chair of LGBT Labour, with the addition that I was making a political point - but certainly no more point scoring than Labour have been engaging in on this issue. I wasn't impressed with his answer, which said so little that I can't actually remember what it was.

All in all, this show was a good way to spend a Monday evening. I reckon Iain should get his own regular radio slot and it's always lovely to hear Helen. Whenever she's on the radio she always comes out with something pertinent in a memorable and original way.

Lib Dem Voice root out authoritarian MPs

If you do nothing else over the next few days, and you weren't actually there, listen to the podcast of the Lib Dem Voice fringe at Conference which you will find here..

It is brilliant. It has drama, it has rebellion and insubordination, it has humour. Daddy Alex's open defiance of Helen will delight as much as it shocks.

The point was to unveil their new website which enables you to determine how authoritarian any MP is based on their votes on a series of crucial votes on such things as control orders, detention without trial, ID cards, the DNA database and freedom of speech.

I found it interesting to compare two MPs elected in by-elections a few months apart, Liberal Democrat Willie Rennie, who got a meagre 3 out of 70 and my own MP, Jim Devine who got 56 out of 90.

I think this is a useful tool in determining which MPs are the most authoritarian if these issues are important to you, but, as Daddy Alex alluded to, these 10 votes are only an indication and there are many other issues which could be considered.

It does, however, come with a huge health warning as far as I am concerned. Iain Duncan Smith, one of the most socially reactionary politicians in the UK, comes out with a low 15 on this scale. This does not in any way mean he's actually a liberal. If you'd included votes on gay rights, such as gay adoption rights, for example, I expect that would bump up the scores of most of the Tories.

There was also a discussion on the Digital Economy Bill which to me is a fundamental issue of freedom and fairness and one in which we should be standing up for ordinary people and their right to access the internet. Mark explains the latest developments and how things will unfold tomorrow. This is the full text of the motion up for discussion. I wish I was in Birmingham to vote for it. Passing it is one of the most important things we can do this weekend. Daddy Alex likened it at the fringe meeting to Margaret Thatcher bringing in house arrest for home taping and suggested that even she might have balked at that.

I think the way that Bridget Fox and Julian Huppert have led the way on this shows that they would be fantastic MPs - and both of them have a very good chance of being in the House of Commons after the electoin. Let's hope they both get there.

Why I am not a happy bunny, Part 1

Tonight I should be here



watching him in this.

But I can't.

Because of this



I should be grateful though. I am warm. I am about to have lovely food, specifically a rather nice curry, in my tummy. I have a beautiful daughter and my husband is a saint.

And, I'm going to listen to her

on this.

Cagoules, Coat Hangers and Cake - A taster of the Bloggers' Unconference

I can only give you a quick taster of what happened at yesterday's Lib Dem Voice organised Lib Dem Bloggers' Unconference as I have to vacate the laptop as my long suffering husband wishes to harvest his crops on Facebook's Farm Town. The sooner we have more than one thing in this house that connects to the internet the better. His desktop monitor has gone and while I think his time might be better spent getting a new one rather than harvesting imaginary crops, I have to be nice and share.

Anyway, it was an awesome day. It was lovely to meet Helen Duffett and Alex Foster from Lib Dem Voice for the first time as well as the Godfather of the Lib Dem Blogosphere.

The event was well worth doing. We had 2 MPs, John Barrett, whose anecdotal and often amusing blog has been praised. He hinted that he will continue it when he steps down at the election and may even get into Twitter, too.

A jet lagged but still jovial Jo Swinson came more or less straight from the UN where she'd been chairing an inter Parliamentary debate on the global economic crisis. I'll write more about that in a separate post.

Alex Foster told us how to make podcasts and made a comment about how Lib Dem activists could download them onto their ipods and listen to them while delivering leaflets. That led to the comment from Lord Bonkers that that would be "the most fun you could have with your cagoule on." My notes are unclear about exactly what it was Alex told us you could make with a coat hanger and a pair of tights, though. Maybe someone else understood it better.

One of the other major highlights of the day was the chance to interview Tavish Scott. It was good to get to see him in a relatively informal and relaxed manner and he talked a lot of good sense. I have a whole 14 pages of notes from that to make sense of, so I bet it'll be tomorrow before I manage to write that up.

The best bit, obviously, was the marvellous cakes provided by the lovely Andrew. Lemon cake, chocolate truffly things, chocolate cake, little tray bakes. Yum.

The huge disappointment was not getting to meet Charlotte, who couldn't make it due to an unfortunate problem with her internal body clock. Maybe next time.

That's it for now - hope it's given you a bit of a taster of a fabulous day. Now, off to let my husband sort out his basil.