Johann Lamont's best line ever at FMQs - and it wasn't even accurate....

It's been a bit of a pandatastic week.

The Edinburgh Zoo pandas have been here for 18 months and have so far managed to avoid the First Minister. Until the other day. The way he pronounced on Tian Tian's medical condition like he knew it all was quite scary. If I were her, I'd have felt he was a bit impertinent, to be honest.



Then Willie Rennie reminded us all how Salmond had pandaed to China on human rights last year saying on Facebook:

The First Minister’s cuddle with the pandas reminds us that last year he was warned off meeting the Dalai Lama by the Chinese Government. Alex Salmond shamed Scotland by putting his narrow interest above human rights. I can only hope that he has reflected on his misjudgement then and won’t make the same mistake again

And today, Johann Lamont had the Holyrood Chamber in hysterics at First Minister's Questions when she came out with what must be her best line ever:

The First Minister’s campaign started with a day at the cinema. A year on, he is going to the zoo. In our hearts, all of us know that his campaign is going nowhere. Scotland has a lot of sympathy for the panda, Sweetie. We know what it is to reject the unwanted advances of a big beast with only one thing on its mind.

A good line, but not entirely true. Certainly, in what has become the Annual Panda Mating Standoff at Edinburgh Zoo, Sweetie was having none of the idea. In fact, she even growled at Sunshine.The zoo veterinary lot blinked first and artificially inseminated her. When we went to see the pandas last month, the keeper told us that after she had had the procedure, Sweetie was, shall we say, more than mildly interested. The keepers wouldn't let nature take its course by that stage, though.

Lamont returned to the pandas as she ended her FMQ section which, as usual, took way too long...

 Perhaps the real reason why he went to see the pandas at Edinburgh zoo this week was to find out first hand from Sunshine how to deal with rejection.

It's not like Salmomd to miss a trick, but if I'd have been him, I'd have pointed out that anyone on the Labour benches would be able to share more first hand experience of rejection, but never mind. It was a funny moment.

Sunshine and pandas. Is Summer really here at last?

So, I bunked off on Tuesday. I'd always half intended to, especially as it was a school holiday, and an opportunity to spend some time with Anna, but the fantastic weather meant that the laptop stayed firmly switched off and we headed off to the zoo.

Earlier, I'd woken with a start. Maybe it was the unfamiliar surroundings. I'm not used to waking in my parents' spare room, seeing as we live just a few minutes' away, but we are staying here with my wonderful niece Laura, who's down for her uni exams. Anyway, I woke up thinking I should have been in London the day before for Federal Executive. Once I'd hit the roof with horror, it slowly dawned on me that not even someone with Tim Farron's work ethic would summon us on a bank holiday the week after the elections.

It was lovely sitting outside on my parents' patio having breakfast. We don't get a lot of sunshine up here - and what little we've had this year has been accompanied by a goosebump inducing chill. This was real hot stuff, though. Anna and I decided to go to the zoo while Laura was sitting her exam. We hadn't been since last Summer so we hadn't seen the new penguin enclosure.

We were surprised to be offered panda viewing tickets for half an hour after we arrived. You normally have to book them online in advance, but there had been a cancellation, apparently. So, after checking in with the flamingoes - we both love their chilled out pinkness and when Anna was little I made up a series of stories about the adventures of one of them, Florence - we headed to the panda house. We weren't full of expectation - when we've seen them at lunchtime before, they've always been asleep. We've never had much from Yang Guang. He was sitting with his back to us the first time. The second he was asleep on his little trolley thing. He woke up, saw people there and turned over in a very grumpy manner reminiscent of the way I pull the duvet over my head in the morning, in futile denial of the need to get up. The third time he had his wee bout of man flu.

On Tuesday, though, he was very lively and the picture of charm. He ate his bamboo, he moved around and even went outside, where he treated us, if that's the appropriate word to a panda handstand. This is not as cute as you might think. Not when it involves him doing the toilet when he's in position.

Tian Tian was sleeping when she went in, totally starfished on her pile of bamboo, showing off the shaven patch on her abdomen from her recent artificial insemination. She then woke up and gave herself a rush of blood to the head by hanging off the platform.

The rest of the afternoon was spent with penguin watching and ice cream before we headed home. I hope we have more Summer to look forward to as it's clouded over and become a good deal colder since....

The Carmichael Twinterview - Pandas, policy and cake

Just before Christmas, Scottish Liberal Democrat members received a newsletter which contained a “Twinterview” with Chief Whip and Scottish Deputy Leader Alistair Carmichael. This is a chat he had with me – in which questions and answers had to be within 140 characters reproduced here for your amusement.

CL: You clearly enjoy social media despite the risk that it might get you into trouble some day. Why do you do it and what do you like about it?

AC: Despite? Because of the risk! Facebook allows me to stay in touch with party members & constituents and indulge my obsession with pandas

CL: Pandas?

AC: Go to Youtube and search “Never Say No To Panda”. It may not appeal to everyone but it makes me laugh. Humour helps me cope with stress.

CL: Congrats on your new role as Deputy Leader. Everyone does the job their way. What do you want to achieve?

AC: Supporting Willie Rennie in rebuilding the party, explaining what we achieve in government at Westminster and what we could do at Holyrood

CL: What’s your top tip for persuading people to join the Liberal Democrats?

AC: Be confident, positive and ask! Tell people what we’ve achieved. I am fed up with Lib Dems apologising 2 Labour 4 us cleaning up their mess.

CL: So what are these achievements that you want us to tell people about?

AC: More than I can put in 140 characters! Recommend you should read the pamphlet “What Have the Liberal Democrats Ever Done For Us?”

CL: Go on. Give me your top three!

AC: Income tax cuts for low and middle earners, largest ever increase in the state pension and ending child detention for immigration purposes

CL: Why do you think we are “Better Together” in the UK?

AC: Being in the UK allows us a voice in world affairs while maintaining the economic, cultural and family links we have built up over 300 years

CL: Why are Tories being allowed to stack the cards for Trident replacement? £350M for design work! (that was from Paul McGarry on Twitter).

AC: They are not! Stop believing what you read in the Guardian, Paul! The contracts announced recently were all part of the pre-maingate process

CL: Tip for the perfect Christmas cake?

AC: Bake it early, follow Delia’s recipe to the letter, soak it in brandy and involve your children in every stage – especially the decoration.

CL: And if you don’t have children?

AC: Just ask. You can borrow mine!

And as a little bonus, here’s the Panda video Alistair was talking about.

Danny Alexander compared to Lloyd George - in the Scotsman, for goodness' sake

High praise indeed for Danny Alexander in today's Scotsman, where David Maddox suggests that he should be the liberal hero of the 21st century as Lloyd George, architect of the People's Budget was for the 20th century.

Danny comes in for a lot of stick.Chief Secretaries to the Treasury spend their lives saying "no" to people. Given the financial bourach he had to clear up when he took office caused by chronic overspending by Labour in the good years. He's the guy who's had to not just say "no" to every Department, but he's had to tell them that they've had to make some fairly eye watering cuts.

Despite that, Maddox argues, Danny's done his bit for those at the lower end of the income scale:

Yet when history looks back at this coalition, which one of the two will emerge as the true hero of Liberalism? The answer will be Alexander. It seems that in tomorrow’s Budget he will have persuaded the Tories to take many millions people out of income tax altogether by accelerating the progression to a £10,000 threshold. Little will do more to encourage people to work rather than stay on benefits.

Amazingly, he will also have persuaded the Tories to go against their nature and pursue the rich by closing tax loopholes and avoidance schemes. And he will have played a role in bringing down the deficit, reducing the cost on future generations.

A quick look back to the 2010 Lib Dem election manifesto shows that these were the top priorities of the party, ones which make the tax system much fairer.

Not bad praise.

Where I take issue with Mr Maddox is on his berating of the Almighty Vince. He points out the relative popularity between the two and accuses Vince of privatising the Post Office, which he hasn't done. Surely stopping the closure programme and giving them more of a commercial future is a good thing as Stephen Tall wrote on Liberal Democrat Voice a few weeks ago. And we all know what a nightmare tuition fees was but the net result is that those students on the lowest incomes will see their payments cut by £74 a month.

Vince totally deserves the adoration of the party faithful, but we should give Danny more credit for doing a hellish job well.

And not, as some might wish to do, feed him to the pandas.

Danny Alexander: the cure for panda Colic?

In December, two lovely pandas, Tian Tian and Yang Guang, arrived from China to start a decade at Edinburgh Zoo. Yes, I know, dealing with the Chinese on this does make me feel a little queasy, but the animals themselves, bless them, are ultra cute. We've been to see them three times already.

They've had a few wee problems adjusting to the local bamboo and have both had to have some time off show because of colic. I will make no comment about Yang Guang taking 2 weeks to recover, while the female Tian Tian only had a weekend off.

Anyway, the Sensational Alex Salmond band (who just might have a particular agenda here), have suggested that a variation in diet might be in order........



Rumour has it that Danny Alexander himself thinks it's hilarious. Well, actually, it's more than rumour because he actually proudly referred to it in his remarks at the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference on Saturday night. He was on very good form the whole weekend, seemed very relaxed and proud to have the event in the heart of his constituency.

BBC misogyny is so 2011

You would expect, wouldn't you, that a public service broadcaster with a deserved reputation for quality as the BBC has, would be very careful to make sure that it didn't discriminate against any one group of people.

Unfortunately not. This year, the Corporation has fired off one insult after another at women and seems to be enjoying it.

The Corporation is more than happy to put together all or mostly male panels to discuss the issues of the day. Question Time is the biggest offender, but other current affairs programmes are as bad. How often have I watched Politics Scotland and not seen one female voice on it?

And what does it matter? Well, actually it does. Take, for example, the offensive and appalling way in which Chairman of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee Ian Davidson treated SNP MP Eilidh Whiteford. I'd say that the women across parties that I spoke to were almost all on Eilidh Whiteford's side, as I was. The boys, however, were allowed to brush it all off as inconsequential.

I wrote earlier this year about my complaint to the Corporation over the way its reporters spoke about Miriam Gonzalez Durantez during our Conference this year. More than three months on and after a follow up, no response has been received.

To add insult to injury, the shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the Year was 100% male, cos women just don't do sport do they?  I mean, I don't even know that much about sport and I managed to suggest a good few names. Our own Jo Swinson, along with some other MPs, protested and the BBC was sniffy in its response.  Apparently allowing a virtually all male cast of newspaper sports editors, along with lads' mags such as Nuts and Zoo is fine by them.

And then yesterday, not having learned anything, BBC Magazine publishes its faces of 2011 - the women. They couldn't even think of an actual woman for December, so they picked Edinburgh Zoo's new panda Tian Tian, or Sweetie. Now, heaven knows I love that panda. She is gorgeous and I'm looking forward to seeing her snuggly little face again next week. Her place in that list, though, is completely inappropriate. I accept the list is women who have made the news rather than achieved highly, but even so, being human should be a pre-requisite.

Why pick the panda when in December you could have had Mona Eltahawy, the fearless and feisty journalist who's been reporting on Egypt's troubles for much of the year. At the end of November, she was beaten and sexually assaulted by the security forces there, an experience she wrote movingly and angrily about in the Guardian.  The Times' Caitlin Moran, who recently won the Galaxy Book of the Year for her brilliant How to be a Woman,  could also have featured there.

In October, rather than pick a Spanish Duchess who got married, why not choose one of the Nobel Peace Prize winners, Tawakul Karman, who has put herself at great risk to champion the cause of women's rights in Yemen?

And why no mention for Elisabeth Sladen, the actress who played the character so many girls of my generation wanted to be: Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who?

You would also think that Angela Merkel would figure somewhere in that list. She is, after all, one of the key leaders in the Eurozone.

I was, however, pleased to see Gabrielle Giffords in the BBC's list. The Arizona Congresswoman's remarkable recovery after taking a bullet through the brain has been one of the most inspirational stories of the year. Sarah Burton, too, for designing Kate Middleton's wedding dress, showcased the Alexander MacQueen label to perfection and deserves her place.

But there's no place for either woman who wrote the stories behind two of the biggest films of the year, the final instalment of the Harry Potter series and Breaking Dawn Part 1.

Nor our excellent sporting champions like gymnast Tweddle, swimmer Rebecca Adlington or triathlete Chrissie Wellington.

But why does all this even matter anyway?

Sure, we have relatively decent rights for women in this country, but there are those who would limit maternity leave and employment protection given half a chance. We see from around the world what happens when we're not vigilant in advancing the feminist cause. Many of us were shocked to see Egyptian security forces viciously beat a female protestor the other week in footage. Well, that was nothing compared to what, according to yesterday's New York Times, they  had in store for some for other women.  It's pretty obvious that these women's rights were violated - but we need to get to the stage where the violations don't happen in the first place.

But that's Egypt, not even a democracy. Nothing to do with us. Let's have a look at the USA then. This is a place where women are arrested for murdering their babies if they miscarry.  And there seems to be even more pandering to the religious right than usual in the race to be the Republican Presidential candidate as Digby's Hullabaloo wrote yesterday. It made me feel a bit queasy to see a report in the Daily Fail about a young girl who chose not to have chemotherapy when she was pregnant and who died when her baby was a few days old. These are heartbreaking choices, but it worries me that women who make the other choice risk disapproval and public censure. The pressure on women in the Bible Belt of the USA in that circumstance must be immense and I wouldn't like to think that women were pressured into choosing certain death for themselves.

We need to be talking much more openly about things like the effect of the free availability of internet porn on the behaviour of young men and their expectations from a sexual relationship. The potential for the sexual and violent abuse of young girls is clear.

Many girls and women spend too much time obsessing over their size and shape because a misogynist, male dominated media implies that finding a life partner is all that matters, and you have no chance of doing that if you don't conform to what they say is beautiful.

It's about time women were given their rightful, equal place in BBC coverage. Their misogyny is so last year. Let's hope that 2012 is the year when they start to wake up to the realities of life.

A Pandatastic Afternoon at Edinburgh Zoo #pandas

I have been really grumpy these last few days - for lots of justifiable but thankfully minor reasons in the scheme of things. Today, however, is when excitement starts and will hopefully reign for the entire Festive Season.  I am not talking about the election of Johann Lamont as Labour leader - although good luck to her as she tries to get that lot in order. I still think Willie Rennie is by far the most effective leader who will continue his knack for catching the SNP napping - but then I would say that, wouldn't I.

The glittery delights of the Strictly Come Dancing final from the spiritual home of ballroom dancing, the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, provide this evening's entertainment. First though, we headed to Edinburgh Zoo to see their cuddly new arrivals, the Giant Pandas, for the first time.

Tian Tian (Sweetie) and Yang Guang (Sunshine) arrived from China to much fanfare 13 days ago. Since then, they've been settling in to their new home. Yang Guang showed off to the media on Monday and then they were open to members to go and see them from Tuesday until Thursday. We are members, but we decided to wait till today when we could all go together.

Although the zoo has been talking about little other than the pandas for months on end, when we arrived this afternoon, they were still putting up signposts. You can actually see the man's arm as he's putting it into position from his ladder:

The new zoo maps, with the pandas on, had only just arrived yesterday:

You can't just turn up and expect to see the pandas - you have to book at least the day before even if you are a member. The day is divided into 14 different time slots. There were around 80 people on our 3.15 tour. I was slightly irritated that we had to physically print out and bring a bit of paper with a barcode on it - we weren't allowed to show it on a smartphone or tablet, which seemed to be to be an appalling waste. Rather than scan the barcodes, they just collected boxes of paper. I hope they get the technology sorted soon.

 The pandas' new enclosure is situated in between the penguins and the monkeys. If it were me, I'd not be too chuffed at the noise the monkeys make - I'd be onto the City of Edinburgh's noise team. Nor would I be terribly impressed at being downwind of the penguins. Actually, much further down the hill, the definite aroma of fish lingered in the air. I just hope the bears like it, that's all I'm saying.

As we walked past the coffee house we were greeted by new posters:

and flags

and trees with low slung lanterns

Because the pandas were both in their indoor enclosures (which used to house gorillas, I think), the group was split into 3. It's worth turning up early for your time, or you could theoretically be standing there for 20 minutes.

Suddenly we were ushered in. Yang Guang, the male, was sitting with his back to us right next to the window we were looking through. He was chomping away on his bamboo and as far as we could tell, looked quite happy. He's been quite the little poser so far when it comes to the media pictures, but today he was nonchalantly munching. This is the best photo I could get of him.

In contrast, Tian Tian, the much smaller female, who's very shy in comparison, seemed quite happy to pose for us. Anna's taken some video which I'll post later. These photos aren't great. Much as I love my iPhone 3GS, the camera on it is not the best in the world. Bob has taken much better pictures on his camera and I'll post them when he's downloaded them.

Anyway, this is what I got of Tian Tian:

They are both incredibly cute and I hope that they bring lots of visitors to the zoo over the next decade. We did get a bit of a reminder of China's record on human rights when the zoo keeper was telling us about the plans to introduce pandas into the wild - how anyone setting traps or hunting them was put to death. That made me feel a bit guilty at the way these animals are conferred by the Chinese as a diplomatic bargaining tool.  If we don't engage with them, though,  they'll never change, and as Amnesty Scotland's new director Shabnum Mustapha said last week, raising the issue of human rights with China can help to reduce the repression.

I am sure we will be back to see them often. We didn't get quite long enough with them. Maybe that'll change at certain times of the year when the fuss has died down a bit. Having said that, it seems that all they do is sit and eat bamboo anyway, so 10 minutes watching that may soon be plenty.

Because we were so late, by the time we'd had a hot chocolate in the coffee shop, it was almost dark. I'd never been in the zoo in the dark before and it was quite spooky as we walked down.

We'd also never really been there at this time of year before, so we liked their Christmas decorations:

All in all, a very good way to chase away the malaise of the past few days.

Shabnum Mustapha urges Salmond to raise human rights in China

Shabnum Mustapha is a good friend of mine and she's recently started a new job as Director of Amnesty Scotland.

It was lovely to wake up this morning and hear her talking about human rights in China in the context of the pandas and the First Minister's visit to China. She made the point that it's really important for everyone who comes into contact with the Chinese Government to raise the issue of human rights. They may well gruffly brush off such approaches, but there is evidence to show that they do have an effect in reducing the amount of repression that actually takes place.

She talked about the recent deterioration of human rights in China, and described how people in civic society in China welcome the intervention of western governments on these issues and how they appreciate the support of governments and people across the world.  Shabnum said that these trade delegations and the arrival of the pandas are an important part of engagement with the rest of the world and that it gives the opportunity to raise concerns about executions and repression.

You can listen to the whole interview here from around 1:16:30.

Willie Rennie said something very similar the other day - that the arrival of the pandas at Edinburgh zoo wasn't just about the cute and cuddly but a real opportunity to engage with the Chinese Government over human rights. It's a huge opportunity and privilege to represent your country abroad and I think that our ministers, Scottish and UK, have a responsibility to push as hard as they can on human rights issues. It breaks my heart to think of families broken up just because one of their members believes in freedom and democracy, of  people executed after unfair trials, of not being able to say what you feel about the Government for fear of violent retribution. International pressure works to reduce repression and should be used at every possible opportunity.

Fairy lights for independence!

You've got to love the SNP. And I actually do, even if they annoy the hell out of me most of the time.

I have my passions in life. If you're a regular reader, you'll know that Strictly, F1 and Doctor Who occupy a significant proportion of my waking thoughts. On things that actually matter, children, housing, poverty, freedom, equal marriage and LGBT equality drive my political thinking.

Now, I know that an overwhelming support for independence is hardwired into the DNA of every SNP supporter. That's what you would expect. I do find it just faintly ridiculous, though, when they bring it into completely unrelated issues.

Take yesterday, for example, and the arrival of the pandas from China.Most of us went "awwww", some of us grumbled about human rights and pandering to the Chinese, but Angus MacNeil, SNP MP for the Western Isles, took it just a step further.

From what I gather about these cute and cuddly creatures, they can't even find the enthusiasm to procreate. As long as they have bamboo, they don't much care where they are. In fact, if they actually cared much about independence, they might have started with campaigning for a free Tibet.  Seriously, though, Mr MacNeil's tweet wasn't just a one off. When challenged, he just kept digging.

Oh dear.

Well, apart from anything else, the irony of this is that there's been a lot of leg work by the UK Government to get them here in the first place. I'm not sure whether an independent Scotland would quite figure at the same level within the international community as the UK of which it is currently a part, shall we say.

And so the #pandasforindependence banter continued.

If that had been an isolated incident of SNP people dragging unrelated things into independence, I might have let it pass, but there was the curious tale of Mo Bros for Independence in November. Now, I really hope they did well and raised bucketloads of cash for Prostate Cancer research and support but what on earth had their efforts to do with independence?

We all know that the SNP are trying to paint a picture of an independent Scotland where nothing bad ever happens just cos we're independent. Bunnikins will be fluffity, the sun will shine and chocolate will be plentiful, if you listen to them. The realities of day to day life are never discussed. Frankly, I prefer to have a bit of detail with my optimism. And detail is not the SNP's strong point.

So it made me wonder, what else could they link to independence?  Might they say that the soil would be more fertile in an independent Scotland so potatoes would grow better? Have a "Let's drink beer (at the minimum unit price) for independence?" campaign? When you decorate your home with fairy lights this Christmas, do it for independence, why not? The possibilities are endless.

Sometimes, the SNP just tries too hard to manoeuvre independence into every conversation. And before you all you lovely cybernats come back at me with the "£500 will secure an independence vote", just remember that the SNP is a million miles from proving that independence will make us better off. That poll shows primarily that people are concerned with the realities of their everyday life, not some mystical constitutional state.

Willie Rennie, Salmond and cute and cuddly?

My mind boggled when I first read what Willie Rennie had said. I know that a very few Liberal Democrats in the blogosphere have said that he's being too hard on the SNP, but when I saw the words Alex Salmond and cute and cuddly within the same few lines, I got a bit worried he was going too far in the other direction.

Actually, closer inspection revealed that it wasn't our First Minister he was talking about but the lovely pandas arriving in Edinburgh today from China. While getting a bit caught up in the excitement surrounding them, he sees their arrival as an opportunity to initiate discussions on human rights with the Chinese Government.

I was delighted to see him say these things. I wrote earlier in the year that there was something about "panda-ing to a cruel and brutal regime" I will go and see Tian Tian and Yang Guang - Anna would simply not have it any other and we do support the important conservation work that Edinburgh Zoo does but I'm not blind to the wider issues surrounding them, and nor will she be.

As the pandas fly westwards, Alex Salmond heads out to China for a week long visit to boost Scotland abroad.  Willie Rennie has asked him to raise the issue of human rights with the Chinese Government.

He said:

“There is understandable excitement about the pandas arriving from China this weekend.
 “But we must be careful to treat this as an opportunity to engage with Chinese authorities over human rights. “The pandas have caught the public’s imagination. Now is the time to put human rights front and centre of the political debate while people are listening.
 “Alex Salmond has been curiously silent over human rights issue. He must tell us what discussions he has had about human rights during his trip. “We must make this about more than the cuddly and cute.”

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.