Liberal Democrats stand up and are counted with Shirley Williams and Evan Harris on NHS #ldconf

I've written many times about how Shirley Williams is my political hero. In fact, we probably don't need the political in there. I have so much respect for the contribution she's made not just in this country, but internationally.  


I still have going round in my head a speech she made nearly 30 years ago, where she talked about how, sometimes, in order to advance your beliefs, you have to scale unscaleable heights. That was in the context of putting herself forward as Alliance candidate for the Crosby by-election. It's so true, and although I'm not anywhere near as good a mountaineer as Shirley, that philosophy has never left me.


Over six decades, Shirley has helped shape our nation's future. And she hasn't stopped yet. Today, in the debate on the NHS at Party Conference, she argued passionately against the worst of planned Coalition reforms.


Twitter was full of the persuasiveness and excellence of her speech was was extremely well received in the hall. I'm not at Conference, and I am, frankly, disgusted at the lack of coverage. I asked on Twitter if there were copies of her speech available. Chris Mills was sitting near her, so he went and asked for. Apparently there is no copy, because it was delivered off the cuff, from a few notes. She let him take photos of her notes on the understanding that they would be published and he very kindly sent them to Spidey and I so we could share them too.


He didn't have to do that - he could have just kept them to himself and published them when he got home so I really appreciate that. I'm also very grateful to Shirley for sharing something so personal. They show how clearly her mind works. My notes would have scribblings out everywhere and would be a complete and utter mess, and I would never be able to transform them into a coherent speech.


Here they are:

Her main points were concerns about the lack of accountability of the new GP consortia and the fact that the private sector would cherry pick the most profitable work and would have no interest in treating patients in the most need. Her speech was greeted with rapturous applause. I admire the way she's opposed Coalition policy on this in such a constructive way. She's made it clear that she supports the Coalition and respects the work of our ministers, but that this NHS re-organisation was not mentioned in the Coalition Agreement and our Parliamentarians should not consider themselves bound to support it. Sounds fair enough to me.


The amended motion passed, which I will reproduce below with all the amendments in the right place, unlike the Lib Dem website which has them all published separately, calls on Liberal Democrats in Parliament - Lords and Commons, to make a stack of amendments which would improve the Health Bill and protect patients from the greatest risks of private sector involvement. 


The movers of the motion knew that they had no chance of winning the vote and decided, sensibly, to go for the conciliatory approach and accept both amendments. The proof of the pudding, of course, is yet to come. Conference is in no mood to see this motion quietly filed away and forgotten about and will be expecting our ministers to take clear and measurable action to improve this bill. They will not get away with anything less and we will expect the Federal Executive and Policy Committees to proactively make sure that Conference's wishes are carried out.


Here is the motion in full:

Conference believes that the NHS is an integral part of a liberal society, reflecting the social solidarity of shared access to collective healthcare, and

a shared responsibility to use resources effectively to deliver better health.

Conference welcomes much of our Coalition Government's commitment to the founding principles of the NHS: available to all, free at the point of use, and based on need, not the ability to pay.

Conference welcomes the vision for the NHS set out in the Government's White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS, which commits the Government to an NHS that:

i) Is genuinely centred on patients and carers.

ii) Achieves quality and outcomes that are among the best in the world.

iii) Refuses to tolerate unsafe and substandard care.

iv) Puts clinicians in the driving seat and sets hospitals and providers free to innovate, with stronger incentives to adopt best practice.

v) Is more transparent, with clearer accountabilities for quality and results.

vi) Is more efficient and dynamic, with a radically smaller national, regional and local bureaucracy.

vii) Gives citizens a greater say in how the NHS is run.

Conference particularly welcomes the proposals to introduce real democratic legitimacy and local accountability into the NHS for the first time in almost forty years by:

a) Extending the powers of local authorities to enable effective scrutiny of any provider of any taxpayer-funded health services.

b) Giving local authorities the role of leading on improving the strategic coordination of commissioning across the NHS, social care, and related childrens' and public health services through councillor-led Health and Wellbeing Boards.

c) Creating Health Watch to act as a local consumer champion for patients and to ensure that local patients are heard on a national level.

d) Returning public health duty to local government by ensuring that the majority of public health services will now be commissioned by local authorities from their ring-fenced public health budget.

Conference recognises however that all of the above policies and aspirations can be achieved
without adopting the damaging and unjustified market-based approach that is proposed.

Conference regrets that some of the proposed reforms have never been Liberal Democrat policy,
did not feature in our manifesto or in the agreed Coalition Programme, which instead called for an
end to large-scale top-down reorganisations.

Conference therefore calls on Liberal Democrats in Parliament to amend the Health Bill to provide
for:

I)              More democratically accountable commissioning.
II) A much greater degree of co-terminosity between local authorities and commissioning areas.
III) No decision about the spending of NHS funds to be made in private and without proper
consultation, as can take place by the proposed GP consortia.
IV) The complete ruling out of any competition based on price to prevent loss-leading corporate
providers under-cutting NHS tariffs, and to ensure that healthcare providers ‘compete’ on
quality of care.
V) New private providers to be allowed only where there is no risk of ‘cherry-picking’ which
would destabilise or undermine the existing NHS service relied upon for emergencies and
complex cases, and where the needs of equity, research and training are met.
VI) NHS commissioning being retained as a public function in full compliance with the Human
Rights Act and Freedom of Information laws, using the skills and experience of existing NHS
staff rather than the sub-contracting of commissioning to private companies.
VII) The continued separation of the commissioning and provision of services to prevent conflicts
of interests.
VIII) An NHS, responsive to patients’ needs, based on co-operation rather than competition, and
which promotes quality and equity not the market.

Conferences calls on:

1. The Government to uphold the NHS Constitution and publish an audit of how well organisations are living by its letter and spirit.

2. Liberal Democrats in local government to establish local Health and Wellbeing Boards and make progress developing the new collaborative ways of working necessary to provide joined-up services that are personalised and local.

3.  The government to seize fully the opportunity to reverse the scandalous lack of accountability
of publicly-funded local health services which has grown up under decades of Conservative
and Labour governments, by:

a)  ensuring full scrutiny, including the power to require attendance, by elected local
authorities of all organisations in the local health economy funded by public money,
including Foundation Trusts and any external support for commissioning consortia;
ensuring that all such organisations are subject to Freedom of Information requirements.
b)  ensuring Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) are a strong voice for accountable local
people in setting the strategic direction for and co-ordinating provision of health and
social care services locally by containing substantial representation from elected local
councillors; and by requiring GP Commissioning Boards to construct their Annual Plans
in conjunction with the HWBs; to monitor their implementation at meetings with the HWBs not less than once each quarter; and to review the implementation of the AnnualvPlan with the HWBs at the end of the year prior to the construction of the Annual Plan forvthe forthcoming year.
c)  Ensuring commissioning of health services has some degree of accountability by
requiring about half of the members of the board of commissioning consortia, alongside GPs, to be local councillors appointed as non-executive directors.
d)  Offering additional freedoms only to Foundation Trusts that successfully engage substantial proportions of their local populations as active members.

Friday Fun: Who's the man with the big head and the big eyes?

I've just been to the supermarket. Not, you understand, primarily to get urgent supplies for the human beings in the house (although I confess, I did pick up a loaf of bread), but to get cabbage and sprouts for the rabbits so their routine will be blissfully undisturbed first thing in the morning. Talk about spoiled!

Anyway, I met one of Anna's school pals and her mother. We were chatting away and I said that this was really the last quiet weekend I'd have before the election kicked off. Anna's friend asked what election it was, and whether it had the "man with the big head and the big eyes" in it.

I got it right first time, but do you want to try and guess the name of the politician she was talking about. It just made me laugh that this was the abiding impression he'd made on the next generation.

Politicians show their good side at Breakthrough Breast Cancer debate

On Wednesday evening, Breakthrough Breast Cancer held a pre-election hustings on Women's Health in a Recession at the Scottish Storytelling Theatre in Edinburgh. Six politicians gathered to discuss issues from cancer treatment and detection to increasing breastfeeding rates. The photo shows the panel, from left to right:

Jackie Baillie (Labour), Ross Finnie (Liberal Democrat), Alison Johnstone (Greens), Audrey Birt, Director Breakthrough, Nicola Sturgeon (SNP), Nanette Milne (Conservative) and Margo MacDonald (Independent).

Beforehand, we'd chatted over coffee outside. I was blethering with Ross Finnie. He'd spent the whole weekend at Conference darkly warning that if he made any pledges that cost money, Jeremy Purvis would appear in a puff of smoke and tell him off. I told Ross that I was there as Jeremy's spy and would tell on him. You could tell he was petrified at the thought. Nicola Sturgeon then appeared and Ross introduced us. She said "Ah, are you Twitter Caron?".  We had a very enjoyable chat about Twitter. She said she really enjoys it - and you can actually tell. She's one of those politicians that get it's about a conversation not a broadcast. Later on, she said it was quite disconcerting to be answering a question in someone who was tweeting the answer as she said it. I guess someone is taking down her every word as she utters it in the Parliament, though, so it's not so different.

An amusing aside was that so many people, including Nicola and Jackie Baillie, had trouble getting hot water out of the flasks. I'd taken the coward's way out and gone for the coffee, which was much easier to operate.

We were told the Twitter hashtag at the start of the meeting, which made me think that there would be lots of people voraciously tweeting. When I checked out our little corner of the Twitterverse later, I discovered, to my slight embarrassment, that it was in fact just me. Twitter works best when there's more than one perspective on it and with the best will in the world, there's no way I could capture everything, and you tend to hear things that you are interested in more clearly. However, out of 34 tweets, only 2 of them could be construed in any way as party political and I did try to capture the best of everybody.

With just an hour, and six panellists, there was only time for 3 questions, which were discussed in some depth. First, though, each gave a 90 second summary of how their policies would impact on women's health in a recession

Jackie talked about the need for flexible childcare and a living wage, along with a 2 week cancer guarantee treatment time and the need for preventing rather than curing.

Ross spoke of need for early diagnosis and treatment and, not surprisingly for a Liberal Democrat, emphasised the need for services in the community, as close to people as possible.  He also spoke out opposing what had been said by the Scottish Breast Cancer Campaign, reported here in the Herald, about the breast screening programme. The SBCC thinks that women who don't necessarily need treatment are offered it when pre-cancerous cells, which may not necessarily develop into active disease, are detected in routine mammograms. Ross said that he could not countenance any diminution of the screening. There was a slight frisson of controversy when the SBCC Director later asked a question although she made it clear that that wasn't the time and place to have that discussion, but she'd be happy to talk to Ross at a different time. Maybe the untimely deaths of two close family members to this disease has coloured my opinion, but I just wonder if earlier diagnosis and treatment might have meant that Anna would still have a paternal grandmother and aunt to enrich her life. I lean towards Ross on this one.

Alison talked about the need for a holistic approach to health and in particular greater understanding of the environmental impact of chemicals we use in our daily lives as a matter of routine.

Nicola said that the SNP would protect the NHS budget, and would introduce a living wage and spoke of the need for much more to be done on lifestyle issues, particularly alcohol. I thought there might have been a bit more of a discussion on minimum pricing later on, but it wasn't mentioned again.

Nanette said the Tories would implement greater screening for those aged 40-74, £20 million for more health visitors and a Cancer Drugs fund.

Margo said she tended to agree with Alison's holistic approach and, although I can't remember the exact context, said Ross Finnie was a sweetie. He blushed.

As Jackie and Nicola both mentioned the living wage, it's worth adding in here that the raising of the tax threshold for those on low and middle incomes does much the same thing - and that will hopefully get to £10,000 by the end of the Parliament. That is a real achievement of the Liberal Democrats in the Westminster Government and it also applies to everyone, including pensioners, not just public sector workers.

The first real question was around how do we make sure that women look after their own health during austere times when they are more likely to be stretched looking after everyone else and probably suffering most from the effects of poverty. Everyone agreed about the need to make sure more women went for screening, picking up more Cancers and saving lives. Nicola said that getting treatment quickly was important, but that too many people are diagnosed too late to have any sort of a cure, so getting people educated about signs to watch out for, tailoring the message to different audiences, was really important.

The only real disagreement on the panellists was on the question of the idea of a Cancer Drugs Fund. The Tories were well in favour, saying that it was wrong to do things differently from the rest of the UK. Ross Finnie for the Liberal Democrats was equally adamantly opposed, saying that it was intellectually incoherent to undermine the Scottish Medicines Consortium. He said that if things needed changing, then the way to do it was to change the SMC's operating criteria. The others were various shades of maybe - Nicola talked
about the possibility of exceptional prescribing, and also said the issue raised ethical questions the bitggest of which was why just Cancer drugs? She said her postbag contained requests for Alzheimers drugs among other conditions & that more people were cured by methods other than drugs. Jackie Baillie said that she felt that the Jury was still out, as did Alison Johnstone. Margo was quite stark and realistic - saying that when resources were limited, we had to make hard choices about our priorities and that can be quite difficult to face up to.

Then it was my turn to ask a question. Regular readers here will know my interest in breastfeeding as a former breastfeeding counsellor. When I start to talk on this subject, donkeys across the land fear for their hind legs. I asked simply "What's your big idea to improve breastfeeding rates?" I will write a longer post analysing their replies and adding a few of my own ideas, but I'll just say here that I was impressed with the different perspectives each brought to the debate. Margo was down to earth and hilarious, talking about how she was something of a novelty in her Lanarkshire maternity hospital, being one of the rare breastfeeding mums and was often seen by visitors with nursing baby in one hand and cigarette in the other. Nanette spoke of difficulties arising because of mums being discharged from hospital mostly just hours after giving birth. Nicola talked about cultural barriers, and how important it was to make sure that people didn't feel lectured at or guilty for the choices they made. For Alison the key was better information and support, a point taken further by Jackie who spoke of the value of ordinary women supporting other ordinary women, without medicalising it, without uniforms. Ross, as the only man on the panel, spoke of the barriers put in the way by men and the need to tackle them. Both Jackie and Ross paid tribute to Elaine Smith who introduced the law which protects women who want to feed their babies in public places.  I remember it taking quite some doing to get the Government to support the Bill when it was brought in, and I'm glad everyone's now singing from the same hymn sheet.

There was then the opportunity for the audience to make some brief points before closing statements. Many people talked about lymphoedema. Margo talked about the importance of teaching massage techniques to carers and people who have the condition and Alison, who is an athletics coach said there were sports massage techniques which could help. Jackie said that when times were tough, people expected politicians to work together. If the panel can just get that through to Iain Gray and Alex Salmond, that'd be fabulous.

And look who I caught up with for a photo.

You don't often come out of a political debate in the run up to an election feeling all warm and fuzzy, that you've learned something and that the politicians are all totally engaged and interested, but this was an exception. Of course there are some major caveats - if they can't behave themselves at a cancer charity hustings, there really is no hope. I'm also sure that the fact that there were so many women, not just in the panel but in the room, had something to do with the civilised atmosphere. And most importantly, there was an unusually high level of consensus because there was no discussion of the really controversial issues. Free prescriptions weren't even mentioned, for example. However, all of the politicians came across extremely well, and Breakthrough's key messages were well discussed. A win win for everyone, I'd say.

You can judge for yourself with this short video Breakthrough have put up on their Facebook page.

Update on protesters refusing to meet Mike Moore and Danny Alexander at Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference

Earlier this week I wrote of my frustration that some protesters at our Conference in Perth had turned downt the chance of half an hour with two Cabinet ministers.

Some people said in the comments that the Party had only invited the STUC and disabled people had not been invited. This I thought, to be honest, to be unlikely, but I did a bit of digging. So, I warmly invite you to head over to my Whistlestop Tour of Scottish Conference on Liberal Democrat Voice to find out what I discovered.

It is at least good that Mike and Danny did manage to meet and talk to some people.

In there you will also find out about John Prescott's fish, the awesome Liberal Youth Scotland arguing competition and all sorts of other snippets.

Liberal Democrats gather in Sheffield - and ministers get out and about

I am feeling slightly sorry for myself at the moment - I'm currently about 350 miles from where I want to be. Our family budget won't stand two weekends away on the trot, but I'd really love to be amongst the hordes of Liberal Democrats gathering in Sheffield for Spring Conference today.

I think what's really good is that it's not just a question of turning up in Sheffield and hiding out in a Conference Centre. Nick's keen for people to see the city he represents in Parliament, so our ministers, and Party President Tim Farron are going to be out and about making visits in the city. Nick himself is out and about visiting a local football team. He's doing a town hall meeting with young people. He's opening a brand new post office amongst routine events like his constituency surgery.

Everyone's very well aware that times are tough - but the Party arrives in Sheffield with its head held high and at ease with itself. Yes, there are going to be a couple of robust debates over the weekend, but it wouldn't be a Liberal Democrat Conference without that. Three years ago, it was Trident that was causing the controversy. There is a motion on health on Saturday which is bound to attract some attention. When the spotlight is on us, though, we usually rise to the occasion and deliver a really high quality debate. I've just had a look on the BBC Parliament schedule, and see that there is no planned coverage, much to my annoyance. I have managed to be one of the most popular users of the ldconf hashtag on Twitter for the last 2 conferences, despite not being there but I doubt I'll manage it this time.

Not only are ministers heading off round Sheffield, but they won't be hiding in penthouse suites in the Conference hotel, out of the reach of ordinary members. I expect they'll be out and about in the bars, as Mike Moore and Danny Alexander were at Scottish Conference last weekend. They'll also be doing surgeries with Conference reps - not the big set piece staged events, but more intimate events that encourage dialogue.

Last weekend's Scottish event certainly energised the Party up here as we had the chance to look at what we'd managed to achieve in Government, from taking nearly 90,000 Scots out of income tax altogether come April, to ending child detention for immigration, to abolishing ID cards, to giving what Nick Clegg called the greatest giveaway of fiscal powers since the Act of Union.

Reps in Sheffield will all receive a little card with their registration packs which has 5 key achievements we have brought to this Government:

• Cleaning up Labour's debt so our children don't pay it
• A £200 income tax cut for people on middle and low incomes
• A £4.50 a week increase in the state pension
• An extra £2.5 billion to help our children in school
•  £10 billion extra bank tax - to make them pay their share

That barely scratches the surface of what we've actually achieved over the last 10 months, but it's not a bad start.

Can I put a plea out to all of you in Sheffield - do let me know whatever scandal, gossip and rumour, especially if it pertains to anyone in the Scottish Party you happen to come across so I don't feel too left out and I can tease them mercilessly when they return.

If you're looking for more detail on what the party will be up to this weekend, the agenda is available here.

Cameron should stop bashing Ed for standing against his brother

I am getting utterly fed up of tuning into PMQs and hearing David Cameron take Ed Miliband apart at the flimsiest of excuses for standing against his brother in the Labour leadership election.

Today, Ed had a go at William Hague, and Cameron retorted with a cheap gag about how Ed clearly liked knifing foreign secretaries - look what he'd done to the last one. Ed came back with a line about Cameron's fascination with his relatives, and he was sure he'd bring up something about his second cousin in Belgium next. I'm sure Tory Central Office is stalking this person as I write.

I have to say that was the high point for Ed at PMQs today - Cameron utterly wiped the floor with him as he complained about falling police numbers. Not the thing to do when your previous Home Secretary was on record as saying cuts would have to be made.

I am no Ed Miliband fan, believe me. I think he's a complete and utter hypocrite who's trying to rewrite history. However, I do think that he had every right to stand in the contest, and to win. Why should his older brother have any greater claim to the job?

Cameron's taunts make it sound that he believes your background should in some circumstances hold you back - exactly the opposite of what this Government is trying to do. I've had enough of this kind of nonsense and he should stop it.

Caron's International Women's Day Corkers

Today is the 100th  International Women's Day and it's been covered extensively online. Here are a few of my favourites.

Kayleigh, one of the fabulous F1 crowd I hang around with on Twitter, shares her thoughts as a woman working as an engineer in F1.

Lily Greenan is 100% spot on when she writes for Better Nation about domestic violence and the need to have a proper conversation about men behaving badly.

Carolyn has bad news for those of us hoping to see more women in Holyrood after the election - and although current figures look not so bad for the Liberal Democrats, our track record to date is nothing to be proud of, so we should be way ahead of where we are.

Joan McAlpine writes about women's leadership roles in the revolution in Egypt.

Julianne Hensby shares the horrific news that 3564 babies die needlessly every day and argues for progress towards the Millennium Goals around child mortality and maternal health.

I had an e-mail from the Godmothers saying that the Government has still to decide on its contribution to the new UN Women's Agency and asking me to change my Facebook status to:

Proud to be a Godmother to 'UN Women' on International Women's Day. Please join me and give women everywhere a chance - www.thegodmothers.org.uk

And finally, everyone else has put this up. And so they should, cos it's brilliant. It is worth watching to see Daniel Craig in drag.

Flippin' Eck - ways of celebrating Pancake Day

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

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

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

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

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

Tavish Scott's 30 day business boosting plan

It probably shouldn't take me two posts to write about one leader's speech to conference, but I thought that this part was so important that it deserved its own star billing.

The election takes place on 5th May. By my daughter's birthday on 5th June, this is what Tavish expects that ministers in a Liberal Democrat government will have started to do.

1.    Reform to the support we give to enterprise, to set up the development banks, to get money to thousands of small businesses who have been let down by their banks.

2.    A stronger role for local colleges to deliver skills, training and investment shaped around the needs of the area.

3.    A reform bill to allow local companies access to a fair share of government contracts;

4.    Change to regulation to free up business to grow and create jobs. That’s worth ten thousand new jobs. So that’s what we’ll do.

5.    Build the digital, transport and language links we need for a new target on exports;

6.    A renewed commitment to renewable energy to capture the prize for Scotland and the jobs that come with it.

7.    We will give local communities and councils a real incentive to support business in their areas by letting them keep the extra rates that come from growth.

8.    We will examine the potential for business rate holidays for the tourism industry aimed at keeping Scotland open all year round. We’ll keep the small business bonus and look to extend it to help other businesses too.

9.    And we will guarantee that all businesses get rates relief whenever the national government signs off a tax hike. Never again will a hotel in Argyll or a restaurant in Peebles face a rates increase of 120 per cent – as they had to under the SNP.

I'm exhausted just reading that list, but it certainly seems like a fairly comprehensive plan to boost economic growth and create the secure, skilled jobs that Scottish people need. No doubt the manifesto will have more of the detail of how that will be achieved, but those 9 points show the areas where a Liberal Democrat government would seek to boost business and create jobs - and they are a lot more holistic than anything suggested by the other parties.

Talking of them, Tavish spoke of his willingness to work with other parties to get this plan into action after the election:

Whatever happens on the fifth of May, Scotland needs action on jobs. So I will work with others on our 30-day plan. I ask that the other parties commit to action with us on Scottish jobs. Scotland needs the best of what we can all offer.

To put party politics before the needs of our people in these times isn’t right and we just won’t do it.  

If we are going to create jobs, we need to make sure that we can have a suitably skilled workforce to do them. Tavish spoke at length about education. Giving kids high quality education that challenges and inspires them and squeezes every ounce of potential out of them is something he's always wanted to achieve. He talked about freeing up teachers from bureaucracy and interference from the centre, and giving them the chance to be inventive and innovative. And he was also prepared to look beyond the traditional school model to ensure that kids had other options which may suit them better:

Jim McColl has asked ten schools on Glasgow’s south side to offer 14 year old boys and girls a new beginning in a new college. A whole new kind of education. It will be very practical, inspirationally led, focused on vocational and technical skills. With the motivation of a job at the end for those who stick it.

Clyde Blowers, BAE and other major companies will invest. It’s a win win. It gives kids with little to look forward to, hope. And it gives employers needing people ready for work, people who can. That’s an approach of innovation and initiative all of Scotland could do with, and with the Liberal Democrats it will happen. 

It seems to me that it's about providing an education that suits the child rather than a suffocating bureaucracy. It's about recognising that kids are individuals and not an amorphous blob. A one size fits all approach fails too many of our kids.

I feel the Scottish Liberal Democrats are approaching this election with a much stronger, value driven programme than we did four years ago.  Tavish and the team have developed a thoughtful, innovative, honest programme that's rooted in our cherished values. It's a programme that gives power away from the Scottish Government and towards local people, that champions quality education and looks to the long term. I'm bound to find something to grumble about somewhere - and if equal marriage isn't in our manifesto, I'll be grumbling loud - but I was impressed not just with the ideas that came out of Tavish's speech and the Conference but with the narrative that linked them together.

No, Scottish Liberal Democrats aren't for handing out heroin like sweeties - the truth behind the lurid headlines

RTFQ

That was my mantra before sitting an exam. Read the Flippin' Question*. Making sure you understand what you're being asked is fundamental. Otherwise, you can go off on one, write pages and then realise that you are not really giving the examiner what they want. Take it from one who knows.

RTFQ has a twin, RTFM, applicable to journalists in particular. It stands for Read the Flippin' Motion* before you write a headline which completely misrepresents what the Scottish Liberal Democrat (or any other but I only really care about ours) Conference has voted for.

"Lib Dems back move to give addicts NHS heroin" screamed the Sunday Herald. The Express was even worse. "Lib Dems want heroin given out free on the NHS" Really? To everybody? In schools? At sweetie counters? Whether they like it or not? Whatever, you might be forgiven for thinking, if you'd read those headlines, that you could just go along to your local pharmacy and pick up some controlled drugs along with your Rennies and your support stockings.

That's not the case, though. Let me tell you exactly what the motion passed on Saturday says:

"Conference further calls for increased investment in schemes like the Persistent Offenders Project and for specialised diamorphine maintenance clinics to be made available as an extra option facilitating intervention in the lives of the most vulnerable and most disruptive heroin users."

So, not really very many people at all, and only as an extra tool as a last resort.

This part was an amendment Glasgow South local party had tabled to a motion from the awesome Liberal Youth Scotland, who were calling for greater use of community service and drug treatment orders as opposed to fines for drug possession. This is the whole of their motion:

Conference notes that in 2008-09, across Scotland, 2296 people received a fine for
possession of drugs, compared to 78 who received a Community Service Order
(CSO) and 62 who received a Drug Treatment and Testing Order (DTTO).

Conference also notes that the Central, Fife, Northern and Grampian police force
areas only handed down one DTTO each in this year for drug possession

Conference believes that CSOs and DTTOs are far more effective in dealing with the
root causes of drug offences.

Conference also believes that fines carry a significant risk that the offender may turn
to further crime in order to pay the fine.

Conference therefore calls on the Scottish Government to ask the new Scottish
Sentencing Council to review sentencing in drug possession cases, with a view to
ensuring the maximum effective use of DTTOs and CSOs.

Conference also calls on any such review to take account of the risk of further crime
from handing out fines for drug possession.

Callum Leslie proposed the motion on behalf of Liberal Youth Scotland and explained why he thought it and the amendment were so important in tackling crime. I'm going to reproduce his speech in full (with his permission) so that you can see the whole of his argument.

Conference, Scotland has a drug problem. There's no point beating about the bush. We have a problem, and what we are doing at the moment isn't working. A quarter of adults admit taking one or more illicit drug in their lifetime, and the number of people taking drugs is not falling, despite our best efforts.
 We need to look again at the way we do things. We need to think different. It's no longer good enough to make strong statements, and be seen as being “tough on crime”, we need to put in place the practical solutions that can start to really address this problem. The case for community service almost does not need to be made. It is a long held Liberal Democrat belief that meaningful community payback is in many cases the most effective treatment. Why is it then that just 78 people received a Community Service Order for drug possession in 2008/09?
 Conference it seems utterly outrageous to me that 2296 fines were handed down for drug possession in the period. The Scottish Government's own report into evidence based drug sentencing recommended that we needed to “Improve our understanding of the benefits and costs of long-term prescribing and how to generate recovery communities within maintenance treatment services,” and this huge amount of fines does nothing to achieve this aim.
 The impact of a fine is, in general, minimal, and will not have any effect on re-offending. That is in fact almost a best case scenario. At worst, these fines will lead to further acquisitive crime from the offender to pay them, and potentially lead minor offenders only picked up for drug possession at first to a life of much more serious crime. Now, I know what some might say – fines don't cost anything, CSOs and DTTOs cost too much. I would say this, fines may not cost anything for the Government to collect on the face of it, but by not addressing the real problem and using those methods which reform and rehabilitate the offender, we are leaving ourselves open to having to spend much more money later on sending these people to prison – these methods do save money in the long run. It could be said that DTTOs are too expensive and their effectiveness has been called into question, however I believe that the amendment to this motion will strengthen DTTOs and give  sheriffs greater flexibility to hand down treatment programmes which will be most likely to reduce drug use and offending.
 Having said all of this, while I may firmly believe that alternatives to fines and prison are the most effective to deal with offenders, that is not what the motion is calling for. All the motion calls for is for the new sentencing board to look at these figures, and investigate whether or not we have the balance right.
 Conference this is not a debate about legalisation, or decriminalisation. I'm not opening that can or worms – we've all been there before and is a debate for another day. Liberal Youth Scotland simply have a deep concern over the way in which we are dealing with this relatively low level of drug crime, and are not addressing the real problems behind them. I would also like to speak briefly to the amendment, which Liberal Youth Scotland is happy to support. The amendment in the name of Glasgow South local party may sound controversial, but actually I believe it is anything but – it would reduce drug use in those with the most serious addictions, save the public purse money through alternative treatments instead of prison, and will reduce acquisitive crime associated with chaotic drug use. Diamorphine maintenance treatment would of course have to be tightly controlled, and would not be used lightly. This treatment would only be used for those addicts who have not responded to other treatments such as methadone treatment – many of those who are prescribed methadone treatment do not respond to it, and the methadone does not stop them going out and acquiring street heroin – and committing further acquisitive crime to do it. Ewan will speak to this in a moment but diamorphine treatment has by far the strongest evidence base, and can no longer be dismissed out of hand.Conference, we have a big opportunity here. Evidence-based drug policy is the way forward in how we deal with Scotland's relationship with drugs, and the new Scottish sentencing board must look at all of the available options, not just those available to sheriffs at the moment. I am confident that not only will increased use of alternative punishments, and particularly diamorphine treatment, reduce drug use in Scotland, it will save money, save us from the acquisitive crime associated with drug use, and save lives. Conference, I urge you to support the motion and the amendment. Thank you.

I am really pleased that Alex Cole-Hamilton, despite being the candidate for the target seat of Edinburgh Central, spoke out on a controversial subject. He said:

 “There is a great cost to society, and the public purse, if offenders are just abandoned to a cycle of crime and prison.

“DTTOs and CSOs are measures that would save public money by keeping drug abusers out of jail.

“Drug offenders should not be treated the same as murderers. We should work to treat the problem of drug abuse, not lock addicts away and condemn them to a life of crime.

“This is a problem that affects drug users, families and the wider community. It needs a holistic solution.” 

Most moving of all was the contribution made by 14 year old Alexandra White, who told very movingly and with understanding and clarity of how she'd lost a friend whose mother was a drug user and was in and out of prison. She did it all without notes, so I can't copy it. However, if you look here, at around 15 minutes in, you can see her and I'm sure you'll agree that she deserved the prize she received for best speech of the conference.

I hope I've managed to show you that the truth behind the lurid headlines is something much more sensible and evidence based.


* some words may have been changed to make this suitable for a family audience, and to spare me having to pay fines for swearing to my daughter

Tavish Scott: I will protect you against political power grab

Tavish Scott used his keynote leader's speech to Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in Perth last Friday to slam the other three parties for their plans to centralise public services. It was clear how passionately he wants to see power given to local people, not grabbed back to Holyrood. He is particularly livid at the plans to create a single national police force which, if the other parties have their way, will go through on the nod.

I completely agree with Tavish and have written before why I think a single police force is one of the most dangerous and stupid policies ever thought of.  You can't argue for a second that policing priorities are the same in Gairloch as they are in Glasgow. The idea is a whole tanker full of wrong.

Liberal Democrats have always been in favour of giving power away from Government, ensuring decisions are being made at the lowest practical level so Tavish's stance is no surprise.  He's made it into the Liberal Democrats' Unique Selling Point for this election, too. If people are worried about increasing centralisation of any public services, or particularly a single police force, they can rely only on the Liberal Democrats and Tavish Scott to do what they want.

This is what Tavish had to say on the subject:

The most worrying trend I’ve seen in Scottish politics over recent months is the central power grab. 

The view that, in tough financial times, Holyrood bureaucrats know best. That saving money is always about centralising power. I see it every day in Parliament.
All the others believe it. Labour, Tories and the SNP. They all want an approach which is alien to a liberal democracy. So our Party must make this case in the coming campaign;
A campaign for local people and the decisions that affect them.
So, we will stop highly paid quango bosses and Holyrood Ministers grabbing even more power for themselves. 

They think they have all the answers. We say trust local people.
Those who run our schools, hospitals and health centres.
Devolution was not about giving a new Scottish Parliament responsibilities from London, while grabbing power from local people and locally elected councillors.

So I will not stand to see the local dimension demolished; every idea, initiative or spark stripped out of local services.
Every part of Scotland will be poorer if that happens.
We will not let that happen.It’s a defining difference between us and the rest in May’s election.

 And it is no more serious than when it comes to the police. I met Colin McKerracher the other day. He’s the chief constable in Grampian. He’s Alex Salmond’s local policeman.
The Chief Constable doesn’t believe that these SNP, Labour and Tory plans for a single police force across Scotland are right. These plans will cost the jobs of thousands of police officers. The government’s own figures showed they would cut sixty million pounds from local policing. 

A national force will not keep officers local, solving crime and in touch with people.   Your local bobby will disappear.  

It mixes politics and the police. The national chief constable will owe their job to the Justice Secretary.  They will be in and out of each other’s office and will never be in the communities they are meant to serve. Conference we want local police, serving your community, not serving a political master hundreds of miles away.

It’s not just folk in Perth who should be angry.
You should too. I won’t stand for it. Nor should you. Demand to have your say. Demand to have control. Demand they listen to you. We will oppose a national police force.

But I fear the other parties won’t stop there.
The fire service, care of Scotland’s older people, every pound and penny spent in your area – there is a growing list of things that will end up controlled only by Holyrood bureaucrats and Ministers.

So our approach will break that Scottish cabal of Labour, SNP and Tories.
We will secure the local services you depend on. We will drive out waste, tackle high pay, end unjustified bonuses. But above all, we will give those who run services more power to change the way they respond to your needs.

If you value local services. If you think you should have the right to a say over your local community then the Liberal Democrats are the only ones on your sid

You can understand why centralisation is anathema to him when you realise how his values were shaped by his local community in Bressay, Shetland.

 It was Up Helly Aa in Bressay last Friday. That’s when we burn a Viking galley and celebrate our Scandinavian heritage. A lot.

Strange you might think. But it goes rather deeper than the smell of paraffin as the torches light and singing the Norseman’s Home.

Shetland is a place where a visitor is someone to welcome, speak with, understand.
Where a healthy interest in that outside world is not just because a litre of petrol is £1.48.
But a place who took on the Labour Government as they sought to deport a personable young Thai man who was and is part of Shetland....and won. (that's Sakchai Makao, who was spared deportation after an amazing community campaign)

A place where traditional music, played brilliantly goes hand in hand with the visiting Mumford & Sons. Where fishing matters, economically and socially. Where crofting, the way of life, is a pride in the quality of livestock, of wool for the knitting industry and the camaraderie of the sheep sales.

This is the place where I grew up, where my instincts were forged and my values took root.

In Shetland,
We care about people and we look out for each other;
We look after our elderly neighbours;
We want our children to have the best possible start.
We look outwards not inwards.
And we look to the long term not the short term.
These are the fundamental values that shaped my politics.
These are the values that I want to see take root across Scotland.

Tavish then went on to show how those lifelong values translate into his priorities for Scotland:

We must live within our means, not promising money we just don’t have. Scotland deserves better. Scotland deserves honesty. So our manifesto will explain what we would do for Scotland; how we will tackle the challenges the nation faces.

Anything else simply won’t be good enough.
We’ll do that in this way.

With three core Liberal principles –
·    First, local people know what’s best for their areas, not bureaucrats at Holyrood.
·    Second, solutions for Scotland that last, not hollow quick fixes that  achieve nothing;
·    Third, every Scot, whatever their background, should have the chance to make the most of their lives.

A Government determined to see a brighter future for Scotland , a sustainable future for Scotland, a prosperous Scotland. 

 I finished reading David Laws' book on the formation of the Coalition last night. He talked of the deficit - the gap between what the government spends and its income - as being £3 billion a week. It dawned on me that that's a sum equivalent to the entire Scottish budget for a year every 11 weeks. That actually sounds to me scarier than the fact that we're paying £120 million a day in interest. Labour can't duck their responsibility for leaving the country in that mess and the SNP can't deny it isn't happening. Nor can they pretend that in an independent Scotland money would grow on trees and we wouldn't have to worry about any of this stuff. Ireland, anyone?

Tavish has started to suggest over the weekend that universal benefits like free bus travel for all 60 year olds might not be affordable in the longer term. I think that's right, even though my husband turns 60 in June. If I had a choice, I'd go for my daughter having a free university education than my husband a bus pass that he doesn't really need and Bob would agree with me on that. No definite decisions have been made yet, but I expect that our manifesto will suggest some changes to universal benefits. That's a brave thing to do, but it's the right thing to do. Last year Vince Cable and Nick Clegg were the most honest about the need for spending cuts and in making suggestions as to how they could happen. Remember Nick talking about the need for "savage cuts" way back in 2009? The Liberal Democrats have always believed in treating voters like grown ups and aren't going to stop now.

This post is probably long enough now - but there's more in Tavish's speech to talk about, so I will do some more later.

It's no secret that I've felt that it's been too long since the Scottish Liberal Democrats offered exciting ideas that the public can really relate to. Our campaign against a single police force and other not-so-creeping centralisation hits the spot.

 

Does Tavish Scott think Nick Clegg is toxic?

I am now officially sick to death of hearing or reading journalists making a big thing out of Tavish Scott not mentioning Nick Clegg in his leader's speech to Scottish Conference on Friday.  Apparently, according to Raymond Buchanan, Brian Taylor and Saturday's Courier, this means that Tavish is trying to distance himself from Nick and considers him an electoral liability.

That would be why Tavish gave Nick such a warm introduction on Saturday, then. And that wasn't cobbled together at the last minute as some PR stunt because of the press - it was in the agenda, printed weeks ago, and always had been planned that way.

The body language between the two of them was very positive. One thing I have learned over the years is that Tavish Scott is rubbish at faking it. What you see is exactly what you get with him.

I am fairly certain that there are issues on which the two of them disagree, but the signs were all of a very cordial relationship between the two leaders. To suggest otherwise is just mischief making.

Scotland on Sunday education hustings - watch online at 3pm today

The four main parties' Scottish education spokespeople will be taking part in debate at 3pm today organised by Scotland on Sunday and Weber Shandwick's Scotland Votes website.  You can either attend in person if you register within the next 38 minutes (it's in the Scotsman building on Holyrood Road) or you can watch online here. I shall be tweeting throughout the event from my kitchen table.

Mike Russell,  Margaret Smith, Liz Smith, and Des McNulty will answer questions - which you can still submit via Twitter to @scotlandvotes. I'm sure Mike Russell would particularly welcome questions on schools in Argyll and Bute, difficulites probationer teachers have in getting full time jobs and teacher numbers in general.

Share and share alike? My reservations about Stephen Williams' bank share giveaway plan

Ok, I'm going to write about something I know very little about. I will ignore the shouts of "what's new?" I can hear in the distance.

Today liberal think tank Centre Forum has published a plan by Stephen Williams, Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West, which would involve shares in the banks bailed out by the taxpayer being distributed free of charge to British people for them to do what they liked with.

My gut instinct is to be opposed to it. Not because it isn't a good idea to give ordinary people a say in how businesses are run. Part of the argument for doing so is that ordinary people would have a say in how the banks were run. That'll be like they have a real say in how privatised utilities are run, then. I'm not aware of any of the privatised utility companies being particularly people centred in their approach, and in reality, they are mainly owned by corporate, rather than individual shareholders. The likelihood of you or I ever being able to influence the banks' future strategy is pretty minimal.

Industrial democracy has long been a key part of liberal thinking, and rightly so, but I'm not sure the time is right for this scheme. We own £65.8 billion of the banks. The country's deficit is £155 billion - with some of that being the money we had to borrow to bail out the banks. Are we not better off as a country selling the shares in the banks and using the proceeds to pay back our loans or to provide better public services for those who need them? It seems to me to be almost rude to be talking about giving shares to people when they're seeing their Councils cutting services they rely on or central government cutting benefits they desperately need.

I think I understand the thinking - wanting to give people a stake in the banks they bailed out and giving a small investment or windfall. But surely the industry's problems are more effectively solved by regulating the banks that matter to ordinary people within an inch of their lives. The idea that we as shareholders would all turn up and vote against massive bonuses isn't credible to me.  It just seems that we have more important and pressing things to do with public money than give away to individuals what could be used to provide better services for us all.

What do you think?

Jo Swinson in World Book Night Giveaway at Scottish Lib Dem Conference

In amongst all the political skulduggery at Conference, there was a quiet moment of literary celebration as Scottish Deputy Leader and East Dunbartonshire MP Jo Swinson gave away copies of one of her favourite books, Kate Atkinson's Case Histories. The photo shows, clockwise from left to right, Andrew Page, who blogs at A Scottish Liberal, Cathy McInnes, Jo Swinson, me, Stephen Glenn (yes, him), Highland Councillor Angela McLean, Jean Davis, formerly candidate for the Western Isles and Eleanor Anderson who was my campaign mummy during the Livingston by-election and who has been a great friend ever since. Update; I was mortified to have it dawn on me, mid wiggle (or should that be wobble) at my Zumba class that I had forgotten to credit Jamie McHale, who took the excellent photo and gave me permission to use it. It's a million times better than the crappy one I took on my phone, that's for sure.

The idea of the giveaway was that 20,000 people were each given 48 books to give away to whoever they chose. Jo had given some copies away to a Women's Group in Perth that morning, and would distribute the remainder at a constituency event that evening. Each book has a unique number as you can see here:

Once I've read the book, I can go online, give my comments on it and so can the person I give it to, and so on, so people will be able to follow the journey of that particular book and the 999,999 others given away.

I read this piece on the Spectator Coffee House blog criticising the initiative on the grounds that giving stuff away free diminishes its value. On the contrary, being given something by a friend that they've thought about and recommended enhances its value. And just because something is free doesn't mean its not essential or unappreciated. I don't pay for the air I breathe, but I'm very grateful for it - and books are just as important to my quality of life. While I share the author's concern about the demise of independent book shops, in my experience reading books just leads to buying more books. The real issue is of course the competition to book shops from the likes of Amazon, but that has nothing to do with this giveaway. One thing I would say, though, is that restricting it to 25 books is probably too small. I'd rather something a bit more organic, and maybe with a few orientated at children and teenagers too.

I liked the way that Jo took time to explain why she enjoyed the book, when she'd read it and to give us a few of her thoughts on it - enough to make us want to read it, but not to give us too much information about the plot.

Also for World Book Night, my new found favourite author Keris Stainton was interviewed about her writing in general on BBC local radio. It's available here from around 1hour 5 mins in. I read her first novel, Della says OMG which is such a good, positive account of first love. Keris talks about how Della would appeal more to girls, but boys have told her that it's a good read to help them understand girls. I think it sets the bar quite high about what girls should expect from relationships, which can only be a good thing. Keris' new book, Jessie <3 NYC, aimed at teenagers, is out this July. I am looking forward to reading it as I love Keris' characters, and New York is one of my favourite cities.

Protesters at Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference refuse to meet with Mike Moore and Danny Alexander

I have to confess to more than a slight annoyance at the lack of coverage of the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference in today's press. A couple of articles in Scotland on Sunday and the Herald barely scratch the surface of what was going on. They were happy enough to mention the relatively small number of protesters who were outside, but they completely missed this story behind them.

We were expecting a fair few protests on various issues. So, it seems, were the Police, who had cordoned off a vast area around the Perth Concert Hall.

As party members, we'd been encouraged by Conference Committee to go and chat to any protesters who turned up. In fact, I know that some party people had even given them the string to tie their placards to the railings because they didn't have any. I went out to talk to the anti cuts protesters at lunch time to discover that they'd disappeared, much to my disappointment. I had earlier spent some time chatting to Royal Mail workers who were worried about the Government's plans for the organisation.

Rumours reached my ears, though, that at least one group of protesters had been offered half an hour with Mike Moore and Danny Alexander and had turned them down. I investigated some more and had those rumours confirmed by people in a position to know these things.

I don't know about you, but that horrifies me. They had two Cabinet ministers who were willing to listen to what they had to say and they knocked back that opportunity. What a betrayal of the people they say they're there to represent. Are they there to make a difference or just to make a lot of noise?

Mike and Danny did go out to talk to some people who were worried about the effects of welfare reform and other spending cuts on the services which are vital to them.

It's a characteristic of this Government that they are prepared to listen to people and are prepared to think again. We've seen that on issues like anonymity for rape defendants in England and Wales, the forests sell off and the persistent hard work of the Liberal Democrat ministers in delaying then stopping the plans to cut housing benefit after a year. This is not a characteristic I've seen in any UK Government I've ever known, but it's a welcome step forward. I certainly found it refreshing to see two senior members of the Government, who could have hid themselves away, out there and doing as much if not more listening than talking.

I came across this scene by chance en route from the Concert Hall to the hotel where the fringe meetings were taking place. Why the print journalists couldn't have done the same, I don't know. Maybe the red pepper and tomato soup being served inside was just too irresistible.

Nick Clegg and his big mouth!

I have so much to tell you from Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference that I hardly know where to start. Maybe this little anecdote will be an amuse bouche for what's to come.

You might remember last October, when they let me loose on Lib Dem Voice, I had a chat with Alexandra White, who, at just 14, had wowed the Conference with a passionate speech on education. Well, she did it again yesterday morning in the debate on sentencing for drugs offences. Unfortunately, I didn't see her speech as I had to be somewhere else at the time, but I'm told it was extremely moving and people were talking about it all day. One sign of a good public speaker is the ability to speak with feeling and clarity without notes, but that's not something you can do at 14 - unless you are Alex, of course. I asked her for a copy of her speech and she said she didn't have one as she'd just made it up as she went along. This girl is definitely one to watch for the future.

Anyway, yesterday Deputy Prime Minister and UK Party Leader Nick Clegg was up to lend his support to the Scottish Election Campaign (and more detail about his speech later). After he spoke, he was chatting away to Scottish Party Convener Craig Harrow who told him that they were giving out the annual award for best speech to a 14 year old called Alexandra who had spoken about drugs. What he didn't tell Nick was that this was top secret and was intended to be a surprise to her when it was announced at the end of the day.

That was ok, though - he'd already met her and was unlikely to do so again, at least yesterday. You know what's coming, though, don't you? Alex ended up taking a photo of a friend of hers with Nick. He put two and two together and said, with characteristic enthusiasm, "Oh, you're the Alexandra who's getting the prize for the best speech. Well done."

In Alex's own words "My jaw just hit the floor".

I asked her later on whether she would have preferred it if it had been a complete surprise and her reply was that finding out by accident from the Deputy Prime Minister made it extra special, and gave her a story to tell for the rest of her life.

Alex's prize was the Russell Johnston Trophy, a silver sporran flask, which was first presented to Sybil Alexander in 1990. Previous winners include Alistair Carmichael, Tavish Scott, Jim Wallace, Edinburgh Council leader Jenny Dawe and Ross Finnie. Alex is in some very good company. Her name will be engraved on the plaque which accompanies the flask, ensuring her of a place in the history of the party.

Here is Alex, with the trophy itself.

Alex can be very proud of herself for the impact she's had on the Party so far. What yesterday's award shows is that the Party is proud of her too.

Don't be too bothered about the Barnsley result: keep calm and carry on

Sixth place in the Barnsley by-election is not a good look, no denying it. It is upsetting to come behind hate-fuelled racists like the BNP. But for that sort of seat, in a Labour heartland, last night's result was pretty much par for the course.

For the sake of completeness, thanks to the BBC, here is the full result:

• Dan Jarvis (Lab) 14,724
• Jane Collins (UKIP) 2,953
• James Hockney (C) 1,999
• Enis Dalton (BNP) 1,463
• Tony Devoy (Ind) 1,266
• Dominic Carman (LD) 1,012
• Kevin Riddiough (Eng Dem) 544
• Howling Laud Hope (Loony) 198
• Michael Val Davies (Ind) 60

Lab maj 11,771: Turnout 36.5%

If this was a seat where we had a strong local party with a strong local government base, I'd be more worried. It was never going to be possible to make much of an impact in 3 weeks from a virtually standing start. In the by-elections where we do well, it's not the efforts of the circus that rolls into town that makes victory possible, it's the foot slogging, leaflet delivery, diligent casework, campaigning on local issues over years.  Those people don't often get the glory in the wake of a stunning result, but they deserve it. Take Dunfermline, if it hadn't been for the work of people like Jim Tolson, Tony Martin, Jim Burke and Teresa Little over the years, Willie Rennie would have had nothing to build on.

Looking back, there are plenty results from times when we were doing pretty well in the national polls when we did worse in by-elections. We came sixth in the Glasgow North East by-election in November 2009, with half the vote that Dominic Carman managed to attract yesterday. We'd also had some sub 3% results in Glenrothes and Glasgow East the previous year. In June 2009, we retained our MEP which everyone said we'd lose. In May 2010 Scotland elected 11 Liberal Democrat MPs.

In 1999, Marilyne McLaren came 6th with 3.3 % of the vote in the Hamilton South by-election. In 2001 and 2005 she almost ended up in the House of Commons, coming within 405 votes of Labour in Edinburgh South.

Results like this happen and don't mean much in the scheme of things. Of course, if we had won, I'd be saying that it meant that a Liberal Democrat take-over of the universe was imminent - although it probably would have meant that, to be honest. We never stood a chance. And the party knew that. For Oldham, I was getting several requests for help every day. For Barnsley, nobody ever contacted me and I think that's probably sensible.

The most important thing to remember is that in Council wards all over England and constituencies in Scotland and Wales, our councillors, AMs and MSPs are getting a much warmer reception. We just have to make sure that we do everything we can to support them in the run up to May.

Labour's cynical opportunism on prescription charges

Yesterday the Scottish Parliament voted to scrap the charge for NHS prescriptions once and for all.

This move was supported by the SNP Government and Labour, and opposed by the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.

I have written often enough that I think that a small prescription charge for those who can afford it is not really a big deal so I'm glad that the Lib Dems stuck to their long held position on this. Health spokesman Ross Finnie said:

"NHS Boards are making difficult choices on cutting nursing staff and hospital beds as they struggle to cope with the funding squeeze. But the Scottish Government is still determined to extend reduced or free prescriptions to all. 

"In the present economic circumstances, Liberal Democrats have made it clear that it is inappropriate to proceed with the final stage of abolishing prescription charges."

I can forgive the SNP for doing it - it's been their long held policy and something they've been working towards for the last 4 years, and supported before. Fair play to them, even if I disagree with them.

What I don't get is the Labour Party's position. They didn't support abolition of prescription charges in 2006 when Colin Fox tried to introduce that measure. Last year Mr MacNumpty reported in his Sunday Whip column that Labour had abstained on the issue. I'm sure there have been many other votes in between, too. The BBC reports, however, that Labour supported the SNP's abolition plan.

Why would they change the habits of a lifetime? It's not as if there's an election round the corner or anything..... Oh wait.........

Whatever their motivations, it looks as though the Labour Party has been prepared to back something it doesn't believe in, costing money that we can ill afford. They don't seem to have learned anything about financial responsibility since Liam Byrne left his chilling note that "there was no money left" last May.  Labour have shown in office at every level, from Council to UK that they can't be trusted to keep the public finances on an even keel. Cllr Jenny Dawe, leader of the City of Edinburgh Council, wrote for Liberal Democrat Voice last year about the mess they found when they took over from Labour in 2007. We know that at Westminster part of the reason we have such a massive deficit is because Labour failed to mend the roof when the sun was shining. Do we really want them doing the same at Holyrood?

The best laid plans..............

Well, so much for everything I had planned to do this week.

I had an idea on Monday that something was not right, but then woke yesterday to more definite pain which got worse and worse. I went to the GP (after the usual pantomime of dialling their 0844 number and being kept on hold forever before, luckily, getting an appointment) who gave me antibiotics for a kidney infection.

One of the things about the human body is that it doesn't do subtle when it wants to tell you that there's something wrong. It bloody hurts! I spent yesterday doped up with painkillers and hot water bottles on tummy and back and I could still feel it.  Today, it feels like I've been kicked in the back, but I feel brighter and not so nauseous.

I've never had this particular antibiotic before and it came with a leaflet that outlines even more scary than usual potential side effects. I know that this is the manufacturer covering their backsides, but apparently this stuff can give you aseptic meningitis and make you more vulnerable to the effects of UV light. Just as well we don't live anywhere sunny, then.

Of course, being on antibiotics is not what I'd have wanted in the run up to Conference at the weekend. Mark Thompson told me via Twitter, though, that I might still be able to avail myself of some of the free booze on offer, if I want to take the advice of Messrs Fry, Clarkson, Davies et al from QI, which is on You Tube here.



In the midst of all the pain, Anna and I had to take Patches the bunny to the vet for his follow up appointment. Both rabbits are a lot better, and Patches doesn't have to be seen again, thankfully. We're back there with Benj next week when I reckon the total bill will go over the £200 mark. Just what we needed.

I was so proud of Anna - she loves her animals and always takes good care of them, but yesterday a nervous Patches really clung to her and she was able to soothe him and calm him down. It's clear he trusts her.

Anyway, I'm sure you will understand if my blogging is a little light in the next few days. I'll have lots of scandal, gossip and rumour to tell you from Conference next week so watch this space.