Arriving at the Liberal Democrat conference in Liverpool
Out of the house 6.30 am and lash the bike to the excellent new cycle racks at Euston. I figure I have less chance of getting it nicked if I get it onto one of the upper racks. Buy porridge and honey and a croissant, which I shouldn’t have.
Standard class to Liverpool all but empty. Virgin hate tables in standard class – two per carriage. I find one with an electric plug and one other man at it. He’s a French telecoms guy working for BT – he’s high powered and interesting company, not least about bilingualism and bringing up children in two languages.
So here I am bound for a Liberal Democrat conference, a conference of a party in power.I check the first class section for politicians, aides etc. There are a few classy looking women who look if they may be representing corporates. No sandals.
Sunny all the way to Liverpool, where it is strangely raining and gray. A city I lived in as a student, much changed and yet still with an underbelly of poverty.
First half hour in the city spent trying to retrieve my fluorescent yellow cycle jacket which I left in the rack in coach H whilst another passenger was diluting my concentration, discussing my tie with me.
Uggh, my bike keys are in the pocket. Phoning Virgin takes only seven minutes to get through. The cleaners didn’t find the jacket, so it’s gone back to Euston. Another number – engaged.
Better get on with the day. Life tells you, somehow the bike, the jacket will all resolve, somehow!
The conference hall is gentle. There’s no great rebellion going on here. In fact there seems to be a bit of a disconnect between power, and a Lib Dem conference discussing home insulation. Clegg and Vince are doing the rounds.
Nothing here persuades me that the coalition will last less than a full Parliament and maybe beyond. It all feels rather comfortable.
There is no mood here for fisty-cuffs. John Curtis, the seasoned election guru from Strathclyde University said last week that the UK electoral system may not deliver another clear party winner again.
It confirms a sense I have had since the election, that there is very little appetite after the expenses scandal to see any party in absolute power ever again.
I have never had to broadcast from a Lib Dem conference before – so this is a first, perhaps of many!
Now where’s that damned jacket!
Related posts:
- We can use these cycle hubs to tether flying pigs
- The Tory conference – full of known unknowns
- Liverpool: funny, brave, but out on a limb
- Labour conference: flat as your hat
- Boris, Rivers of Blue and bike docks
There are 6 comments on this post
Hope you find your jacket Jon .I would hate to read of you being arrested outside Euston Station,trying to steal your own bike!!!!
The coalition may well , out of a sense of self preservation, last the full term and i hope it succeeds in getting the economy back on its feet after the Labour debacle.I am amazed to read their poll ratings at the expense of the Liberals .It must be like giving birth , never again , but so easily forgotten until the next time.
Frustration , anger and let me have time to organise my head first thing in the morning pose.
Monday a.m. horrible rainy day , my underbelly is not showing signs of poverty , shouldn’t really have that croissant , although believe the honey is good , could have gone in the porridge though .Did It?
Rush , rush, rush. look at those women staggering in high heels and smart suits . They havn’t had to do all the leg work and grovelling I have.
Sick of having to be nice to people , but dare I snap? oh no; the country will know.
To be quite honest just chasing these other power seekers , who say all and do very little is a b*** ache. Not going to let the ******** grind me down though. and
Here we are at Liverpool with Nick Clegg who is straying from his own party policies to gain popularity and credibility for his ever angering party. This man is now beginning to learn how to be PM.. with the odd TB ” Look, let me make it quite clear ” speech and how the betterment of the whole is superior to individual aspects of freedom and sticking to policies to eradicate poverty.
Ah well see your very concerned face and the Jon Snow ” look ,see this, just there” 7.0pm
Jon
Why dont you ask Mr Clegg..what is the point of the Lib Dems in todays UK?
After all, you vote Lib Dem you get Tory.
And if Mr Cameron decide to chuck up and go for an election, you a bet london to a brick..the Lib Dems will be out on their ear..in third place.
Lid Dem voters of past are going to punish Mr Clegg for selling his party’s principles for less than 30pcs of silver.
The Lib-Dems better make us proud of being british!
At the moment I don’t feel happy at all. I don’t think the current government is going to be much different from the last. New Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat are all more or less the same thing now a days. I’m not saying I am right and I hope to be proved wrong.
May you find your jacket Jon!
adzmundo TVP
Not totally on topic – but one of the most worrying things happening is the gains the far right are making – and the issues they campaign on . Sweden far right party has just made history .. ”The rise of the far-right in Sweden is the latest sign that anti-immigration sentiments appear to be growing across Europe.
In the Netherlands, the anti-immigration Freedom Party, which wants to ban the Quran and shut down Islamic schools, made big gains during the June elections.
Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party, which campaigned on anti-Semitism and anti-Roma sentiment, also entered parliament for the first time in April ”
And Christine ODonnell – who apears to be way more extereme than Palin wins in USA
”O’Donnell is not just right wing on every issue, crying out like some neo-Victorian Frankenstein that having “lust in your heart” is actually akin to committing adultery, a thought-crime in her world. She has also been exposed quite publicly for flat-out lying, claiming that in an earlier run for the Senate against Biden she won two of Delaware’s three counties (she did not),” – these are dangerous people and times .
Well-said, Jim, but a couple of encouraging letters in today’s Guardian, one from the Holocaust Survivors’ Group, opposing Sarkozy’s anti-Roma action in France. Would love to blog further but no time today.