Another Council Year Begins

It's been a while since I posted, but I have been as busy as ever.

I've had a busy few weeks this spring, fighting a general election, fighting to hold on to my council seat in Calderdale, dealing with the aftermath of both elections.

The general election, as I posted before, was actually quite a good result. We consolidated our third place, we increased our vote and our share of the vote, again!

This needs to be repeated our vote went up to over 7,000, that is the highest for nearly quarter-of-a-century in the heady days of the old SDP/Liberal Alliance.
It was also the third highest vote since the war, at 15%.
Furthermore, while the Lib Dem vote went up nationally by 1%, ours in Keighley went up by three times that.

All goes to show that with the right message, the right team, and hard work we can be successful.

Oh and in my council seat? Well, we managed to turn a majority of just 53 votes into a whopping 1,200.
My 2,775 was the highest Lib Dem vote on the night, and indeed the highest EVER Lib Dem/Liberal vote in the history of Calderdale.

Thanks for your support

Sorry not to have posted this before, but having been more successful in the Local Elections than the National ones, anyone who knows Local Government will know that I've been busy...

During my campaign, I've been contacted by over 100 different people. A lot of them were simply lobbying for my support, but a significant number of new people offered help.

That is on top of assistance in innumerable ways from people who were there before. It would be invidious or embarrassing to name them, but there has to be one exception, Judith Brooksbank, my agent.

Named or mostly not, I'd like to thank them one and all.

I'd also like them to take pride in their efforts: still third place, but with over 1,500 more votes and a higher share too. In 2005 I was pleased to have beaten the BNP leader into 4th place. I'm even more pleased to have beaten his deputy (and the National Front and UKIP) by an even bigger margin. Last time it was by 12% to 9%. This time it was 15% to 7%, even when you add all those three together.

Once again, thanks to everyone who helped.

The unquenchability of the human spirit

"There is greatness in people. It's not what we achieve, but the aspiration to achieve it, the desire to attempt the impossible. That ultimately, is the triumph of the human spirit".

Andy Hamilton

Why you shouldn't vote Tory - 2

A Ribble Valley councillor, sent a racially offensive joke on to a fellow councillor and an ex-Tory parliamentary candidate, who then sent it on to a long list of Tories, including the mayor of South Ribble.

The e-mail, as well as being painfully unfunny, ends with another joke (!?!):"IF YOU DON'T PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS YOU WILL RECEIVE 3 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ABSOLUTELY FREE".

Oh no please stop, it's so rib-splittingly comic. Poor old Bernard Manning must be spinning in his grave.

Happy Birthday Klapka

There were four of us - George, and William Samuel Harris, and myself, and Montmorency.

Surely, one of the greatest lines written in the English language! The opening lines as I'm sure you all know Three Men in a Boat.

Why you shouldn't vote Tory - 1

Although I am well aware of the various theories of Just War, especially St. Augustine's, I am a pacifist through and through.

One of the reasons, oh and there are so, so many, why I could not abide the Tories was their cavalier (and I use the word carefully) was their attitude to war and conflict in general.

In 1982, at the height of the Falklands conflict, the submarine HMS Conqueror sank the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano.

Although justified in international law, I thought then (and do so now) that it was morally unjustifiable.

Moreover, Mrs Thatcher and the right-wing press headed by Rupert Murdoch's Sun, gloated sickeningly over the loss of life of some 1,000 Argentine sailors.

Happy May Day

International Workers' Day that is!