Category: general

were you up for Portillo?

I was, and although I’ve never voted Labour in my life, and I can be pretty sure I never will, I heard the song in 1997, and I thought yes, things can only get better.

How wrong I was – things have got a lot worse. Labour have systematically whittled away at our privacy,  our citizens’ rights, our justice system, our economy; they’ve taken us into an illegal war, they’ve presided over a banking system run amok, and now they’re busy telling us how wonderful things will be if we re-elect them.

But why didn’t they make things wonderful during the past 13 years?

I don’t trust Cameron, and his compassionate Conservatism, and his Big Society. Johann Hari has said it all better than I can – read it here. This is what lies ahead if the Tories win, and I fear they will.

I will vote LibDem, not because of Cleggmania, but because I always have voted Liberal, since I was first able to vote in 1972. Amazingly, I live in a constituency – Hull North – where we might actually see a real shift from Labour, and I hope Denis Healy (yes, really!) gets elected tomorrow.

I shall be sat in front of the television all night, hoping to $deity that the Conservatives don’t win an outright majority; even bloody Labour would be better, and I still can’t believe I’m saying that.

And this year’s perfect Portillo moment would be? Oh, so many to choose from.  Ed Balls would be perfect, Hazel Blears too, Harriet Harman quite acceptable, but any will do. The more the merrier – bring it on!

I agree with Nick.

Now don’t forget to vote tomorrow.

who should I vote for?

Take the Who Should You Vote For? England quiz

Green 93
Liberal Democrat 65
UK Independence -2
Labour -35
Conservative -41

You expected: GRN

Your recommendation: Green

Click here for more details about these results

I identify as Green in most of these polls, but as our local Green candidate knows, I’m voting LibDem to get the Labour woman out.  Bring on proper proportional representation, say I!

weekend 1-3 May 2010

For various reasons, we couldn’t attend the wedding of Kate and Tony – so sorry to have missed it, it sounds as though it was a cracking do, with all sorts of folk we’d have love to see …

Instead, we threw ourselves into leafleting for the LibDems; Hull North is a marginal, despite Diana Johnson having been parachuted in for Labour in 2005, and gaining a 7000 odd majority; the bookies all have her and Denis Healy, our LibDem PPC, running neck and neck, and there’s a real feeling that he might just do it this time.

I don’t know how many leaflets and envelopes we delivered – not as many as some, I know, but Lots. Pete and I tried last night to work out where we’d been, and we can’t even remember that, to be honest – Scully Lane and round about, the Avenues, the endless Murrayfield, Fairfax Ave, round the Dukeries, two deliveries on our own street. Pete did even more than I did, and I’m knackered. I don’t think I’ll have time to do much more before the day, but I shall be telling at our local polling station at 7 a.m. on Thursday, before disappearing off to York for the afternoon and evening, for another Show of Hands gig, and then sitting up for as much of the night as I can manage; we have no television or aerial point in the bedroom, so we might just pull out the sofa bed!

Who you vote for is your business, but please – DO VOTE.  Even if you think your vote is wasted, turn out and put your cross in the box, because if you’re not recorded, then how can anyone know what people actually want, rather than what we get?

And ask yourself this: if David Cameron is so keen on giving people control of schools and so on, why isn’t he in favour of giving us electoral reform so we have control of our electoral process?

Oh, and the aforementioned Diana Johnson has been leafleting the constituency telling people that Denis Healey supports her. Now, to many of you, that would imply (correctly) that she means the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, but here in Hull North, Denis Healy (note different spelling) is our local LibDem chap – underhand sort of trick, really.  I thought her Denis was dead, and looking at the photograph she’s used, I might well be right.

eyes

I spent the morning in the Eye Clinic at Hull Royal Infirmary; attentive readers may recall that what triggered all these medical visits and diagnoses was the optician telling me that the pressure in my eyes was over the limit that triggers a letter to the doctor, back on 9th March (it seems longer :).

So I trundled down there for 9 a.m. this morning, firstly having a fields test, then variously, four lots of eye drops, an ultrasonic measurement of my corneas,  lights bright and less bright shone into my eyes,  optic nerve photographed, apertures measured, pupils dilated, and lord knows what else.  And at the end of it – NO PROBLEMS!  Nothing at all – no diabetic damage, no problems with pressure, nothing at all.

To say I’m relieved would be a bit of an understatement, to be honest.  Here’s a picture of my right eye so you can see how well it is.

The things you see …

Elvis is in the buildingOut leafleting this morning in Bricknell ward, I spotted this tasteful door.  I delivered Bricknell Ave, Fairfax Ave and Southfield Road, walking 5.74 miles according to Runkeeper, but probably nearer 7.5 when you take all the driveways into consideration.

Got home, and grabbed a cup of tea while the chilli from the freezer finished thawing and the rice cooked. Carried on with some more of the Ecclestone Doctor Who, which we are working through on DVD.

Then over to the church on the corner of Cottingham Road/Chanterlands Avenue for a local hustings – I was quite pleased to skewer the Labour candidate, who was rabbiting on about a referendum about PR; I asked if it would be like the EU referendum which we were promised, and never got.

That was another 3.2 miles, so probably almost 11 miles walked today! Now another cup of tea, finish the episode of the Doctor, and bed.

Tomorrow evening: six rounds on and around Marlborough Avenue to deliver. Oh my aching feet …

the political process

Yesterday I delivered 200 leaflets for the LibDems while Pete cycled round to the health food shop for mushroom paté and rye flour and blackcurrant juice. Then we had a sossidge sammidge for breakfast/brunch and walked down to town for a No2ID session – planning meeting in the Mission first (one small glass fizzy water consumed), then a street stall for a couple of hours in Hull city centre.

I’ve discovered that if people ask you “what’s it about, then?”, ask them if they want to be part of the database state, and they’ll often stop and talk to you. We got a fair few people to sign the petition too, which was nice, and I provided an apple and rye cake to go with the Greggs tea run.

It transpired that Diana Johnson, our erstwhile Blair Babe MP, was campaigning a couple of hundred yards away, so Carla and I took it upon ourselves to go down and confront her, armed with a stack of leaflets, and (in Carla’s case) wearing a fetching No2ID t-shirt. We handed out literature all around the square, and actually had a chat with Ms Johnson, who thought ID cards were a good idea, seemingly because they would identify benefit cheats in the main. Her hair was a very odd shade too. All good fun.

Got some fruit and veg at the stall in town, popped into T J Hughes to pick up some cheap clothes for the gym – mine are all too big for me now! Pair of joggers in taupe (how stylish), couple of cheap t-shirts, two hand towels, pair of memory foam insoles, came to £14 …

Home to a slump, Dr Who (excellent) and Up, which was utterly charming, and stir fried asparagus.

I have 530 LibDem leaflets to deliver in Bricknell ward today, and a local hustings on Chants Ave tonight. A quiet afternoon, I think, don’t you?

a day out to Leeds

Nostell Priory, courtesy of Wikipedia
Nostell Priory, courtesy of Wikipedia

‘Twas a beautiful spring day yesterday, and so we said “soddit”, looked at the map, and decided to visit Nostell Priory, near Wakefield, before our National Trust tickets stop working. It’s a beautiful house, crammed full of completely barking detailing, frieses, chinese hand painted wallpaper, architecture in part by Robert Adam, and most of the furniture custom made by Chippendale.  Enjoyed it enormously, and the couple of miles stroll around the beautiful parkland and lake too.  *And* we resisted the siren call of a National Trust Cream Tea!

From there we sallied forth to Ikea, and purchased two Hol side tables (the coffee table is just Too Big for this room, and the cats keep leaping on it, so it has to go), a Bekvam step stool for upstairs (we have one downstairs and it is the most solid and stable thing to climb on, even I feel safe on it), 100 tea lights and a new door mat. Quite restrained, really. Then we had meatballs, because really, one must, when in Ikea.

Then on to the Brudenell Social Club to see Show of Hands play a standing only gig – best sort they do.  They started with Country Life, ended with Roots, and encored with Cousin Jack, with plenty of favourites in between, including a new song from Steve, and a solo spot from the wonderful Miranda. A cracking evening, and one which we shall repeat in York on election night (we shall get home just as the results start coming in, I suspect).

A grand day out, Grommit, in all.

kettle woes

Dear Russell Hobbs Service Department

We purchased a kettle model 14439 in November 2008, from Currys on Winterstoke Road, Bristol.

The first hinge snapped in the early part of this year, and we soldiered on – it was useable, if awkward to raise the lid.

Now the second hinge has also snapped, and we have to remove and replace the lid by hand.

This kettle was not a cheap one, and I feel that a useful life of less than 17 months is hardly optimal. We have since moved away from Bristol, and I cannot locate the receipt, but I do have a note on my personal blog of when it was purchased, at http://www.kestrel.org/?p=14253.

I think we’re due a replacement – what do you say?  I look forward to hearing from you.

No love
Me