Tag: no2id

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?

droning on

from the Guardian

Merseyside’s gaffe gave rise to headlines that their drones may be grounded. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is the advance guard of surveillance technology and it is already being widely operated across the country, although this has prompted little debate.

weekend 30/31 jan 2010

Up bright and early – well, ish – made a batch of blueberry muffins, consumed bacon and black pudding butties, then walked into town.  It is *so* nice to be able to go to all these places on foot.  We took the barometer to the clock hospital, but they said they couldn’t fix it – ghod knows why not, as it didn’t look that difficult to replace the glass to us, but ho hum.  I shall be upset if I can’t find anyone to do it (it broke in the move).

We had a mooch round the old part of Hull – there’s some wonderful architecture there, and some of the city is medieval; must go down with a camera on a nice Sunday afternoon.  Then we met (most of) the rest of the fledgling No2ID group in The Mission pub, had a meeting to discuss strategies and what we do next, met a chap who is standing for the Greeens, and lives 8 doors down from us, and then we all ventured out into the freezing cold and set up a stall in the centre.

It went better than I thought it might – we got several pages of petitions signed, gave away loads of leaflets, and engaged plenty of people in conversation.  After what seemed like *hours*, but wasn’t, Carla did a tea run and I brought forth the muffins, and we managed to carry on a little longer,

On the way home, we stocked up with dried beans and organic bread flour and other stuff from a shop we discovered in South Street that sells them loose – hurrah!  Not a huge range, but better than buying them packaged.  And we stopped off in Argos to buy a carpet sweeper; the cats are scattering litter all over the upstairs, and I’m bored with carting the Roomba round the house every day.  A tenner for the sweeper seemed like a bargain, and it did a cracking job. Needless to say, the Tribe have been neatness itself today ….  We had a lazy evening after that, and I made some cappuccino cupcakes as a test run for next month’s No2ID meet, and some polenta bread.

This morning, we ventured over to Walton Street market and did the fruit and veg shopping, and then pottered round the house. Someone was meant to be collecting a Freecycle item this afternoon, but never turned up, which made me seethe.  Cooked a roast chickie! with cabbage, leeks, carrots and roast spuds.  Slumped. Ate coffee cupcakes.  Bzzt.