The Field of Four #LDPres

So today we really have the Liberal Democratic Presidential race up and running and unlike two years ago it is causing some real debate with my closest friends and allies within the party. Most of the people I respected then were for Ros.

The Hon. Lady Mark the outgoing consort of our current President is sensible not taking sides or endorsing anyone given his position. However, he did over the weekend post his idea of what was required from his seat whether across the room at home, next to in the car/train or watching his wife the President perform her duties over the past 24 months. This was something I found really enlightening for a job with out job description and what I used to weigh up the four candidates that we have thus far. His listed the roles thus:

Role

The President has three primary roles;

• chairing Federal Executive - which is rather more than just turning up and doing the job. The agenda has to be agreed, papers commissioned, debate managed so as to ensure that all of the business is given a proper airing. The President is also a member of the Chief Officers Group, Federal Conference Committee, Federal Policy Committee, Federal Finance and Administration Committee and the Campaigns and Communications Committee. All meet in London, mostly in the evening, and occasionally on a Saturday.
• representing the membership to the leadership - responding to hundreds of e-mails and letters (some of them astonishingly rude or even abusive), travelling around the country to regional and state conferences, to local party dinners, to campaign events, and then conveying the information and views gathered to the Leader, the Chief Executive and now to the Liberal Democrat parliamentarians in ministerial office.
• representing the Party, as opposed to the Parliamentary Party, in the outside world, to pressure groups, media, lobbying organisations and, leading our international delegations to organisations such as Liberal International and ELDR.

Before going on to deal with resources, time commitment, without touching on what were core competences. He like me has seen various Presidents with a whole host of key competencies down through the years. So far we have four candidates in alphabetical order of first name Jason Zadrozny, Jennie Rigg, Tim Farron and Susan Kramer.

Susan of course has been a London Mayoral candidate and was MP for Richmond Park from 2005 until this year. Jason was our candidate in Ashfield in May losing by just 192 votes. Jennie is a dear friend and Tim had one of our biggest up swings in a held seat much to the derision of my Labour supporting Cumbrian based (at the time) cousin. All bring different things to field.

I'm surprised that Jason wants to stand when he came so close to beating Gloria de Piero. I would have thought the next two years would be far better spent by him building on the reputation he has to keep momentum in local campaigns to aim to overhaul that short gap in 2015. Much as I love Susan she in my view is the most establishment candidate on the list. A London-based President in what can be perceived from the provinces as a London-centric party is not what we need to stand out right now. Besides for the four years before Ros we had another London-based Parliamentarian in the form of Simon Hughes.

That brings my decision down to Tim or Jennie. Now I know the arguments about needing someone outside the bubble to reach to the grassroots. However, that does depend on what you define as the bubble. Yes, Tim is an MP but he also sees outside the bubble, something that struck me in a conversation I along with others had with him in Bournemouth one evening last year.

I love Jennie to bits and love that she will speak up whenever things need to be spoken up about. My concern is that the President over the next term needs to deal with MSM's perception of us a sell outs. While I know Jennie is no sell out, much like myself, I wonder does she have the ability to pull the core of the party along with her.

Tim is also prepared to go against the party flow (sadly the most notable time he did so was to vote against the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 but he did also resign from the front bench in protest at the party deciding to abstain only on the EU Referendum. So as a gay man I'm kicking him while as a Europhile democrat I'm right in his camp.

My decision was made in what I feel is best for the party going forward as a whole and not based on personal perception. Can an MP represent the Party as opposed the Parliamentary Party? Well yes Simon did so as President and does indeed again now as Deputy leader a role for which he beat Tim. Of course someone totally outside that can truly be a representative of the people.

How would the committees, party grassroots and outside world deal with them both? I can be a pain on committees and throw the occasional spanner in the works, both of these two could do that. As with the party grassroots both have their strengths and would do that in different ways (hey even if Jennie gets a fund of support to help her do so). It is the outside world that brings me to a point of separation. We need to be seen as a the party we have become mature enough to disagree with policy from the Government because that is what party have said, yet able to work in the coalition because that is also what the party have said. Not that we are in two minds merely that party policy is made by conference and Government policy was what our negotiators took to the table and got the closest they could to what the party wanted.

On that final score I feel that Tim Farron will be able to present that case. That most important case for our party right now at this time. That is why I'm endorsing Tim Farron to be the next President of the Liberal Democrats.


Much love and hugs to Jennie though. Also much thanks to those in the party crazy/courageous enough to ask me to stand, there are number of reasons why it wasn't right for me especially at this time.

Your Holiness, Some Catholics are Gay. Get Over It!

One of my friends this morning on Facebook has posted this:

"happy to welcome the pope to Scotland but hopes that amid all the pageantry, the survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of catholic priests, will receive compassion, apology and a fair hearing. Oh and your holiness, some people are gay, get over it."

I was tempted to add the title of this blog post as a follow up, but decided it neither further expansion, so this is it.

I think that says a lot about where some of the disquiet about this state visit, but at the same times shows a sense of balance. It leads on from the debate on Better Nation yesterday where both myself and Caron added our balance tuppenceworths. I do like it when Liberal Democrats of faith and none can reach an agreement that freedom of religious believe is also embedded in the preamble to our constitution.

Over the last few days I've been seeing a lot of my gay friends and contacts on Facebook, Twitter or other media condemn the Popes visit for whatever reason. I've also seen some of my gay, Catholic friends looking forward the the visit which I why I think these needs saying.

Just as many of us don't agree with everything that our political leaders say, so do many of us not agree with everything that our religious leaders say (even if they claim divine infallibility). There are many of us in the churches of all types who have struggled with our own sexuality and what has been said from our pulpits. Many of us have to undertake a journey on our own with our bibles and with prayer to come to an acceptance of ourselves first and foremost as both gay and Christian. There are now some more support groups out there but many of us still make that journey on our own.

We do it alone fearing being ostracised or excommunicated from a church or religion (as it applies to other faiths too) that we feel in fellowship with and part of. Gay Christians tend to have two additional families outside of their own flesh and blood, the LGBT family and the church family yet they appear like the Montagus and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet always to be at each other's throats (there are of course exceptions).

I saw another tweet that said the Pope was not welcome until the progress was made on all the aspects at which there are dispute contraception, child abuse and homosexuality. The middle one of those I think is at the start of progress being made, however it may well take time. The other two similarly. As I have blogged before it took me over a decade to reconcile my own sexuality with my faith and that was just one individual looking at it out of self interest not the generalities with with the leadership of a church looks at it. Therefore I'm prepared for the churched to take their time to come to conclusions, what I do want however is for them to start on that journey.

As I would have said, because I know, some Catholics are gay, as are some Presbyterians, Baptists, Jews, Muslims etc. We need to all get over it, acknowledge it and work with it.

BOTY Time is almost here again

For the next hour if you sit anywhere near a Lib Dem blogger be nice to them.

Why?

Well the lovely Auntie Helen had earlier this morning gone and ruined all our mornings by telling us that the BOTY (that is Lib Dem Voice Blog of The Year) shortlists will be announced at 12:30
I'll give my opinion later on who is in, who is cruelly omitted and where I think the little golden men will be heading home to after Saturday night's award.


In the mean time, too many hooks remained tentered. Too many bottoms remain squeaky and in an hour's time some carefully polished willies may be put away again for another year without being waved.

Bannside to Morningside*

Lord Bannside, who until recently was just plain old the Right Honourable, Rev. Dr. Ian K. Paisley P.C., M.L.A., as well as former M.P. and M.E.P. has announced he is visiting Edinburgh this week.

Far be it for me to point out that the Festival has finished for another year he has another reason for visiting the city I've worked in for the past nine years. Yeah, anyone who know the history of Paisley and the Popes (video link) will hardly be surprised that he is heading the protest against the Pope in Edinburgh.

Regular readers will know that I don't always see eye to eye with Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrew's and Edinburgh, but I had to admire him in the press conference yesterday. He mentioned that as a man born in the former MP's constituency he would have been surprised if Paisley had not made the journey to make his protest.

If what Lord Bannside has said is the reason he will be protesting, in light of the recent revelations he has a justified reason** to protest against a State Visit, when he said :

"What we're doing, we're making a legitimate protest about something that is entirely wrong, and I am looking at myself as a person who is prepared to champion those who have been very, very badly treated by these priests of Rome."

The problem I have with the Protest the Pope idea is that there are elements of this visit which are State Ceremonial, there are other elements which are Pastoral to the Catholic pilgrims who will also be visiting these cities along with the protesters. Therefore protests at the civic elements of the Pope's visit are to be expected, however they should leave the religious elements to those of the faith to have their time with their spiritual leader.

Personally I'll not be making a physical protest. However, I will continue stand up against what I feel are wrong statements and falsehoods on this blog as time goes on (and yes that will mean the odd spat with a good friend). That goes for any church not just the Roman one.

* He may not actually visit Morningside, I'm aware of that, but the Southern Edinburgh works for the wordplay. It is also more widely known than Hillside which is right next to the Catholic Cathedral, so give me artistic license.

** Yeah me having good things to say about Cardinal O'Brien and Ian Paisley in the same blog post mark that in your diary.

Journalistic Freedom Trumped with Aid of Grampian Police

He may have his own reality TV show in the States but Donald Trump's manager at the Menie estate has been using police resources to stop scrutiny of his actions.

Two documentary film makers had been arrested and their equipment seized for five days when they were investigating claims that Trump's contractors had cut off the water supply to the local residents, including fierce critic of the project Michael Forbes. Although Paul O'Connor, Trumps manager agreed to be interviewed freely and no documents were filmed. The two, Anthony Baxter and Richard Phinney, were arrested, DNA sampled and detained for four hours after the Trump organisation accused them of accessing their offices and filming documents without permission.

Paul Holleran, the NUJ's regional organiser in Scotland said:

"This is a blatant example of police interference aimed at stopping bona fide journalists from doing their job. Their footage shows they were asking very pertinent questions in a mannerly fashion as befits professional journalists. I believe this is a breach of human rights, and we are taking legal advice. I think this must be one of the first cases in this country of journalists being arrested for just carrying out interviews to establish the truth and hold people to account."

George Soriel, Trump's senior representative who you may recognise from The Apprentice, however said:

"I think it's entirely appropriate to call the police. We have a very good relationship with all the media. We genuinely have an open-door policy [but] it's not acceptable to have two people burst into an office unannounced."

An open-door policy! Looking at some of the past incidents regarding this development you have to wonder. Maybe it is just the cat flap that is open to those with the right electronic tag.

As it was the two were arrested while interviewing local resident Susie Monro, being asked to turn off the camera while carrying out an on camera interview by Grampian Police. Going about your journalistic duty to gather both sides of the story from willing participants appears to be a crime as far as Donald Trump is concerned. Of course the 5 day retention of equipment made this no longer a news story.

In Which I Agree with Patrick Harvie

With a headline like that I can imagine James MacKenzie writing a press release before he goes to bed this evening. Go ahead James I don't mind.

Earlier today at the Green Party conference, they passed a motion supporting the AV referendum. This Tweet from Patrick Harvey is one I and many other Lib Dems will agree with.



That is just the point we have needed to get a party that believes in proportional representation into Government at Westminster to make even this baby step toward fairer voting. It should not be the end goal as we should represent the people's views and like Patrick and the Greens I believe that needs to be in a proportional system.

The Yes to Fairer Votes campaign is now up and running at their Website. We now have less than eight months until the vote on 5 May next year. Less time that is takes for a baby to go full term, yet this campaign makes sense and the arguments coming out in support of the status quo First Past the Post show how they take for granted that the current system works for their own ends not those of the voters.

So yes we need to get this referendum and then to get a yes vote to continue to make progress in fairer votes.

Nine Years Ago a Moment Changed The World

At this time nine years ago I was sitting in a office in Edinburgh. Behind me was the Firth of Forth and the flight path into Edinburgh Airport at that time.

A friend of mine was on a plane about to land at Philadelphia Airport. The previous morning, his last in New York, he'd gone to observation deck on the South Tower of World Trade Centre to take some panoramic pictures. The last of these had a time stamp of 10:28 and at that time the following day the Tower in the fore ground was collapsing to the ground, the one he was standing on was already gone.

There was stunned disbelief and for the first time in the Internet age we were waiting for friends, people we often hadn't met in real life but whom we considered friends, to log on and tell us they were OK.

During the 2002 Superbowl U2 were the halftime show. During their last song Where the Streets Have No Name behind them scrolled the names of the 2,977 innocent victims on this day nine years ago. It is a right a fitting tribute to those that either fell from the sky, or where killed in their place of work, or the members of the FDNY, NYPD or the Port Authority Police who had embarked on a evacuation and rescue operation.

Especially poignant are the lines:

I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear
Without a trace
I want to take sheltered from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name