Anders Hanson

Most blogs kept by Liberal Democrats are heavily political in their content and usually involve them spouting off about the great political issues of the day.  Mine I am sure is no exception.  But one Liberal Democrat blog that is completely different is one that is also written by a Lib Dem who stands a very good chance of being an MP after the next election.

The blog I am referring to is Ed Fordham’s 474 to win blog.  As I write this the top posting is about Brian Coleman’s failure to stand up for local residents on policing, but many of the posts are completely different.  A lot of them are little observations about local landmarks, mentions of community events that Ed has attended and the often overlooked history of the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency.  It’s completely different and hopefully will draw people to read more about Ed who wouldn’t normally take an active interest in politics.

Until Ed moved to Hampstead and the Brent East by-election I didn’t know North London at all.  But one thing that struck me from visiting the area is how fascinating it is, with lots of unexpected places in particular Hampstead which wows you the first time you visit.  Hampstead should certainly be on anyone’s list of places to see in London.  It clearly also has a huge community spirit, which is unusual for many urban areas.  Indeed on a visit to see Ed the other week I helped Hampstead Town Lib Dems set up their summer fair and it was amazing how close-knit and supportive everyone is in the area.  Ed’s blog sums up a lot of this, and even though I don’t necessarily know many of the places he talks about on his blog I still find it interesting.

If you like the lesser known history of places and have a fondness for London, then this blog is a must.

A posting on The Yorksher Gob blog (which I only discovered yesterday thanks to the Campaign for Gender Balance Blog Awards), has made me realise I use another bit of Yorkshire dialect without realising it.

The Yorkshire Gob mentions in the footnote to one posting about the word ’stood’:

stood is a perfectly valid Yorkshire dialect particple of the verb to stand. I would like to see it adopted countrywide over the much more unwieldy standing, but a bit of a forlorn hope.

Well I use “stood” in the same context, and it had never really occured to me that it was gramatically incorrect, and I would consider myself to be someone who largely uses English properly (except when I am writing blog entries quickly and don’t check them properly afterwards).

I can now add “stood” (in the present tense) to words like “pot” (to mean a plaster cast on your arm or leg), “mardy” (to mean someone who is being a bit sulky and angry), “nesh” (to mean a bit feeble and weak - often as a criticism of someone if they are complaining about the weather), “while” (to mean ‘to’, as in ‘we’re open 9 while 5′) and “gennel” (to mean an alleyway), as words that I have always used but that I had never realised were Sheffield dialect until someone pointed it out. I did find out about some of them when I went to university and people didn’t have a clue what I was talking about when I said that someone had a ‘pot on their leg’.

As someone who doesn’t have much of an accent, (although some Southern friends of mine would disagree), I like the fact that I do use some local words. It does at least connect me with my roots and where I grew up.

A quick thank you to Garbo on Poliblogs for making me the first winner of his Blog of the Week award, and for the very flattering comment that I am “Fast becoming, to me, the number one Lib Dem blogger”.

All I need to do now is live up to the billing.

I had always made a rule that I would never blog about anything to do with my current employer.  Basically, it’s so I don’t inadvertently undermine them or say something that can be used against them, when it wasn’t them that actually said it.

Working for the Liberal Democrats has made it difficult at times, but when I worked for Chris Huhne I didn’t blog about him, and that had largely been the case now that I am Constituency Organiser for Nick Clegg.  Until the last couple of months of last year, the only exceptions had been one or two completely innocuous comments, which would invariably being in praise (you can check by searching tags: nick clegg).  The leadership election changed all of that. How could I, as a Lib Dem, not write about the most important thing that was happening in the party at that time?  Fortunately as I was backing Nick anyway, and I wanted him to win I could easily make sure that all I wrote was positive and I left out any of the negative comment.

So to my apology.  With Nick Clegg as leader it is impossible to sustain that rule forever.  So if you are reading this Nick, (and I know that you occasionally do read my blog), please accept that whilst I will usually stick to my old policy of omitting negative comments, where there is something that is a major deal for the party, I will write what I really feel.   My next posting is going to be a good example of that - largely positive, but with one or two slight disagreements.

Seeing the title of this post by Alix Mortimer reminded me of the reason I am trying to avoid reading the comments on websites such as Political Betting and UK Polling Report at the moment. They are getting so repetitive, and usually run along the following lines:

Original post: Don’t you think the new Liberal Democrat idea to make eating carrots compulsory is great? This will really make the party stand out in the future.
1. geoff - this is the wrong question. Do people not realise that under a land based taxation system…… [etc etc etc zzzzzzz....]

2. vege sandal wearer - this is the first time I have posted here. Does anyone know if they mean organic carrots or just any carrots?

3. anonymous - who cares, it’s the lib dems?

4. friendofmarx - this is just further proof that the lib dems have now become another conservative party.

5. a nonny mouse - the real problem for the Lib Dems is that they are too left wing. What they need is someone like David Laws as leader, then they will be a credible party again.

6. iwanttokissdavecameronsarse - well there won’t be any Lib Dem MPs after the next election anyway as the current opinion polls, combined with tactical voting by Labour and UKIP, plus with the extra 10% in the polls that the Conservatives will get when people realise what an excellent PM David Cameron will make, means that the Lib Dems are now doomed forever. In my own constituency of Southwark & Bermondsey the Conservative message is going down really well with people now and I really think our candidate, once we have selected one, is going to get at least an 8,000 majority with Simon Hughes falling to fourth.

7. bloggersforchris - iwanttokissdavecameronsarse is talking rubbish. When Chris Huhne becomes leader of the Liberal Democrats the party will pick up at least another 300 seats next time. Chris already has the other parties worried due to his radical left-wing credentials and his dynamic and outgoing personality. The Lib Dems have a bright future.

8. bloggersfornick - what are bloggersforchris and iwanttokissdavecameronsarse talking about? When Nick Clegg becomes leader of the Liberal Democrats the party will pick up at least another 400 seats next time. Nick already has the other parties worried due to his radical liberal credentials and his way of reaching out to people who are liberals but don’t yet vote for us and due to his infectious cheery manner. The Lib Dems have a bright future.

9. iceman - not the Lib Dems again, why not concentrate on serious parties.

10. dolce vita - so would Nick Clegg provide these carrots with vouchers? It’s time people were given an answer.

11. mamma mia - I think 2 raises a really interesting point there. If you look at the history of carrot growing, and the late boom in vegetable growing in the 1960s, then you will see how it gave Eric Lubbock a big boost to his campaign in Orpington. With a standard allotment co-efficient then the Liberal Democrats could be on to a winner with this. Assuming standard electioneering techniques and tactical voting by Green voters.

12. you cannot be serious - has anyone seen this story about Ian Blair: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dodgycoppers. Looks like he’s doomed to me.

13. anonymous - lol

14. anonymous2 - well done Lib Dems for bringing up this important issue.

15. roger the lodger from next door - Oh come on? This idea is ludicrous. What we are calling for is to make carrot eating compulsory. But there is a lot of evidence that broccoli is better for you. If we go ahead with the current proposal then the other parties will raise the problems we had two years ago with the Eurocarrot. Perhaps what we need is a referendum, or maybe a all-party royal commission to debate the issue. I am glad that someone has raised this though as it is very important to debate the choice of vegetables that we are consuming. I trust that Vince Cable, who is doing an excellent job I might add, would be doing everyone a service by looking at a policy paper on this.

And so it goes on and on and on…..