Liberal Vision

Harry Potter and the Riso of Temptation!!

“I say Hermione, it’s polling day!! Are you going to vote?”
“Of course I am, Harry! Who are you going to vote for?!”
“It’s a secret ballot, Hermione!!”
“Not for long, Harry – ballotius revealiarmus!!”
“Wait, Hermione … no!!”
“Oh my fuck?! Why Harry, you’re a LibDem?!”
“So I am, Hermione – what of it?!”
“I’m not going to lie Harry – Hogwarts is a bit Tory, at least in the early movies. In the later movies they’ve made more of an effort to look a bit more ‘comprehensive’. JK’s a friend of Gordo’s you know…”

What’s that?! The dialogues unconvincing you say?! Ok, so I won’t be quitting my day job anytime soon. But the good news is the Daniel Radcliffe, star of the Harry Potter movies is a supporter of the LibDems!! In a recent interview with the Attitude magazine (picked up by the Sun), Radcliffe expressed being thoroughly unimpressed with David Cameron:

“David Cameron is barely distinguishable from Tony Blair.”

I heartily concur! He further bemoaned the centricity of modern politics:

“I think the reason why people don’t vote is because the politicians are all so central now, it doesn’t seem to matter who you vote for.”

After stating:

“If all the people who liked them voted for [the LibDems] you could change politics overnight and we could have a proper three party system.”

Harry Potter and the Single Transferable Vote, baby!! This is a dream come true. Get thee a direct debit form!! If we can get Daniel to come to Liberal Youth Conference next time – it might be worth braving the machetes hurtling in my direction to attend!! Hmm, Harry Potter and the Point of Order, Harry Potter and the Unsafe Seat, Harry Potter and the Ambiguous Sexuality… Alright, I’ll stop now, but in all fairness you should have seen the ones I didn’t use! ; )

NORWICH RESULT – LIB DEMS THIRD

Disappointing, perhaps. This fits in with the current narrative on the Tories – a decent result, but still under 40%. Minor parties continue enjoying post-expenses boom.

Numbers:

Conservatives 13,591
Labour 6,243
LDs 4,803
UKIP 4,068
Greens 3,350
Murray (Ind) 953

Percentages:

Conservatives – 39.5%
Labour – 18.2%
LDs – 14.0%
Greens – 9.7%
UKIP – 11.8%

And the swings:

Labour to Conservatives: 16.49%
LD to Conservatives: 4.25%
Labour to LDs: 12.24%

Conservative majority:

7,348




In other news – both Stevie Gerrard and Amy Winehouse have been found not guilty.

Ros Scott replies…

The reply to the email I sent to Ros Scott earlier in the week is as follows:

The expense claims of all Liberal Democrat MPs and Peers have been checked out by teams from the Whips offices. The Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Lords has given an assurance that all claims are within the Parliamentary rules for the House of Lords. Whilst you haven’t mentioned MPs, I can report that the Chief Whip in the Commons has reported that no Liberal Democrat MPs have been found to have phantom mortgages, manipulated their claims for council tax or capital gains purposes, or to have “flipped” the designation of their properties.

I am sure you will find this reassuring,

Ros Scott

Thus, the Whips have decided there is no wrongdoing by any LD Lords or MPs and they consider the matter closed.

I don’t find it reassuring as it happens especially considering other factors. And I’m inclined to agree with Agent Orange on this one (jesus lorraine, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write…).

At the risk of sounding melodramatic this whole “it was all within the rules” spiel reminds me of the Nuremberg defence: “I’m just following orders,” they would say as they slammed the train doors shut!!

The social Darwinism of Mickey Mouse

Gone are the old egalitarian days of queueing up on a first come, first served basis. The amusement parks of the 21st century reward those who are agile of both body and mind – and preferably have fatter than average wallets.

A vacation in Orlando doesn’t come cheap and if you’re spending the bulk of your time visiting amusement parks, you want to be sure you’re wasting as little of it as possible in sweltering queues. At the two Universal Studios theme parks, this is simplicity itself. You pay for it. You can buy an Express pass which allows you to jump to the front of the line. Or – as we have done – you can pay premium rates to stay at an on-site hotel and just flash your room key to be waved passed the masses.

Things are different at the Walt Disney World resort. Here visitors can register for Fastpass tickets to avoid lengthy queues and return to their favourite attraction later, within a stipulated one hour long window.  Fastpass tickets are given out on a first come, first served basis.  For the most popular rides, you might face a two hour queue at 11am – or the option of collecting a Fastpass ticket and returning to jump the queue at around 4pm.

But here’s the rub – you can only be in possession of one Fastpass ticket per guest at any given time. So, if you choose to collect a Fastpass ticket for the hugely popular Mount Everest rollercoaster at 11am – with a 4pm return time – you will have to spend the intervening five hours in the regular lines for other rides with everyone else.

The discerning, theme park connoisseur therefore needs a pre-planned but flexible strategy. They need to use the limited tools available to them to maximise time-efficiency. The determination and physical strength to criss-cross acres upon acres of land in the unforgiving Florida heat is also a prerequisite.

So, even in the the magical corner of America that is Mickey Mouse’s cartoon kingdom, the rule of the survival of the fittest prevails. What an amazing country.

Ros Scott refuses to respond on expenses questions

More anonymous e-mails bouncing around this morning.

We are now informed that Ros Scott has refused to respond to the letter from “Agent Orange”, stating:

“I have a strict policy of not responding to anonymous communications”

Fair enough – but it doesn’t elucidate much for the rest of us.

So, at Liberal Vision we thought we would help by putting a real person on the end of the queries to Ros. Here’s an open letter sent to Ros this morning:

Dear Baroness Ros Scott,

Following comments made on Liberal Democrat Voice claiming that there is going to be no internal audit of Liberal Democrat peers’ expenses, and that Cowley Street has said they “do not find any grounds for believing that Lord Rennard has broken any rules regarding Lords Allowances”, I would like to ask if there is any truth in these comments.

In other words: is there (or has there been) any kind of internal party audit regarding the expenses allegations made against several Liberal Democrat peers, including Lord Rennard?

Yours faithfully,

Sara Scarlett
Liberal Democrat Member

End of letter.

Let’s hope we get some clarification on this issue before long.