Shorts

 

Here are the little things that seem to have no other place. Please forgive their apparent randomness.

 


6th May 1999>

Today is polling day across the country. 30 million people will vote in local elections, and for Scottish and Welsh assemblies. Now, if we're honest, the Tories haven't got a snowball's chance of winning either of the Assemblies - which leaves the local elections to give a much-needed boost to the party. I read an article in the Independent which reckoned that a gain of 700 seats would be neither good nor bad; 1300 seats would be pretty good; and 1700+ seats would set the champagne flowing. This out of about 13,000 seats in total. It strikes me that they'll have to do pretty well to get a gain of 1700 seats. On the same, yet slightly different note, I was very disappointed with the level of Tory publicity we received in our house. The LibDem candidate came round, knocking on doors, handing out professional leaflets, and those annoying diamond-shaped boards have been appearing all over the ward. Now, from the Tory candidate we got one sheet of paper which had clearly been done on a home computer somewhere - no home visit, seemingly no care really. If this pattern is repeated throughout the country, then it will be no surprise if the Tories don't do well. Lacklustre campaigning is not the way forward.


11th May 1999

A report in the Express today detailed how a 120ft. high picture was projected onto the wall of the House of Commons. So? Well, the picture was of the delectable Gail Porter, British TV presenter, taken from her recent shoot for FHM. In which she was completely nude. The security staff at the House, of which there are 200, and of which there is a guard kept 24 hours a day, claimed not to have noticed. Yeah, right.....


9th August 1999

Charles Kennedy was today elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, replacing Paddy Ashdown who stepped down after the European Elections in June. A Scotsman renowned for his wit in the Commons, he is promising much, but it waits to be seen whether he can deliver....


10th September 1999

Following Tory MP Alan Clark's death recently (he will be much missed by this site...) Michael Portillo, former Defence Secretary who was voted out of his seat at the last general election, is to attempt a comeback into politics. He has put his name forward to contest the now vacant seat under the Tory banner; the seat, Kensington and Chelsea, is considered very safe by Tory HQ. However there is a slight twist: he only put his name forward after admitting that he had had homosexual experiences as a young man. But that is all behind him now, he is an 'active heterosexual', so that's all right then.... seriously, in my opinion, it is good that this has been disclosed now instead of potentially damaging the party in the future, but I do feel that it will also damage any chance he may have of leading the party in the future. Obviously none of this will affect his ability to do the job, just look at Bill Clinton for example, but still in the minds of the 'old guard' Tories he will be marked down as 'bad' and one to avoid. Another one bites the dust, then.


It strikes me that there is a fair bit of technical jargon on the site, which may mean that some of you have no idea what I'm going on about (especially international visitors). Therefore, I will shortly make an all-new, shiny, sparkling glossary section to explain terms like 'ward' above (which is, incidentally, a sub-division of a constituency, usually about the size of a couple of villages, or about four to five thousand people.) So look out for that soon.


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