My Favourite Band Who Are Not Famous

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On Thursday 15 February, the controversial sentencing to death of Socrates, 2406 years ago, will be remembered in a special gig at the Cross Kings ( 126 York Way, N1, 5 mins walk from Kings Cross tube). Proceedings will be opened by Fiona Bevan around 8pm, sentencing passed by the Sways and, after a brief adjournment, hemlock will be ceremonially administered to the evening by legionseven. Again, we hope you can attend. If you print this invite it's only £3 to get in, too.

Cheers!

www.myspace.com/thesways

www.thesways.co.uk

www.thecrosskings.co.uk

Things To Do People To See

Over the next week, I have a fairly hectic schedule with lots of things to do and people to see. Mutley the dog (NSFW) is coming to Prague soon to tie up details around a city twinning arrangement with Bridport, so I will be trying to improve my local political network. I know that my forecasts of lighting blogging tend to be inaccurate (events, dear boy) so just take this as guidance.

Meanwhile, there are a group of lurkers on this blog who rarely or never comment. I got a nice email from one old friend who is from a family of active Labour supporters.

Good to see the blog is still going well- of what I've read you're extremely informative, thought provoking and balanced and that coming from a Guardian reader.

Any other first time commenters out there?

Labour Deputy Leader

For some reason the waste of space position of deputy leader/PM is attracting a lot of interest from Labour politicians. So far, the only candidates running a half-way competent campaign are Jon Cruddas and Hillary Benn. It looks like David Miliband's QT gaffe means that he will have to play the long game. Both Johnson and Hain have had damaging leaks very early on and appear to have insufficiently broad support to mount a serious challenge. The potential female candidates (no pun intended) of Blears, Harman or Jowell are frankly not even rated by their colleagues. Straw is well-respected inside and outside of the party, but is probably hoping for a lower media profile at this time and Clarke (who has been floating ideas to the right of the Tories) is far too realistic to have a hope of charming the economic illiterates that comprise the Labour membership.

Vote in my poll for who would be the best candidate to fill Prescott's cowboy boots from the Tory point of view?

Update 1 - Harriet email problems

Is being an email mug the latest fashion? Harriet Harman has mailed a Tory council leader, Brian Silvester to ask for his support! Brian, fell free to vote here.

Update 2 - Useful Idiot Needed

Just for clarity, I'm not looking for a good candidate for this non-role and please don't take this poll seriously. Personally, I've yet to vote and am finding it very tricky. Which useful idiot to choose?

Random Thoughts & Questions Of The Day

1. How come the Lib Dems have no discernable principles, but it's always obvious what they are going to say on an issue?

2. I've put the list of 20 blogs that I would have if I was trapped on a desert island into a Premiership blogs section on my sidebar. Your comments?

3. Which Labour bloggers aren't obsessed by right-wing blogs? Which Labour politicians are obsessed with running the country properly?

10 Links To Add

In alphabetical order;

1. Arthurian Legend - another lesser-spotted Tory in Islington to complement rather than compete with Newmania legend.

2. Devil’s Kitchen – a deep and free thinker. Despises Socialism.

3. Dr Crippen – a blog about the NHS that has achieved international recognition.

4. English Boat –a blogging concept stunning in its concept and delivery.

5. Jeremy Jacobs - Asked politely for a link and has a fun and prolific site.

6. Michelle Tempest - Brilliant blog. Someone who’s taking action to improve the future of health services in the UK.

7. Peter Hitchens - Dislikes Cameron. Hates Labour. Despises being told what to do. He’s no angel.

8. Rebel Yell - A disgruntled Conservative. An honest and personal account. Just wish he’d call a truce with Mr Newman and wouldn’t link to the damned awful Howard League.

9. Suz Lamido - Finally lifting the (ahem) lid on the Lib Dems.

10. Theo Spark - I like his devil-may-care attitude and his excellent satyre.

I think I'll need some new categories for some of the above.

Paul Collingwood - Hero Of The Day, Week, Month

With two runouts, a wonderful catch, a tight spell of bowling and an unbeaten 120 in a one day final against Australia, Paul Collingwood's performance for England has to go down as one of the best in recent memory.

Thanks for restoring some pride, Paul.

More here.

The Influence Of President Klaus

Whatever else you might have to say about him, it is hard to dispute my assertion that President Vaclav Klaus is the most influential politician in Central and Eastern Europe. Allow me to share a recent article by him. Headed "The Politician I Admire" it concluded;

"For the advocates of freedom and democracy Margaret Thatcher is deservingly a living legend. I have met with many giants of the world politics but none of them has left such an impression with me as this exceptional woman."

Klaus has reached the summit of politics. One of the pluses of that position is a freedom to speak freely. This week, in answer to a journalist querying whether he might be more effective if he were to tone down his criticism of the EU, he snapped back that;

"Political correctness is one of the most destructive things of current times. It is just as dreadful as Marxism and perpetually retards our development"

Feel free to use the comments for other examples of politicians laying it on the line.

Bromsgrove Bash

For various reasons, I have a lot of affection for the area lying within the seat of Bromsgrove. For example, my first girlfriend was from there and I remember a 16 year old Praguetory slagging off Grauniad readers at the dinner table when her dad piped up that he was one. All the older brothers enjoyed that one, I think.

Anyway, despite that chap's leanings, since it was re-established in 1983, Bromsgrove has been blue and the Tories have a strong majority on the district council which covers the same area.

Notable of late is the continued rise of Bromsgrove Conservative Future which I have belatedly added to my blogroll. I don't know any of them personally, but they have a great range of events and sure look like they know how to have fun.


So I got myself added to their mailing list and heard about the following event. Here's the Chairman's email if you want to find out more/attend - ray@bromsgrovecf.org.uk

Away From The Desk

I’ve had an interesting 24 hours away from the PC. I haven’t exactly been working, but I did get paid for it. Here’s what was going on in the real world. Yesterday evening, I went to a mate’s office to get a lift. A corporate poster that I thought the Croydonian might like signed off.

"Live the values. Live the glue."

After a three hour journey through heavy sleet we arrived at Hotel Aston in Bratislava and had a couple of beers. Very spacious rooms. Claret and blue kit. A conference was going on there - "lubricants committed to move your world". As you can see by the website name, the innuendo didn’t start with the slogan. Their business cards were novel too, but not appropriate for a family blog.

Anyway, after a tiring series of morning meetings (yeah right) the working day ended with a spot of hitch-hiking as the mates who drove me the night before were planning on doing a full day’s work before returning to Prague. I made it back via four lifts. The first guy had major arm and hand deformities but was a nifty driver. He pointed out that his car was 23 years old and then dropped me in the middle of nowhere. The next chap explained that he took gas from Russians and put it in holes. He drove me a few junctions up the motorway and left me at a quiet junction where a car sped by every 5 minutes. The next chap was an ugly truck driver with no teeth on his way to Peterborough. Bingo. I couldn’t figure out what he was delivering, but he was very friendly and showed me pictures of his teenage daughter. He stopped just short of Prague, but I didn’t have to wait long for the final lift.

Des Let Off

Des Smith is a London headmaster with Labour links who was caught on undercover film saying that educational donations would secure donors an honours. The police thought they had enough on this minor player, but the BBC report that he is not to be charged. Within this article, I note this revealing quote from the CPS.

Although it is clear that Mr Smith made some indiscreet comments to an undercover journalist, his conversations did not provide evidence that he was trying to obtain funding for City Academies in exchange for honours

To me, this implies very strongly that there is evidence that others were trying to obtain funding for the Labour Party other organisations in exchange for honours. Looks like the News Of The World may have hit the nail on the head. Your thoughts?