Simon Hughes, MP, presented a framed photograph of the late Lord Russell-Johnston to Rev Paul Hunt, Chairman of the National Liberal Club, this evening, on behalf of Liberal International British Group (LIBG). The portrait will hang near the offices of Liberal International, which are on the ground floor of the NLC building. The original wake and reminiscences planned by LIBG for 2 February in memory of Russell were thwarted by snow. A replacement commemorative event will be scheduled for June, after the European elections, but in the meantime it would have been a shame to deprive Russell of his due place among the gallerty of Liberal greats for another three months. He was a magnificent internationalist, a magnificent European and above all, a magnificent Liberal, who served in the Westminister parliament for many over 30 years as MP for Inverness, before finding his true vocation as President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. He is much missed and fondly remembered.
Links: www.libg.org.uk and www.nlc.org.uk
Ireland’s ruling Fianna Fail is on its way to join the UK Liberal Democrats and other European Liberal parties in the continent-wide European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR), according to the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Brian Cowen. Successful integration into the ELDR — on whose governing Council I sit — would then probably lead to Finanna Fail MEPs joining the ALDE group in the European Parliament after June’s European elections.
Having survived the Australian jungle (and Robert Kilroy-Silk) on ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!’, former top London policeman and last year’s LibDem Mayoral candidate Brian Paddick had it easy-peasy at St Mary’s Church Hall in Neasden last night, when I compered a Question and Answer session with him for Brent Liberal Democrats. The local party had tastefully arranged the set with a variety of stuffed animals, from lions to snakes, and Brian himself got into the mood of things by sportiung a lurid tie encrusted with sparkly bugs. I launched things by asking him to roam pretty freely through the three jungles of policing, politics and reality TV and elicited the confession that his worst moment was being dropped out of an aeroplane in freefall for a minute, before being allowed to open his parachute. Interestingly, most of the questions from the audience related to stop-and-search and other aspects of policing. But of course, he was asked what political role he envisages for himself in the future, including a possible second stab at the London Mayoralty, to which his answers can best be summarised as ‘We’ll see!’.
