Pride and Poetry

This year’s London Pride was certainly the most enjoyable I remember: perfect weather for the march, excellent stewarding and a really great atmosphere amongst both the participants and the crowds. The Liberal Democrats made a bigger splash than ever before, with a striking banner, a balloon-festooned, disco-music blaring, Union Flag-topped Mini driven by Hackney South and Shoreditch PPC Dave Raval and borough-specific placards for other LibDem participants to hold aloft as they walked. Very positive response from the punters. I don’t know what the speeches and entertainment in Trafalgar Square were like afterwards, as along with many of the other marchers, I retired to a local hostelry to rehydrate.

In the evening, I went to Jeremy Trafford’s literary salon in Earls’ Court to hear Lord Gawain Douglas give a reading with interlocking textual commentary of his book of poetry, Fortuna (Alma Books, £9.99). I first met Gawain many years ago at an Oscar Wilde Society dinner, but unlike the Irish playwright, who followed the then traditional path of writing poetry in the spingtime of his life, Gawain came to the ‘highest art’ in the late summer of his. The result is not just mature but finely honed and some of his generally short poems are as pregnant with suggested meaning as a Zen-inspired Japanese haiku. I far prefer his work (as well as his personality) to that of his great uncle, Oscar Wilde’s nemesis Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas. Most poets are rubbish at reading their own work and usually should not be let within a million miles of it. But Gawain, as I discovered this evening, is an exception: his performance was brilliant, giving added value to the text and much for one to ponder on a still almost midsummer’s night.

Link: www.pridelondon.org and www.almabooks.co.uk

ALDE’s New Euro-parliamentary Leader

The ALDE (Liberal) Group in the new European Parliament has chosen the Flemish Liberal and former Prime Minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, to be its new leader. He takes over from the British (South West England) Liberal Democrat MEP Graham Watson, who has meanwhile thrown his hat into the ring to try to be the new President of the parliament. Under Graham’s stewardship, ALDE grew to just over 100 members within the previous, larger, parliament. The British were the biggest national contingent in ALDE then, but they were overtaken by the Germans this time as a result of the FDP’s impressive surge in last month’s elections. As the Germans seem to be getting the leadership of the other major party groupings in the European Parliament, however, it is probably as well that they didn’t get handed ALDE as well.

Besides, Guy Verhofstadt is a sizeable and experienced political figure in his own right, even if his last attempts at forming a government in Belgium came to naught. In the 1980s, when he was a very young star in the Flemish political firmament, he became known as ‘Baby Thatcher’ for his economic liberalism, but he has softened since then, reportedly under the influence of his brother Dirk, who is a social liberal political philosopher. Guy Verhofstadt has spoken at Liberal Democrat Conference in the UK and even if he probably still would not figure in most Brits’ list of Ten Famous Belgians, his new role will undoubtedly raise his profile more even in this blinkered island nation. His commitment to the European project is without doubt. Following his election as ALDE group leader, he declared, ‘Europe is not the problem but the solution to the problems we are facing at the moment. We need more, not less Europe.’

Link: www.alde.eu

LibDems Trounce Tories in Sutton

Gerry Jerome has made a welcome return to Sutton (London borough) council with a convincing win yesterday over the Tories in Nonsuch ward, seizing back a seat the Conservatives won in 2006. Full results:

Gerry Jerome (LD)                         1665

Georg Braun (Con)                          1329

Peter North (BNP)                           211

Marcus Papadopoulos  (Lab)      88

I don’t know who to feel more sorry for: David Cameron or Gordon Brown!

Link: www.sutton.gov.uk

Simon Hughes’s Notting Hill Set

Some time back someone suggested — not entirely tongue-in-cheek — that I should do the equivalent of an Egon Ronay guide to Liberal Democrat social events in London, as I go to so many. Or maybe a ’Jonathan’s Diary’ social event review column for Lib Dem News, though the editor of that august journal (wickedly dubbed Pravda by some of its readers) correctly pointed out that this might cause mayhem amongst rival parties’ catering committees. Anyway, that is a long  preamble to a short report of this evening’s balmy annual summer party in a Notting Hill garden with a sumptuous buffet provided by members. Simon Hughes MP, who came on to the event from the 4th July (sic) reception at the American Embassy, was the entertainment between courses. Untypically, he had only three points to enumerate. First the economy (which Labour has brought into a pretty fine pickle), secondly the environment (we only six or seven years to save it) and thirdly the importance of ongoing campaigning — most pressingly in the Colville ward by-election on 22 July, in which the LibDem candidate is Carol Caruana — but also in the run-up to next May’s probably joint general and London local elections. Fundraising social events will be crucial in the interim, as the party relies so heavily on the money local associations raise for its campaigning. Which is why I spend quite a bit of time encouraging others to ‘eat for victory’!

Link: http://kensingtonandchelsealibdems.org.uk

Chris Huhne’s Crystal Ball

Labour could be heading for its worst general election defeat since 1931, according to Eastleigh MP and Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne, who was speaking at the annual dinner of Barnet LibDems at the National Liberal Club this evening. That election took place during the worst economic crisis previous to the one we are now in. Ramsay MacDonald’s government had proved unable to agree on how to get Britain out of the Great Depression, with a result that on Tuesday (sic) 27 October, 1931, the British electorate not only threw out Labour; it reduced the party to just 52 seats in the House of Commons — fewer than the Liberal Democrats have today. The Conservatives under Stanley Baldwin won by a landslide in seats, if not exactly in voters, though this was, interestingly, the last British general election at which the winning party garnered more than 50 per cent of the votes.

Does Gordon Brown have nighmares about being MacDonald Mark II, one wonders? Or is he too thick-skinned for that? From the bags under his eyes it would appear that he isn’t getting enough sleep, poor man, whatever the reason. But of course, Gordon Brown’s big worry is that Labour MPs will have another go at trying to get him out, possibly around the autumn party conference, in the hope that any other leader would lessen the number of likely losses next year. Chris believes — as I do — that Alan Johnson is the most likely victor in such a situation (David Miliband having funked it, not once but twice). The good thing about that is that Johnson favours a half-way decent form of proportional representation. Actually leading the Labour Party to victory in 2010 might be beyond the capabilities of any man (or woman), however. But David Cameron is not convincing enough to do a Stanley Baldwin and too many of his closest colleagues have emerged really badly from the Daily Telegraph expenses exposés. So, Labour is indeed likely to slump badly at the general election — but the beneficiaries won’t just be the Tories. LibDems can expect to pick up seats from Labour, not least in the North of England and probably a few in London too.

Link: www.barnetlibdems.org.uk