Earl’s Court Campaign Hots Up

With less than a fortnight to go before the Earl’s Court ward byelection in Kensington & Chelsea, London, dozens of LibDem campaigners have been hitting the streets in support of local champion and LibDem candidate Linda Wade, who is fighting to win a seat vacated in rather unfortunate circumstances by longstanding Tory Councillor Barry Phelps. The party’s Deputy Leader, Simon Hughes MP, was in the ward this afternoon, to do a Press interview and a photocall with party activists, including Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Mike Tuffrey of the GLA and myself. The Liberal Democrats last summer ended decades in the political wilderness in K&C by electing Carol Caruana to represent Colville ward (around Portobello Road). In May this year, Carol was joined by new ward colleague Tim Jones. Kensington & Chelsea has tended to be seen as the bluest of blue London boroughs (it is ‘Royal’ after all!), but the days when the Conservative Party ruled the roost unchallenged, apart from a few token Labour councillors in ’tolerated’ wards, may well be over. Certainly, if Linda Wade seizes Earl’s Court on 16 September, it will mark a sea-change.

Link: http://kensingtonandchelsealibdems.org.uk

Inter-Religious Council at the United Nations

The Chairman of the Universal Peace Federation, Moon Hyung-Jin, has been in London this week, on his first ever visit to the UK, promoting the idea of an Inter-Religious Council at the United Nations. The idea was first mooted 10 years ago by his father, Moon Sun-Myung, head of the Unification Church — a body that has often had very hostile Press, in this country and elsewhere, though its work in peace-building and development in some of the poorest countries on earth is often admirable. A good cross-section of leaders of other religious faiths turned up at Portcullis House in Westminster to meet the younger Rev Moon, who has his own congregation of 4,000 in Seoul, though spent much of his life so far in New York. A soft-spoken, modest man in a simple white round-necked shirt, he argued that the United Nations should have a parental role in the world and that politicians are lost without some sort of spiritual guidance. His message was endorsed by a number of speakers of different religions, including Marcus Braybrooke, President of the World Council of Faiths, who pointed out that although legislation in countries such as Britain has its role in countering disrimination, education against misunderstanding is essential.

Link: www.upf.org