Liberal Burblings

Archive for July, 2009

Before today, I had never seen a cherry plum. Indeed, I was blissfully unaware of their existence on this planet. But, within the space of an hour today, our house has been inundated with several bucket loads of cherry plums coming from two different hauls from two different counties.

Here are just a few of them – from East Berkshire on the left, and from South Hampshire on the right:

So I think I can safely conclude that it is a very good year for cherry plums. Indeed, there appears to be a glut of them, as confirmed by this foodie blog. I don’t know what climatic conditions or whatever have led to this.

They are the same size as cherries and look more or less like cherries, but they are plums. They are absolutely delicious and very easy to eat.

I am now on chutney making detail for tomorrow evening.

Before today, I had never seen a cherry plum. Indeed, I was blissfully unaware of their existence on this planet. But, within the space of an hour today, our house has been inundated with several bucket loads of cherry plums coming from two different hauls from two different counties.

Here are just a few of them – from East Berkshire on the left, and from South Hampshire on the right:

So I think I can safely conclude that it is a very good year for cherry plums. Indeed, there appears to be a glut of them, as confirmed by this foodie blog. I don’t know what climatic conditions or whatever have led to this.

They are the same size as cherries and look more or less like cherries, but they are plums. They are absolutely delicious and very easy to eat.

I am now on chutney making detail for tomorrow evening.

Stephen Tall, Head Boy of the LibDem blogosphere, has asked for thoughts on the state of our little corner of the interweb. Here goes:

What are the greatest successes of the Lib Dem blogosphere?

1. The LibDem aggregator. It’s simple and very effective and I am yet to see anything even approaching it from the other parties. In particular, the democratic egalitarian nature of it is a wonderful re-statement of the spirit of our party.

2. LibDemVoice is excellent

3. Lots of new blogs are starting all the time. Some go quiet, some suddenly have a growth spurt, but it all gets reflected in the aggregator. I see lots of youngish people blogging, which is good.

4. I think the greatest success of the LibDem blogosphere is to give like-minded people, scattered all over the country, and the world, a sense of community and identity. It is marvellously identity-reinforcing to be able to share views with people you know will broadly agree but also take issue as necessary.

What are we, collectively as bloggers, failing to achieve?

Well nothing really. It’s crazy to see this as some sort of competition. We all have busy lives and families/partners. We shouldn’t beat ourselves up about something which, in its proper place, is just a hobby.

How does the Lib Dem blogosphere compare with those of the Labour, Tories and other parties’?
I can’t really say. I don’t read them in large quantities.

How helpful is blogging as a campaigning tool (are there examples of it making a real impact)?

Unless you get up to the DailyKos levels, I don’t think it has a great impact but it is important that it is there. It is a supplement to other forms of campaigning and can often spearhead campaigns.

What do you think the next year holds in store for the Lib Dem blogosphere?
More blogging. Very often blogging tends to get more exciting when there are exciting events happening – e.g the expenses scandal. With the election coming up, things should get interesting. I hope we can dissect the vacuum at the heart of the Tory party (if it is technically possible to dissect a vacuum, which I doubt) and display the truth of what is there (again, if that is possible). Cameron’s statement that he would like to clear Parliament Square of protestors to make it look tidy suggests that a Tory government will be the opposite of liberal and allow plenty of mileage for exposure.

Many congratulations to Nich Starling, the Norfolk Blogger, for his excellent coverage of the Norwich North by-election.

The by-election seemed to come as a remarkable piece of serendipity for the NB. You only have to go back to 16th April and he was thinking of knocking blogging on the head:

Oh I just can’t be bothered

I am wondering if it really is time to knock this whole blogging business on the head. After 30 months, thousands of postings, lots of ranting, and lots of time wasted, I really am finding it very difficult to summon up the energy to write anything that is not only interesting to someone else, but is of interest to me…

But, along came the by-election, bang on cue, and the NB was on the spot at the right time…there followed a glorious stream of posts. Every piece of literature was photographed, every twitch of his letter box chronicled, every Tory car drawing up outside noted. Wonderful!

And what is even more wonderful is Nich’s Pauline conversion on the Twitter front. As recently as February, the NB was referring to Twitter as “Tw*tter“. I wrote at the time:

The dear old Norfolk Blogger really has got a starling in his hard drive over Twitter. His site now has a “Tw*tter” box in the sidebar with these updates:I am using my computer (1 day ago)I ate my tea and went to the toilet (3 days ago)Are you really that sad that you honestly want to keep track of everything I do ? (About 38 years ago).

Nich has also done a posting entitled Twitter? Get a life! When I suggested he would be using Twitter soon, Nich replied:”Paul, i won’t be twittering for one very simple reason, I have a life ! All the reasons people have given for using it so far centre around the fact that they seem not to have a life an like knowing the laundry details and habits of people are really are unimportant”….You know, I think he’s coming round….

Well, with the onset of the Norwich North by-election, the Norfolk Blogger is now a fully fledged Tweeter. It’s a remarkable turnaround! He’s now got 216 followers and has tweeted 68 times with such updates as:

Am sitting 3 yards from Anita anand and 5 from John pienaar.10:03 AM Jul 14th from TwitterBerry

And try as I might, I can’t find a single Norfolk Blogger tweet about going to the toilet and having tea.

There’s a wonderful tweet from Nich this evening:

The one big pautive of the campaign ? I am enjoying politics again and want to be politically active again.

Marvellous!

I note the sad passing of the highly talented John Ryan, who created the charming Captain Pugwash series. It is perhaps a good opportunity to repeat that the stories about smutty names in the series were completely untrue. As the BBC states today:

Contrary to popular myth there was no Master Bates or Seaman Staines and the cabin boy was called Tom, not Roger.

Wikipedia adds:

There is a persistent urban legend, repeated by the now-defunct UK newspaper the Sunday Correspondent, which ascribes sexually suggestive names – such as Master Bates, Seaman Staines, and Roger the Cabin Boy (meaning to have sex with) – to Captain Pugwash ‘s characters, and indicating that the captain’s name was a slang Australian term for oral sex. John Ryan successfully sued both the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian newspapers in 1991 for printing this legend as fact. [1]
In a stage show in Frome on 5 June 2009, Richard Digance claimed to have originated this urban legend in a 1970′s sketch. A 25-year injunction preventing Digance making any further references to Captain Pugwash expired at the end of 2008 and the material is now part of his act.

It’s a long story but I alighted upon the following intro to “Soap” on YouTube today. It made me go all gooey, so here it is in case it causes some small pleasure somewhere in the world.

The intros to “Soap” were utterly hilarious. Like this one – narrated by the late Rod Roddy (who was a very famous voice-over man in the States – he did “The Price is Right” for many years) it weaves a maddeningly complex web of plot intricacies and then ends with the familiar line: “Confused? You won’t be after this week’s episode of Soap”. As often is the case, the wonderful theme music makes the whole thing (and I have embedded the unadulterated theme music below the intro clip).

“Soap” was, of course, a spoof of daytime US soaps. It was the launchpad for Billy Crystal’s career.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BHQT3Omqtw&hl=en&fs=1&]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVffO-mNLdE&hl=en&fs=1&]