Martin Bell, Ceredigion's W.I. and me.

A few months ago, I was greatly pleased to receive in the post, an invitation to speak at the AGM of Ceredigion's Women's Institute in Aberaeron's Feathers Hotel.

The AGM itself was a few weeks ago but I've only in recent days received a copy of a photo of that occasion so have held back from writing this blog post until now.

I had been asked last year, during my term as Mayor of Cardigan, to chair a Q&A panel session in New Quay for the southern Ceredigion W.I. section, involving four prominent members of the local south Ceredigion community. I was slightly apprehensive at first, having never encountered the formiddable WI (remember what they did to Tony Blair!) at first hand like this before. But it was an excellent evening and the feast that they served up afterwards, met their legendary reputation perfectly.

A Warm-Up Act for the White Knight -  Martin Bell
I couldn't have done too badly on that occasion a year ago, because here I was being invited to give a 15 minute talk to the Ceredigion-wide AGM on the subject of Cardigan's 900th year celebrations. I was the opening speaker, very much the 'warm-up act' I felt for the main star attraction, former BBC foreign affairs correspondent and latter Independent MP, Martin Bell.

I must confess that I only got around to putting together my talk the night before but it ran to the 15 minutes and it gave a good, concise overview of why Cardigan was celebrating 900 years of history, what it had to celebrate, and how it was celebrating it. I gather from the feedback, that my talk was very well received and I enjoyed delivering it in front of some 150 members.

The Main Act - Martin Bell
Having given my speech, I took my seat back in the audience, knowing that I would enjoy the next one as much as the W.I. members around me.

For I've always had much time for Martin Bell. I remember the 1997 general election when I was 14 and being glued to the unfolding drama of the campaign and the aftermath. One of the most extraordinary results of the night was the victory of the first truly Independent MP to be elected to Parliament since 1951. His victory against disgraced Tory MP Neil Hamilton, along with Michael Portillo's defeat to Stephen Twigg, epitomised the disaster that was Election '97 for the Conservative Party. He overturned a 22,000 Tory majority in Tatton and replaced it one of his own of 11,000 - an incredible result.

He kept his promise of not standing for a second term in the same Tatton seat and though he ran Eric Pickles close in 2001 in his Brentwood and Ongar seat in Essex, he would be destined to be a maverick, one-term Independent MP. He bowed out of front-line poltics at the time in 2001 saying "winning one and losing one is not a bad record for an amateur". Since then, he has become a Ambassador for UNICEF and is hot property on the after-dinner circuit. Indeed, his attendance in Aberaeron proved that!

A Worthy Signature
He wrote his autobiography, 'An Accidental MP' during his term of office and I bought the hardback version at the time a good decade or so ago.

So I couldn't resist bringing along that book to the AGM in the hope of asking him to sign it for me. I'm pleased to say that he did and indeed, having arrived early with local Aberaeron County Councillor Elizabeth Evans, we found him sitting on his own in the Feathers Hotel. So we ambled over and sat with him and had a very interesting and relaxed chat with him for some 15 minutes before the AGM began. He immediately struck me as being an easy-going, possibly slightly shy, but nevertheless, communicative man and it was great to have time to talk to him before he was surrounded by an excitable mob of W.I. members! It was also pleasing to see him live up to his legendary nickname of 'The White Knight' (as the photo shows!).

A Supporter of the Coalition and of a change to AV in next year's referendum
So when I was done, I was looking forward to hearing all that he had to say.

He spoke about his work as a foreign affairs journalist and now in his role as an UNICEF ambassador and it was good to hear him state clearly that he opposed the invasion of Iraq. He also spoke about his support for change to the electoral system. This didn't come as a surprise as I'd heard him speak at the Liberal Democrat conference rally in Liverpool in support of the Alternative Vote (AV) system of electing MPs. He spoke about his support of the Coalition as an opportunity for politicians to work together in the public interest.

His views on journalistic standards were also forthright. He was very critical of the amount of news coverage given to entertainment such as the 'X-Factor' and 'Strictly Come Dancing' - in his view such issues were not going to change the world and at the end of the day, would not have a direct impact on our lives. But he said, the problems emanating from the middle east does have repercussions for us here in the UK but rarely do they get the media exposure that they demand.

It was a fascinating talk that spoke of a life full of action, and gave views on the current state of affairs from his experiences of an older world.

Blog Recognition!
A very enjoyable day had an amusing aside which involved this very blog. The vote of thanks was given to us all individually and in mine, it was mentioned that I had a blog which could be read by all and from this blog it was told that I'm a '20 something who supports Aston Villa'! I didn't expect to have had the W.I do their research on me as thoroughly as that but am impressed that they did!

So if any of the memebrs of Ceredigion W.I who were there that day are reading this, thank you for the invitation! It was an enjoyable day!

Conference Blog: Day 2 (Saturday)

It's been wet in Liverpool so far. In fact, I was taking to one of our students Richard Morgan-Ash last night and he said that in his recollections, he can't remember a wet autumn conference. Come to think of it, in the 7 odd years I've been conferencing, neither can I. Hopefully the weather will improve.

Yesterday was a good day though. A slow morning got going as we checked into conference and found our barings around the massive Echo Arena.

Security
As we'd been warned, security here is much more intrusive than normal but we've just got to make do with it. The knack is to plan ahead and make sure you're in the arena comfortably before the debate you want to see starts - easier said than done! During one of my forays through security yesterday, I happened to find myself behind former Richmond Park MP and Lib Dem Presidential candidate Susan Kramer. On being frisked by the staff, Susan swept up her arms and gave me a good whack in the face! Possibly my come-uppance for backing Tim Farron MP in the contest!

Conference Launch
After a decent (but not hugely spectacular) lunch in the (absolutely spectacular) Albert Docks, I made my way over to the conference hall for the official opening of conference at 2.30pm. Baroness Walmsley made the opening and we then had some rather dry but neccesary reports to conference by the conference and policy committees. There was a decent number in the hall at that time although I had expected more for the opening even if it is merely a ceremonial affair.

Tim Farron 4 President!
An excellent piece of planning for this conference is that the conference hotel, the Jury Inn, is literally about 200 yards from the entrance to the Echo Arena. So there's much to-ing and fro-ing between the two as delegates go back and forth to training events or fringe meetings.

I went in mid-way through to Tim Farron's 'Westmorland & Lonsdale' training event which was well attended. From behind me I heard a question being asked by a recognisable voice. I turned round and there was the face of a very kind gentleman who has helped us out in Ceredigion on a few occasions 5 or so years ago. I caught up with him afterwards to say hello but I'm damned if I can remember his name!

We then had a gathering of Tim Farron supporters in a quiet nook of the conference bar for a pep-talk by the man himself on the launch of his Presidential bid. Tim really is an excellent and inspiring speaker and the 25-30 of us there were well psyched for the nominations signing and sticker stickings over the days ahead.

Indeed, just like with Ros Scott's successful campaign 2 years ago when conference was plastered in delegates wearing her campaign sticker ('I'm 4 Ros' I think it was), this conference has already taken on a distinctly 'Tim to Win' feel.

Rally
The rally which was being led by the Electoral Reform Society was packed out and inspired us all to go out and campaign for a positive 'YES' vote in next year's AV Referendum. Art Malik was excellent and highly amusing as compare and we had some excellent speeches. Notably for me, it was good to see former MP Martin Bell there weighing in with his support. I bought his autobiography 'An Accidental MP' many years ago and have always been a fan. Jo Swinson was unsurprisingly excellent and very infectious with her enthusiasm and then, Tim Farron appeared once more as a (very very very) last minute replacement for Charles Kennedy. As ever, he almost stole the show (but then maybe I'm being biased here!).

Finally, Nick Clegg spoke very well in that laid back, relaxed conference style of his and brought the rally to a close. The fireworks that marked the end of the rally was quite surreal - we're clearly now a party of government!

Fringe Troughing
Once a student, always a student as they say. So when we were given the nod by Cardiff's Rachael Hitchinson that Liberal Youth had a fringe event with free food and wine, we made a quick dash back to the Jury Inn to get in there quick. We were successful and indeed listened to an excellent fringe about HE Funding with Vince Cable, the main man on the panel. It finished with Q&As and an excellent question by a 14 year old school pupil - I'd never have had the guts to ask a Secretary of State a question in front of over 50 people when I was that age!

Lib Dem BOTY Awards
I've made a concerted attempt over recent weeks to get my blog 'up-and-active' and as a result, was keen to go, for the first time, to the Lib Dem 'Blog of the Year' Awards ceremony. I was interested to see the faces behind many of the names in the Lib Dem blogosphere and it was great to see such a diverse and eclectic bunch! It certainly made me feel as if 'I'm not alone' out here, blogging away! Congratulations to the winners of the 2010 BOTYs and particularly to Millennium Elephant for winning blog of the year! Hopefully the curse won't strike again and they'll all continue blogging into 2011!

Conference Bar
If Friday night was a calm, quiet affair, last night was anything but! As expected, most conference delegates arrived during the day and their presence was felt in an over-flowing conference bar. It was great to bump into a number of faces from around the country I was hoping to see. The York contingent were out in force with Nick Love, Billi Williams and the English Mark Cole (aka Tom Holvey) and it was good to see the likes of Sam Potts, Marie Jenkins, Mike and Veronica German, Amy Kitcher, Kev O'Connor and Bob Griffin there too.

An absolutely incredible development transpired during the late evening at the bar. As an over-flow mechanism, there's a smaller additional bar and they serve what I can only presume is a local beer called 'Cains'. Unbelievably, you can get a pint of it for just £2.45. That's 2 pints for a £5! It's unheard of generally nowadays but in a conference bar?! It's even nice to drink! Incredible!

I left the bar around 2.30am and there were still plenty there in my wake, soaking up the pretty unique atmosphere that is a Liberal Democrats conference bar in the early hours!

Conference has very much, 'come alive' now and it should be an excellent next few days ahead.