Happy New Year
OK, the first and most obvious New Year’s Resolution is to keep this blog up-to-date. So let’s begin by wishing all my readers and constituents a Happy New Year!
On a day like this, it behoves all politicians, even very minor ones, to bore their readers rigid with solemn predictions for the year ahead. So why should I be any different? Indeed, why should my predictions be any different from the numerous commentators who have opined in recent days. Broadly speaking I agree with an analysis that says: Brown is down but not out; Cameron is ahead but not over the finishing line; and Clegg has been a damp squib.
On Clegg - I was away when he was elected, and although I like him a great deal, distance lent a certain objectivity. I found his first few days as Leader, watched via Sky News, intensley disappointing, with the same old political cliches being trotted out, which come across as utterly meaningless when you are more than a mile from Westminster. And then he appoints a 59 year old former popstar as his youth adviser! You couldn’t make it up…
It will be a busy year in the constituency. First Great Western seems to be as awful as ever, so I will have to return to that fray; a decision on the reservoir will edge closer; there are huge concerns on science funding which are affecting my constituents; the campaign continues for the Wantage Arts Centre; Grove airfield planning decisions will be made; and many more issues, too numerous to mention.
And then of course those pesky New Year’s Resolutions - smoking and weight. Going well so far, but then it’s not even eleven o’clock.
Oh, and Happy Birthday to the wife. Twenty-one again.
Sue said on January 1st, 2008 at 12:39 pm:
Happy New Year Ed - thrilled to see you back
Happy Birthday Mrs Ed, I hope you have a very lovely day.
Any chance of you adding “I will comment on the comments on my blog” to your new year resolutions Ed?
Drat, I remember I said I’d shut up if you came back - looks like my first resolution has been broken already
canvas said on January 1st, 2008 at 1:46 pm:
well, well, well…He’s back.
You really need to be more dedicated to your blog, Ed. Happy New Year.
Happy birthday to the Missus. And good luck with your quest to stop smoking and lose weight.
According to Dizzy Thinks - Gordon Brown plans to refuse you treatment on the NHS if you are a smoker. How very dare he?
http://dizzythinks.net/
Sue said on January 1st, 2008 at 1:59 pm:
Ed, you got another mention on Iain Dale’s blog http://www.iaindale.blogspot.com/ - not sure that it’s entirely complimentary lol
Tizzy said on January 2nd, 2008 at 9:05 pm:
Happy New Year to everyone, don’t bother with resolutions until this gvt goes; you need something to make life worthwhile.
Got a new contract with Sky, Ed?
Andrew said on January 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 am:
I hope you will keep up-to-date your excellent and thought-provoking blog. And I agree with your analysis that Brown is down but not out. My worry is that he will get the backing of the likes of Oxfam and the other bg charities, which are in bed with Labour. Here’s the wish list of Antonia Bance, deputy director and campaigns manager of Oxfam’s UK Poverty Programme, and it would appear that she would do everything to ensure that Brown rises again, even if it might mean using her senior management position in Oxfam:
1. The Chancellor commit £4 billion to halve child poverty by 2010 in the Budget
2. Labour consistently up in the polls, Ken winning again in London, and the feelgood factor back as through a few bright new ideas, good policies, quietly dropping some duff ones, no clangers and discipline we remind the country why they’ve trusted us for a decade
3. An outright Labour majority on Oxford City Council when we go to bed early in the morning of Friday 2 May
4. The last residents living in Orlit houses on Rose Hill moving into the wonderful newly-built houses, as Taylor Wimpey get stuck in and start building; a new Fresh Start primary school on our estate; crime continuing to fall; and the youth club opening for longer hours
5. A liberalisation of abortion law, to enable women to access abortion on demand; a significant narrowing of the gender pay gap; increased funding for rape crisis centres
6. Hundreds of new houses built in Oxford, hundreds of thousands nationally, and increased regulation to target profiteering and unscrupulous landlords
Votedave said on January 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pm:
Happy New Year folks.
Lucy said on January 3rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm:
Ed, you say ‘Cameron is ahead but not over the finishing line’. Surely issues he could focus on to get him over that line are the wider, global and overall the issues that befit a future Prime Minister, for example I am sorry to see that neither yourself nor Mr Cameron are planning to attend our ‘Disarmament and Globalisation’ Conference at SOAS on Monday 7th Jan. Why not have a look at Freedland’s article published yesterday in The Guardian : http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,2234009,00.html
canvas said on January 4th, 2008 at 12:31 pm:
It doesn’t look like this blog is being kept up-todate ??
Ed, INTERACTION is a good thing! Please, try it.
What do you think about Obama winning Iowa? I think it’s great news! Young new voters turned out in record numbers to have their say - they voted for Obama because they REALLY do want change. Change and hope are more important to the people in Iowa than ‘experience’. Go Obama!