Gemma took part in November's public sector workers' strike, her first since completing her studies and becoming a full-time NHS employee last January. I am very proud.
One of the by-products of her involvement was that it's got me talking to (and trying to persuade some of my more conservative colleagues) about the strike. A surprising number are happy to take the government line, without question. I say always question what you are being told, by either side.
The march came right passed my office, but by the time I'd come outside to see her (plus her mum and Olive) come by, they were already at Victoria Square and were straining to hear the speeches. I walked down to get a few pictures, before briefly meeting with them on the corner of the square.
At the time of writing, no-one seems quite sure about who is going to end up governing the country. The results, which was based on a fairly disappointing turn-out of 65%, suggest that no party won.
Labour lost 91 seats and now have 258 MPs. The Conservatives gained 97 seats, and finished on 306 (this should increase to 307 when the delayed vote in the previously blue Malton constituency takes place later this month). The Liberal Democrats drop 5 seats and now have 57 MPs.
Labour's losses were expected, and actually don't seem as bad as people supposed they would be even a few weeks ago. Similarly, The Tories have made significant gains but have not done as well as they might have expected. And the Lib Dem's recent strong showing in the polls appears to have masked the peoples true voting decisions on May 6th.
The number of MPs required to command an overall majority in the House of Commons is 326 (as this is more than half of the 650 seats). So one their own, the Conservatives cannot form a majority government. Convention has it that the incumbent Prime Minister has the first right to seek to form a government; however, most commentators think this is unlikely given Labour has around 50 fewer MPs than the Tories.
So right now, all talk is of a coalition. This would see the Liberal Democrats enter into some kind of partnership with either of the other parties. This weekend, team Clegg are meeting with team Cameron to see if they can't work out some kind of deal that would see these two parties enter into a coalition. Gordon Brown has been forced to take his turn in the queue, and is hoping that no agreement will be forthcoming; this will give him a chance to see a deal can be done with the Lib Dems.
I heard Billy Bragg saying on the news that by this time next week, the Liberal Democrats will have entered into an alliance with the Labour party, which by then will be led my David Milliband. But I also heard Jim Naughtie on Radio 4 predicting that we will eventually end up with a Lib Dem / Tory government. I half agree with Billy's assessment, Gordon Brown is now on borrowed time as party leader.
In the Leeds Central constituency, Hilary Benn retained his seat but with a reduced margin. In fact, the Liberal share of the vote also decreased, the beneficiaries being the Conservatives (who saw an increase of 8 percentage points). So my yellow vote has had no bearing on this result. But perhaps my choice of the Green party for the council election did have an effect; the sitting Lib Dem lost his seat to the Labour candidate. Similar gains and losses across the city have resulted in Labour become the strongest party on the council, but there is still no overall control.
We've answered our door to not one single canvaser or candidate during the run-up to tomorrow's general and local elections. Doesn't anyone want our votes?
Our current MP, Labour's Hilary Benn, has sent one leaflet asking us to retain his services for another few years. I have nothing against him personally (and I love his dad), but his chosen parties' current guise and recent record go against him. The Liberal Democrat candidate, Mick Taylor, has posted a couple. The Conservative, BNP, and two independent candidates have not made contact. Yellow gets my X on this occasion, in part because no Green is standing.
On the local front, it seems that sitting Lib Dem councillor David Hollingsworth is feeling the heat and as accordingly sent three flyers and a 'personal' letter. These have all been personally addressed to Gemma and me. I genuinely can't find any information on the other standees, but despite this, I think the Green Party will get my local vote this time around.
I'm really looking forward to watching a mixture of coverage on Channel 4 and the BBC tomorrow, and I am hoping for friends to be available on Facebook for some live analysis of the proceedings. Maybe see you there?
It's now one week until we get to vote in the 2010 UK general election. It has been looking for the last few months that the outcome will see a hung parliament. But the predicted number of seats for the three main parties does not appear to relate to the opinion polls.
The average poll results up to Tuesday this week show The Tories in the lead on 33%, the Lib Dems second on 30% and Labour trailing on 28%. But the BBC's election seat calculator is converting these results into an favourable result for Labour.
These results appear puzzling, and seem to vindicate the Lib Dem's call for full electoral reform. Over at FiveThirtyEight, a possible explanation is offered.
...But these forecasts are based on a questionable assumption and may understate, perhaps substantially, the magnitude of gains that might be realized by the Tories and by the Lib Dems. In particular, they are based on the idea of a uniform national swing, i.e., that if Labour finishes 7 points below their standing from the previous election in 2005, their share of the vote will drop by 7 points in each individual district constituency.
So based on this idea, it looks like the Conservative party might have the most MPs after 6th May, but they will be without an overall majority.
Vote for Policies is an excellent idea. Instead of choosing allegiance to a particular political party based on pre-conceived ideas or lazy loyalties, this tool effectively suggests who you might like to vote for based on your preferences to various policies. And as a bonus it encourages you to take time to read and understand what is being offered.
It works by you selecting your preference from a list of six groups of manifesto-style pledges, each of which relates to the six most popular UK political parties. The twist is that you don't necessarily know which policies relate to which party, as they contain no specific reference to the party that authored them and are displayed in no particular order. The results to date are encouraging:
As you can see, the Green Party are well in the lead, with the three 'main' parties hovering between the 16-18% mark, and the two remaining 'fringe' parties thankfully skulking at the unpopular end of the list.
But how should I vote? I am in a way undecided, but only because there is a strong chance that the Green party will decline to field a candidate in our constituency. As long as they show up on the ballot paper, I am most likely to give my vote to them; if not, I think I will plump for the Liberal Democrats. I feel like I could never vote Conservative, and the current Labour Party feels a long way away both from their own roots, and from being a party I could put an X against.
As I commenced the process of selecting my preferred policies, I became concerned that the outcome would include choices pro parties that I would never admit to liking. What if I am a racist, or a Tory, or a Europe-obsessed lunatic?
It seems I needn't have worried too much.
Gemma's results were the same as mine, save for a surprise split of her LibDem share of the vote, half of which went to the Tories.
As I walked through town today, I saw a police car draw up alongside a busker who was mid-tune (High and Dry by Radiohead). The policeman got out and I overheard him explaining to our song-smith that they has received a complaint from members of the nearby Leeds Library.
I didn't realise that this was a kind of metaphor, albeit a pretty weak one. For the TV screens in Barclays Bank minutes later were confirming news that had been expected for a week or so; the BBC are closing6Music.
This is my joint-favourite radio station (along-side No-Fun FM), and the decision seems both wrong and against the principles of the BBC. How can it be in the interests of 'Inspiring knowledge, music and culture to be closing down a station almost entirely staffed by knowledgeable music-lovers? As is so often the case in such matters, Andrew Collins analyses the situation well. I think this is a clear case of the BBC pre-empting enforced cuts that it perceives will be forced upon it by the next government, whatever its colour.
So, if you care about saving a really good little radio station (one that could reach a much larger audience if it wasn't restricted to digital broadcasts), tell the BBC your views here.
Heading back towards the office, I noticed the busker was still playing, sans police accompaniment. Another metaphor? I hope so.
Just two years after the Second World War, and still many years away from the end of rationing, Britain experienced what some folks say was the worst winter in living memory.
The bad weather began on 21 January 1947; heavy snows and high winds quickly led to drifts that blocked roads and railways. Deliveries of coal supplies stalled, causing many power stations to shut down. The government found it necessary to introduce measures to cut power consumption, including restricting the use of domestic electricity to nineteen hours per day (and cutting industrial supplies completely), limiting radio broadcasts and suspending television services, and ordering the suspension of some magazines (oh how I wish this had applied to all of the trashy lifestyle magazines and wasteful free-sheets of today).
The freezing weather lasted throughout February, when the nation began to fear food shortages as supplies were cut off and vegetables were frozen into the ground. A quite rapid thaw arrived in mid-March, which led to widespread flooding. The Army and foreign aid agencies were forced to provide humanitarian aid to the 100,000+ properties affected.
A quick trawl of the YouTube netted parts one and two of a reminiscence of the winter of '47, including footage of the time and memories of people who were there:
But in fact this was not the worse winter in living memory. That title belongs to the winter of 1962 - 63, which is considered to the be the third coldest in England since records began in 1659 (and who amongst us can ever forget the coldest, in 1683 - 84?).
A cold easterly set in on 22nd December, and a belt of snow became almost stationary over southern England on Boxing Day. The following day a foot of snow covered much of southern England. In contradiction of our rose-tinted memories of how we used to cope, transport was brought to a standstill and sporting events were cancelled en masse. And this was just the appetiser. On 29 and 30 December a blizzard across south-west England and Wales left drifts six metres deep which left villages cut off and brought down power lines.
When the snow wasn't falling during January, the country simply froze solid. Daytime temperatures rarely and barely crept above freezing, and night frosts produced a temperature of -16°C in places as far apart as Gatwick and Eskdalemuir. Freezing fog was a frequent hazard, though the spectacular rime deposits that built up over successive days were said to be beautiful.
Also in the month of January the sea froze for 1 mile at Herne Bay in Kent, and there was speculation that the whole of the Strait of Dover would suffer the same fate. Ice floes appeared on the Thames at Tower Bridge.
The first week of February saw a 36-hour blizzard in most parts of the country. Drifts reached 20 feet in some areas. A quiet period mid-month was broken by even more snow arriving in the north of England. The weather pattern at end of this month mainly consisted of cold but clear and sunny days with severe night frosts and freezing fog.
At the beginning of March came the thaw, gradual at first, then rapid. Very quickly, a temperature of 17°C was noted in London, and the snows vanished into the ground and the earth softened.
And to hear people moaning today; anyone would think they'd just lived through a devastating earthquake or something. Get a grip and grow a pair.
We had a lovely, low-key, halloween-tinged weekend. Saturday was the busiest day; Sunday was pretty lazy.
Preparations commenced on Thursday when I harvested our crop of butternut squashes from the garden. Both were looking mighty tasty...
...but size left a little to be desired, as evidenced when compared to an average-sized pumpkin:
No matter. The pumpkin and the ripe butternut went into the big pot, along with some onion, garlic, potatoes and red peppers. Left to simmer for a few hours, then blended, we had our soup for Saturday.
And like clockwork, Saturday came around. The day started with a visit to Baildon to see Dean and Rachel. Andrew and Michelle were also there, and both Olive and Scarlett were dressed appropriately for the time of year.
Whilst there we met the Viponds new daughter Isabella, who was mainly asleep and most definitely gorgeous.
Then we drove home, The three Davies' couldn't fit into our car so took the train to Leeds, and I went to pick them up. I was concerned enough about the demonstrations that were taking place in nearby City Square to take the back way to the station. There were lots of police around and a couple of helicopters, but no sign of either the English Defence League or the Unite Against Facism. On the way home I decided to go through town, and we were amazed at the number of police on the streets.
The rallies had now dispersed but the police were clearly taking no changes. Clusters of police stood about on every corner, and most of the roads around Greek Street were double-parked with police vans. We felt at once safe and apprehensive.
Back home, we ate soup, and then left Gemma's mum in charge of Olive and Scarlett. We four headed to Bradford to see Daniel Kitson. His current stand-up show is loosely about death and ran for an hour and a half. Of course it was absolutely funny. Wearing a relatively trimmed beard and shorter hair, he looked like a younger Bill Bryson.
Afterwards we had a little difficulty getting out of the multi-storey car park; something had caused a delay, and now there was a large queue of cars lined up at the single exit barrier. It was one of those car parks where you pay before getting into your car; you leave by surrendering your ticket at the barriers. To avoid mis-use, you have something like fifteen minutes from the time you pay to get to the barrier. But it was soon clear that the cars in the queue were taking longer than this to reach the front. Confusion reigned. Some bystanders loitered at the barrier, passengers got out of cars and waived tickets. But luckily nine police forces were not required in this instance, as some remote controller opened the barrier just as we reached the front.
Sunday was scrambled eggs on toast and sitting around chatting. Apart from taking the Davies' back to Wakefield at lunchtime, and popping into the shops for supplies, Sunday was a day for lounging with the family.
