'Oh, so that's who Richard Morris is..." Lord Hattersley on The Daily Politics

'An influential activist' - The Guardian

'Iain Dale, without the self loathing' - Matthew Fox in The New Statesman

'
You are a tinker...' - Tim Farron

Wednesday 14 September 2011

Banking, Spanking and Where to Draw the Line.

There were 3 major news stories that broke on Monday. They were:

1. The Vickers Report on banking
2. Allegations that George Osborne may have indulged in inappropriate behaviour in his youth.
3. The leaking of The Boundary Commission report.

Now, one of these stories represents a massive achievement for the Lib Dems. The Vickers Report largely endorses the views Vince Cable has been putting forward for some time, the endorsement by Osborne shows the Lib Dem view has triumphed, and even Ed Balls has indicated he is largely supportive. We should be shouting this news from the roof tops.

So I thought I'd have a quick glance through the Lib Dem Blogs aggregator and see what we have been writing about on Monday and Tuesday. The scores on the doors are:

Banking: 4
Spanking: 5
Boundaries 21

(My own scores are 0, 0, and 3)

So what does this tell us? Well, a few things I guess.

1. It's easier, more fun, and more natural to vent about bad news (Boundary Commission) than good news (Banking). (It's also worth noting that the overall media angle that the commissions recommendations are bad for us is not necessarily true - lots of misinformation out there and plenty of time to change things).

2. When I moan that we we don't make enough of Lib Dem wins in government, I'd better just check I've been doing my bit first. I'll be writing something on banking this week.

3. Lib Dems are 4 times more interested in electoral reform than sex or drugs, but we prefer thinking about both sex and drugs to banking. These are FACTS

Right. I'm off to stand on a street corner waving a banner saying 'Vince was right'.

2 comments:

  1. You worked the term 'spanking' into a blog entitled A view from Ham Common - well done! The net curtains of suburbia must be twitching.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am looking forward to checking out the search terms that lead to Ham Common today...

    ReplyDelete