Who is our 58th MP?

Loving Mike Smithson's suggestion

Do follow this link if you'd like to hear me debating with Harry Phibbs of Conservative Home and David Coburn, who runs UKIP in London, on the problems facing David Cameron

Apart from losing my thread on question 1, accidentally referring to the party as Liberals on one occasion and forgetting to mention the Mansion Tax, it went fine

:-)

An open letter to BBC Question time. That's right, another one.

Dear BBC Question time

I see you have Diane James on the BBC QT panel this evening. Nothing wrong with this - she was generally acknowledged as a strong candidate in the Eastleigh by election.

But it's the second week in a row you've had a member of UKIP on. Last week it was Neil Hamilton. Yet tonights panel fails to feature any Lib Dem.

You'll argue that Diane James is 'current' after UKIP's second place last week; an excellent result for them, no argument there. But we did actually win. A slightly better result.

You'll argue that we're in government - and that the government is represented. Yet I look back at past panels to last September - and find a Tory has been on every single one. Funny old world.

When I wrote to you pointing out no Lib Dem had ever been the extra guest - you were kind enough to respond and put Mark Pack in the hotseat.

I hope you'll do the same and again - and ensure a fairer representation of the Lib Dems on the Question Time panel.

With best wishes

Richard Morris

UPDATE

Fair enough, an almost immediate reply from BBC QT. Great they read and respond to stuff

In praise (again) of Helen Duffett....

I pointed out yesterday

"What occurs to me is: in the aftermath (and on going issue) of recent media attention, you'd think for a staged media shot welcoming a new member to Parliament that we'd do a bit of stage management and have some prominent women MPs front and centre".

Whereas we used a series of shots not unlike this.....

Or, as Mark Pack put it...

But someone was listening in Great George Street. And in today's LDV review of Mike's introduction to parliament we saw this shot

Look everyone. A Female Lib Dem MP! 

And not just any female Lib Dem MP. A #notosecretcourts rebel to boot!!

And then LDV linked to a video of Mike's introduction in the chamber - where, as Helen points out, Mike was 'flanked by a grinning Annette Brooke and Stephen Lloyd". You'll notice - Annette is...a female Lib Dem MP!

And then just to hammer it home - you can hear Helen shouting "are you getting this, Morris?', can't you - LDV adds..

" Behind Mike, Jeremy Browne and Jo Swinson are clearly delighted as he signs the Test Roll, a parchment book headed by the oath and affirmation which is kept by the Clerk of the House of Commons."

That's Jo Swinson. Another female Lib Dem MP.

It's great to know Great George Street listens. It's a pity you couldn't vote in the #notosecretcourts debate Helen!

For the umpteenth time: Theresa May is not a safe pair of hands.

According to the well connected Ben Brogan, there may be a Tory leadership plot afoot with Theresa May leading it...

and spookily enough, look what's in todays Independent...

So please everyone - before everyone goes mad: read this... (click on the link...)

The "Theresa May is a safe pair of hands" myth

or this

The May-for-leader campaign shows the paucity of Tory talent

She may the best of a bad bunch (if you're a Tory). But that's no comfort for the rest of us.

PS

TBF, good joke from Ed M in PMQs on this; and May handles it very badly...

The Problem with the National Press

1. Chavez is dead
2. We're sending armoured cars to Syria
3. Thomas Cook are making 2500 people redundant
4. The Governor of the Bank of England thinks RBS should be fully nationalised

Here's the headline and lead story in The Daily Telegraph

Words fail me

The Lib Dems and women...

Here's the shot I was sent yesterday of Mike Thornton being greeted at his new place of work on Day One at Westminster. Does anything strike you about it?

What occurs to me is: in the aftermath (and on going issue) of recent media attention, you'd think for a staged media shot welcoming a new member to Parliament that we'd do a bit of stage management and have some prominent women MPs front and centre.  

But as you can see - we didn't. Yes Jo Swinson is there - just; and there's someone else (is it Tessa Munt?) hiding in the bottom right hand corner. But mainly it's a bunch of white, middle aged men looking rather pleased with themselves. It strikes me as an opportunity lost.

Just to check I wasn't being unfair, I checked what other photos featured in the press - this was just a snatched Twitter shot.

Unfortunately - it doesn't get any better....

It strikes me that there's a bit of media management work to do here....

Of course it would help if more than 7 of our MPs were women.

UPDATE

You'd also have to say Labour is better at this; Here's what happened after they last won a by election