Monthly Archives: January 2010

Conference deadlines approaching

The calendar and the clock are marching ever on, and whilst it might feel like you’ve barely blinked since Christmas, important deadlines in the Conference office are fast approaching.

LDV have booked a big room for a conference fringe event on the Friday night and we have until the 15th to decide how much information to put in the conference pack about the Exciting Secret Project our boffins and wonks are collaborating on late into the night. We’re of course stuck between a pillar and post – will the event be so massively oversubscribed we might need to remove walls, like our Obama event a year ago – or will there be only a handful of people as the Rally massively overruns and takes all our punters, as at our “Campaigning after Rennard” last September.

But talking about the fringe venue booking deadline is a little self indulgent when the vast majority of conference-goers won’t be organising fringe events.  Two rather more important deadlines are also fast approaching.

Motion and registration deadlines

An email from Conference office gives all the information you need:

To submit a motion for spring conference, a motions submission form is available online, which explains who can submit motions – the main routes are by local parties and by any ten elected reps. Simply download and submit your motion for the Federal Conference Committee to consider by 12 noon on 13 January 2010.

For further details on how you can take part in conference, visit our new Democracy in Action web page for information on voting, speaking and submitting motions and questions at conference. The site also includes a useful guide on how to write a better motion.

Don’t forget: There are still great savings to be made before 17.30 on 20 January 2010 if you have not yet registered for spring conference 2010. Visit www.libdems.org.uk/spring_conference for more information and to register.

Information for journalists

If you’re on the party’s press release list you will have seen recently that the deadline for free press accreditation is also coming up soon. If you want to register for free as a journo, you need to get this form (PDF) completed before the 1st February. You don’t get too much for your free pass – you’ll have to pay extra if you want access to a desk, a chair and two power sockets.

Tweets on 2010-01-11

  • There's definitely a major thaw going on out there, with loads of snow gone and a barely positive temperature. #
  • @Alexander_Ball +0.1 deg C in my garden now 🙂 in reply to Alexander_Ball #
  • @markreckons seen Better off Ted? NCIS? 30 Rock? Law and Order (*big* project!) #
  • @MarkReckons if you like 30 Rock you'll like Better Off Ted, 20 min sitcom so not much time commitment. NCIS if you like CSI; … #
  • @markreckons … and Law and Order if you like police procedurals or courtroom dramas. But there are hundreds and hundreds of episodes… #

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Campaigning in the snow

It’s snowing. It’s cold. Much of Britain is housebound.

Here are some top tips to keep your constituency campaigning in the snow.

  1. Telephone canvass!
  2. Get your photos for next year’s Christmas card now!
  3. Use time trapped indoors to review your plans.  Have you ordered your ink, sourced your suppliers and got a name next to every action point?
  4. How’s that to-do list looking?
  5. Are you practicing Inbox Zero?  What better time to start!
  6. How snowy are your neighbours’ roofs?  If some houses in your street / ward / constituency have the snow and ice melting faster than others, then it’s a clear indication they don’t have enough loft insulation.  So go look up what grants are available in your area, and go let people know.
  7. How’s your data?  If you haven’t frozen your EARS to send it to Pampisford Road, here are some questions for you: are all your email addresses in it? Including your members? Have you got the most recent postal voter list from the Council?  Are January’s register updates processed?
  8. How’s your e-campaigning? Is your website up to date?
  9. Sort out an events programme for next year.  Some events – Pizza and Politics, Hot Potato evening, wine tasting, Liberal Drinks – take next to no organising. But having a regular programme of events is a steady source of social capital amongst your members and is an easy step for new interested people. Next time someone approaches you for more information about your local party you can say “come and join us at our next Liberal Drinks!”  So now, in the snow, phone round the pub-goers and the members who have less tidying to do before they can have guests, and set up a programme.  And once you have…
  10. …prepare a members’ newsletter!  Here’s a handy insert if your newsletter needs a little padding.

Tweets on 2010-01-08

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What I was doing last time it snowed this much

I’ve seen a number of reports that this is the worst winter in 30 years – including this from the Scotsman:

BRITAIN was in the grip of the worst winter weather for nearly 30 years last night, with widespread disruption and warnings that temperatures are expected to plummet as low as –20C by the weekend.

Up to 16in (40cm) of snow was forecast for southern England, while both rail lines and two major roads to the Highlands were among the key transport links blocked.

Supermarkets reported panic buying by shoppers hoping to stock up on comfort food and anti-freeze. Salt and cat litter were also being snapped up to clear paths.

One in ten people stayed off work yesterday because of the conditions, sparking concern from business groups that it would cost the economy £60 million.

And there were fears Britain could run short of gas after the National Grid warned major users for only the second time in 30 years to cut consumption, as demand rocketed by nearly a third

So, in honour of the occasion, I thought I’d post some photos of how I celebrated the last cold snowy snap in 1980 or 1981 (we’re not entirely sure)

Snow 1980/1

Snow 1980/1

(With thanks to my mum (pictured) for scanning a whole wodge of baby photos for my 30th birthday last year)

Artisan bread in 5 mins a day

Quite like the idea behind this book – the idea, that is, that you can have a huge bucket of bread dough in your fridge and use it a handful at a time to produce a fresh loaf every few days.

I struggle to see how I could fit a bucket that size into my fridge… unless… hmmm… I could evict the mouldy onions out of one of the crisper baskets at the bottom and use that? What a mess it would make!

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nileshomepag&o=2&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&asins=0312362919 http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=nileshomepag&o=2&p=8&l=as1&m=amazon&f=ifr&md=0M5A6TN3AXP2JHJBWT02&asins=0312545525

First wholly sourdough loaf

I’ve had my sourdough starter sitting on the side in the kitchen for over a week, feeding it regularly, and using some of the discards to make half sourdough, half yeast risen bread.

It still looks like this:

Sourdough starter day 3 or 4 - definite signs of bubbles through the mix.

Looking closely enough, you can see bubbles in the mix from the inside of the jar – but it’s nowhere near as lively as this starter picture.

So I was a little uneasy that it wasn’t ready to make a wholly sourdough risen loaf. It’s still pretty cold in the kitchen, and that might account for the low activity in the starter. Still I tried anyway – and left the rising dough sitting on the boiler overnight.

And the dough went from this:

First dough to be wholly leavened by sourdough starter. Room temp overnight proving planned.

To this:

Sourdough first rising

Which seems to have more or less risen to double the size of the original dough, which was the criteria for continuing. But leaving it on the boiler also ever so slightly cooked it. The dough was crusty on top.

I had been watching these series of videos from FoodWishes – in particular the last one. I was very impressed that the guy there seems to be using the same ingredients as me, but with vastly better technique and better proving got the most enormous loaf out of the same mix.

I used some aspects of his technique before realising I don’t actually have a baking tray that big, so ended up with two smaller batons instead of one giant one. I don’t have a water spray, so did the best I could by chucking a cup of water into the oven before setting off cooking. (I have to say that still sounds like a really bad idea: throwing a cup of water into an electric oven whilst it’s hot?!)

Anyhoo, these are the loaves that resulted.

Slightly misshapen sourdough batons that kinda rose sitting on the boiler.

YourThurrock.com talks to PPC Carys Davies

An email arrives from the editor of YourThurrock.com pointing us to a YouTube interview they’ve done with local PPC Carys Davies.

You can see the interview here, as well as register to leave comments.

Thurrock, if you didn’t already know, is in Essex. Gotta love a place whose Wikipedia History section begins “Mammoths once grazed in the Thurrock area[citation needed].” Is it the WP equivalent of “First the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came…” ?

At the end of January, the LDV team will be meeting to discuss how we cover the general election. As a site launched in 2006, we’ve not been through a general election before so it will be new ground for us all. If you have views about what you’d like to hear, let us know in the comments here. More videos like this, as and when we’re told about them? Or not?