I remember when Ed Joyce and Lembit Öpik were the future...

I recently noticed that we now have something called Lib Dem Future, and was curious to find out what this might be. By means of a little investigating, I discovering that this curious little effort appeared on Lib Dem Blogs under the name of Ed Joyce, a name perhaps familiar to readers of this blog.

I'd wondered what had happened to him, after the shambles of a campaign whereby he had been disowned by his own candidate for blaming the loss of Montgomeryshire on the misfortunes of a third party. And now I know, as he is providing a platform for the one, the only, Lembit Öpik, to opine on... well, anything, really.

Don't get me wrong, Lembit is a genuinely interesting person, although in a rather different manner these days, and his views on the world probably have a market... somewhere. But, since his defeat in 2010, he has been a bit of a political gadfly, supporting a candidate running against a Liberal Democrat in a Parliamentary by-election (technically an automatic expulsion offence), working for an Iranian television station, coming fourth (and last) in the contest to be our London mayoral candidate in 2011.

However, if the dynamic duo of Joyce and Öpik are together again, I suspect it means that either Lembit wants to make a comeback, or he wants something. What that might be is anyone's guess, as he does have something of a credibility gap to bridge, but we'll doubtless find out soon enough.

If I might be so bold though, gentlemen, as to make a suggestion, it would be to remove the sub-heading "The New Voice of the Lib Dems". In the light of the 18,000 plus new members, so many of which are in their teens and twenties, you're twenty years too old, and at least five years too late...

The world is (kind of) watching

I keep an eye on the readership figures for Ros's blog from time to time, just to see what is attracting attention (and yes, I do the same for my blog), using Google Analytics.

I'd read Ros's latest blog entry, and noticed that her readership figure was up somewhat sharply, and was keen to find out what was going on. Imagine my surprise to find that there have been 540 views of her blog yesterday. Alright, Iain Dale did link to her blog, but that only accounted for about 16% of her readers. I'm somewhat surprised that he did, given his sarky comments about the election (if it's such a joke to you, why bother covering it, Iain?) but there you go.

There also appears to have been some interest in her activities as a member of the House of Lords, if Google is to be believed (oh yes, I check that too, just in case...).

I feel cheated though. It is apparent that those outside the Party who take an interest in such things were convinced that Lembit would win, and if I had played the spread betting market, I could have made enough profit for a very nice holiday for the two of us. After all, they weren't interested enough to check her out before... Someone must have made money out of the result though, because Guido Fawkes could only as grouchy as he is if he'd put money on Lembit to win. That will teach him to find a reliable source...

A rummage through the memory vaults

And so to Harlesden/Neasden/Stonebridge (delete as appropriate), for the second Brent Liberal Democrats Annual Dinner. Daniel and Valerie (old friends and now Brent councillors) had invited me last week and, given my historic links to the borough - my parents still live in what is now Fryent ward and I fought Roe Green ward in 1990 - it seemed like an opportunity to meet some old friends.

Somehow, I shouldn't have been surprised to see Jonathan Fryer there. There is a theory that there is more than one Jonathan Fryer wandering around London because, to paraphrase, everyone knows someone who has met Jonathan at a Local Party event. Anyone would think that he wanted to be selected for something...

I ended up on a table with Jonathan, John Hammond and Alan Johnston (two of our original councillors from the early days in Barham), Daniel and his wife Karen, and a charming evening was had by all.

The guest speaker was Lembit Opik. Now I remember Lembit long before he was an 'out' Liberal/Liberal Democrat, having attended the Winter 1985 National Union of Students Conference in Blackpool (if you think the town is bad in September, try December...) where he ran as an independent to fill a vacancy on the National Executive (unsuccessfully, as I recall). Coming on stage wearing a white lab coat and carrying a guitar was a USP, and somehow persuading 1,500 fairly politicized students to make sheep noises was pretty impressive. Amazing how he ended up in Montgomery, when you think about it...

It is sufficient to say that he gave an excellent speech, laden with jokes and asides, demonstrating beyond any shadow of a doubt that he can work a room. Whilst this does demonstrate his entertainment value, I'm yet to be convinced that he has the gravitas to be an effective Party President.

Of course, Brent has its own MP, the increasingly prominent Sarah Teather. She rallied the troops in advance of the May elections and gave a passionate call to vote for Ming (too late, Sarah, I've already voted...). She is impressive. If she were six inches taller, she'd be quite intimidating, although I'm not sure if that's a good thing...

So, all in all, a good evening and an event I would recommend to anyone. Perhaps next year...