Glasgow North East - and we are off

Despite the fact that the people of Glasgow North East have now been 115 days without Westminster representation and that as of yesterday Labour still had not moved the writ in Parliament for the by-election to take place, the Liberal Democrats launched their campaign yesterday with Leader Tavish Scott, Eileen Baxendale and Robert Brown MSP in Springburn.

As is always the case with these things we had journalists getting a wee bit irate because of deadlines, and it showed in their questions (a chill pill may have been in order there), Tavish was delayed because a van broke down on the M8 and it was overcast.

But there were some good photos with a local family and with Eileen's family there as well it was a great launch, but be under no illusion this wasn't the Liberal Democrats starting there in Glasgow North East yesterday, oh no, we have been there for weeks now, in fact months.

Eileen and the team have been out knocking on thousands of doors and local residents have been genuinely pleased to see the face of someone who cares, someone who has spent nearly twenty years on and off working in the heart of their community and understanding them, not patronising them like some of the career politicians.

If you have never been to Glasgow, and to be honest prior to me taking this new role on in Scotland my experience of Glasgow used to be running from Central Station to Queen Street Station to then get a train up to see my Mum in Ardgay.

Last year I spent six weeks there with our fantastic candidate Ian Robertson in the Glasgow East by-election and then various times with Katy Gordon our candidate fighting to be the next MP for Glasgow North and now recent weeks in Glasgow North East.

The area may have not had the funding it so richly deserves, but the people and the communities are so united and their determination is amazing. I have met some great people in Glasgow and yes, that is where I was introduced to Irn Bru, like the people a great product of Glasgow.

With Labour closing schools across Glasgow, and the SNP yet to build any schools since coming into power the children of Glasgow will surely suffer, if not now certainly in the future and we want the school building to commence again as it was happening when the Liberal Democrats were in Government, the money is there for the SNP to do it and to continue our record of building new schools - I know they have just announced a new wave of school building but why did they stop the programme? Why has nothing been built in the last two years?

The SNP are so all over the place in Glasgow North East, they are on their third candidate already, so before nominations close it may very well all change again, who knows?

This election should not end up with another career politician being elected in Glasgow North East because that isn't what the people want or need, they need someone who will stand up for them after decades of Labour neglect and now SNP u-turns and inaction on the things that really matter in their communities across the area. Change is certainly needed, a vote for the Liberal Democrats will certainly bring about that change.

It's true - Scottish Labour are anoraks

I was over in Glasgow North East again today, specifically I was in Springburn for the launch of the Lib Dem campaign with Eileen Baxendale, Robert Brown MSP and Tavish Scott.

I was sat in Tesco having a coffee and then stood at the counter were two political anoraks as the picture below shows - it is true Labour are just a bunch of anoraks.

Although I am taking the mickey it was very noticeable as they wandered around finding a seat.

I have to admit I do have a range of different Liberal Democrats tee-shirts, but no ties, or anything else of that order and certainly not an anorak!

Although I am sure they are happier in their anoraks than the Scottish Tories who were pictured supping champagne after David Cameron's ban - let us see that photo!

Send Trafigura a postcard to say thank you

As the last two days have shown, people power and the power of the internet can win campaigns, now it is time to go back to the olden days as it were and send Trafigura a thank you postcard for alerting us to their work in the Ivory Coast.

The wording of the postcard is as below.

Dear #Trafigura,

Thanks for making sure the actions of your lawyers mean I got to hear about your record today, 13th October, 2009.

Previously, I had heard almost nothing about the publication of the Minton report you commissioned on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast. As a result of your injunction against The Guardian, I now know much, much more.

Much obliged

To download the word version, click here.

The big football game is back on- Paris Foot Gay vs Creteil Bebel

On Saturday, I did a blog posting for Lib Dem Voice titled Muslims won't play with the gays, talking about two amateur football teams, Creteil Bebel and Paris Foot Gay who were due to play each other last weekend.

The two teams are Creteil Bebel, a Muslim team and Paris Foot Gay are a gay friendly team set up to combat homophobia in the suburbs of Paris.

Well, there appears to be an update now, Creteil Bebel director Zahir Belgharbi said there had been "a misunderstanding" and said his team were now ready to play against Paris Foot Gay.

The Director said: "We had rejected playing this match not on the grounds of homophobia, as we have been accused of doing, but simply because the name of the club did not seem to us to reflect our vision of sport."

I have no idea what that means and it sounds the lamest excuse I have ever heard. Sport has nothing to do with people's religion nor their sexuality. Paris Foot Gay seems to have been around at least two and a half years and perhaps before the Muslim team announced their refusal to play the team last week their Directors should have done a wee bit of research.

"We reacted by turning down the invitation from Paris Foot Gay for fear of it leading to an instrumentalisation on the part of this club in that it was highlighting the homosexuality of its players."

Again, another load of rubbish, football teams in leagues play against each other, it never means that one team's philosophy/name/town etc is highlighted more than on the match day programme. Also, just by a quick search on the Paris Foot Gay website shows that only some of the players are gay, it is a gay friendly football team set up to combat homophobia.

The local league president Jacques Stouvenel has said that both clubs were due to attend a meeting over the incident this week and that Creteil Bebel could face disciplinary action or be kicked out of the league.

My personal view is that some formal warning is all that is needed, they have now offered to play Paris Foot Gay and that should be accepted in the spirit in which it appears to have been intended.

Kicking Creteil Bebel out of this amateur league will not serve any purpose, either short term or long term. Let us hope the directors and and players of Creteil Bebel have learnt an important lesson this week.

Homophobia won't be tolerated, the same as racism. Not in sport, not in life.

Carter-Ruck, The Guardian and Trafigura

Today has been very weird, I want you to be honest with me now, had you heard of Trafigura before the explosion on Twitter this morning?

I certainly hadn't but thanks to the fuss this morning by Carter-Ruck I have spent a fair amount of time this evening reading up on it and am not overly impressed by what I have discovered.

Trafigura sponsor the British & Irish Lions, the reason I mention this is because on the latest news and our news section that is the last bit of news, from the 31st March 2009 - hardly inspiring when you then go on to see that this is not their prime aim in life, this is what they say about themselves;

"Trafigura is one of the largest independent companies trading commodities today.

We handle every element involved in the sourcing and trading of crude oil, petroleum products, renewable energies, metals, metal ores and concentrates for industrial consumers.

1,900 of our people operate in offices in 42 countries across the globe to give us the local knowledge to anticipate and respond to variations in global supply and demand.

In the oil sector, Trafigura has access to over 30 million barrels of storage facilities through a combination of owned terminals under its PUMA network and long-term lease agreements with third party oil terminals; we also time charter in excess of 60 vessels worldwide.

In the metals and minerals sector, Trafigura currently owns and operates concentrate storage facilities and one mine in Peru. Additionally, Trafigura is a significant stakeholder in a smelter and in various publicly listed mining entities.

Capitalising on resource trading and investment expertise Trafigura has diversified into asset management through the development of offshore hedge funds."

Okay, that is quite obviously the corporate sell, and I certainly wasn't interested in that given what was being tweeted this morning. So I went digging on the internet. Now if Trafigura's website had a search engine I would have entered Ivory Coast and then waited to see what came up - all I could find was that they do have an office there.

There is a great piece by the Independent, titled "The dark secrets of the trillion-dollar oil trade" from September this year but it really does get worse.

The Guardian in May this year had an article titled, "Papers prove Trafigura ship dumped toxic waste in Ivory Coast" which as you will see if you read it, goes onto explain how 30,000 people in the Ivory Coast claimed they were poisoned by the waste dumped by a ship that the company had chartered. It really is a must read article.

So, now we know a little more about this company, but really only thanks to their lawyers and the gagging order they put on The Guardian who were trying to publish a Parliamentary Question, the name of the MP who Tabled it and the Minister it was going to - all available in the public domain! A good use of client's money if ever I saw one - not.

Carter-Ruck eventually gave in, thanks to the power of Twitter and the internet and have lifted the gagging order on The Guardian. However, as the day and evening have gone on it now appears that BBC Newsnight (the link takes you to the original story) is being threatened by Trafigura via Carter-Ruck.

Shortly before the court case was due to be heard, Carter-Ruck announced that it's client no longer opposed reporting of what was said in Parliament about them.

In the House of Commons Evan Harris MP and David Heath MP, for the Liberal Democrats, David Davis MP for the Conservatives and Paul Farrelly MP, the Labour MP who started this all off have all raised this issue passionately today.

Paul Farrelly said; "Absolute privilege in reporting parliament has been established since the Bill of Rights in 1688. It is a fundamental freedom for the press, and it is vital that neither lawyers nor the courts seek to attack this time-honoured right."

The power of the internet won today, but more importantly people power won the day and stood up to a corporation and lawyer who felt they knew best. Long may it continue.

Stephen Gately died of natural causes

So, now all those who assumed Stephen Gately died of a drug overdose or binge drinking will now hopefully shut up and leave his partner and family to grieve for him.

The BBC amongst others has now reported that Stephen died of nothing more than natural causes.

A tragic horrible death of someone so young, but now let's hope he can rest in peace.