How to unite liberals, socialists, nationalists and conservatives…

… and still only get 25% of the vote.

 That, according to provisional results, is all that the ‘Yes’ campaign could muster in its efforts to impeach Romania’s president Traian Basescu.

Whatever else he might be, Basescu is a mighty skillful political operator with a populist touch.  A skilled politician in touch with the populace - well blow me if that doesn’t sound like the sort of person a country like Romania might need to run it.  But unfortunately in the course of his efforts to change the face of Romanian politics he upset too many vested interests.

Basescu was elected narrowly in 2004 at the head of an alliance between his own Democratic Party (now, sadly, affiliated to the EPP) and the Liberals.  A coalition government was formed between the alliance, the Hungarian minority party and the ‘Conservative Party’ (a bunch of chancers who went into the election as ‘The Humanist Party’ in alliance with the Social Democrats - but who jumped ship when the Social Democrats unexpectedly lost). 

Having lost the support of all but his own party, it was inevitable that Parliament would vote against him in the impeachment process.  But ratification was required by a referendum.  In the campaign, the Liberals, Social Democrats (post-Communists), Conservatives, Hungarian Union, and the ultra-nationalist Greater Romania Party ALL campaigned for a yes vote. 

As some commentators have pointed out, Basescu’s stunning victory is just the start of the constitutional crisis - he cannot dismiss the Government (which in more established democracies would resign in the face of such a defeat).  But with Parliament so united against him, it is hard to see how they can work together.  Basescu’s PD and the break-away Liberal Democrats who supported him, must be hugely strengthened as a result of this vote and be chomping at the bit for early Parliamentary elections. 

Fascinating times surely are ahead.  With a worrying cloud on the horizon.  Gica Becali, owner of Steaua Bucharest football club and of his own political party, shrewdly backed Basescu in the referendum campaign.  Polls have shown his party consistently hovvering around the limit for winning seats in parliament.  Frankly, I don’t trust him.  He draws some of his advisers from the (far edge of the) mainstream right.  But he seems to draw more of his own views from populist nationalism.  If Basescu’s allies win the next Parliamentary elections but fall short of a majority, Becali has positioned himself well as a potential coalition partner and I’m not convinced that would make for a more liberal Romania.

53% efficiency - surely there is a better way…?

What do you do if you want to know more about energy policy?  Well, arrange a visit to a power station of course.  Today, I spent a fascinating couple of hours being shown around Sutton Bridge power station on the banks of the River Nene in south Lincolnshire (together with Alex Foster and three Lib Dems from Kings Lynn.)

My grade C, ‘O’ level physics attests to the fact that I am no scientist, but a number of thing struck me as we were going around the plant.  Firstly, turbines were surprisingly small given the overall size of the plant.  Secondly, the plant uses 2% of the total gas consumption in the UK which, when you think about it, is quite a lot.  And finally, the plant is one of the most efficient around - but that efficiency rate is only 53%.

 The distinctive feature of the plant (completed 7 years ago) is that it harnesses steam from the two gas powered turbines to run a third turbine.  This recycling process raises the plants energy from what would be around 34% to 53%.  The plant is a striking reminder of human ingenuity (and in wilder moments of eco-warriordom it is easy to forget that electricity powers maternity units, cancer wards and the production & distribution of cheap food) but I was left with the constant nagging feeling that there has to be a better way of doing things than converting energy in a way that involves 47% being wasted.  And that’s before we get to the leakage through the process of distribution.

Added to that the plant producing a staggering number of tons of emissions.

It seems that economics defines the level of waste that is tolerated in the production (conversion) of energy.   Similar generators installed in Saudi dont bother with the steam turbine because the inputs (oil in their case) are so cheap.  Gas and oil reserves may well be extensive.  But are we paying the real price for energy - or is the price we are currently paying heavily discounted against future costs? 

Anyway, a fascinating an informative visit.  The staff were incredibly welcoming and helpful and committed both to their jobs and to spreading knowledge about what they do.  Maybe I should buy a wind turbine for my roof…

I dont belieeeeeve it!

It’s my 40th birthday at the weekend so I am allowed one Victor Meldrew moment.  BBC - get a grip on your TV journalists!  AGAIN this morning I heard a reporter on BBC Breakfast refer to something being a “heart rendering” story.  Hello!  Rendering is something you do to the outside of your house with plaster.  TO REND is to tear apart forcibly…

Sheesh!

Liberal dirty tricks shock

“Hampshire Labour News” had nothing on this report about campaign tactics in Romania’s presidential impeachment referendum: 

An SMS with PD leader Emil Boc as alleged sender was received on journalists’ phones over the weekend. “Basescu sees himself back in Cotroceni. Power has taken his reason. On May 19, show him you don’t want any more dictators. Vote YES. Emil Boc.” The PD leader reacted immediately, particularly since he is known as a pro-Basescu activist. “I will notify the Prosecutor’s Office on this SMS.” The Liberals denied any involvement in the affair.

Moreover, the Liberals believe that the use of Basescu’s image on posters with an anti-Basescu message is absolutely legal, as long as the President’s image is not registered. The Liberals designed their anti-Basescu campaign around posters displaying the image of the Head of State, with the message “Power has damaged his brain. Vote YES.”

(The National Liberal Party - sister party of Britain’s Lib Dems and until recently a coalition partner of Basescu’s PD - is campaigning for the president’s impeachment.  Supporters of Basescu should be voting NO in the referendum to oppose impeachment)

A cure for election blues

Thursday’s election results were at best mixed for the Lib Dems but I think I found an unusual cure - a 20 hour rolling election count witnessing some of the party’s best results.

For the first time since, well, forever, I was not committed to a particular campaign this year.  So I decided to head home and help a number of campaigns in a dozen different councils across the East Midlands.  The results in the campaigns I helped were as mixed as the national picture - disappointing in Nottingham and Leicester, solid in Derby and excellent in West Lindsey.  But the three counts I attended were a hat-trick of spectacular successes.

I spent part of polling day in Northampton (after viewing my rather beautiful baby-to-be at Dani’s 20-week scan earlier in the day).  But they weren’t counting til Friday afternoon.  So I joined Hinckley & Bosworth Lib Dems at their count in the evening.  I joined them in the evening but we staggered out into the daylight eight hours later after one of the slowest but most gripping counts I have attended.  After 10 results had been declared the Tories had won 8, Lib Dems 1 and Labour 1.  The Tories went on to gain two seats from the Lib Dems and another unexpectedly from Labour.  And we had an (unfounded) scare that the BNP might have won a seat.  But the final part of the count was a growing tide of yellow.  The process of verifying postal votes and counting multi member wards was teeth-grindingly slow.  In the end, though, control of the Council depended on the result in a single ward where a deselected former Tory councillor was among those contesting the seats (as an independent).  The first count ended with the three Lib Dems leading the Conservatives by the skin of their teeth.  Mid-way through the recount one of the counting agents collapsed from exhaustion (she receieved first aid from the young guys who were keeping the bar open through the night and as far as I know she made a full recovery).  The count re-started and the Conservatives finally admitted defeat (by around 30 votes - many fewer than the disgruntled Con-dependent candidate) and control of the Council around 5.30 in the morning.  Many congratulations to David Bill and his team whose hard work has been rewarded with majority control of the Council for the first time.

My original plan had been to take in the Hinckley count and then a long sleep before making leisurely progress to Northampton in the afternoon.  But having been denied any sleep (and I mean ANY sleep since David and Valerie Bill’s phone started ringing at 6.30am with messages of congratulation and didnt stop til I left - it was nice of them to offer me a bed and breakfast but I rapidly went off their many friends! I decided to drop in on old friends in Oadby.  I had been based in Oadby & Wigston in my time working as East Midlands regional campaigns officer for the Lib Dems and was anxious to see them hang on to the Council.  Four years ago they went into the election on the back of some tough years and politically difficult decisions.  The Tories gained a number of seats then and this time some experienced Lib Dem councillors were retiring.  But I needn’t have worried.  Three Lib Dem gains in Wigston were added to by gaining one seat in what had been the safest Tory ward in the borough - Oadby’s Grange ward.  Huge majorities were recorded in most of the Lib Dem held wards and the area’s growing Asian population again has a representative on the Lib Dem benches which in total have swelled to include 21 of the Council’s 26 members. 

My third count - Northampton - proceeded much more quickly than the first thanks to good organisation and having had the time to verify the postal votes earlier in the day.  And it was a Lib Dem party from start to finish.  Before the first result was declared (a Lib Dem hold) the team was predicting substantial gains.  My tallies in the (Labour held) ward I was watching showed us getting about 50% of the vote with the rest split evenly between the other two parties.  And the moment victory was confirmed was a double win in St James’ ward which hadnt even been a full target for the Lib Dems.  In the end the party won a majority of seats on what had previously been dubbed the worst council in Britain (run by the Tories with Labour support which tells you a lot).

So my drive home was a pretty happy one.  I’m saddened to see some good friends miss out this time but I hope they will pitch back into the fray again soon.  I was lucky enough to watch Cameron’s band wagon hit the crash barriers in spectacular fashion three times in one day on Friday proving once again that we are a long way from returning to two-party politics.

I worry about my son…

Just been chatting to young William on MSN Messenger.  This is part of our conversation (I asked about the Garlecs thing - apparently they are like Daleks only more garlicky).  If I was a responsible parent I would probably tell him off… 

William (called “Get to the retardeth, the Garlecs are coming”  for some unknown reason) said:

i spent the whole day being chased by chavs

Ed says:u shouldnt wind them up Quick! Get To The Retardeth! The Garlecs Are Coming!!!! says:

its funny they all have anger problems

Ed says:he he Quick! Get To The Retardeth! The Garlecs Are Coming!!!! says:i was wearin my skinnies today and they shouted nice trousers and i shouted back at least i dont have a pink polo shirt and my mum is 14

Quick! Get To The Retardethh! The Garlecs Are Coming!!!! says:

so they chased us Ed says:you didnt? omg you are mad!!!!!!

Quick! Get To The Retardeth! The Garlecs Are Coming!!!! says:

i like to think so Quick! Get To The Retardeth! The Garlecs Are Coming!!!! says:

it was well funny but they all smoke so we easly out ran them

A second Romanian revolution?

Anyone who has not been following political events in Romania should read this.  Gallagher over-eggs the pudding a bit in suggesting the impeachment of the president could undermine the whole of the EU but the threat to the development of Romanian democracy is real.  And the most shocking fact is that the threat is being led by the country’s nominally Liberal Prime Minister.

Now, stories such as this are always murky and confused.  Basescu is a former Communist and a shameless populist and he and Tariceanu shared a platform to win the elections of 2004 in dramatic fashion.  But his  determination to modernise and clean up the nations political structures appears genuine - both from his time as president and as mayor of Bucharest.

 Tariceanu’s links to oil barrons might be over-played and there are clearly many committed democrats and modernisers in his party. 

But it is evident that President Basescu has upset many in the establishment with his hands-on approach to reform.  I was living in Bucharest at the time of his election as mayor in 2000 and witnessed the enthusiasm he was able to generate, especially among young voters, with his determination to sweep away the corruption that was holding back the city.

The Liberals have split with one faction led by respected former Prime Minister Teodor Stolojan alligning with Basescu (again not a simple story - Stolojan was promised a return to the premiership in return for backing Basescu as Presidential candidate but Tariceanu refused to play the game).  It’s also intersting how the country’s liberal elite is torn over the issue.  Many of them couldn’t quite fathom Basescu:  “He’s a sneaky b*stard,” they would imply, “but at least he is our b*stard”.  Now, many of them are reacting in horror to recent events and are being pulled further away from the president.

The referendum will be fascinating and complex.  I hope that the Romanian people back reform, liberalism and progress.

Blarst my ol boots, bor

Thanks to Robin Whitmore for sending me this.  Some of the narrative is a bit hit and miss but scroll down to the vocabulary (voocablary) section and if you have ever had the pleasure of living in Norfolk, you will larf til yoo croy.

My advice to Richard Branson

Richard Branson is a very rich man.  I am not.  So I hesitate to offer him business advice. 

But, Richard, it’s time to stop the p*ssing contest with Murdoch and focus on the basics.  Like decent customer service.  Or, in my case, any kind of service.

I was pretty narked by losing Sky News and Sky Sports News from my Virgin Media cable TV service.  But I have also been without a phone since the beginning of March.  And when they came (for the second time) to dig up the garden and stare at the cable last weekend they also disconnected my internet connection.

 They are not going to charge me for being without a phone for six weeks (and the trauma of no internet for more than a week) which is nice of them but so far they are refusing to pay compensation.

 They are coming for the third time this Saturday to try to find the problem.  Let’s hope I am re-connected from then.  But failing that I guess my only compensation will be telling them to sod off, buying a Freeview box and signing up with BT Broadband!

Big up to the Chesterfield Massive…

… or whatever.  Out with Paul Holmes, Helen Walsh, Ian Openshaw, Kevin Maher and Austin Rathe yesterday (I hope that bit of outrageous blog-pimping fits on the Lib Dem Blogs feed…)

Have to say the response on the doorstep was very positive so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that award winning Chesterfield Council stays the right shade of yellowy-orange after May 3rd. 

But the reason I really enjoy canvassing is the chance to discover something you didnt know before.  So special thanks to Mr W of Brimington Road who told me all about nearby Tipton Colliery and the house on the hill bought by Robert Stephenson so he could watch is steam engines travel along the the rail line at the bottom of the valley.

And the sun shone too!