Not the approved canvassing technique

Ever noticed how houses with doorbells that play tunes (rather than just go ding-dong) have a much higher tendency to be Liberal Democrats.

Just a thought

Utterly brilliant

Just for the record, I shall be nominating this as the best single posting in this year's Lib Dem Blogs awards.

Until a better one comes along...

Have Labour just blown the gaff on ID cards?

One of the lines on the silly class war Labour leaflet in Crewe (see pic) says:

Do you oppose making foreign nationals carry an ID card?

Now I thought Labour's whole argument was that ID cards, even when they become compulsory, are only compulsory to own and produce when trying to access certain services, not to have to carry around with you.

Lebanon - a shock to my system

It seems very strange to me that just six weeks ago I was in Beirut and would have mocked anyone who said that the city (indeed, country) was about to descend into what appears to be civil war.

I'm not going to pretend that I saw it coming or anything like that. When I was there (admittedly, only in a tiny patch of the city) I felt free to walk around anywhere I wanted to with no risk. The local economy seemed pretty good and the restaurants, casinos and nightclubs were full.

We walked along the Corniche and came across plenty of soldiers, but I don't think people seriously considered that there might be any need for them.

We were able to have wonderfully interesting discussions about the Arab way of doing things and I learned a heck of a lot. If Lebanon falls back into civil war then I fear that many more countries than this will slip away from liberalism (and, indeed, and form of constitutional politics).

Before I went, the Lib Dem's International Office were anxiously giving me plenty of chances to pull out if I no longer felt able to go. We got special travel insurance that covers civil war and terrorism which I regarded as a bit of a joke. Even more so when I got there.

During the time I was there we went to restaurants, walked the streets and felt completely safe. There were posters of Rafik Hariri (the assassinated President) everywhere and taxi drivers genuinely seemed to love his memory.

Today, according to the BBC, armed shia militants were marching down the street outside the hotel I stayed in and 11 people are reported to have been killed in fighting.

The duplicity of South West Water

Here in Cornwall we have the delights of being 'served' by South West Water. This is the company that managed to poison the people of Camelford by dumping poisonous chemicals into the drinking water supply.

To be fair, they are trying to cope with an area that has 30% of the country's coastline and only 3% of the population. That's why our water bills can reach £1000 per year without breaking sweat.

Being a tourist area, one of our key requests is that the company does more than what is known as 'primary treatment'. I won't go into too many details, but primary treatment leads to fairly recognisable 'stuff' being dumped out to sea. In many cases it just washes its way back to shore with all the delightful impact that has on holiday makers sitting on the beaches, as well as watersports participants. That's what led, many moons ago, to the establishment of the pressure group Surfers Against Sewage.

Anyway, so much for history. Today we learn that a campaign by local residents in Tintagel against SWW's plans for primary treatment only for their area has been successful. The County Council (ahem, Lib Dem led) has agreed that the water company must submit new plans taking the treatment to at least secondary level. It's not perfect, but it does mean that you are less likely to be swimming against the turds.

What did SWW say when it heard the news? Chris Mills, SWW commmunications director, said:

"Our goal all along has been to provide residents and visitors with a modern sewage treatment system that represents the best value for money for our customers."

Forgive me for not actually giving him much credence. He appears to have caught the disease that is currently affecting members of Reading Labour Party.

Hat tip Jonathan Wallace

Don't forget to enter the competition

You have until Friday to enter the 'How many times will Iain Dale write a blatantly partisan blog about Crewe between now and polling day' competition.

Iain himself is pledging to write more than 2 per day!

Email me or answers in comments

Nice today isn't it?

Don't you wish that, instead of sitting behind your desk, you were on a beach with the waves breaking in the distance and the sand between your toes.

(This post has been brought to you by VisitCornwall....)