Yet things are not quite that simple, as was shown by the nervous dip on Asian stock markets after the announcement of Kim Jong-Il’s death and the sabre-rattling gesture of North Korea’s firing test missiles only hours afterwards. That was to remind everyone – not least the South Koreans, the Japanese and the Americans – that however impoverished and backward North Korea may be, it still boasts a dangerous regime which cannot be treated lightly. However, it might take weeks or even months before young Kim Jung-un asserts his authority, or rather before the shadowy military establishment behind the government shows how much authority it is ready to grant him.

China, despite having become increasingly impatient recently with its erratic neighbour, its isolationism and ‘rogue state’ activities, nonetheless sent heartfelt condolences to Pyongyang, describing Kim Jong-Il as one of the world’s great leaders. William Hague, speaking for Britain, more deviously expressed sympathy for the North Korean people in their distress and said that the world will be watching how the country develops.

In the meantime, there is bound to be a glut of books about Kim Jong-Il, who was global politics’ nearest equivalent to Michael Jackson. The stories about his weirdness and sybaritic excesses are legion, and at least some of them are true. He had one of the greatest private DVD collections of Hollywood movies in the world and imported huge quantities of the most expensive French cognac for his personal use. He wore platform heels, sported a bouffant hairstyle and never conquered his morbid fear of flying. In a word, Kim Jong-Il was grotesque. And yes, probably a monster. He and his lieutenants clearly learned a lot from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, in the way that they kept ordinary people subjugated through ignorance and fear. But that is not necessarily a situation that can endure much longer.

Jonathan Fryer is Chairman of London Liberal Democrats and lectures at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

[Ed:This article was written late last night, albeit before details of Prime Minister's veto emerged from Brussels emerged.]

When David Cameron arrived in Brussels last night for the pre-Summit dinner of EU leaders, he may have sensed a certain frisson in the room. He missed out on the earlier gathering of most EU Heads of Government, who are members of the EPP (Christian Democrat) Euro-parliamentary group and held their own important caucus. Until Cameron became Tory Leader, the British Conservatives were members of the EPP, but in a blatant ploy to get backing from Euro-sceptics among Tory backbenchers, he pledged that he would withdraw from the group, which he duly did, marginalising not just his party but Britain in the process. The right-wing grouplet which then coalesced round the Tories, including some particularly unsavoury specimens from central and eastern Europe, has been something of a laughing stock ever since.

But Cameron’s positioning of Britain on the fringes of Europe’s centre of gravity is no joke. For much of the noughties, the Germans were begging the Brits to become a part of a triumvirate, who would be the real movers and shakers in an ever expanding Union. But instead, the Germans are left to share the steering role just with France. It’s no use the Press in this country bemoaning the fact that the Germans and the French are ruling the roost. We could have been in there as well, but yet again missed the chance. Angela Merkel will doubtless grudgingly offer her cheek to Cameron for a symbolic peck, but at heart she’d prefer to slap him.

Of course, the Prime Minister of Britani should stand up for this country’s interests. That’s what all EU leaders do. But there are acceptable ways and means of doing it. Succumbing to the xenophobic urgings of the Conservative Europhobes, as Cameron has given every sign of doing from his recent public utterings, is the exact opposite of what is needed. The Prime Minister should show real leadership and tell the likes of Tory MEPs Daniel Hannon and Roger Helmer to put a sock in it – or kick them out. Trying to steal UKIP’s clothes only helps UKIP.

There is no doubt that Europe is going through a difficult crisis, especially the 17-member eurozone. But that is not a reason to try macho posturing aimed mainly at pleasing the readers of the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph.

Vowing on the eve of his departure for Brussels that he would veto any EU economic or fiscal changes that could endanger Britain’s interests, the PM was trying to sound like Mrs Thatcher at the height of her power. But let him be warned that he will look pretty foolish if he tries to swing a handbag at the EU Summit. Moreover, he is a lesser figure than the Iron Lady was. And let’s be honest, Britain is a lesser country now than it was in 1979.

Protecting Britain’s interests will not be achieved by driving the country firmly into a second tier or even a third tier of EU membership, while the core sort out their immediate problems and get on with the business of forming a powerful economic bloc that will be able to compete on equal terms with the United States and China, as well as emerging economies such as India and Brazil. Britain needs to be at the heart of Europe and to prove itself to be a constructive partner in the European project, even if it remains outside the eurozone for the foreseeable future (though I agree with Michael Heseltine than one day we will be in there, though it won’t be on our own terms).

The Liberal Democrats, as the junior partner in government, can and must play a pivotal role in drumming some sense into their Conservative big brother. To an extent, Nick Clegg and some of his colleagues have been doing that. But the moment has now come where LibDems have got to pin their Euro-colours firmly to the mast and tell David Cameron and his colleagues to stop being so short-sighted and – let’s be blunt – downright offensive to our continental allies. Their goodwill is vital to our future economic survival, as well as theirs.

London has benefited from a big influx of new members over recent months – by far the biggest growth of any UK region. Moreover, London Liberal Democrats have moved campaigning and capacity up several notches with the launch of Team London, a new approach to dealing with the challenges of politics in this vibrant, diverse capital city.

At one level, this means more effective targeting of human resources from across London at winnable local by-elections, such as the current Earl’s Court ward contest in Kensington & Chelsea. But Team London will also be swinging into action in the Tower Hamlets mayoral election too (polling date 21 October), where we can really help the resurgence of a local party that made a significant advance in May’s general election.

An important aspect of the Team London approach is the recognition that the London Mayoral, GLA list and European elections are all organised city-wide, which means that in those contests every local party – however strong or weak – can be part of a winning team, in the short-term boosting our GLA members up from the current level of three. We are promoting the idea of a Vote Harvest, in which each local party will be challenged to garner targeted numbers of votes in every area.

But Team London is not just about winning elections, important though that is. It is also about sharing best practice across the region and building local parties’ capacity through training, mentoring and other means. It also must involve making London Liberal Democrats more representative of the multicultural city in which we live. About a third of London’s population belongs to ethnic minorities (BME).

Mirroring the Party’s practices relating to gender balance, we have introduced a measure whereby at least one of the top four GLA list candidates must be BME and two in the top six, which should guarantee greater diversity within our excellent GLA team. But we also want to develop a coherent strategy to embrace and engage all the various ethnic and faith communities across London. That will involve building links, training candidates, recruiting new potential candidates and other steps aimed at ensuring greater awareness, participation and relevance, while strengthening the party across London.

Jonathan Fryer is Chair of London Liberal Democrats

As virtually everyone seems to be talking about ‘fairness’ these days, surely it is time that LibDems seized the moment and trumpeted our belief in STV? Moreover, we should make use of new media, not least social networking, to get our message over.

That was the core theme of my address to the AGM of the LibDem electoral pressure group DAGGER at the party headquarters at Cowley Street last weekend. Just as Fair Votes remains the discourse of the enlightened few, so, too often, is it confined within the boundaries of traditional campaigning – which would have been very familiar to Enid Lakeman – such as ill-attended public meetings, pamphlets and the occasional book.

It is time for electoral reform to go viral. Moreover, I believe we should be using every opportunity offered by new media to get out a strong clarion call for STV, thereby forcing a public debate on the issue. We can do this through writing posts on our blogs (if we have one), commenting on other people’s blogs and setting up or joining appropriate Facebook groups.

Above all, we can tweet. Make STV a song on Twitter that will become as familiar and persistent as that of a songthrush. All the evidence shows that even if no electoral system is perfect, STV is better than anything else that has been tried.

Even Roy Jenkins recognised that in the report his Commission produced in 1998, though he then went on perversely to recommend AV+ on the grounds that the House of Commons would accept nothing more radical. Brown, of course, hasn’t even offered the possibility of that.

But our discredited Parliament should not be the body which chooses our voting system. It should be the people, after an informed debate, in which STV should figure large. If STV is good enough for the Scots and the Irish, why not for Britain as a whole? That sentence was less than 140 characters, so there’s a good tweet for a start!

Thursday
Through the LibDem Friends of Turkey, I am invited to be one of the speakers at a big event at the LSE on prospects for Turkey’s EU accession. I focus on the related issue of human rights, a full respect for which is one of the Copenhagen criteria for any candidate country. The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a lot of progress in reforms, such as lifting some of the restrictions on Kurdish cultural rights. But a lot more still needs to be done. And Turkey has to get rid of Article 301 of the penal code, under which writers, publishers and journalists are perpetually being prosecuted for allegedly offending the country, Turkish identity or the military. I am a great supporter of Turkey’s eventual EU membership, but I don’t think it will happen for another ten to 15 years.

Friday
Up at the crack of dawn to go to Brussels for a two-day induction training for prospective MEPs. Though I used to cover the Parliament as a journalist and for years have been a member of the ruling Council of the European Liberal party (ELDR), which often meets there, there’s a certain thrill about being introduced to some of the behind-the-scenes workings, like ‘and this is where your pigeon hole will be!’ We are then given a series of presentations on what the Parliament has achieved over the past five years, and in particular, what the Liberal (ALDE) Group has been doing The hotel loses my luggage, but gives me a bottle of champagne to soothe my outrage.

Saturday
As the Parliament is closed on the weekends, the seminar sessions today are held in the hotel (which has meanwhile found my luggage): anonymous function rooms that could as well be in Birmingham or Baltimore. But lunch in a local bistro reassures us all that Brussels still has its unique attractions. My fellow trainees are a mixed bunch, economic liberals and social liberals from every part of the spectrum, from Latvia to Hungary and the UK, but united in our Europeanism and out belief in the paramount importance of democracy, the rule of law, civil liberties and human rights. The Hungarian Prime Minister resigns while we are meeting and the Hungarian participant disappears. In the evening, for me it’s the Eurostar back to London.

Sunday
My trusty Campaign PA, James, comes round to shoot our latest video, focussing on the environment. The cat, Vanunu, who stole the show in the last one, is miffed at being shooed off-camera. The outdoor shots we do in Tower Hamlets cemetery park behind my house. Spring has suddenly arrived and not for the first time I am grateful that Euro-elections always take place in June, which means campaigning in generally pleasant weather. However, when I get to Alperton in Brent, for a meeting of Tamils, I have to join hundreds of people packed into a hall to speak and answer questions from a community angered by the way the world has ignored the plight of people caught in the conflict in Sri Lanka. Having been present in Colombo when the anti-Tamil riots started in the summer of 1983, I am depressed that a quarter of a century later the situation has still not been resolved. It’s a relief to go on to Tottenham for a Kurdish Newroz (New Year) celebration, where I am slotted in to speak to a thousand people between a terrific female singer and a folkloric dance troupe, and am then enticed onto the dance floor to join the Kurdish equivalent of a very stylish conga.

Monday
Most of the day teaching at SOAS. Candidates still have to earn a living. But in the evening, the Arab League holds its annual reception, a great chance for networking. The Bolivian Ambassador assures me that arrangements are being put in place for me to go on a press trip to her country, but I’ll believe that when it happens.

Tuesday
The Guardian phones to commission me to write an obituary of the former SDP peer Lord Kilmarnock, who had a great passion for Spain. He was a sweet if somewhat other-worldly man – a salutary reminder that one doesn’t have to be nasty or ruthless to be in politics.

Jonathan Fryer is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and is second on the party’s list for the European Elections in London in 2009.  His blog has featured on Lib Dem Voice’s Golden Dozen lists over a dozen times; you can find a list of his articles for LDV here.

If you’ve had an interesting week, why not write a diary for Lib Dem Voice?  Details for contributors are here.

Sunday
Tower Hamlets LibDems has decided to do some petitioning this morning in Brick Lane on Gaza, a subject that most passers-by are keen to express their opinions on, even though the Israelis’ unilateral ceasefire announcement has meant a last-minute change of leaflet wording. I can’t stay long as I have to join DELGA members at their annual conference at Butler’s Wharf on the Thames to take part in a presentation on the specially-targeted London LGBT Euro-campaign. This year’s elections will for the first time see carefully crafted LibDem materials addressing the specific concerns of precise groups, other examples being students and resident EU nationals such as Poles.

Monday
To the House of Commons for a meeting with the Governors of the three provinces of Iraqi Kurdistan, who are in Britain being briefed on UK political practices. Not that our system is perfect. It is a good opportunity to hear at first hand how things are going in the most stable region of Iraq, which I hope to visit later this year.

Dinner at St Anne’s Church, Soho, with the vicar, executive members of the Soho Society and various community activists. Though I spend much of my time politically and professionally focussing on European and international issues, getting out and about among different groups in the capital for a lively exchange of views about more local matters is an essential part of my role as a London Euro-candidate.

Tuesday
Back at the House of Commons again today for the Executive Board of the Council for the Advancement of Arab British Understanding (CAABU), to which I was elected last year. CAABU does great work sending parliamentary fact-finding missions to Israel/Palestine (London MPs Ed Davey and Sarah Teather are recent visitors to the region) but I am keen that CAABU should also do much more in relation to North Africa, given the effective stalling of the Barcelona Process between the EU and the southern and eastern Mediterranean and the great mass of unemployed young people in the Maghreb. Britain should not allow French President Nicolas Sarkozy to make all the running on this!

The Executive of my local party (Leyton and Wanstead) is nearly over by the time I get there, but we do get a date fixed for a Campaigns group briefing on the European elections, which is what I wanted.

Wednesday
Reinventing the State was the Social Liberals’ riposte to The Orange Book, or at least that is how many people saw it at the time. This evening sees the first in a series of discussion meetings organised by James Graham and other LibDems active in the Westminster village, looking at various issues raised in the book. Paul Holmes, MP for Chesterfield, gives a pithy critique of education policy and in particular secondary schools. This is not something the EU has much direct role in, but there are related issues that are among my hobby-horses, such as the quality (or lack) of citizenship education and language teaching in British classrooms.

Thursday
Catherine Bearder of the ‘In It to Win It’ group of leading Euro-candidates has assembled a stellar cast of party apparatchiks to brief us all at Cowley Street on aspects of the forthcoming campaign. Press work is going to be of vital importance and I’m glad to make contact with the relatively new press supreme, Jamie Hamill, who reminds everyone to keep writing to local newspapers like mad. Media coverage should be helped during the campaign itself by Nick Clegg’s promised presence in every region. We need to get our thinking caps on now about how best we can use him during his two days on the stump in London. I have to leave today’s briefing early, to help out in the polling day operation in the East Wickham (Bexley) by-election.

Friday
Three of the core members of my overwhelmingly young and enthusiastic campaign team come over to the house for a strategy session in the morning, a key theme of today’s discussions being how to liaise with local parties, stimulate street campaigning and get involved in events in universities and colleges across London. Meanwhile, my Campaign PA, James Lillis, has already cranked me up several gears technology-wise. My weekly newsletter is now being launched, people who sign up to the Facebook Group ‘Jonathan Fryer 4 Europe’ can receive regular updates and James has even got me Twittering.

To Stansted airport in the late afternoon for a Ryanair flight to Baden-Baden – the cheapest way of getting to Strasbourg, where the Liberal International (of which I am a Vice-President) is holding its Executive this weekend. Strasbourg is a city I love, both for its architecture and its food, but that won’t stop me continuing to fight to try to get all of the European Parliament’s plenary sessions held in Brussels instead, to end the criminal waste of resources caused by bi-location.

Jonathan Fryer is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and is second on the party’s list for the European Elections in London in 2009.  His blog has featured on Lib Dem Voice’s Golden Dozen lists over a dozen times.

If you’ve had an interesting week, why not write a diary for Lib Dem Voice?  Details for contributers are here.

Nonetheless, the bloody repression there continues, including the torture of political prisoners. On 30 December, nine members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested in Rangoon (Yangon) for demonstrating in favour of the release from house arrest of their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi (who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991) has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years in detention, her ‘crime’ being that her party won Burma’s last democratic election in 1990 – a result which the junta simply refused to accept.

As a sop mainly to its fellow members of ASEAN, the Burmese government has announced that fresh elections will be held next year, but democratic activists are convinced these will be nothing but a sham. The military chiefs, meanwhile, being aware of how much they are hated by the Burmese people, have built an almost surreal new capital for themselves at Naypyidaw, 300 miles away in the jungle. There the 75-year-old General Than Shwe and his cronies live in luxurious seclusion, while overseeing the army that keeps the ordinary people subjuugated.

Forced labour – a modern form of slavery – is still common practice in Burma. That’s how the regime gets infrastructure such as roads built on the cheap. In a sickening echo of the wartime Japanese supervision of the building of the Burma railway, they don’t care how many of the workers die in the process. Or that the Burmese people as a whole – especially the ethnic minorities, such as the Karen – are often desperately short of food and medical care.

Yet Burma is a rich country. It has abundant natural resources, not to mention some of the most spectacular tourist attractions in South East Asia, such as the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, and the Buddhist pilgrimage city of Mandalay. The country’s energy resources are vast. Although Western countries are largely boycotting energy deals with Burma because of its appalling human rights record, others, such as China, India and Thailand, are not so fussy.

Indeed, on 24 December, the junta signed a new deal with South Korea’s Daewoo and Korea Gas Corporation, as well as India’s ONGC Videsh and GAIL, to pipe gas from fields in north-west Burma to China. The South Korean government in Seoul rebuffed complaints from Korean and Burmese human rights and environmental campaigners that the Korean companies concerned had breached corporate responsibility guidelines laid down by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Many thousands of Burmese have fled the poverty and repression, the majority seeking sanctuary in Thailand. But Thailand has been so overwhelmed by the influx that it routinely returns Burmese illegal immigrants. Others fester in refugee camps near the border. Delegates from sixteen member parties belonging to Liberal International recently visited one of the these camps, Mae La, about 40 miles from the town of Mae Sot, where they met exiled leaders from Burmese political parties, who confirmed the ongoing crackdowns in Burma on student leaders, democracy activists and monks who took part in the so-called ‘Saffron Revolution’.

We have a moral duty to publicise this state of affairs and to increase the pressure for change.

Jonathan Fryer, Chairman of Liberal International British Group and No. 2 on the London list for the European Parliamentary elections, recently returned from South East Asia.

First the facts. Earlier this month, the EU relaxed its regulations governing 26 types of fruit and veg, lifting a ban on the sale of bizarre, deformed or otherwise non-standard produce. This will release onto the market substantial quantities of food which would otherwise have been dumped and this should help push food prices down.

The Danish (Liberal) European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel, enthused, ‘This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot!’ So that’s alright then. Or maybe not. Because for some time, the European Commission office in London has been listing among its Euro-myths the notion that Brussels dictates the size of peaches and the curvature of cucumbers.

As the Daily Mail simmered, ‘shouldn’t we all feel a tiny bit angry that, having been told for years that all these stories about Eurocrats dictating the size and shape vegetables and fruit were simply Eurosceptic propaganda, we are now expected to give Brussels credit for bravely abolishing them? […] Will they now be eating their words?’

For once, the Daily Mail has a point, though Heathcoat-Amory can’t resist over-egging the pudding by then ranting on about Brussels ‘fruit fascists’. It was stupid, if not downright dishonest, for those who should have known better to deny that there were such regulations. I am sure that I will be not be the only LibDem Euro-candidate who will have this thrown in my face (if not the fruit and veg themselves) by UKIP and the Conservatives over the coming months. It is essential that briefings from the European Commission or European Movement are 100% accurate.

However, Sharon Bowles, LibDem MEP for South East England, has an interesting insight into the affair. She discovered that it was the British government which first imposed these rules about wonky fruit and veg, long before the EU got involved, to assist food-buyers in finalising contracts for bulk purchase. But now supermarkets including Sainsbury’s have argued successfully that scrapping the regulations would be desirable as customers would appreciate cheaper, imperfect produce.

More articles by Jonathan Fryer.

Tuesday
To Kensington at lunchtime for the Czech Embassy’s National Day reception. Later I’ll be asked to interview the Ambassador for ‘Diplomat’ magazine, but as always at these events, there’s a solid hour of so of frantic networking, handing out business cards like confetti and (where appropriate) reminding resident EU nationals that they can vote here next June if they choose. In the evening, I’d hoped to join the LibDem Leader in the House of Lords, Tom McNally, at a Hackney LibDem dinner discussion on the Obama Phenomenon, but instead I am summoned to do a live review of the papers on PressTV – a real litany of gloom, what with the eastern Congo and George W Bush’s latest prank of launching a helicopter attack on Syria.

Wednesday
To City Airport – a mere 30 minutes from my house by public transport – for a morning flight to Stockholm, where the European Liberal Democrat (ELDR) Congress is to take place. It’s a particularly important gathering this year, as the common manifesto for next June’s elections is being debated. The two Swedish Liberal parties (the Central Party and Folkspartiet) are both in government at the moment, so they are keen to make it a success. The Brits, as ever, have the largest delegation, being by far the largest Liberal Party in Europe, though by no means the most powerful. The Conference hotel is awash with Ministers from various countries, as well as MPs and MEPs by the score, though only two British MEPs have signed up to come and our single Westminster parliamentary representative will be the party president, Simon Hughes. In the evening, there is a welcome reception in the Swedish parliament building, As I tuck into the crayfish and salad, I reflect on how mean British hospitality often is to visiting foreign delegations in comparison. Cold sausage rolls, anyone?

Thursday
I corner the Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is currently trying to persuade his compatriots that Denmark should now adopt the euro. Opinion polls suggest the Danish public is warming to the idea, as Danish interest rates are so much higher than in the eurozone. Rasmussen is immensely charming, if a little right-wing for British LibDem tastes. When I quiz the leaders of the two Swedish Liberal parties, I’m told three out of the four parties in Sweden’s ruling coalition are in favour of euro membership. With all the new EU member states adopting the euro as they become ready, will Britain eventually be the only country left outside? In the evening, there is a tremendous reception in the stunning Golden Hall of Stockholm City Hall, where the Nobel Prize dinners are held. There’s a rather imposing middle-aged lady standing on her own, so I go up to chat. She turns out to be the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel. Cue for a discussion on CAP reform.

Friday
The highlight of the day for me is the Congress debate on the EU and Russia, in which recent events in Georgia figure large. The leader of the Georgian opposition Republican Party, Davit Usuapashvili, is on the panel, as is the new leader of the Russian Liberal party Yabloko, Sergey Mitrokhin, the sort of man who makes one feel Moscow is not completely beyond hope after all. Less predictable is the presence of former Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Kasyanov, who fell out spectacularly with Vladimir Putin a while back and is now portraying himself as a Liberal. Well, I suppose everyone has the right to a Damascene conversion.

Saturday
After three days of cold and rain, suddenly the sky is blue and Stockholm glows in autumn sunshine. As the ELDR delegates – over 500 of us, the highest number ever – disperse, we are feeling pretty glowing as well, having successfully battled our way through numerous amendments to the Euro-manifesto before passing it unanimously. I return to London briefly to sort out various administrative matters relating to both my work and politics and then board the Euro-star for Paris. I suppose if I do get elected next June, this is what life will be like.

Sunday
For the first time for months, I have a day off from campaigning and working and just enjoy the sights and seeing friends in the city where I lived long ago. Every candidate needs to just chill out once in a while, or else one would go mad.

Jonathan Fryer is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and is second on the party’s list for the European Elections in London in 2009. His blog has featured on Lib Dem Voice’s Golden Dozen lists over a dozen times.

If you’ve had an interesting week, why not write a diary for Lib Dem Voice? Details for contributers are here.

The nadir came in 1999 when (in London, at least) Euro-candidates were not allowed to have any input into the literature – indeed, we did not see it until it was printed. When I received it, I felt physically sick, as it was all about crime, education and health. All ‘key issues’, we were told. But not ones where Europe has much relevant responsiblity.

The electorate knew that. Voters are not stupid. And many of the 30 per cent of the British population who are actively pro-European did not vote for us, because they saw that we did not have the courage of our convictions. That situation must never happen again.

I was not alone among Euro-candidates in drawing encouragement from the fact that both of the men who put themselves forward for party leader last year were former members of the European Parliament, with impeccable European credentials. Moreover, since assuming the position, Nick Clegg has declared that not only will the party take the 2009 European elections seriously, but we will make our belief in the European Union’s potential clear.

Of course, Charles Kennedy said that when he became leader. But it didn’t happen, as he was comprehensively sat on by his advisors. He has subsequently told me on several occasions that this is the thing he most regrets about his period as leader. Nick Clegg has indicated that he has no intention of being sat on. And Ed Davey, as Chair of Campaigns, has stated publicly (including at the Bournemouth Conference) that the 2009 Euro-elections are going to be different. Fingers crossed.

So if at long last the Liberal Democrats are going to fight next year’s Euros on European issues, what should they be focussing on? Let me start perversely by nominating two things we should probably avoid. The first is institutional reform. Apologies to my dear friend Andrew Duff MEP (who is perhaps the world’s greatest expert on the European Constitution), but this is a total turn-off for voters.

As a party, we regret that the Lisbon Treaty hit the buffers in the Irish referendum and it would certainly be a relief if Ireland somehow manages to get round this. But let’s just curb our nerdish enthusiasm for institutional reform (of which I am as guilty as most) and be pragmatic.

Similarly, I am sure that the party is right in saying that entry into the euro is a matter that has been kicked into the long grass and is probably best left there for the time being. I agree with Graham Bishop – one of the brightest financial brains in our party – that the current situation makes possible entry into the eurozone more likely. But this is a difficult, if not impossible, argument to put across on the doorstep to a sceptical electorate.

So what should we talk about over the next nine months? First and foremost, the environment. EU cooperation on matters such as climate change and combating pollution is so obviously desirable that even Euro-sceptics get the point. Moreover, as a party the Liberal Democrats have an excellent environmental record and we should bang our drum loudly on this.

We should not be afraid of bashing the Greens in the process. The Greens tend to do rather well in European elections, the most spectacular example being in 1989, when they pushed us into fourth place. It is clear that the electorate likes to use a list election such as the Euros to make an environmental stand. But let us persuade them to make that stand for us, not the Greens.

Sometimes we are too nice for our good. We have to point out that some Green policies would be hugely damaging for the economy of Britain and the EU as a whole. Moreover, the British Greens – unlike most of their continental counterparts – are actually anti-European, which is grossly irresponsible given the environmental challenges our continent and planet face.

Secondly, the Euro-elections are almost certainly going to be fought against a backdrop of economic retrenchment, rising unemployment and a general sense of malaise. UKIP and probably the Conservatives will capitalise on this to champion their nationalistic, even xenophobic credentials. We must counter this by making the point strongly that European countries have to swim together to survive difficult times, or else we will sink separately.

Finally (as space and political expediency limit me to three main points) we should stand up for a more coherent European common foreign and security policy. Europe is punching below its weight in the world because it often does not get its act together on foreign and security matters. The world is changing rapidly and new powers like China, India and Brazil are asserting themselves. Europe must do so as well, or else we will be sidelined.

* Journalist, broadcaster and Lib Dem Euro candidate for London, Jonathan Fryer blogs here.

On the tube over to West London, I wonder how Ukraine and Slovakia have managed to have their national celebrations on the same day, and both at lunchtime. Fortunately the two embassies are close to each other, and predictably there is a lot of toing-and-froing between. I decide to do Ukraine first, having recently been in the country itself and I am not surprised to find the mood somewhat sombre. After the Russian intervention in Georgia, there are rumblings in the Crimea again and the government in Kiev is falling apart. I have earnest discussions with the diplomats there, but it’s a relief to go on to the Slovakian event, where a fantastic chamber orchestra is playing wild central European music and the food is terrific.

Thursday

To Westminster Abbey for a book launch, in the wonderful Jerusalem Chamber – a nook that the tourists never get to see. The author of the tome, the Archbishop of Galilee, isn’t actually there, but I link up with Jafar Farah, Director of the Mossawa Advocacy Centre for Arab Citizens of Israel, whom I’d met briefly in Parliament yesterday. Palestinian Arabs make up about 20 per cent of Israel’s population, but they are often the forgotten people in the Middle East conflict. Many of these Arab Israelis are Christians – Jafar is a Maronite – and some of the Churches in Britain have been doing what they can to foster constructive dialogue between different faith groups in the Holy Land.

Friday

Lunch with the BBC World Service’s new political correspondent Nick Childs, so I can brief him about the upcoming Bournemouth conference. Europe will be a major item on our agenda at Bournemouth, but the LibDems and UKIP seem to be the only people actually talking about it in the run-up to next June’s elections. Labour are too busy trying to persuade the public they are united behind Gordon Brown, while individually stabbing him in the back, and their poll ratings are in free-fall. In the evening, I give my third talk of the week to non-party-political groups, this one being to the Sutton Writers’ Group. They invited me to speak about my work as a writer and journalist. I tell them that after I had spent four years studying Chinese and Japanese, Reuters promptly sent me to Brussels, which always gets a laugh.

Saturday

The skies lift as the train approaches Bournemouth. By the time I’m installed in the hotel the weather is positively balmy. Seven of us from the ‘In It to Win It’ group of European candidates who would be most likely to form the new intake next year gather to exchange notes and plot how we can make the party take the European campaign seriously for once. Well, both Nick Clegg and Ed Davey have said that it will, so that’s a start. Later, I’m almost first in the door at the London regional reception, more by accident than design. At least this means I get some olives. The place soon fills up and I give a little pep talk. Looking round the room, I realise I know almost everyone there, but as I have been hurtling round London like some demented clockwork mouse for the past five years, I should do!

Sunday

My European dedication is proved by managing to be in the conference hall at 9.45 on a Sunday morning to watch the presentation given by ALDE, the European Liberal group of MEPs, choreographed by Graham Watson. Part of it is a video shot in the Brussels parliament building last month showing our LibDem MEPs at work. I happened to be there the day the cameras were filming, so I appear on screen a couple of times, as if I had already been elected. If only! At lunchtime, Nick Clegg hosts a reception for MEPs and Euro-candidates and he once again pledges to fight the European campaign on European issues, particularly highlighting the environment. Nick, we’ll be watching you!

Monday

The BBC breakfast is always a bit of a bun-fight; I think the only reason I really go is nostalgia for all the years I worked in Bush House. The World Service has just shut down the Romanian Service, the last of its European language services, which makes me sad. But on the up-side, a Persian language TV channel is going to be launched this autumn. We’re shown some promotional clips and the new channel’s cultural correspondent looks far wilder and more interesting than anyone on British domestic TV.

Tuesday

At lunchtime I have do something I’ve always told myself I’d avoid: speaking at two fringe meetings which are scheduled simultaneously. So I open the first one (on Islam Today) with a carefully-timed seven minute presentation, and then have to run before the next panellist, Lee Jasper, gets to open his mouth. It’s more subdued at the Heritage Lottery Fund fringe on Britishness, where broadcaster Wesley Kerr is in the chair. I talk about my onion skins: being a Londoner (albeit an adopted one), who is British and also European, and quite comfortable with all three layers. Simon Hughes then turns up even later than me, and of course announces that he is English, Welsh and a little bit Irish too. I grab a couple of Heritage sandwiches and proceed to the conference hall, where I am called to speak in the Europe debate. The adrenalin is running and I end by shamelessly plagiarising Dylan Thomas, ‘Do not go gentle into this good fight. Rage, rage against the Euro-sceptic right!’

Jonathan Fryer is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and is second on the party’s list for the European Elections in London in 2009.  His blog has featured on Lib Dem Voice’s Golden Dozen lists over a dozen times.

If you’ve had an interesting week, why not write a diary for Lib Dem Voice?  Details for contributers are here.

The sun shines on London Pride, as fellow London Euro-candidates Dinti Batstone, Christopher Le Breton, John Pindar and I march with members of the LibDem LGBT campaigning group, DELGA. They have arranged a stall right in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. While Nick Clegg addresses the rally there, our Euro-team hands out special focuses, highlighting Sarah Ludford MEP’s call for the US to end its entry ban on people living with HIV/AIDS. I’ve vowed I won’t set foot in the States again until that iniquitous prohibition is lifted. By the end of the afternoon, the boys and girls miling around are in the mood for some serious partying, but I am sensible and head off to Eltham for the Greenwich LibDems’ summer barbeque. Keeping in touch with local parties and reminding them about Europe is a high priority.

Sunday

Moor Park is right on the edge of Zone 6, just outside the London Euro-constituency but my Oyster card still gets me there. For many years now, Anneliese Waugh has hosted a garden party for Liberal International British Group (LIBG) at her home there. This year it rains, so we are all packed indoors, but there are three first-rate speakers: Emil Kirjas, the Macedonian Secretary General of Liberal International (LI); Simon Hughes, the LibDem Party President; and Lord Russell-Johnston, former President of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe. Simon pledged that the party will fight the European elections next June on European issues, which will make a change.

Monday

A briefing lunch organised by the Association of European Journalists with the French Ambassador, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, in the London office of the European Parliament. France has just taken over the rotating presidency of the EU and President Nicolas Sarkozy is determined to inject new life into that body, following the Irish voters’ slap in the face. I quizz the Ambassador about Sarkozy’s proposals for a Mediterranean Union, which will link the EU to all the other countries bordering the Mediterranean. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is having none of it, but all the other interested parties think its worth giving a whirl, even Israel and Palestine. If I do get elected to the parliament next year, the EU’s relations with its neighbours and the wider Arab world will be one of my key concerns. In the evening, I do a live broadcast review of the papers on PressTV, during which I plug the EU’s potential as peace-maker.

Tuesday

Lunch at the National Liberal Club with Peter Dunphy, who managed my selection campaign last year, resulting in my being comfortably Number 2 on the London list. We discuss what we’ll do at the Bournemouth autumn party conference, which is the best forum in which to try to whip up enthusiasm among activists about the Euro-campaign, though the conference halls and bars are likely be full of people more preoccupied about getting themselves nominated for various party committees and the new tranche of the Peers’ List. Those of us who are near the top of the regional Euro-lists but not yet MEPs have formed an ‘In It to Win It’ group, lobbying hard for a vigorous campaign.

Wednesday

Up at an ungodly hour in order to be at the German Ambassador’s residence in Belgrave Square for an 8.15am working breakfast on climate change, organised by Business for New Europe. These occasions are often most useful as networking opportunities. Fistfuls of visiting-cards get handed out. Robert Moreland, former MEP and one of the few remaining pro-European Conservatives in the Tory Party, shares his sorrows. In the evening, I have to speak at a multicultural gathering hosted by the Universal Peace Federation, on ‘Muslims in Europe’, where the star turn is Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh, whose books I use in the course I teach at SOAS.

Thursday

Pasta and Politics in Hackney, where Malcolm Bruce, MP for Gordon and President of LIBG, leads a discussion on Burma. Most of my political activity seems to involve food, but I justify my expanding waistline by assuring myself I am eating for victory. It turns out that one of the Hackney LibDem councillors was born in Burma, though he left in 1969, the year I visited the country on my way back from being a journalist in the Viet Nam War. We all agree that the junta in charge in Burma are bastards and that the international community should be doing more to support the Burmese people. Perhaps the next LI Executive, which is to be held in Bangkok, will come up with some concrete proposals about how that can be done.

Friday

I am invited to the opening ceremony and pre-reception of IslamExpo at Olympia. Circulating among the Muslim dignitaries while balancing a paper plate of samosas and baklava, I bump into Ken Livingstone, who is still looking shell-shocked from losing the London mayoralty. He says he is not interested in standing for Parliament again, as he’ll never become Prime Minister, but he does fancy another crack at City Hall. Other anticipated politicians are conspicuous by their absence; it transpires that Labour and Tory powers-that-be have ordered them to stay away, nervous about some of the groups involved in the huge event. But Simon Hughes does appear, even on time. I spend some minutes at the LibDem stall, with members of Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats and get duly photographed. A golden rule of political campaigning is: get photographed everywhere. Well, everywhere you don’t mind being seen.

Jonathan Fryer is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and is second on the party’s list for the European Elections in London in 2009.  His blog has featured on Lib Dem Voice’s Golden Dozen lists over a dozen times.

If you’ve had an interesting week, why not write a diary for Lib Dem Voice?  Details for contributers are here.