It’s Sunday. It’s 9am on the date when, in 1974, Ted Heath called a snap election and, in 1812, Charles Dickens was born.
What better way to celebrate than to watch a YouTube clip about letterboxes? But first the blogs and the news.
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:
- Incomprehensible sign comes to Leicester: read Jonathan Calder
- E-campaigning comes to Stockton: read Maureen Rigg’s report
Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.
2 Big Stories
You probably know the news from the UK. So here’s the news from Ethiopia, followed by that letterbox movie.
Punch-up at registration office as two people claim to the opposition coalition’s candidate
Gadaa (surely the news site with the highest proportion of its name made up of the letter a) reports:
This video shows two persons (Mr. Abebe Beri and Major Mekonnen Geleta) in an altercation over each others’ candidacy for a parliamentarian seat representing the Kombolcha electoral district. The scene unfolds inside the district’s candidate registration office. According to the report, each of the gentlemen claims to be the “legal” candidate for a single parliamentarian seat being contested byMEDREK – the Forum, the major opposition coalition challenging the Zenawi-TPLF government in the upcoming election in Ethiopia. As the debate rages on, the altercation turns physical.
But wait! Perhaps this wasn’t just coalition infighting. Perhaps it was government dirty tricks?
According to Dr. Marara Gudina, the Chairman of MEDREK, who was interviewed today by the VOA Amharic Service, the incident was a farce orchestrated by the government in order to score cheap political points.
You can read the full report and watch the film clip (punch up is a little way in) here.
Ethiopia sees higher coffee prices for Africa
Potentially good news for the fight against poverty in Ethiopia with its economy set to get a boost this year:
African coffee producers are expected to enjoy higher prices this year thanks to falling output in Colombia, the world’s third biggest exporter, the chief executive of the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) said.
“The outlook for Arabica prices seems to be they will continue upwards because of the shortfall of production in Colombia,” Eleni Gabre-Madhin told Reuters late on Thursday. “We think this is a very good opportunity for African fine coffees.” (Reuters)
Sunday Bonus
Letterboxes. Not nice with nasty dogs behind them. And not very nice with horrible brushes either. So this invention looks very attractive. Doesn’t help with the dogs but does away with the need for brushes:
(Also on YouTube here)
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4 Comments
Ah…Charles Dickens. That’ll be the bloke who knocked out a few best-sellers, and was Liberal Parliamentary Candidate for Reading, and went on to become Editor of a Liberal newspaper that became the News Chronicle, which in 1961 rolled over and died all of a sudden despite selling as many copies as today’s Daily Mail.
Ah…February 1974. Remember watching David Steel driving Jeremy Thorpe into Downing Street and being mistaken as a “just a driver” so didnt get invited in for the cup of tea and fire-side chat with the Prime Minister…instead spent 90 minutes sitting in the Humber out int he rain.
Six million votes, 19 per cent, just 14 MPs, still, a big turn around from 1970 when if 2,500 votes had been distributed slightly differently, there would have been no Liberal MPs, at all…total wipe-out was avoided by the thinnest of whiskers.
What a come back…nothing much to do with Jeremy Thorpe, who spent all of his time in North Devon, is was more to do with the previous three years, with Trevor Jones totally transforming the party’s campaigning attude. (sadly with a large chunk of the party totally agin his methods and what he was trying to do, based on the conservative foot-dragging argument of “we dont do things this way.”)
These days I pretty much go delivering with a short stick or sturdy pen which I use to lift up letterbox flaps – my days of having my fingers nipped are over!
What I want to know is why our list of essential policies in the event of a ‘NOC’ parliament doesn’t include legislation to outlaw letterboxes which are too small, too low or carry double draft excluders with extra strong springs and catch-your-fingers ridges. It’s currently getting worse; a lot of new doors around here seem to have the latest in undeliverable boxes built in.
Let there be a British Standard for letterboxes and let it be enforced as part of building regulations for all new doors, and give everyone else 5 years to come into line.