Author Archives: Alex Foster

Alex Foster is a former Lib Dem councillor in Nottingham and has been a party staffer working in the constituency offices of MPs and MEPs in the East Midlands. He is Lib Dem Voice's bursar and likes to create podcasts.
Alex Foster

Clegg’s Arctic Challenge

By Alex Foster | Sat 25th November 2006 - 4:07 pm

Nick Clegg’s Arctic challenge – he’s not monkey hunting, he’s trekking for charity:

As some of you might know, I’m participating in the “Westminster Challenge” next February: five MPs trekking miles and miles through the Arctic cold and dark during their recess to raise money for some excellent charities. Incredible, but true. You can find out more about the challenge and the charities – including the local Sheffield charity which I have chosen in addition to the three national charities – via the weblink below.

www.justgiving.com/nickclegg

I’d be hugely grateful for any sponsorship you could give me for this gruelling experience:

…

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Alex Foster

Random burblings of a late night printer

By Alex Foster | Sat 25th November 2006 - 2:17 am

I’m slaving over a hot riso producing Christmas cards. This year, we opted for a rather lovely colour front preprinted by Park with the insides being printed in 22 versions by our good selves. We have promised the activists they will be ready for the 1st December, so it’s now become a bit of a rush job.

Working with 150gsm card instead of the cheap 80gsm paper we normally use has completely thrown my estimating skills off. I can normally grab a bundle of paper and say – that’s about 500 sheets. Now, I have no idea how much card I’m flinging around the room.

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Alex Foster

Tory “Tosser” Furore

By Alex Foster | Fri 24th November 2006 - 10:31 pm

So, here’s the story: the Tories launch a rather lurid website about the problem of personal debt in which they label the financially incontinent “tossers.”

A few Lib Dems (Nich, and Jonathan Wallace) wonder whether really that’s the sort of language a political party ought to be using to refer to voters. Even Vince Cable condemns it with some rather choice words. And there are plenty of Tories who aren’t that keen either – as Paul Walter points out.

That nice Iain Dale weighs in with “My party right or wrong,” and a reference to …

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Alex Foster

Voice Podcasts: Alex speaks to Nick Clegg, and making conference accessible

By Alex Foster | Fri 22nd September 2006 - 1:15 pm

In our final two Podcasts, Alex Foster speaks to Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat shadow Home Affairs spokesperson about his week in Brighton, and to Jeremy Hargreaves of the Federal Conference Committee, to hear about moves to make conference more accessible to the disabled.

It’s worth drawing out here the efforts the conference committee is going to to improve facilities for the disabled. Highlights include:

  • All fringe venues wheelchair accessible
  • One (adjustable) lectern for all speakers
  • Sign language interpretation for 100% of debates and speeches
  • A new fund to enable wheelchair users to attend conference

Finally, you can see highlights of each day’s debates on BBC Parliament: …

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Alex Foster

EXCLUSIVE: Leader interview

By Alex Foster | Thu 21st September 2006 - 10:30 am

Alex Foster gets the interview he’s been angling after all week. Well, nearly.

A little bird tells libdemvoice.org that net guru Tim Ireland is making a viral marketing campaign for the Lib Dems. It’s a short piece to attack the Tories and it should be crossing your web-browser in the next few days. Can hardly wait.

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Alex Foster

Voice Podcast: Rally Reaction

By Alex Foster | Wed 20th September 2006 - 9:59 pm

Alex speaks to two well-placed councillors on green issues and the challenges the party faces. Carol O’Gorman, leader of North Wilts District Council and Steve Comer, the Deputy Leader of Bristol City.

Why is it that every council has a “Council Government and Democracy” page?

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Alex Foster

Somerset County Council leading the way

By Alex Foster | Wed 20th September 2006 - 7:43 pm

Paul Buchanan, our deputy leader on Somerset County Council was very keen to talk of his council’s achievements in getting a green fleet up and running fuelled by grain grown within the County.

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Alex Foster

Chris Davies and Lembit Opik reveal their wardrobe secrets to Alex Foster

By Alex Foster | Wed 20th September 2006 - 6:50 pm

This podcast is an example of the snowball approach to gaining support.  Alex pursuaded Chris Davies to speak into his recorder, and only moments later when the MEP’s phone rang, he snared Lembit Opik to continue with the interview.

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Alex Foster

Alex and the Blogging Queen

By Alex Foster | Wed 20th September 2006 - 5:26 pm

Alex Foster took the opportunity of eight minutes alone in a quiet corridor with Iain Dale to check his linguistic skills – and received an interesting proposition.

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Alex Foster

Bipolar conference disorder

By Alex Foster | Wed 20th September 2006 - 3:49 pm

I love conference. I love the chance to go somewhere I wouldn’t normally visit and meet up with thousands of like minded people. I love going to the Glee Club to discover that I’m not the first person to be attacked by a letterbox, and that in fact it’s such a common problem they wrote a song about it!

I hate conference. I hate travelling miles on terrible trains to expensive seaside resorts infested with nerdy obsessive types. The wretched Glee Club, filled with drunk crusties moaning discordantly about letterboxes and dogs is just the last straw!

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