Global thinking, Local vision – What the Liberal Democrats can learn from how Coca-Cola operates in Africa

By Ian Thomas | Wed 20th January 2016 - 8:55 am

With the exception of Cuba and North Korea Coca-Cola is sold in every country on earth. Altogether, 1.7 billion servings of their products (the group has a portfolio of around 500) are sold every day, and that number is increasing year on year. While Africa produces around 10% of the company’s total revenue and volume the group expects this to double in less than six years, meaning that by 2020 the continent will boast more Coca-Cola consumers than the US and Europe combined.

While the comparison of a political party and the sales strategy of a multi-national corporation on another continent may seem poles apart, Coca-Cola’s success story provides some valuable lessons for an organisation needing to re-launch its brand to overcome a number of barriers to reconnect with a disillusioned electorate. 

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NewsHound

Farron slams UK’s billion pound arms deals with Saudi Arabia

By NewsHound | Tue 19th January 2016 - 10:17 pm

The Guardian reports that human rights groups have expressed concern at a major rise in UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Last month Saferworld and Amnesty commissioned a legal opinion from Professor Philippe Sands QC and other lawyers which concluded that British arms sales to Saudi Arabia, in the context of its military intervention and bombing campaign in Yemen, were breaking national, EU and international law.

UK arms sales in the three-month period from July to September 2015 for the export category that covers missiles, rockets and bombs amounted to £1,066,216,510, the BIS documents show. They were sold under five separate licences.

You can see the official figures showing the details of the export licences here.

Tim Farron has accused David Cameron of putting profits before human rights.

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Caron Lindsay

What do you do when you see a disastrous exit poll? Eat your hat, of course

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 19th January 2016 - 9:00 pm

Paddy Ashdown has been talking to the Guardian about that moment when he first saw the exit poll on Election Night.

rally paddy 01

To be honest I saw the poll at the bottom of the screen about 10 seconds before Andrew Neil turned to me and I thought to myself ‘oh shit’,” he said.

“Then I had an option. I could either say ‘that’s very interesting and wouldn’t it be troublesome for us’, in which case the entire Liberal Democrat night would fall apart from thereon … or I could brave it out and say ‘I’ll eat my hat’.

“I have in fact eaten five hats altogether , including one that was a proper hat, although pretty miniature, the rest made of more edible substances, which people keep presenting me with.

He discussed the impact of the polls and suggested that they had a big impact on the result of the election.

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Joe Otten

Margaret Beckett reports on reasons for Labour’s defeat

By Joe Otten | Tue 19th January 2016 - 4:39 pm

Dame Margaret Beckett a former deputy and acting leader of the Labour Party has reported her findings on the reasons behind Labour’s loss of the election in 2015. We need to understand this dispassionately, alongside the reasons for our great losses, some of which will overlap.

Firstly, five reasons that Beckett doubts.

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The Voice

Tom Brake’s bill to strengthen Freedom of Information

By The Voice | Tue 19th January 2016 - 2:42 pm

Today Tom Brake introduced a bill under the 10 minute rule to limit the powers of ministers to block freedom of information requests and extend the coverage of the Freedom of Information Act to contractors carrying out duties commissioned by the public sector.

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Tod Sullivan

A long slow goodbye… a warm hello

By Tod Sullivan | Tue 19th January 2016 - 12:01 pm

I have a simple approach to politics, at heart I am pragmatic and try not to place ideology in the way of the best possible outcome.

New Labour in the late 1990’s was perfect for me and so I joined the party and I became a local councillor the day after Labour lost the 2010 election, became a Labour Group leader, and remained a councillor until the 2015 election. By then, I was feeling less connected to the party politically and I stood down.

The Ed Miliband era was tortuous for me. I found pockets of policy I agreed with, but I never believed that he would become Prime Minister. I found the sycophancy permeating from his inner circle, especially on social media, nauseating.

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George Kendall

When is the right time to reduce the deficit?

By George Kendall | Tue 19th January 2016 - 10:48 am

Liberal Democrats and Social Democrats have a very wide range of opinions, including economics. However, despite our differences, it’s possible to discuss them in a good-natured, honest way, without polemic.

The time to reduce the deficit has been a matter of huge controversy over the last six years. Paul Krugman is, perhaps, the best known advocate of continuing stimulus. In 2012, he attacked the UK deficit reduction programme as ‘deeply destructive’. He said, “Give me a stronger economy and I’ll turn into a fiscal hawk. But not now”.

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Joe Zammit-Lucia

Liberals Must Have A Comprehensive Policy On Immigration

By Joe Zammit-Lucia | Tue 19th January 2016 - 8:34 am

They say that there is no war that is more difficult and emotionally draining than a civil war. So it is with ideas. When liberals and progressives fight conservatives, the battles are easy. Each is convinced of their own righteousness and, when they run out of arguments, can simply dismiss the other side as being either Neanderthal or degenerate and therefore not worthy of much consideration. Everyone can go to bed enveloped in their own warm glow of self-belief.

Much more difficult are conflicting ideas that spring from the same ideology. Because resolution is difficult, these issues tend to get quietly …

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The Greatest Show On Earth

By Ian Thomas | Mon 18th January 2016 - 6:25 pm

 

From the great theatrical showman in Las Vegas to the street-hustlers on trestle tables asking tourists to watch the cups; misdirection, the foremost requirement of magic, is a deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.

No matter in what forum they perform, from street magicians to TV illusionists, magicians have the ability to use their skills to create something out of nothing, of reordering the universe to defy the rules of logic before our very eyes – and who knew that the Conservative government was creating the greatest show on earth.

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ALDC

ALDC’s by-election report – 14 January 2016

By ALDC | Mon 18th January 2016 - 4:59 pm

ALDC Master Logo (for screen)The Liberal Democrats got off to a successful start to the year in local by-elections, as the party won the first principal council by-election of 2016 where the party has fielded a candidate. In last Thursday’s only contest, the Liberal Democrats in Cornwall (UA), comfortably won the election in Launceston Central ward. Despite a vote share decrease of 7.9% from 2013, Gemma Massey polled an impressive 63% of the vote to win ahead of the Conservatives with a 289 vote majority.

In addition, the party also won in Central ward on Launceston Town Council.  Paula Bullen and Kirk Denton collectively polled over 70% of the vote to win the two of three vacant seats.

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Phyllida Scrivens

Shirley Williams foreword for biography

By Phyllida Scrivens | Mon 18th January 2016 - 3:32 pm

Shirley Williams and Joe Stirling 8th April 2015Shirley Williams and Joe Stirling

As a member and activist of Norwich North Liberal Democrats, I am delighted to share the news that on 5th January, Pen and Sword Books published my debut biography Escaping Hitler: A Jewish Boy’s Quest for Freedom and His Future. The book tells the true story of Joe Stirling, Kindertransport refugee, pioneering travel agent, leading member of Lions International and past Sheriff of Norwich.

During my four years of research for this book, one afternoon Joe told me how, as a Labour Party agent for Central Norfolk, he was sent to Harwich in 1954 to help the Labour candidate, a young woman called Shirley Catlin, fight her first by-election. Later she would become Shirley Williams, Baroness of Crosby.

There is a further extraordinary link between Joe Stirling and Shirley Williams that emerged during my many hours of interviewing Joe. On escaping Nazi Germany in 1939, a Birmingham family of academics fostered him. The wife, Freda Free, had been a close friend of Vera Brittain at Oxford University, and often spoke to young Günter (Joe’s birth name) of Vera’s daughter Shirley.

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Mary Reid

Tim Farron on English language classes for Muslim women

By Mary Reid | Mon 18th January 2016 - 1:51 pm

 

David Cameron has announced a £20 million fund for English language classes for Muslim women, claiming that 22% of Muslim women in the UK do not speak English.

That figure of 22% was challenged on the BBC Today programme by Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent with the Metropolitan Police, who claims that the figure should be nearer 6%.

Help with learning English is the least the Government can do to help migrants settle down, live a full life in the UK and contribute to the local community. That is why in the Coalition the Lib Dems prevented the Government from cutting funding for English language classes.

So why limit it to Muslim women? The answer to that question is revealed in the subtext – Cameron manages to link the lack of English with extremism.

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Kevin Mahoney

Time is ripe for Church of England disestablishment

By Kevin Mahoney | Mon 18th January 2016 - 12:35 pm

 

Now that the Anglican Communion has ruled that the US Episcopalian Church will not be able to take part in its decision making for three years’ following their support for same sex marriage and their appointment of a gay bishop in 2003, it is time for us to put Church of England disestablishment back on the agenda.

Like many in the party, I had misgivings about Tim Farron’s Christian faith when he was elected leader. As a liberal Christian who campaigns for same sex marriage within church, I perceived Tim to be a conservative Christian that would be opposed to this. However, the controversy about Tim’s interview with Cathy Newman last year has rather changed my mind on this, especially when I read his May 2015 interview in Pink News. Tim called for the disestablishment of the CofE in this interview, and I think that we should make this official policy to finally dispel the view that his Christianity is a problem for his leadership. Having had a closer look at Tim Farron’s reasons for his voting record on same sex marriage, I think the problem is not that he’s a fundamentalist Christian, but that he’s a fundamentalist Liberal.

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George Potter

Farron’s strategy to tackle Corbyn is all wrong

By George Potter | Mon 18th January 2016 - 10:10 am

 

Recently Tim Farron responded to Jeremy Corbyn’s economic strategy by saying “Unfortunately Corbyn’s anti-business policies will ensure that no company has the budget to pay the wages their employees deserve”.

Now this is absolutely true and it’s very much Tim Farron’s approach to Corbyn and Labour at the moment. But it’s also absolutely the wrong approach to take.

The thing is, the public already thinks Labour aren’t economically competent and the Tories keep on ramming home that message. But since the public think that the Tories are economically competent then any attacks we make on Labour’s economic competence will just drive voters to the Tories.

In a nutshell, attacking Labour on the economy does nothing more than to annoy Labour voters who we want to win over while helping to turn undecided voters to the Tories.

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Caron Lindsay

Take part in #timetotalk day on Lib Dem Voice

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 8:30 pm

Every year, the first Thursday in February sees Time to Talk Day, run by Time to Change. The idea is to get people talking about mental health and share their experiences with the aim of ending the stigma that people face.

For the last two years, we at LDV have taken part in the event and our readers have produced some outstanding pieces. You can read them all here.

Two years ago, Eleanor Draycott wrote about her experience of living with BiPolar:

Many people don’t understand what being Bi-polar actually means, I guess this is why I’m putting this down on paper. The most basic knowledge the population has is that someone with this illness “suffers from” extreme highs and lows and this is certainly true. One day I can be the life and soul of the party, extremely talkative, wanting to go out and embrace the world with open arms. But the next I can be so down that getting out of bed seems like an insurmountable task. There has never been any pattern to my highs and lows, either can last for days, weeks or months. Before I was on the right combination of medication, in my manic stages I wouldn’t sleep for as long as they lasted. I was always out partying, dancing, drinking, behaving recklessly, spending money I didn’t have on ridiculous items I would never need if I lived to be one hundred. I would sit up for hours writing pages and pages of rambling thoughts in notebooks, that made no sense when I came down and my mind wasn’t racing, but which at the time of writing I was convinced contained the answer to world peace.

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Caron Lindsay

Top of the Blogs: The Lib Dem Golden Dozen #446

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 7:00 pm

Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 446th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere … Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (10-16 January, 2016), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Don’t forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox — just click here — ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, let’s start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

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Caron Lindsay

Amendment written by Paul Tyler may defeat Government on Trade Union Bill

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 5:58 pm

The Independent has an interesting story about the Liberal Democrats and Labour working together to defeat the Government on the party funding aspect of the Trade Union Bill. When you read the story, it’s a real collaboration, with Paul Tyler drafting the amendment now in the name of the Labour leader in the Lords, but the headline makes it look like we are simply supporting the Labour effort.

Liberal Democrat peers are to help Labour water down the Trade Union Bill, which will dramatically reduce the party’s funding, in an amendment on Wednesday.

The support should give Labour enough votes to pass an amendment that would mean parts of the Bill that relate to political funding will be separated out and examined by a cross-party committee of peers. This was originally drafted by Lord Tyler, the Liberal Democrat constitutional reform spokesman, who wants the committee to examine broader political funding…

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Caron Lindsay

Mulholland accuses pubcos on cask ale

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 4:55 pm

The Casked CrusaderWe know that Greg Mulholland valiantly stands up to the big pubcos and was part of a very successful move to give tenants more rights which resulted in one of the few Commons Government defeats of the last Parliament.

In yesterday’s Times (£), he accused the pubcos of passing on costs of duty to their tenants that they didn’t have to pay themselves.

The Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West believes that the pubcos are taking advantage of the agreement between HMRC and the brewers that duty need not be paid on, for example, four to six pints in a firkin containing 72 pints of ale.

He said that some pubcos were routinely charging their tied tenants for the full 72 pints, including the duty element, taking no account of the “undrinkable” portion. The recharging of duty on ale on which no duty had been paid was “potentially a criminal matter”.

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Caron Lindsay

Farron’s response to principle of banning Trump is right in principle but…

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 17th January 2016 - 3:55 pm

Tomorrow, Parliament debates whether Donald Trump should be excluded from the UK. MPs are doing this because getting on for 600,000 people signed an official e-petition calling for him to be banned from the UK after his appalling anti-Muslim comments. We’ve talked about this on LDV before. In December, I said that he should be allowed to come here:

Much as I understand that people are repelled by his views, there is a certain irony in them responding to his ignorant call to ban a group of people with a call to ban him.

I have less than no time for the man. Hell, he called a friend of mine who had the temerity to question his plans for his golf course a “national disgrace, scoundrel and extremist”. However, I was never comfortable with the idea of “no platform” because I think that sweeping prejudice under the carpet doesn’t get rid of it. It finds oxygen from somewhere and lurks there, waiting or an opportunity to re-emerge and spread even more intensified hate. When people express views like Trump’s, they need to be challenged, satirised and shown up for the nonsense that they are.

I’d love to see the likes of Lynne Featherstone, Shirley Williams, Jo Brand, Tim Farron or his new mate Russell Howard take him down with carefully chosen words. In that way, they can also challenge similar views held by those who aren’t quite as rich and powerful as The Donald.

I didn’t, therefore, sign the petition, but Millicent Ragnhild Scott did, not because she wanted to see him banned, but because she wanted Parliament to debate what he’d said to show that we reject his poisonous ideas:

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The Voice

Featherstone: Lib Dems will fight to protect renewables sector

By The Voice | Sun 17th January 2016 - 2:55 pm

Lynne FEatherstone 2007 Brighton conference by Liberal DemocratsEnergy and Climate Change spokesperson Lynne Featherstone has accused the government (perfectly reasonably) of making “ideological cuts” to the renewables sector. Speaking ahead of a Lords debate on the Energy Bill tomorrow, she said:

Liberal Democrats have made changes to the Government’s Energy Bill in the House of Lords, and will be fighting to protect onshore wind subsidies in the debate.

We will be fighting to keep these changes, which will help protect our renewable energy industry in the face of brutal Conservative cuts.

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The Voice

LDV’s Sunday Best: our 7 most-read articles this week

By The Voice | Sun 17th January 2016 - 1:25 pm

7 bestMany thanks to the 12200  visitors who dropped by Lib Dem Voice this week. Here’s our 7 most-read posts…

Welcoming former Labour Party supporters to the Liberal Democrats (71 comments) by Rob Jackson

Farron: We must not pull up the drawbridge because of the Cologne attacks (55 comments) by The Voice

Nick Clegg launches cross-party commission on inequality in education (41 comments) by Joe Otten

The stars look very different today – tributes to David Bowie (3 comments) by Mary Reid

Tim’s pick a ward and win it – how that’s part of the Isle of Wight’s #libdemfightback (13 comments) by Nicholas Belifitt

So why exactly did Alex Salmond miss any questions? (6 comments) by Caron Lindsay

Farron: Tories are taking the South West for granted (25 comments) by Newshound

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The Voice

Welsh Conference agenda announced – amendment deadline on 27th January

By The Voice | Sun 17th January 2016 - 12:00 pm

rally kirsty williams 1The agenda for the important pre-election Welsh Lib Dem Spring Conference has been announced. It takes place in Cardiff from 5-7 February and you can find all the details here.

It’s packed with keynote speeches – each of the AMs gets a slot, along with Tim Farron – and policy debates.

Not surprisingly, the manifesto and a motion on policing feature ahead of the Assembly and PCC elections. After some initial hesitation, the party has decided to stand candidates in all 4 Welsh PCC areas.

Flooding and a motion on childcare and education, reflecting the party’s success in persuading the Labour Government to introduce the Pupil Premium finish the first day.

Sunday sees debates on the European referendum, a members only election briefing and an IR Cymru motion on sex education.

If you want to amend any of the motions, or submit an emergency motion or topical issue, you can do so by 27 January. Instructions are here.

Fringe meetings cover the countryside, health and social care, small business, local government and, as always pre-election, the Electoral Commission will be there to answer questions.

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Paul Walter

Lib Dem pressure wins inquiry into UK extremist funding

By Paul Walter | Sun 17th January 2016 - 10:25 am

The image of Alistair Carmichael looms large on the Guardian’s website this morning. This is connection with his leading the campaign to launch an inquiry into the funding of jihadi and extremist groups operating in the UK.

The report states:

Political pressure on Cameron to investigate extremist revenue streams in the UK has come from the Liberal Democrats who requested the inquiry in exchange for supporting the extension into Syria of British airstrikes against Islamic State.

I think this is referring to the last sentence of the fifth of Tim Farron’s “tests” for supporting Syrian air strikes, which says:

We…call on (the government) to conduct an investigation into foreign funding and support of extremist and terrorist groups in the UK.

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Lindsay Northover

Baroness Lindsay Northover writes…Our MPs must include women as well as men

By Lindsay Northover | Sun 17th January 2016 - 8:57 am

We are an internationalist party.  We believe in human rights.  Our constitution commits us to equality, as well as liberty and community.

So how can it be that we, the Lib Dems of all parties, have absolutely no women MPs?  Zero.  0.0%.

Round the world, countries and parties have addressed the paucity of women in elected positions. Our sister parties have done so. We have a history of trying to do so – but trying is not the same as succeeding.  That must change now. I am extremely glad that our Party President, Sal Brinton, and our party leader, Tim Farron, are making clear that change must happen.

The SDP and then the Lib Dems led with affirmative action until the late 1990s.  Then Labour sailed past us with women-only shortlists.  They transformed their party – and the UK Parliament. Now their Commons party is 44% women.  Even the Conservatives are almost 21%.

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Caron Lindsay

Nice work if you can get it, Nick

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th January 2016 - 8:41 pm

The papers have been full of Nick Clegg, recently. Various papers, including the Guardian,  got pretty exercised about him receiving £22,500 for a speech and 2 hours’ work at an event for Goldman Sachs:

The former deputy prime minister, who condemned the global investment bank in 2010 for alleged “recklessness and greed”, listed the payment in the latest entry for the Commons register of members’ interests.

The entry said that his agent, News Presenters Ltd, arranged for him to be paid £22,500 for delivering a keynote speech and moderating a question and answer session over dinner for Goldman Sachs in London on 2 December 2015. The speech examined Britain’s place in the EU.

Sure, it’s a massive amount of money, even if you factor in the time it takes to actually write the speech. It’s eye-watering, even, that someone can get not far off the national average wage for a couple of hours’ work. 

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The Voice

Tweets from the campaign trail: Snow edition

By The Voice | Sat 16th January 2016 - 7:53 pm

All over the country, Liberal Democrats have been campaigning today, some of them in the snow. Here are some of the icy tweets. Thankfully, the reception on the doorsteps was much warmer.

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NewsHound

Caroline Pidgeon talks Heathrow, housing, transport and Boris’s mismanagement of industrial relations

By NewsHound | Sat 16th January 2016 - 1:25 pm

Caroline Pidgeon has given a wide ranging interview to the Richmond and Twickenham Guardian.

As 3 new tube strikes loom, she was deeply critical of Boris Johnson:

We are in a very, very bad position in terms of our industrial relations because Boris Johnson has never properly and formally sat down with the unions.

I think he might have passed them in a corridor or something but never formally sat down.

Boris Johnson and TFL messed this up from the start with their deadline. Immediately then the unions could hold him over a barrel and start making more and more demands.”

They did quite rightly raise concerns about working late shifts but occasionally it has seemed some are just spoiling for a fight.

What we need to do is to start off with having a good relationship with the unions and there has been a failure right from 2008 from Boris Johnson to establish that relationship.

“The others want to be something, I want to do something”

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Caron Lindsay

The Lib Dem week in Wales

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th January 2016 - 11:55 am

welsh lib demsHere is our weekly roundup of what the Liberal Democrats, led by Kirsty Williams, have been getting up to in Wales.

In the Scottish roundup, we saw Tavish Scott condemn the late CAP payments to farmers. Labour in Wales have been just as bad, with Kirsty Williams telling Wales Online that farmers were under so much pressure that they have been calling her on the brink of suicide:

Farmers have been calling on the brink of suicide due to the financial difficulties they face.

This is on top of the fact that, because of the mishandling of the changes to farming support by Welsh Government, farmers were already only to receive 80% of their entitlement.

Like any business, farmers have bills to pay. They rely heavily on the December payments to pay those bills, so it has a knock-on effect to the wider rural economy. The Welsh LabourGovernment need to sort this mess out and they need to sort it out quickly.

Tackling Doctor shortage

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Caron Lindsay

The Lib Dem week in Scotland

By Caron Lindsay | Sat 16th January 2016 - 10:27 am

st Andrews flag saltire scotland Some rights reserved by Fulla TWelcome to our weekly roundup of what the Scottish Liberal Democrats, led by Willie Rennie, have been getting up to. They’ve covered a pretty extensive array of issues from health to housing to police spying to local services to cuts to college places.

McInnes says there are still questions to answer on police spying

After a senior Police Officer gave evidence on the police spying scandal to a Holyrood Committee, Alison McInnes says that his answers were not satisfactory:

The guidance on accessing communications data is very straightforward. Police Scotland’s account of how this came about is nowhere near as clear. We were told this morning that senior officers had raised concerns over applications to access communications data but they seem to have gone through regardless.

These were serious breaches and we need understand what went wrong here. Months after the first reports that Police Scotland had hacked communications data unlawfully, we are still no closer to a full account of how we got here.

NHS in crisis

Jim Hume has been highlighting many issues where the NHS in Scotland is falling short. First, his research showed that Scotland was facing an acute GP shortage as GP training places were not being taken up:

The fear must be that the extra training places announced by the First Minister last year will not help encourage more students to enter primary care or relieve the huge pressure on local GP practices. With dozens of training posts left vacant this year, SNP ministers must explain how they will ensure uptake of these and the 100 extra places they have announced. Welcome though they are, more training places will do no good at all unless there are doctors to fill them.

The SNP Government have not published a key review of mental health services. Jim said:

First we were told that the report would be published in the summer. Then that it would be published before Christmas but still we have seen nothing. What on earth is going on?

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The Voice

Lib Dem Lords’ maiden speeches: Alan Beith on the National Lottery

By The Voice | Sat 16th January 2016 - 8:55 am

EuroMillions ticketsThis week, we are catching up with our new Lib Dem peers’ maiden speeches. Today, it’s Alan Beith on the National Lottery.

The noble Lord, Lord Holmes of Richmond, was very kind and generous in his references to me and to the circumstances of my election, 42 years ago. It was with a majority of only 57 votes. I never imagined that I would manage such a long political survival, still less that I would find myself in this haven of political survival, the House of Lords. But I believe in the need for a Second Chamber and it will be an honour to serve in it, just as it was an honour to represent in the other House the beautiful Berwick-upon-Tweed constituency, covering 1,000 square miles of Northumberland.

I am very grateful for the warm and friendly welcome I have received in this House from noble Lords and the very helpful staff. I am delighted to renew so many friendships with those on all sides of this Chamber whom I have worked with, taken evidence from or contended with in years gone by. As I seek to follow the slightly different ways of doing things at this end of the building, I have been allocated a widely respected mentor and guide who knows exactly how to keep me in order: the noble Baroness, Lady Maddock, has been doing that ever since I married her.

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