Tag Archives: duncan borrowman

Congratulations to Duncan and Grace!

Lib Dems are renowned for their love of real ale, so perhaps it is no surprise that nine years ago Duncan Borrowman and Grace Goodlad decided to transform a failing pub into a community hub dedicated to real ale and craft beers. Many a party activist has made their way to The Bailey Head in Oswestry, especially during the by-election campaign in North Shropshire.

And now the couple have just been awarded the highest accolade in the pub world – CAMRA’s Pub of the Year.

The BBC reports:

“You’ve got to have good beer to win, but that’s not enough on it’s own,” Grace said.

“It’s all the other bits, the added value, that’s what makes the difference I think.”

“You’re judged on your beer quality, and Duncan runs the cellar so that’s definitely down to him,” she told the BBC.

“But then it also looks at things like hygiene, the welcome you get from staff, staff’s knowledge…whether or not you’re involved in supporting the local community.”

The pair estimates they had about 30 visits from judges before winning the award, but at the time had no idea they were being judged.

As if that didn’t take up enough of their lives, both Duncan and Grace are standing as candidates for Shropshire Council, Grace in Oswestry South and Duncan in Llanymynech.  Winners, both of them!

Posted in News | Also tagged | 2 Comments

Grace Goodlad and Duncan Borrowman’s new pub in Oswestry is open

Grace Goodlad and Duncan Borrowman have won a whole stack of awards from CAMRA from when they ran the Orpington Liberal Club.

Now they’ve taken on a new challenge and have bought a pub in Oswestry.

The local paper, the Shropshire Star,  covered The Bailey Head’s opening earlier this week. They even have video of the event:

Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 5 Comments

Liberal Democrat Party Awards 2012: The winners

Each year at Autumn Conference, the Party President presents awards for outstanding service to the Liberal Democrats.

Tim Farron appealed for nominations back in May, and presented the awards on the final afternoon of Conference in Brighton last week.

Tim Farron also took a moment to thank all those who work hard in their local areas and for their local parties, everyone who campaigned in the council elections in May, and those who will play a part in this autumn’s elections for Police Commissioners, the Bristol Mayor and Parliamentary by-elections.

The winners of the 2012 Party Awards are as follows:

Patsy Calton Award

Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 1 Comment

Will the Conservatives deal with racism in the Orpington PPC selection?

Leaked emails published by Duncan Borrowman reveal a dismal state of affairs in the Orpington Conservative party, with Councillor Peter Hobbins writing comments such as, “Why are the Candidates Department so keen on these foreign names?!!!” and criticising members of the Conservative Party’s list of approved candidates for not having “a ‘normal’ English name”.

Duncan’s post says,

Racism is alive and kicking in Orpington Conservatives, as revealed in a couple of emails sent on the Bromley Council email system to their local councillors and constituency chairman in the early hours of this morning, and leaked to me today.

You can read the full …

Posted in News | Also tagged and | 4 Comments

Derek Conway: should the police investigate him for fraud?

Now that the Standards and Privileges Committee has decided that Derek Conway should repay several thousand pounds that wrongly went on employing one of his sons, Duncan Borrowman (who lodged a complaint originally about the whole affair) says:

I call again for the Metropolitan Police to investigate Mr Conway for fraud.

You can read more on Duncan’s blog.

Posted in News | Also tagged | 3 Comments

Cheadle by-election architect appointed Lib Dem campaigns director

Via Duncan Borrowman comes the welcome news that Hilary Stephenson, one of the party’s most experienced campaigners, has been appointed to succeed Paul Rainger as Director of Campaigns.

Among the many campaigns she has run was the (relatively) recent Cheadle by-election to defend the seat following the death of Patsy Calton MP, which saw local man Mark Hunter successfully sent to Westminster.

We wish her well!

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 6 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Peter Davies
    @John Marriott. Not many people think a billion is a hundred million. There are still plenty who think it's a million million (the original meaning). The popula...
  • Joseph Bourke
    ‘Pax Americana' superceded Pax Britannica (the relative peace between the great powers in the time period roughly bounded by the Napoleonic Wars and World War...
  • Simon R
    @Steve Trevethan: Might you possibly be confusing 'Donald Trump' with 'The USA'? :-) What Trump says, believes, and does is in many respects not like what many...
  • nvelope2003
    Steve Trevethan. The Americans are like other colonialists. They established their enormously wealthy Republic by stealing other people's land and property and ...
  • nvelope2003
    Alex Macfie: Re My post, for the avoidance of doubt, in line 2 replace the third word with the word "that". I hope this makes the matter clear. Time to get some...