Time to Fall Back

Don't forget that British Summer Time ends at 02:00 BST (01:00 GMT) on Sunday morning. Remember, put your clocks back an hour before you go to bed.

Enjoy the extra hour in bed.

JR

The BNP Will Play the Victim

Unite Against Fascism just don't understand that the BNP will be loving the publicity that they're getting because of UAF's protests outside (and indeed, inside) BBC buildings.

Quite simply the BNP will play the victim and attempt (and will probably succeed) to gain the sympathy vote.

There is a YouGov poll in tomorrow's Daily Telegraph (embargoed until 10pm) that will show a boost in BNP support after their appearance on Question Time last night. The question is whether this is an argument for no platforming the BNP on TV debates in the future, or is the boost a short term blip because of the extra publicity.

Of course there is a third option, as I have already alluded to. Just under 8 million people saw the Question Time programme, but many more will know about the protests by UAF. The public would see a bunch of bullying protesters breaking the law and breaching security cordons, and all because of the appearance of the leader of a political party.

Now, clearly the vast majority of people don't want anything to do with the BNP, but there will be a not insignificant number of the public that are swayed by the actions of UAF; swayed towards the BNP.

We'll have to wait until next week before we know if the boost in support is sustainable, but as it stands I believe that UAF will have achieved exactly the opposite of what they wanted to!

JR

This Is Ridiculous

They say bad luck comes in threes. This is very true!

On Sunday my laptop decided it wasn't going to charge up properly. I thought it was a problem with the power cable, but it transpires that something has gone wrong with the motherboard and therefore needs replacing. The repair bill is £230!

On Monday my work computer decided to break by only displaying graphics in 16 colours (4-bits), and a extremely poor resolution. The University's ICTS unit haven't been around to fix it yet!

On Tuesday I was on my way to Liverpool for their NUS Town Takeover event when my car decided to blow the head gasket. The repair bill would be more than the car's worth, so it's probably best to get a new car. An expense that I don't need!

Hopefully the proverb holds true and I won't have any more bad luck for the time being!

JR

Queen's Scouts and Hairspray

Did I mention last Saturday?

Taking a week's leave was not only a good idea, but completely necessary due to the party conference and the events around it. All the events of the last week, however, have meant that I didn't have any time whatsoever to tell you all about last Saturday and my trip to London.

I went down to have my Queen's Scout presented at the national ceremony at the Science Museum in South Kensington. I got the very early train (the 06:10 from Manchester Piccadilly to be precise) so I could be there for breakfast with Bear Grylls, the Chief Scout, and meet the other 144 Queen's Scouts.

Bear gave a speech on the scout laws and how they all relate to what scouts do every day. He talked about trust, loyalty, being considerate, family, courage, good use of time, and respect. It is these skills that make scouts stand out from the crowd and will serve a scout well throughout their life.

He said to the Queen's Scouts, "As Queen's Scouts you have reached the pinnacle of Scouting, it is the highest award possible. You are the elite so I ask you not to underestimate your achievements. I challenge you to use these skills to reach the top in life."

The Queen's Scout Award programme is an opportunity for young people to challenge themselves, develop specialist skills and participate in community work. But it requires endurance and commitment, and can take up to five years to complete.

For my award I went on an expedition in the Picos de Europa in Spain, gained a Cricket umpiring qualification, and was a member of the International Service Team for the 21st World Scout Jamboree in Essex in 2007, which included wearing very silly orange and purple hats for my role in guest services.

My ceremony was just after lunch, so my mum (who had come up from Devon) and I had time to catch a show in the West End before heading back home. A quick trip to the Leicester Square box office and we had some pretty good seats for the matinée of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre.

The show was amazing and deserves its rave reviews as one of the best new musicals of the decade. The show had all the main cast in it including Chlöe Hart as Tracy Turnblad [pictured], Verity Rushworth (Donna in Emmerdale) as Penny Pingleton, and Brain Conley as Tracy's mum.

The plot revolves around prejudices in 60s America and Tracy's attempts to be a dancer on the Corny Collins Show on one of Baltimore's television stations. Even though Tracy is a brilliant dancer, she is knocked back because she is seen to be overweight. Another girl refused an audition because she's black.

You'll have to go and see the show to find out what happens, but needless to say there's a happy ending. It's was also uplifting to see how Tracy's actions in the show related to Bear Grylls' speech that morning, and how the scout laws can be put to good effect.

To give you some idea of the how amazing this brilliant cast was, here they are on the Paul O'Grady Show on Friday singing You Can't Stop The Beat.





Penny was played by Jenii Hicks in this version, who is the understudy for a few of the female support roles.

This cast will be together at the Shaftesbury until 23 October, and I recommend you go and see the show if you have the chance.

JR

Stop Press: Brown May Have To Repay Expenses

It's being reported by the BBC and other sources that the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, may have to repay some of his expenses. The sum of money may well be modest, but the political damage is likely to be much greater.

Back in May, Brown set up the independent audit when he was faced with local and European elections that would prove a disaster for Labour. Five months later and that audit looks set to embarrass the PM further.

Recent polling will bring more bad news for Labour as the Conservatives have opened up a 19 point lead. The ICM poll for the News of the World gives figures of; Conservatives 45%, Labour 26%, Lib Dems 18%. This also means that the combined level of Labour and Liberal Democrat support is less than that for the Conservatives on their own.

This story will have missed the early editions of the Sundays, but no doubt most will lead on the story by the main run in the morning. I might have to wake up early to see what the Sunday political shows make of it.

It's going to be a long seven months before we get that election.

JR

Here Comes the Sun, Chums - #cpc09

Where was I?

Wednesday night was the Party for Change. There were over 1,000 people in the club and it was a great success. There was a Microsoft XBox room with consoles set up running various games, and at one end of the room an entire band's kit was connected to a console running The Beatles Rock Band.

Now I'm often up for a bit of karaoke so I got myself on vocals and some others were on guitar, bass and drums and we went through a few songs from The Beatles back catalogue. About 15 minutes later, none other than your chum and mine, Eric Pickles MP, walks in followed by an entourage of about 30 people. Eric is coerced into joining in and takes the other microphone, we start with a rendition of She Wouldn't Dance With Another and then (very appropriately considering the events of exactly a week beforehand) Here Comes The Sun, which Eric and I combinded to get a score of 100%!


The photographic evidence is provided by Tory Bear.

Huge applause comes from the assembled crowd who promptly follow Eric out of the room. It certainly made my night, albeit a very surreal night!

Watch out for Eric's new album in all good record stores' bargain buckets soon!

JR

JR on QT

Yesterday I was in the audience of Question Time and I managed to get a comment in, just 2:45 into the show.


I didn't say much, but I think it was clear and to the point! The highlights of the rest of the programme include Ian Hislop having a go at Yvette Cooper over her rose tinted spectacles on inheritance tax.

You can watch the programme until Thursday evening on the BBC iPlayer.

JR

Only You - #cpc09

Day three at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester and I'm still not flagging. I've been enjoying myself so much that I've not had any time to update my readers on what's going on.


I've come to the Internet cafe in the conference venue to write this blog post; a venue that is very impressive in it's asthetics and orginisation. No complaints so far.

On Sunday, I attended the official Conservative Future conference and media training event. It was extreemly useful and provided all those who attended plenty of hints and tips should a media orginisation try to ask any nasty questions. We were told they would be looking for young Conservatives to appear on camera. This event was followed by some pre-conference drinks, and a great time was had by all.

Monday morning saw myself and 199 (at least at the start) others in the audience for Victoria Derbyshire's BBC Radio 5live show. The majority of the audience were quite hostile to the members of the shadow cabinet, that were tag-teaming on the panel throughout the show. However, apart from one sticky point over Europe (which I'm sure you're all aware of) the programme was reasonably sucessful for the party.

The evening was taken up with the GMCF curry and then onto Tory Bear's karaoke event. The details are sketchy, but many attempted songs and most were pretty good!

The evening of Tuesday was my big chance to shine and showcase my views on higher education funding. Unfortunately a number of things conspired against me (I was first to speak, and I hadn't had a drink beforehand) and I wasn't the victor. Having said that, I got some very good comments and suggestions from the panel. None of them were horrible to me!

I then managed to get into the Manchester Airports Group reception! It was recommended to me because there was a free meal and free wine!

Tonight is the Party For Change at Pure in the Printworks. You don't need a conference pass to attend, and if you're a student then tickets are at the bargain price of £5!

I've been twittering from conference all week, and you can follow my tweets on the right of this page. I'll be tweeting DC's speech tomorrow too. For updates from others about the conference then search for #cpc09 on twitter.

More on Friday (after a good night's sleep).

JR