2006 - A review

8.37.00am GMT Sun 31st Dec 2006

Colin Ross

As 2006 draws to a close I thought it might be an idea to review the year, its been a busy year with some ups and some downs. Here it is:

Colin Ross training a Back to Basics course in Swansea

January saw the year started badly for me on a personal level with the death of one of my Nan's, my father's mother, it left me unsettled for a while. Although fortunately I did not have too much time to dwell with work and a series of training events I was running in Wales for the Liberal Democrats, which meant I was in Wales virtually every weekend throughout January!

Politically January saw Charles Kennedy resign as Leader of the Liberal Democrats and announced he was a recovering alcoholic. I backed Sir Menzies Campbell in the ensuing leadership election, which was only completed in March, I believe Ming was the right choice and expect him to do well into 2007 and beyond.

Emily Ross and Uncle Colin on the sofa

February's highlight were the Christenings of my niece Emily Ross and my godson Rupert Lawrence. Another highlight was Willie Rennie and Liberal Democrats winning in Dunfermline by-election. The West Midlands Liberal Democrats launched their Moving Forward training programme, something I have been very proud of piloting through its first year and something that I think will be us great rewards in the years ahead.

Sir Menzies Campbell campaigning in Birmingham during the General Election

March started with Sir Menzies winning the Liberal Democrat Leadership contest, quickly followed by the Spring Conference in Harrogate (which was very snowy!). Apart from the politics I started on the DIY at the house, having moved in the previous summer I thought it was time to start stamping my mark on the property - sadly I keep getting distracted from this task and whilst lots has been done much more needs to be done! I also participated in the BBC School's Question Time at Wolverhampton Girls High, which they went on to win and some students helped to produce the real Question Time.

Colin Ross with Chris Huhne MP and Lorely Burt MP

The end of March also saw me speak at Solihull Liberal Democrats Political Discussion evening for a second year running, topically I chose Leadership as the topic and launched the Lorely Burt for Leader campaign with badges I had got made up. Also at the end of March I stumbled across the Midlands Industrial Council and loans and donations for Peerages far before the press and Yates of the Yard got interested, little did I know at the time how much of my time the Midlands Industrial Council would end up taking up and how much I would annoy Conservatives before the year was out!

Colin Ross, Robin and Lexi Lawrence campaign against the Council Tax bombshell

April was spent campaigning in Wolverhampton, and elsewhere for the Local Elections. though I did managed to escape to see Bremner, Bird and Fortune being recorded and the Ordinary Boys play in Birmingham. Too much of the election campaign saw me in A&E after been bitten twice by dogs during the campaign - the first bites in 14 years of campaigning.

May was a very busy month. We narrowly failed to gain Park Ward in Wolverhampton by just 128 votes, we had come from third to almost snatch the seat and roughly doubling our votes in the process - we will win Park in 2007 of that I am determined.

Dialogue in Quetta

Almost as soon as the Local Elections were over I flew off to Pakistan on behalf of the Liberal Democrats to meet with and enter dialogue with young Pakistani Politicians. We had five dialogues in five different cities, it would have been good to see more of the country and the people but we were there to work and believe me we worked! As well as the dialogues we did extensive media work appearing in the papers and on Pakistani Television, I remember getting into a big discussion about Iraq with one of Pakistan's leading political commentators and the crew afterwards telling me I had got the better of him. Topics that kept coming up were Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism and misconceptions about other cultures. You can read about the Pakistan trip by looking up May in the News Archive.

Colin at a Temple in Kyoto

After Pakistan, I took a holiday - Well I am allowed one every now and then! I went to visit my friend Amanda in Japan. Amanda was based in Tokyo but took some time off from her job to do some travelling whilst I was there. We managed to get a lot of the country covered - Hiroshima was the most poignant, especially after having just been in Pakistan discussing nuclear weapons! The whole trip was fantastic but there were some special sights and moments, such as sleeping in a monastery on Koya-san and the gate at Miyajima and the cities were an amazing mix of old and new.

Menzies Campbell and Ben Abbotts tour Bromley and Chislehurst

I thought June would be a quiet month and it started okay with some more DIY and seeing the Beautiful South perform in Wolverhampton and catching up with friends, I also had to go to London to attend an ELDR Council meeting. Then of course we had two Parliamentary by-elections (and one for the Welsh Assembly) - there went my quiet month! We almost won in Bromley and Chislehurst falling short by just 633 votes in what should have been one of the Conservatives safest seats, we also did respectably well in Blaenau Gwent where the Independents won the day.

Fordhall Farm

The other thing that caught my attention in June was Fordhall Farm. The Farm was at risk and needed to raise £800,000 to save the farm by 1st July, which they did, I am now a Shareholder in the Farm, you can still help the farm by visiting http://www.fordhallfarm.com/

Lebanon flag

So Maybe July would be my quiet month, well it was better and I managed to watch a fair bit of the World Cup and even some Wimbledon. I ended up doing a fair bit of training in July too and attended the Eid Mela in Birmingham. July saw the Middle East blow up quite spectacularly and Blair and Bush do nothing!

Colin Ross at Another Place

August was another light month, I managed to fit in a trip to see friends in Liverpool, hold a summer barbecue. The other large project I had been undertaking for the West Midlands Liberal Democrats was ending its first phase - Local Party Re-Organisation, which should have been a lot easier than it actually was - The Boundary Commission periodically reviews Parliamentary Constituency boundaries and as a result the Liberal Democrats (and I guess the other parties) look at their Local Parties with a view to re-organisation, I was given the overseeing job in the West Midlands - it all seems to have been completed - but still I am trying up loose ends!

Colin Ross and Adam Teladia training

September saw the end of the political break with lots of training to get people prepared for the 2007 local elections and of course the Autumn Liberal Democrat Conference - which I was ill during most of this year. Conference passed a motion on Human Trafficking which I did some campaigning on later on in the year. I did however manage another weekend away, this time to Wales with my friend Anders and I also saw the History Boys, attended the Birmingham ArtsFest and saw Nizlopi (they did the JCB song) live.

Colin Ross at the European Parliament

September also saw the official news that both Romania and Bulgaria would join the EU on 1st January 2007. I went to Bulgaria in 2005 and would be going to Romania later in the year. Earlier in the year the EU suspended its accession discussions with Serbia and had been, and still are, dithering about Turkey's accession. I welcome both Romania and Bulgaria and urge the talks with Turkey to be concluded as soon as is humanly possible and urge the EU to agree to Turkey's accession - the EU has behaved disgracefully over Turkey for over thirty years, it is now time to end this farce.

Money

October saw the Midlands Industrial Council story explode. Basically the Midlands Industrial Council is a group of businessmen who had been funding the Conservatives in a number of seats, the main issue I had was that the names of those making donations were secret. The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act brought into effect an number of rules which were supposed to bring greater transparency in to party funding, however their are some loopholes and the Midlands Industrial Council found itself in one of these loopholes and whilst they did not do anything against the law (as far as we know) they certainly were acting against the spirit of the law. There is also some confusion about members of the Midlands Industrial Council being offered Peerages and what motivations they had for support specific seats or candidates.

I was contacted by both the Sunday Times and the BBC who did pieces on the Midlands Industrial Council. There is more information on this if you go to October in the News Archive. Needless to say it took up a fair bit of my time tyring to work out exactly what had been going on, I was interested in this from earlier on in the year when I discovered this body had donated £15,000 to Wolverhampton South West and the more I looked into it the murkier it appeared. The names of the those on the Midlands Industrial Council are now public and I am pleased to say I play a role in forcing them to go public, especially with the work I was doing with the Sunday Times on the subject.

Colin Ross, Phil Bennion and the Civil Servant responsible for Trafficking policy

As well as the Midlands Industrial Council, October saw me go to Bucharest in Romania for the ELDR Congress. The Congress was good the British delegation did not win every vote but did well, partly due to us being so well prepared in the pre-meetings. I ended up being the Returning Officer at the Congress as one of the few people who knew how to run a STV election! Whilst in Romania I took the opportunity to visit some shelters for women who had been trafficked and returned to Romania, it was very perturbing to hear stories of human trafficking and I have done some campaigning on the subject as a result of the visit.

Jack Straw [© Crown Copyright 2005]

October, and September also saw Labour run into a few more problems, they seemed to be determined to alienate Muslim voters - Jack Straw came out against the veil and Ruth Kelly called on University lecturers and other students to spy on 'Asian-looking' students! Clare Short, Ladywood's MP resigned the Labour Whip and went Independent. Blair had to agree to go before the next Labour Conference, if he didn't agree I think he would have been forced out by the end of 2006.

David Cameron

November looked like it was the Conservatives losing the plot. A Conservative Councillor was caught sending a racist email, Cameron was told "you don't know your arse from your elbow," by someone at a youth centre he was visiting, the heckler added "you bastard". Just for good measure Cameron and the Conservatives called everyone in the UK with debt 'Tossers' before revealing how in debt the Conservatives were - Tossers!

November was also a good month for me I was re-elected to serve on the ELDR Council for 2007 and 2008, I received 94 first preferences and was elected in third position - my best ever result in the EDLR Council elections. My father turned sixty so we celebrated that in good style and I was pleased to see the Democrats win both Houses in the US Mid-Term elections.

December started with seeing one of my friends perform in Kiss Me Kate with the Bilston Operatic Society and a number of other social events such as Sean's birthday and a visit to Aston Hall by Candlelight. Towards the end of the month I managed to see Madness at the NEC, I have always wanted to see Madness but never quite managed it before.

Paul Keetch MP on conference podium

December saw three West Midlands Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidates selected in one day. Tariq Khan in Birmingham Hodge Hill John Hemming in Birmingham Yardley and Alan Beddow in Warwick and Leamington. They joined Matthew Green in Ludlow (the first selection in England) and Richard Burt in West Worcestershire. The speed of selections has cranked up over the last few months with many seats advertising and due to select in the New Year. November saw Hereford's MP Paul Keetch announce he would be standing down at the next General Election, I helped Paul win in 1997 and 2001 and less so in 2005 (I was mainly in Solihull) - I have said it before but will say it again here Paul has been a fantastic MP and a good friend and I wish him well in the future.

Results of the Parliamentary by-elections in 2006

December saw more problems for both the Conservatives and Labour. The Conservatives lost control of four Councils in just over a week by losing a by-election, a vote of no-confidence and a couple of defections, they also had problems with their Parliamentary selections, a local party overturned an open primary decision and two other candidates resign (or be asked to resign). Labour got embroiled in a little difficulty when a Sandwell Councillor put an racist image on his website (now removed), it got into the local and national press and when I blogged about it I got a torrent of abuse - funny it is okay to attack me but I have not actually seen any of those that attacked me either criticise the image or the Councillor involved.

The Tettenhall Christmas lights

Christmas was spent as it should be with friends and family. I hope everyone had a great Christmas, Eid and is looking forward to 2007.

This year I have been attacked by both the Conservatives and Labour, I am either doing something very right or very wrong!