A resurgent Liberal

Here’s a nice discovery. A rather awesome Java app that displays Google Maps on your phone.

I was able to zoom in and look at a satellite picture of my house without too much difficulty. It was also possible to navigate around the maps considerably more easily than I normally can with my network’s location service (although unlike my current service, it doesn’t know where I am). Overall, a pretty handy piece of kit.

To download the program to your phone, visit www.google.com/gmm on your mobile browser.

Good to see the Lib Dems up to 24% in the latest IPSOS-MORI poll.

Looking at MORI’s long term trends (and using their unweighted figure of 23% for comparability), we seem to be up +1%pt vs. the General Election and up up +3%pts vs. the last poll before Ming became leader.

Five months after Paddy started, we were on 8%, up +1%pt vs. the last poll before Paddy became leader

Five months after Charles started, we were on 15%, up +1%pt vs. the last poll before Charles became leader.

Thirteen months after the 2001 General Election, we were on 16%, down -2%pts on MORI’s General Election poll.

There are arguments about MORI’s methodology, but with the exception of ICM (which looks like an outlier), the other polls also show no burning need to panic, with our polling up flat or slightly up since Ming took over. Generally long-term trends are by far the most useful things to look at with these polls since methodology makes short-term trends and absolute numbers unreliable bases for comparison.

Looking at the current political situation, Ming also has the non-trivial advantage of having done the important thing of being right on the major issues. Cameron’s failure to show any leadership in the face of the crisis in the Middle East will not have done him any favours in the long term. It all suggests that there is no need to panic just yet.

One of the things I appreciate about Ming Campbell has been the way he has led opinion on several domestic and international issues: whether rendition, the Home Office or the current Middle East situation.

On the Middle East, he has been leading the way in the UK in calling for an immediate ceasefire in the face of Blair’s usual kow-towing to Bush and the US neocons.

On the Home Office, he faced Blair’s usual evasiveness and glib superficiality at PMQs, as reported in Hansard on May 3, 2006:

Ming Campbell

Is the Home Office fit for purpose?

Tony Blair

That might be a question better asked of the right hon. and learned Gentleman. I do not believe that the answer to this problem lies in reorganising the Home Office. I think that the fit between prisons, immigration and asylum, and crime is the right one. The issue is the way in which the system works.

But seems to have, once again, been proved correct by events according to this BBC report on May 23, 2006:

Home Secretary John Reid has damned his department’s immigration operation as “not fit for purpose” with “inadequate” leadership and management systems.

While we’re on the subject of media coverage, I’m also surprised that the media haven’t gone after Cameron for his silence on the Middle East. This article by Matthew Parris suggests it may be because coming down on one side or another - particularly the neo-con side which close Cameron advisors such as George Osborne, Michael Gove and Ed Vaizey strongly favour - could put the carefully constructed facade of Conservative party unity at risk. It will be interesting to see if this would-be Prime Minister will have anything interesting to say on the most pressing issue in world politics on his return from Afghanistan. Or perhaps he is going to wait a year for the outcome of one of his policy reviews on the subject?

So now, the question is….

Which is better? Google Video or YouTube? Or does it make no difference?

Here’s YouTube

And here’s Google
I’ve resized them both to be the same size.

Personally I found the YouTube a more engaging site, but Google Video seems to have marginally better quality and was able to take a fairly compressed WMV file (that knocked YouTube over). Net: it’s pretty close, and I may want to upload a higher quality original before jumping to any conclusions.

You may need to go to this page to see the survey.

Liberal Drinks is quietly gaining momentum - with 5 “drinks” going on around the country now:

• Andover
• Hackney
• Reading
• Sheffield
• Westminster

It’s early days, but it’s an encouraging trend. (And mostly thanks to the hard work of James Graham).
You can find out more at the Liberal Drinks website (which also has a Liberal Drinks map).
If you’re registered on Flock Together, you can also add your own ‘drink’.

I’ve just done another video over on Taking Power.

An almost embarrassingly cheap set-up (which perhaps you can see in the production!):

Equipment was:

• Canon Digital Ixus 400
• Tripod
• Sony Microphone
• Olympus Digital Voice Recorder
• Trial copy of Adobe Premiere Elements downloaded off www.adobe.co.uk. I tried Windows Movie Maker (which comes free with Windows XP), but I found it too hard to get the result I wanted.
• Hosting via Google Video (since it deliverers slightly higher res than YouTube)

The Ixus (which dates from 2004) is a pocketable digital camera and not a camcorder, and only goes up to 320×240 at 15 frames per second. Google Video currently take 640×480 at 30 frames per second so it may be time to put a higher res camera on my birthday present list.

Obvious opportunities for improvement in lighting and framing. But then I suspect the first Focus didn’t look too hot by today’s standards!