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Comments

Sally Roberts

Lovely tour of London there Graeme! As far as the unheated lake-swimming experience is concerned - I do not blame Mr Keith in the slightest as I wouldn't be speaking to you either if you made me swim in freeeeeeezing water!
On a serious note however - you are absolutely right to stress that the key to our continuing success is to emphasise our DIFFERENCE to Brown!

Annabel Herriott

Wonderful description Graeme, but it wont make me leave West Yorkshire!! We should have a spring conference here. How about Huddersfield Uni, then you can walk on the moors. (Harrogate is North Yorks!)

voreas06

I might try the no 26 next time I am up in the smoke. It sounds like a life changing experience.

"shouting loudly they will create the impression that Tory policy is ill-thought out."

Most important though is to not let them get away with a single bit of spin. So for example Brown says he would have won the election on competence. We need to be ready to bang off a big list of incompetence under this lot e.g lack of prison spaces despite endless new criminal offences, closing hospitals despite billions in extra funding, foot and mouth being caused by a government lab, flooding exacerbated by not enough flood defence spending etc etc.

sjm

Graeme - love to read your comments about life in Hackney, I lived there as a little girl after the war and although so much has changed, it still feels like reading about 'home'.

Derek L. Piper

Great to hear that you're a fan of B&S! I hoped there were a few of us on ConHome, and have always thought Stuart Murdoch's lyrics are profoundly conservative. Well, most of them...

steve

An excellent description of the No. 26 bus route. Not a word out of place. Hackney/Shoreditch/City is such a great part of London.

Graeme Archer

Hello Derek -- I think Belle and Sebastian are completely above politics. They are beyond politics. They are the pure life force. They are the definition of beauty. They are [... tails off into frothing Belle and Sebastian lovefest. Best not to look].

PS what's your favourite. The State I Am In, Stars of Track and Field, Sleep the Clock Around and Lord Anthony: my life in four songs.

Derek L. Piper

Graeme, You're right, I shouldn't attach a poli angle to those lyrics, but I have to say that S Murdoch's themes and implications fascinate me to no end, themes that get bolder with each record it seems.

Songs? Well I love most all, but those early EPs really get me these days - especially the three slower numbers on the 3.6.9 Seconds record (Century of Fakers...). I must stop before I fill up a page here.

Graeme Archer

Did you buy Push Barman... , the EP collection? I think that first sequence of songs is unbelievable. "She asked me do I need to lose a bit of weight? And we said, no don't be stupid, cos you're looking great". I know it's silly but that makes me cry. Century of Fakers is great, you're right. What about Beautiful? the perfect B&S song, down to the beautiful horn section. Do you know the name of the guy who plays the trumpet in the band? I think he is *amazing*. Have you seen them live? Un-believable.

Derek L. Piper

Yes those are all killers. I understand exactly what you mean with String Bean Jean. And I've seen them three times, all here in NY. The first had Isobel still in the band and the last was a great free show in Battery Park in July '06.

Trumpeter Mick Cooke started out as an occasional sideman before joining ft right around their third album....

Now, if only I could tie the above into why we should bring back the hereditary peers.
:)

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