So Here's to You Mrs Robinson (Something About Mary)

Writing in today's Scotsman* but repeated on his own website Lib Dem MEP George Lyon has outlined the Lib Dem objections to Tony Blair being named the first President of the EU under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty. In the same paper this morning families of Iraq soldiers killed in the Iraq conflict say that far from be elevated to President in Brussels he should go to the Hague to face charges of war crimes.

George ponders how the man who was responsible for the illegal invasion of Iraq, ignored millions across Europe who opposed the war, rode roughshod over our European neighbours who warned against it, angered Muslim nations who feared it, and circumvented the UN that tried to avert it, could possibly represent the EU on the world stage. Blair is seeking to use his role as a soft-landing after a hard fall, one we are also still hoping the economy although after his watch, but because of his Government's actions is also hoping for.

But Labour will tell us, who is the alternative candidate? Surely we need someone we can trust? Well George has an answer to Labour trying to promote their golden smiled hero to one last great office, and it is one I agree with, former Irish President Mary Robinson.

Not only did she enjoy a successful period as President of Ireland but after that she went on to be UN High Commissioner for Human Rights a role she also excelled at. While Blair made enemies for the UK and took away his own country's human rights, Mrs Robinson did just the opposite. She is a respected campaigner for human rights the world over.

In concluding George says:

"It is the duty of a responsible Government to back a candidate that can enjoy the support of the majority, not the minority. In backing Mary Robinson over Tony Blair, the UK Government can show that the position of EU President is far too important to be governed by tribalism.

"There is already a great deal of scepticism over the position of EU President, we should not add to it by fuelling the fire with nepotism. That is the danger the UK faces by backing Blair.

"So, here's to you Mrs Robinson. You've got my vote. It's time you had Britain's too."

George has even got a petition on his website that you can sign if you hate the idea of President Blair as well, I already have.

*Requires Premium membership of the Scotsman website.

Better Late Than Never. No Just My Views On Election Night

I was going to write about my reasons to keep counting of the General Election votes on a Thursday night last night. However, due to my own local difficulties with Internet I'm now somewhat late to the boat and a little anti-climatic.

Therefore, I reckon I've got to make it good. Though I do make a couple of points I don't see made anywhere else down at the bottom if you want to scroll past the impassioned prose of the rest of this. Readers who want to know what Marvin the paranoid android is up to have clearly opened the wrong page.

Being Northern Irish I'm well used to the votes being counted the next day. The reason that happened the whole time that I was growing up, was security. Not as some have argued the security of the votes, but of the count staff, attendees and their cars parked outside in the dark on a Northern Irish night. There are other seats, such as Orkney and Shetland or the Western Isles were on occasions of course attempts to get all the votes into the count on the night come to naught because the vehicle that was meant to be doing the transportation is called out on its day job as an air sea rescue helicopter.

Maybe it is because of my Northern Irish school days that you think I'd agree with Anders Lanson. However, the first election that I was sent to bed during was 1983. But I snuggled under the covers with Radio 4 playing rather my usual night time listening of John Peel, then rushed home from school to catch the Northern Irish results. Counting the next day doesn't even mean it'll be over by lunchtime. In 1987 after a convenient gap for my parents to go to bed I snuck back downstairs to turn the TV back on, where I was still sat in the morning when my father came down for breakfast to me saying, 'It's Thatcher. Again!'.

As a adult in 1992 it was back to radio, as I wasn't actually living in a house with a TV. But there was preparation to be done ahead of heading off to Preston for OM's Easter Evangelism so that breakfast I wasn't quite able to say it was Major, that point occurred somewhere on the M6. '97 of course as dawn broke Tony and Cheri arrived at the after show party too late to stop Prezza and Mandy dancing to D-Ream. 2001 I almost choked on my tea in Stoneyburn when they announced the size of Ed Davey's new majority. Nervous, me!

So why should we keep as many counts as possible on the night itself. Firstly as Andrew Reeves points out the campaign staff and activists have literally got to the point where adrenaline takes over. Many will have even taken a week, fortnight or longer off in the build up to the election. Their body may be telling them enough, but there is still more to be done. So as Darrell points out arising the next day refreshed can help but there often are times where there are also council votes polled on the same day.

In 2001 the Northern Irish council vote had been moved due to Foot and Mouth to GE day. Some of the results weren't known until Monday (you can't count on the Sabbath in Northern Ireland). In 2003 in Scotland we did rise afresh for our council counts, although I'd not been to bed. In 2007 of course many of us went back having had nothing resolved overnight. I'd also disagree with Mark Valladares that we're not as sharp after being up all night after the 1999 Scottish counts the local activists in West Lothian were alert enough the next morning, ok 4 hours later, to call three recounts in a tight council ward. Admittedly it ended up slightly safer as a 21 vote SNP majority than the original notification.

In 2005 I was out on the eve of poll delivering to almost 10pm, then not home much before 11. Ready to get up suited an booted to get to my first polling station at 7am to greet my first voter. My first supporter was at 7:02. The first comment about us Lothian candidates looking like a scene from Resevoir Dogs as we saw the Kennedy's off at Prestonfield House Hotel the night before came at my 3rd polling station at about 7:30 standing beside Fiona Hyslop MSP. Of course I had to explain it to Fiona because the one thing that the real political activists don't get to do much of during the campaign is actually sit down and watch the news. We catch snippets, read the paper while on the move, listening to the radio, or going through the post and emails at the end of the day. But to actually sit down and watch the news, that is a luxury. We may have tipped off to a good story being lead so we may manoeuvre our way to a TV set for 6pm or 10 pm, for a couple of minutes, but no more than that.


Even the start of the election night coverage is largely lost on us. We'll be at the count, possibly even on the TV as the camera's pan the various halls up and down the country where the counts are taking place. Too busy looking at ballot papers rather the couple of screens that may be dotted around in restful locations around the venue. You see we still cannot rest, there is a job to be done. Leaving the count all over the country until the following day, isn't going to help us get any more rest. Candidates will still be pacing their houses frantically waiting until it is their appointed time to enter the count hall. Agents will still be a mixture of a bag of nerves wondering if their candidate, their campaign has done enough to hold on, or to overcome. The only points through the night at which the agent will not be a panic is when the candidate calls knowing that at least one other person won't be asleep.

Of course we can't all be activists in Sunderland, able to pack up shortly after 11pm to head home, result declared MPs elected, and get in front of a TV with maybe 5 or 6 at most declarations made of imminent. Although we do hope for a quick count, or at least one on time with the timetable the Returning Officer has giving in their briefings in the weeks before, or first thing on the night. But a bundle check or a recount doesn't mean we are ready to slope off, no it merely gees up up ready for action. As we know that the TV cameras will be honed on us beaming our image to the insomniacs, political anoraks, the campaigners from Sunderland and whoever else has declared and is off to their party with a glass of wine, not a cup of coffee, in hand. The 6 millions BBC viewers at a peak before 2am in 2005 didn't include me as my count was only declared at 1:45. The first TV I saw was on leaving as the SNP (someone will tell me who) then Jo Swinson swiftly took two seats off Labour as we were leaving the hall.

Caron has written about the faboulousness of election nights and having shared with her the heartache of 405 votes in Edinburgh South*, the joy of Dunfermline and West Fife in a full office in the wee small hours, plus breaking down on the way back from Glenrothes. She mentions the last as her cure, but I guess she'll be up until dawn and beyond with the rest of us next time. For those of you who know Caron that is 'way' past her normal bed time.

Some have muted the idea of a weekend poll, that isn't necessarily the best thing. For starters the weekend after Tony Blair strode into Downing Street for the first time was the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. If we'd had a poll that weekend, what would the turnout have been? What would the result have been? Unless you have fixed terms in which you know 4/5 years in advance the polling day, and that is doesn't clash with major times when people are away. You don't think a Government would try and use a holiday to their advantage? Look only as far as last summer when Labour moved a quick writ for Glasgow East. The last two weeks of that three week campaign coincided with the Glasgow Fayre holiday.

Of course Friday isn't necessarily a free day on the campaign trail. In West Lothian, and Edinburgh, as other locations, the lamppost posters and/or stake boards have got to start to come down, they have to be down within 3 days of the polls closing. So after a few hours sleep, it is up again with the radio tuned in to try and listen to the Northern Irish and other remaining counts. Others will be at the office starting to clean it up, the lease may well expire at 5pm on the Friday. As these are often loaned on a week by week basis any delay in the clean up would incur an extra week of rental on possibly a redundant office space. This is a hidden another extra cost that maybe Mr Quist should factor in as well as the overtime, or loss of service through a Friday count. Also has one Mark reckoned for this potential knock on effect to a delay in the count.

Yes there are pros for moving the count to the next day, but there are also cons to be considered. I hope I have pointed out a few of them. To be honest the campaign the for me doesn't end at some small hour of the Friday morning, it still has 3 days to go. Any lost hours at the end of that week might limit my commitment beforehand. Especially if the election is moved to a weekend and weekend days to clear up are lost. Therefore I have signed up to the Facebook Group and felt the need, even after the delays of last night, to write about this.

*Though never again will I be left with a box of 'white' wine sat beside me all night, we'll get a working corkscrew for the red.

Men Have Eating Disorders Too

I'm the first to admit that I used to be lighter, that I don't like the slight bulge of middle aged spread around my middle. But I used to be an athlete, I was eating the required calories to complete the training and racing and my body though thinner was tuned muscle. I don't have an issue with a little extra poundage, I know the work I went through before was not for body image reasons but for sporting achievement, however that isn't always the case.

When Jo Swinson launched her campaign about Airbrushed ads leading to unrealistic images only related to girls and women. Of course that is part of the 'Real Women' policy paper that is before conference later this year.

As I Tweeted or commented at the time the same applies to men. There are magazines aimed at men that show the idealised male torso in adverts for cologne, underwear or whatever, just like there are those that affect the women amongst us. For the gay male there are additional sightings of the somewhat 'perfect' form by whatever means. Bombarded by images men are also likely to try and emulate those images.

The problem for the men with eating disorder there is the added problem that often their condition is not taking seriously enough, even by doctors and other health practitioners. Currently of the 60,000 people with an eating disorder only 10-20% are male. Yet amongst men, and in particular gay men, the image of what is average is at the lower end or below what is actually ideal for their body type and height.

While Jo is looking at potential causes there is a great need for males with eating disorders to get help with the effects. There is a Facebook Group set up to highlight the issues of male eating disorder, promoting a Downing Street petition stating:

'We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to ensure men with eating disorders are given the same opportunities for treatment and care as female sufferers and are by no means discriminated against by their doctor / other health practitioner because they are male.'

Please go along and sign it too.

Ten Thousand Sign Heinz Petition

I've been watching for a while as the petition to Heinz to reinstate their ad has ticked closer to the momentous threshold of it's ten thousandth signature. Well at High Noon UK time, after all this is a UK ad, on the 28th June it was only 12 signature short of that number. It's only taken 15 minutes more to get to 10,000.

Considering that Heinz initially said when removing their ad that they listen to their customers can I ask are they listening now? So basing what they say are 202 or 10,000 people going to be listened to? It has already been over 57 hours since I sent emails and posted complaints to Heinz UK. Mr Nigel Dickie, who yesterday along with other execs at Heinz removed their personal contact details from Heinz's website, not Mr Michael Mullen have not even had the decency to get somebody within the organisation acknowledge my emails and complaints. As someone who works in a call centre environment I know that even a simple acknowledgement at a time like this is easily achievable. After all those of us who have written in are largely aware that a lot of others are doing so as well. 57 hours however is a little bit long to get yourself into motion.

Heinz on their website list their Premier Values. How do they score this week.

Passion . . . to be passionate about winning and about our brands, products and people, thereby delivering superior value to our shareholders.

Heinz produced an ad that was innovative, with layered very dry British humour. They also were launching a new range linking it with the New York Deli's it was named after. However, when the American Family Association issued an alert their passion wavered. (Notice one lie the fact that the vote on civil partnership in California is stated as not being legal in England [the UK])Despite the spontaneous nature of the counter debate and individual comments and letters many posted on various forums no passion to restore the ad is forthcoming.

3/10 for trying then backtracking than failing to acknowledge a mistake.

Risk Tolerance . . . to create a culture where entrepreneurship and prudent risk taking are encouraged and rewarded.

A prudent risk was taken with the ad, it was shown in a more tolerant society than the USA. Sadly the actions of reactionaries in another country is attacking the liberties of a sovereign state. Watch out UK we'll soon be on some axis of evil and be invaded by our ally if this keep up. A risk was taken, but it hasn't been rewarded what off the person who commissioned the ad, they have since been slammed from on high that the ad is "not in accordance with Corporate Policy". How is that going to encourage whatever members of Heinz staff gauged that risk and took the ad campaign on board?

1/10 First sign that the risk failed they backtracked ignoring any counter risk.

Excellence . . . to be the best in quality and in everything we do.

Whoops. I think the above says it all first they said they listened to their consumers but haven't seemed to listen to one side of the argument.

5/10 This 5 is purely for the ad itself.

Motivation . . . to celebrate success, recognizing and rewarding the achievements of individuals and teams.

Oops again Nigel Dickie's original comments to his UK market have since been overruled and overridden from the corporate chiefs. The advertising team must be feeling small if still employed and not currently on gardening leave. Motivation has been given to their consumers however, to protest, blog, boycott and complain, not an ideal business model.

2/10

Innovation . . . to innovate in everything, from products to processes.

Product I have not tasted yet was going to try some this week but as I'm boycotting no idea. Advert again good product. Processes lousy no response, hiding away hoping the storm will pass, no signs yet, pulled an ad before investigation which in all likelihood if any action is taken will result in protests of about 50% of current ads on UK TV as a result of far more graphic depictions/implying of actual sexual activity.

4/10 All points awarded to product not process.

Empowerment . . . to empower our talented people to take the initiative and to do what's right.

They took an initiative have since been told that was wrong.

0/10 Can't promise one and fail to deliver on the other.

Respect . . . to act with integrity and respect towards all.

TOWARDS ALL Heinz!!! Now respectfully explaining the concept of the ad to the AFA should have been enough. However, it is a long held theory that ironic humour is often lost on the Americans, no offence to any and I know some who do get it. No same sex parenting couple that I, and many comments from others on messages boards I've read, know of exists where there is a not either two mums or two dads, or the non-biological partner is merely known by their name. Therefore there is no gay kiss. The peck is far less sexual than a kiss going on in a UK ad for Heinz Salad Cream, which also contains nudity and forced removal or anther's clothing. So why is one ok by corporate policy and the other not Heinz?

-10/10 Two facedness, taking backwards steps over equality.

What the Heinz?

Well yesterday's tale of mayo and the juxtaposed image of a male deli guy in place of the mum of the household has taken a rather sinister twist.

Yesterday the Director of UK Corporate and Government Affairs, Nigel
Dickie had been telling us the as was pulled because complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency and Heinz themselves had been about "offensive", "inappropriate" content in the ad and that many of the 202 complainants thought the ad was "unsuitable to be seen by children". He's even gone further to say that some of those parents had, bless their hearts, had to explain to their kids that homosexuals existed.

However, there was uproar from those of us who got the joke, both gay and straight. I mean no gay family would have a mum and a dad either two mums or two dads. The person making the sandwiches was referred to a mum, therefore the fact that they spoke with a New York accent so out of keeping with the family was a play on the product. The 'kiss' was an innocent, indeed almost obligatory, peck before heading to work, one was wondering how that could be seen as offensive or inappropriate when you considered the content of the programmes it was being shown against.

However, as I pointed out the story has gone global. Twice this blog has been visited from somebody at H.J. Heinz corporate offices in Pennsylvania. The Director of Global Corporate Affairs, Michael Mullen has issued a press release here. He has probably put his foot even further into it by saying:

"Heinz pulled the ad in the UK because our consumer research showed that it failed in its attempt to be humorous and offended people on all sides.

"Heinz apologizes for its misplaced attempt at humor and we accept that this ad was not in accordance with our long-standing corporate policy of respecting everyone's rights and values."

I have sent an email to Mr Mullen rejecting his apology as there is nothing in the ad which he needs to apologise to me about. There is however other issues I would like to see him apologise about and if you want to do the same his email address is Michael.mullen@us.hjheinz.com

BTW the facebook group currently has 1823 people going to boycott the company's products and the petition to reinstate the ad now has 5288 signatures.

UPDATE 10:15
Interesting opinion piece on the blog of what appears to the PR company, Seventy Seven PR, owned by the Ad's producers AMV BBDO. These are the personal views of James Gordon MacIntosh not those of the agency Seventy Seven or AMV BBDO as he so kindly points out below.

Heinz Two Man No Messed Up

Heinz were close to earning praise for their New York Deli mayo ad as it represented a non-traditionally nuclear family.
It was tongue in cheek humorous and featured two men as the parents in this familial skit and like all couples at the start of the day ended with a rushed peck on the cheek as one went off to work with the sandwich lovingly created by the other.

All was quiet on the advertising front until as a result of allegedly only 202 complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency claiming that the ad, which is not shown during specific child orientated broadcasting, was "offensive", "inappropriate" and "unsuitable to be seen by children". So having taken the brave step of commissioning the ad in the first place Heinz ran for cover pulling the ad from our screens, claiming they had done so because they were "listening to its consumers".

Whoops bad choice of words there, because now of course all the consumers who hadn't spoken out in praise of the ad because of its inclusivity in today's society are speaking out. There is a petition calling from those who:

"feel that the decision to withdraw the advert is wrong in the face of a small number of narrow-minded individuals.

"By doing so, Heinz have given the impression that they would prefer to cater for the homophobic than the free-thinking, and the decision has provoked upset, brand distrust and outrage among the LGBT community and outside of it."

and calling on Heinz not to "bow down to these homophobic individuals."

At time of writing this petition has 1844 signatures. The originators only wanted to get a few over the 202 complaints that Heinz had originally received.

For those of you on facebook there is a group calling for a boycott of Heinz products until the ad is reinstated, currently with over 775 members. Both of these have been set up in the last 24 hours.

Oh dear if Heinz really are listening to their consumers they are going to have to listen now, after all there are many varieties of people in this world, whether there are 57 distinct variations I cannot say, but one variety shouldn't be dictated prejudiced views over another.

Update 16:30 909 in Facebook group, 2500 signature on petition.

Further Update 17:03 My stat counter has reported a visit at the time stated from H.J. Heinz Company's IP address from Pittsburgh, Pa. somebody at the World Headquarters is clearly taking an interest in this issue.

Give Blood a Chance

I'm all for giving our health service a fighting chance to do its job effectively. But last week one of the tools to achieve that turned up outside work. It resulted in my bi-annual ritual embarrassment of somebody at work.

The tool that turned up was the Blood Transfusion van. The embarrassment resulted in why somebody as fit and healthy looking as me was not signed up for a session on said van. Now currently I could have taken an easy option out and cited recent health reasons as the excuse, but I did what I always did and listed the reason for current life-time ban.

Up to about 9 years ago I regularly gave blood as my father and grandfather did before me, and my father continued to do until he contracted the cancer that killed him. However, those 9 years ago what stopped me being able to respond the blatent messages of the Blood Transfusion Service was that my first sexual partner shared something in common with me, their male gender. Thus ended by blood donating days, as I next read through the criteria on my next visit.

Now the blanket ban on gay and bi-sexual men (even those with only one such encounter) giving blood is back on the front-page news and under the microscope again. Partly because due to the shortage of blood here in the UK we now import blood from nations such as Australia where gay men are allowed to give blood and largely because the Welsh Lib Dems recently passed a motion calling for the ban to be lifted. It makes the policy of the National Blood Transfusion service a farce if on one hand they try and rule out what is stereotyped as "high risk" UK citizen donors based solely on sexual orientation rather than sexual practise, which is where the true risk lies. Whilst accepting blood from outwith their own testing where by definition the same group have been allowed to donate.

There is a new lobby group called Blood Ban who have recently been on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio Two. Their site carries links to petitions both national and Scottish to get this anomaly in words and practise resolved and sorted out

The Blood Transfusion Service say on their own website:

Keeping our rules simple

The rule about gay men is clear and simple. You can decide whether it applies to you without the need to discuss your personal life with our staff. The rule is based on an impartial assessment of available evidence. We ask that you observe it for the sake of blood safety.

Yet they are ignoring the rule themselves when they need to import blood to make up the UK shortfall. Surely the time is right to sort out the scare stories of the 1990s from reality. Then my perfectly good blood last tested within 3 months may be able to save someone's life as the adverts keep reminding me.