LIB DEM CONFERENCE - Togetherness Newlyweds put romance into politics
Published: 22 September 2011
by RICHARD OSLEY
• HAPPIEST faces at conference? Easy – that’ll be West Hampstead councillor John Bryant and new bride, Nana. The newlyweds were seen walking hand in hand around the complex. He candidly blogged earlier this month how married life had changed a few things: including the removal of his Naomi Campbell poster from his flat’s bathroom. Cllr B’s wife, the newest member of the team, had to return to London after a couple of days. He left early yesterday too, explaining he was suffering from a bad back.
• NEWS KLAXON SOUND: Frank Dobson lives in a council house! Just in case anybody didn’t already know this often repeated political fact, Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes reminded everybody at a fringe meeting on Sunday night. “It is unacceptable that Frank Dobson and Mrs Frank Dobson live in a bloody Camden Council flat when they have huge megabucks,” he rattled. Rousing, but as unacceptable as they may find it, the Lib Dems didn’t follow through with teasing hints that they might evict him under second homes policy during their four years in power in Camden.
• FORMER Hampstead and Kilburn candidate Ed Fordham was looking what Sarah Teather might call a tad “tango’d” after his day job has taken him in recent months to Jamaica and Miami. There he was bagging three copies of Chris Bowers’ new biography of Nick Clegg at the bookstall. A check of the index reveals five references to Ed, including mention of how he was a happy guest at the Lib Dem leader’s wedding. Fordham later popped up in a prime position behind Clegg as he gave his sign-off speech to the main hall. He’s connected. If he can’t be an MP, does the House of Lords await someday?