Possible by-election in Henley
Dane Clouston of the Oxfordshire Liberals (and a member of the Liberal Party NEC) sent out this message which I am posting with his permission. Since Boris Johnson now seems to be the bookies' favourite to be elected Mayor of London, there may well be a Parliamentary By-Election in the Henley Constituency - in which I live - later this year. The Henley Constituency nowadays consists of Kirtlington, Otmoor, Aston Rowant, Benson, Berinsfield, Chalgrove, Chiltern Woods, Chinnor, Crowmarsh, Forest Hill and Holton, Garsington, Goring, Great Milton, Henley North, Henley South, Sandford, Shiplake, Sonning Common, Thame North, Thame South, Watlington, Wheatley and Woodcote. It is a beautiful, large, prosperous and mainly rural area about 50 miles from London. The 2005 result was Con 24.9, LD 12.1, Lab 6.8, Green 1.5, UKIP 1.2. There are currently LibDem but no Liberal Party Councillors. Is there a Liberal who would be keen to become Henley Liberal Parliamentary Spokesman/Spokeswoman as soon as possible - whether or not currently a member of the original and continuing Liberal Party - subject to approval in the normal way? While I very nearly became Liberal MP for the nearby Newbury Constituency in 1974 and later was Chair of the Oxfordshire Liberal Group, I will be 70 in September this year. A more youthful presence would be good, as would a feminine one. And given Boris' position, a well-known EU-realist or EU-sceptic Liberal with a London base prepared to say that he or she would move to the constituency if elected would not seem out of the question. Dane feels that given the LibDems' unpopular decision not to back a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, this would be a good time to challenge both them and the Tories in this eurosceptical constitutency. I know Dane has been urged to stand himself, but as you can see, he has some reservations about doing so. He is trying to line up the best choice of possible candidates for the Oxfordshire Liberals to select from. If you are interested in standing you can email me or PM me, and I'll pass the message on to Dane. (Dane is a member of this forum but doesn't look in here very often.)

Looking in
Just to say that I have looked in, thank you! But I don't like being told that I am the 999,999th visitor, because I am sure that is not true. Dane Clouston

You getting pop-ups Dane? Switch to Firefox. I never get any pop-ups here because I use Firefox.

There's an ad at the top of the page.

I see it. It doesn't appear all the time for me - more like about 2/3 of the time. The banner ad is different each time I open a new page, and there are about a dozen different ads that take turns to appear. Like Dane, I find the one about being the "999,999th visitor" particularly annoying because it contains a blatant lie rather than just an exaggeration. I've complained in the past, but it didn't do any good, as the banner ads fund these free forum sites. Some of the other banner adverts that appear here are okay - for example, there is one for Orange mobile phones, which might even seem quite appropriate for the political party whose colour is orange! I'm going to see if I can find an option to pay forumer.com in return for them removing the advertising. That is an option on other free forum hosts I've seen.

I've paid forumer.com ten dollars and that should mean that we don't see any more banner ads for a while. In fact, they've already disappeared. If you can still see them on your computer (Appius, Alex, Dane, anyone else) then please tell me. I think that was worth doing. As Dane rightly pointed out to me by email, it doesn't inspire much confidence in a political party if its supporters' websites are plastered with adverts full of porkies! :)

I never could see it in the first place :)

Definitely appears to be gone.

So Dane, are you standing in Henley?

So Dane was right - there will be a by-election in Henley! :)

I don't think Boris Johnson has stood down as MP for Henley-upon-Thames yet, though I don't think he (or anyone) could possibly be both Mayor of London, grappling with an £11billion budget and continue being a good MP at the same time.

There's a report in today's Times about this. Apparently Boris Johnson's dad is hoping to be selected as the Tory candidate! http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3872845.ece It seems there will indeed be a by-election, but the Tories intend to take their sweet time about calling it. The final paragraph of the Times article reads: John Walsh, the Conservative agent in Henley, said last week that the local association would be looking for a candidate “in an orderly fashion”. He added: “This will not be done in a rush. We have a timetable to select a candidate before the summer holiday, with a potential for an autumn or spring by-election.”