Category: London

Edmonton Train Stations

In Edmonton there are three stations which will join Transport for London (TFL) as part of the overground franchise awarded to TFL. The stations are Edmonton Green, Bush Hill Park and Silver Street.

To mark the stations joining the TFL network I joined Boris Johnson with Nick de Bois in Enfield North at Turkey Street Station as the station will also be joining TFL along with the Edmonton stations on May 31st.

Joining the TFL network will bring benefits for train users and the local area. Increasing the frequency of trains per hour and improving the service will benefit the local community leading to job creation, helping the high street, smaller businesses and the local economy.

I look forward to the improvement for the Edmonton economy and community.

In his inimitable fashion Boris arrived by train, badged out using his Oyster card before greeting his audience of activists and journalists.

On the same train was a photographer from a Turkish newspaper there to photograph Boris in Enfield North and who refused to believe that Boris is of Turkish descent. I think he believes it now after hearing it from the man himself. Boris’ great grandfather was Ali Kemal, a journalist and also a minister the Ottoman Empire .


Conservative Party Conference

My first party conference was a great experience. I came away feeling very motivated and determined that I would work hard for the Conservatives so that we win the General Election.

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It wasn’t all about listening to great speakers although there were some great moments. For example I am not convinced that Michael Gove has a Bichon Frisée puppy dog called Snowy but it was a very funny moment and it left an image of Michael Gove stroking the dog in not too dissimilar a fashion to a 007 baddie. Don’t get me wrong I am a huge fan of Michael Gove! What the Chief Whip said was that he would trust his Bichon Frisée puppy dog Snowy over Ed Miliband to face down Putin, very funny.

Other memorable moments were when David Cameron imitated William Hague and then went on to move the audience near to tears by his personal experiences of the NHS. The Mayor of London was, as expected, hilarious even if the audience were slightly concerned that they might get hit by a brick.

boris1I managed to do some practical work whilst at conference and attended the Road Trip 2015 to deliver leaflets and I manned the phone for Kris Hopkins MP with my friend Tanya Graham, the PPC for Bradford South.

I got involved in debate over childcare and wanted to get involved in education policy debate but it was so popular that it became impossible.

 

I attended other talks that I didn’t have enough experience to debate such as CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale. You probably think it was a man who persuaded me to go, but it wasn’t it was a Yorkshire lass! Very interesting and I’m sure it’s popularity was helped by the bottled ale being served.

A few pics from a memorable conference.

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Achievement and disappointment!

I ran the Hackney 1/2 marathon yesterday, the first ever in Hackney. This was a first for me too, I have never run a 1/2 marathon before and in the build up to the day I realised that perhaps I should have started small and built up to the event. I should have run in an organised 5k or 10k run before going for a 1/2 marathon. Fools rush in as they say.

IMG_8014The day dawned with the promise of a lovely summers day. I worried that it might be too hot and I wouldn’t manage the whole course, but if it had been cold I would have worried that the cold would hinder me. I was nervous that I would let myself down.

I decided to run for the British Heart Foundation because it is a cause close to my heart. My lovely brother Mem died in 2008 after a lifetime of heart problems and my lovely husband Jon has had a quadruple heart bypass. I hope that any money I raise will go towards helping those with the sort of problems that my brother and husband had.

I thoroughly enjoyed the run , the before and the after. The hardest part was the walk to the car park after running 21k. At the time it felt harder than the run itself. The very good thing about the Hackney 1/2 marathon is it is in London, it is spectator friendly and most importantly for the runner it is flat, no hills! Would I do it again? Maybe? Probably!

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So this weekend I had a fantastic personal achievement that was inter-mingled with grief and remembering my much missed brother. I also had bad news, 2 days before the run I learnt that the free school bid that I have been involved in at Ashmole School had been unsuccessful.Locally we parents of young children were optimistic that there may be two new schools in the Southgate area and this now seems to have been taken away from us. SWEAT campaigners (a group that I chair) have been striving for increased primary school provision  for over a year and we are bitterly disappointed that despite our efforts there is no progress.

IMG_8463We will not be beaten!


Summer of Sport

What a summer! So many wonderful moments that it is difficult to list.

I started my London Ambassador volunteering and that gave me a golden ticket to visit the Olympic Park and watch the Technical Rehearsal of the Opening Ceremony. I feel so proud to be British and to have been a part of the Olympics as a volunteer, spectator and supporter; London put on an amazing show.

The summer of sport got off to a fantastic start for Britain with Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France and then without time for him to celebrate he was straight on to the Olympics.

The Olympics being held here in London was a dream come true as I got to participate through my volunteer work and I was fortunate enough to get tickets to events. How can I forget seeing Usain Bolt run!

Team GB did an amazing job and what stood out for me was what excellent role models the sportsmen and women are. After the Olympics were over I watched the Athletes Parade along with the tens of thousands of others. We all came onto the streets to recognise Team GB’s achievements through their dedication and hard work, the athletes held up placards thanking the supporters and volunteers when we were thanking them for the wonderful Olympics they gave us.

Bradley Wiggins and Andy Murray couldn’t be at the Athletes Parade because they were already onto their next job which led to another British victory and Andy Murray winning his first grand slam and the first British winner for 76 years. How on earth will they decide on who will win the Sports Personality of the Year for 2012?

One sport we’re not talking about is football, apart from the disappointment of the England Ukraine match this week. This summer of sport has shown what great ambassadors and role models sportsmen and women can be and that is what we should expect from footballers.

To clean up football and get better behaviour from footballers FIFA should ntroduce the type of instant replay rules that are used in Rugby Union where decisions can be verified by using technology. If the referees could be given microphones also as in Rugby Union then maybe it would force better language and behaviour.

I took videos of lots of Olympic events that I was fortunate enough to be at which can be viewed on my husband’s YouTube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/JonathanMDaniels/videos?query=olympics