It is the 200th anniversary of William Gladstone’s birth on 29 December 2009.

Nice piece on Michael Crick’s blog on Gladstone.

A new film on the history of party political broadcast that has been produced by the BFI with the support from   Hanover.  You can see an amusing trailer for it here.

You can buy a copy for £14.95 (with £10 of this going to the Dimbleby cancer charity) by emailing PPB_DVD@hanovercomms.com .

Intercut with the fabulous footage are very striking contemporary interviews, the most striking being with Neil Kinnock.

Sebastian Cody, Jerome Kuehl and Open Media are pleased to announce the launch of an online social history of Britain.

Together with our partners – BFI, BBC, Parliament, the National Archives and FremantleMedia – we have made available over 2,000 non-fiction film and television titles. More than fifty "After Dark" programmes from 1987 to 1997 are included.

This free online resource brings together film and TV archive material with other documentation to tell the social, economic and political history of Britain in the 20th century.

More on www.bfi.org.uk/inview

www.openmedia.co.uk

A nostalgic look at PB’s

Entrepreneur Neil Lewis shares his experiences of building a business with Chester Business School

Oct 11 2009 By James Shepherd of the Chester Chronicle

An audience with Neil Lewis

An entrepreneur, whose successful property business fell victim to the economic downturn, lifted the lid on his business highs and lows during a networking event at the University of Chester.

Neil Lewis, ex-Publisher and Founder of Property Secrets, gave a valuable insight into his business experiences during a question and answer session with the local business community, hosted by Chester Business School, and students from the Faculty of Business, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning.

Addressing the audience, Neil Lewis, said: “I’ve experienced the process of building a business with just £2,000 invested to achieving a business that was worth approximately £12million in 2007, but then ceased trading this summer.

“I’ve learnt more on the way down than the way up. The experiences you have on the way down are curiously more interesting.”

An experienced entrepreneur and property investor, Neil Lewis is also co-author of two successful property investment books, Buy to Let and Property Developer Secrets. His company ceased trading in August 2009 after 10 years and the assets were recently sold. Neil is now writing about his 10 year entrepreneurial experience in his online blog www.RagstoWreckages.com

He advised: “The first thing I would say to any budding entrepreneur is to get passionate. Money doesn’t make you happy, you have got to do something you are passionate and care about. The only way to survive in this market is to do better than the next person and that only happens when you do something you really love.

“Also, create a company that doesn’t require you to have debt, this way you can build a business plan that works.”

Mr Lewis also spoke about the value to some businesses of using contractors. He said: “I think any entrepreneur puts a huge amount of time and effort in helping their people engage with what is going on, but you don’t have to do this in a traditional way. In my view, successful businesses which are starting up now will be businesses which leverage on the freelance structure.”

He continued: “If you build a successful business and it goes wrong, you take that experience and you transfer it to your next venture.”

Chris Pyke, Associate Dean and Head of Chester Business School, said: “This was certainly a thought-provoking event. Mr Lewis was an excellent speaker, imparting valuable advice based on his first-hand experiences.

“It was also an important networking opportunity, promoting good business engagement.”

Attended an excellent International Symposium on Political Marketing. The Symposium was organized by The Institute for Comparative Political Research (ISPO) and International Institute for Political Science (IIPS) at Faculty of Social Science in Brno, Czech Republic.

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The most controversial and interesting feminisation Campaign poster from the 27th September German Bunderstag Election campaign. Which commentators have suggested was relatively boring, primarly as a result of a poor opposition campaign 

It was designed and approved by the local politician Vera Lengsfeld.

Clearly  targeting male middle aged voters and suggestive of a conforting mother figure 

The slogan/strapline reads the equivalent of “we have more to offer”/”we offer more”.

After the April 2006 Nicosia, Cyprus Political Marketing Conference visited Israel with Professor Bruce Newman editor of the Handbook of Political Marketing and Journal of Political Marketing. This picture is of us with a visiting group of Christian Nigerians at the Dead Sea.  

It was one of those magical moments of history, faith, culture and good humanity and humilty which meant agreat deal to us all.

Business secretary says it is ‘absolutely ridiculous’ to suggest Brown has a problem with pill use, and criticises Andrew Marr for asking the PM about the rumours

Gordon Brown on the Andrew Marr show yesterday.

Lord Mandelson today criticised "extreme rightwing figures" for circulating rumours on the internet which led to Gordon Brown being asked on the BBC whether he had been prescribed medication to help him cope with the pressures of his job.

The question has sparked fury among delegates at Labour’s conference in Brighton, with former minister Caroline Flint this morning branding it "despicable".

Mandelson said it was "absolutely ridiculous" to suggest the PM had a problem with pill use, and blamed politically motivated bloggers for raising the possibility.

"We have seen out there on the internet, the blogosphere, all these extreme rightwing people trying to put these smears and rumours about, all completely groundless," he said in an interview on GMTV.

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