My local football team Torquay Utd, summer barbeques in the garden with friends, visiting a new place or meeting someone for the first time, waking up in the morning next to my wife, padling in the sea on Paignton beach on a warm summer's day
Music
Where to start - I just love music but I particularly like rock, so my all time favourites would have to be Pink Floyd, Rush and Led Zeppelin. I also love Supertramp, AC/DC, Clapton, Yes, 10cc, Sabbath and Genesis. Then there are contemporary bands like Kaiser Chiefs, Scissor Sisters and even Pendulum. Or just give me some old fashioned Rhythm and Blues.
Oh, and I occasionally present a Rock Show on Palm 105.5 having been asked back by popular demand.
Movies
Passport to Pimlico,Life of Brian,Close Encounters of the Third Kind,Spinal Tap,Men In Black,Leon
Television
The West Wing, Question Time, QI, early rounds of X Factor, Top Gear, Dr Who, Family Guy
Books
Fast Food Nation,Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy,Blot on the Landscape,Lies (and the Lying Liars who Tell Them),The Times World Atlas,& I admit it, Harry Potter!
Heroes
John Stuart Mill,David Penhaligon,Nelson Mandela,Mahatma Gandhi,Sir William Beveridge,
I'm an elected politician and if that hasn't put you off, just consider this. Everything you do is governed by politics and people like me help to shape the rules.
I have set up this myspace page to encourage anyone who is interested in politics to leave comments/messages and ask any question they wish. I will endeavour to reply to as many comments and questions as possible.I am a Liberal Democrat MP. If you wish to view my official site you can find me at: www.adriansanders.org
Here is a little bit about myself and how I became a Member of Parliament.
I was born in the small South Devon seaside resort of Paignton on 25th April 1959. I went to schools in Paignton and next door Torquay before attending Torquay Boys' Grammar School which I left after A Levels.
After a brief spell working in a timber yard, I spent seven years in the insurance industry. It was during this time that I became increasingly disillusioned with the Labour Government of the day, which I felt, overlooked the needs of peripheral areas of the UK like Torbay. I was also fearful of the unregulated capitalism espoused by Mrs Thatcher, the new leader of the Conservative Party. I felt that I had more in common with Liberal MPs John Pardoe and David Penhaligon who spoke up passionately for the far South West; So, I joined the Liberal Party in 1979 and in 1985 was elected Vice President of the National League of Young Liberals.
In 1984 I stood successfully to Torbay Council representing the old Blatchcombe ward, a third of which will return to the Torbay constituency at the next election, under the Boundary Review.
Following a period of unemployment - a common experience for people from my part of the country - in 1986 I stood down from the Council to take up a paid job with the Association of Liberal Councilors in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire. I worked for the Association (later Association of Liberal Democrat Councilors ? ALDC) until 1989 when I then moved to the Liberal Democrats? Whips Office in the House of Commons.
Between 1992 and 1993 I worked in the office of Paddy Ashdown MP where I was primarily responsible for organising Paddy's 'Beyond Westminster' Tour, in which Paddy was the first leader of a national party to leave Westminster to live and work in various different communities across Britain
On completion of the tour I worked as the Policy Officer of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (1993-94) and then the Southern Association of Voluntary Action Groups for Europe, advising voluntary organisations and charities on how to gain access to funds from Europe for training and employment projects.
I contested the Torbay constituency in the 1992 General Election, reducing the Conservative majority to only 5,787. I then became the candidate for the Devon and East Plymouth constituency in the 1994 European Election. On May the 1st 1997 I was elected Member of Parliament for Torbay in the closest of contests. With a majority of just 12 over the Conservatives, I joined the Liberal Democrat team in Parliament, speaking on Housing, and in my first Parliament, I served as a Regional Whip for the South West.In the 2001 General Election my majority increased to 6,708, and I became the Liberal Democrat spokesmen for Tourism. I stood again, successfully, in the 2005 General Election.
I am presently Deputy Chief Whip of the Party in Parliament, Chair the All Party Parliamentary Group on Diabetes (I've been Type 1 for 17 years) and sit on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
I split my week between my flat in Westminster and my home in Paignton.
Look forward to hearing from you and do feel free to comment on my blog or message me if you prefer.
Hi Adrian, Just to say thank you for your kind words about our band. We enjoyed opening Abel Music the other weekend. Hope to see you at one of our gigs sometime! Vivid Sky
The official Think Floyd 2009 tour T-Shirts are now on sale!
The new front & back printed shirts will be on sale at concerts from April but are available to order now through through our website: www.thinkfloyd.net/merch.html
UK gigs coming up soon...
Sat 4th April - PETERBOROUGH Key Theatre - SOLD OUT
Tues 28th April - LONDON Private Function
Fri 1st May - SEATON Town Hall
Sat 2nd May - HASTINGS White Rock Theatre
Sat 9th May - TRIDENT MUSIC FESTIVAL Cropton, N. Yorkshire
Sat 30th May - NORTHAMPTON Derngate Theatre
Sun 31st May - KINGS LYNN Corn Exchange
Thurs 4th June - CAMBRIDGE The Junction
All the atmosphere, visual magnitude and musical excellence of Pink Floyd, re-created live onstage!
Hello my friend how are you doing? well i am sorry for not write you you for very long time.... hope you dont mind, the truth is that i got some of my own problem and thats why i am not on the mood to talk to any one... anyway i am ok now... well i just wanna say hello to you and wish you a good day... talk to you soon. regards Tashi PS if you have facebook, you can add me there with this email address tashi.d.tsering@gmail.com i use facebook for personal stuff no political....
The Garland cartoon in today's telegraph ( I don't buy it, honestly, just scan it in the Library) has taken up one of your old themes on M.P's family fiddles: Mr Fiddle the M.P., Mrs Fiddle the parliamentary assistant, master Fiddles the researcher and Miss Fiddle the ASSOCIATION secretary. Could only be Conservative family form the looks alone! Now what?
Many thanks for the add. Hope you enjoy the music and message behind it. My mission in life is to fight Human Trafficking. understanding the individual pain of others is sometimes to painful for an other individual to touch and that is frightening ... what i mean is that someone whose life is not traumatized and brutalized as a regular sequence of every day events unconsciously seeks the camouflage and shelter of apathy and banality from the reality of such devastating anguish and terror ...
but the spirit of young people who are used as sex slaves in the systematized global industry of human trafficking is now reaching out to the human fellowship in hope and desperation and through technology ...
it is scary when humanity turns a blind eye to this horror ... its like ignoring genocide whilst it is happening ...
what i am asking is that if you hear the cry of these young people who are existing in an environment of torture and brutality each and every day that you then please do not turn away from them ...
please reach deeply into your heart and soul and please in 2009 join a movement or become a part of an event that challenges modern slavery in the 21st century ... colin
Hello! Just saying hi! Hope you're OK. I'm leaving for London soon - I'm finally going!!!:) If I don't see you, look after Torbay please, the town needs you xxxx