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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
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| Lib Dem triumphs in the long haul | Lib Dem triumphs in the long haul |
| (6 days later) | |
| Liberals have had to be in politics for the long haul for years; after the Lloyd George/Asquith split in the First World War, the party's decline to a low of only six MPs by the 1950s meant that sights were inevitably fixed on distant glorious horizons. | Liberals have had to be in politics for the long haul for years; after the Lloyd George/Asquith split in the First World War, the party's decline to a low of only six MPs by the 1950s meant that sights were inevitably fixed on distant glorious horizons. |
| Now that those have been reached, to the extent that the party (in its Liberal Democrat form) has the deputy Prime Minister and other MPs in the Cabinet, the adage still holds good. It's an optimistic party member who doesn't believe that hard times lie ahead and a lot more slog. | Now that those have been reached, to the extent that the party (in its Liberal Democrat form) has the deputy Prime Minister and other MPs in the Cabinet, the adage still holds good. It's an optimistic party member who doesn't believe that hard times lie ahead and a lot more slog. |
| So – to come to the point – well done Chris Davies, the lean and wiry Lib Dem member of the European Parliament for the north west, who has been an actual runner since the age of 14, as well as a metaphysical, political one. He has just won the title of over-50 ultra-distance champion for 2012 in the national Runfurther championships. | So – to come to the point – well done Chris Davies, the lean and wiry Lib Dem member of the European Parliament for the north west, who has been an actual runner since the age of 14, as well as a metaphysical, political one. He has just won the title of over-50 ultra-distance champion for 2012 in the national Runfurther championships. |
| This follows achievements which strike me as a bit alarming at Davies' age of 58, including setting a commanding pace on the way to victory in a 56-mile race across the peak District in September. He followed this with one of the best over-50 times recorded for a 50 mile run in Yorkshire last month. | This follows achievements which strike me as a bit alarming at Davies' age of 58, including setting a commanding pace on the way to victory in a 56-mile race across the peak District in September. He followed this with one of the best over-50 times recorded for a 50 mile run in Yorkshire last month. |
| Virtues of the political grind apart, he has developed a 'keep going' style of long distance running by living in Saddleworth on the Pennines' roses border where little if any land is flat. His title comes from an analysis of the top four times in a dozen off-road races; as well as topping his age bracket nationally, he was fifth overall. | Virtues of the political grind apart, he has developed a 'keep going' style of long distance running by living in Saddleworth on the Pennines' roses border where little if any land is flat. His title comes from an analysis of the top four times in a dozen off-road races; as well as topping his age bracket nationally, he was fifth overall. |
| He reckons he's "just a good club runner", to which his colleagues in Saddleworth Runners concur, and being a politician, he naturally has a thirst for winning. Before his European service, his greatest political moment was defeating the since-disgraced Phil Woolas to become MP for Littleborough and Saddleworth in the 1995 by-election spite of a ruthless Labour campaign directly run on the spot by Peter Mandelson. Davies says: | He reckons he's "just a good club runner", to which his colleagues in Saddleworth Runners concur, and being a politician, he naturally has a thirst for winning. Before his European service, his greatest political moment was defeating the since-disgraced Phil Woolas to become MP for Littleborough and Saddleworth in the 1995 by-election spite of a ruthless Labour campaign directly run on the spot by Peter Mandelson. Davies says: |
| So far my old knees haven't let me down. Maybe that's because these days I do most of my training in a gym, either in the basement of the European Parliament or in Greenfield, the village where I live. | So far my old knees haven't let me down. Maybe that's because these days I do most of my training in a gym, either in the basement of the European Parliament or in Greenfield, the village where I live. |
| I've never had the speed of the great runners but I seem to be able to just keep going when others start to fade. It's what every Liberal Democrat has to do to survive in politics | I've never had the speed of the great runners but I seem to be able to just keep going when others start to fade. It's what every Liberal Democrat has to do to survive in politics |
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