What’s a flat white you ask? I discovered it around 18 months ago, but it’s an Australian classic in the coffee world. The perfect bridge between a double espresso macchiato and a really strong latte, which, done well is the perfect coffee for someone who wants a strong coffee kick and a bit, but not too much, milk on the top. The milk is always full fat, and very silky. The coffee base is usually three shots of “ristretto”, the first bit of espresso that comes out of the machine.

The two big coffee chains I mentioned have recently jumped on a bandwagon that in the UK at least started in coffee houses in Soho and Bloomsbury. Stores such as Monmouth, Flat White, Fernandez & Wells and Lantana have been serving the drink for a few years, and it’s become popular with the crowd of coffee connoisseurs who frequent this rash of independent, antipodean-inspired coffee stores in central London. I’m not sure of the mass appeal of the drink in the UK, because it is quite strong, but it’s certainly an improvement on the popular “latte” or jug of milk with a hint of coffee which people in this country seem to love so much.

Starbucks was first, and it was initially only available in the fancy new concept store just off Regents Street. When I saw the ad I was intrigued and I tried it straight away. Verdict? Starbucks’ bitter coffee isn’t the right base, and the milk they use is semi-skimmed I believe. The new cup they introduced is nice, and the barista tried to achieve the typical flat white pattern on top, but it wasn’t a flat white. It was bitter.

When I landed at Heathrow last Saturday from my trip to Lebanon, I noticed that Costa was making quite a fuss about its version of the flat white. I tried it. Apparently the company has spent upwards of £1million to train staff on how to make this new drink perfectly. What a waste of money! The poor barista, who I truly felt sorry for, couldn’t achieve the pattern which Costa had captured so perfectly in the poster for the new drink. He tried, but explained to me that the one in the poster was the “Picasso version”. The drink itself wasn’t too bad – the coffee an improvement on Starbucks, but there was too much milk as the cup was too big.

If these two coffee monsters are betting that their versions of the flat white are going to make up for falling revenues, I think they’ve bet on the wrong horse. Well actually, maybe the masses will take up the drink and enjoy it. But for a stuck-up, snob of a coffee purist like me, these two versions of a coffee favourite don’t cut the mustard.

If you want to experience the true flat white, get in touch and I’ll take you to Fernandez & Wells!

Beirut is by far the craziest city I’ve visited anywhere in the world. The single word I could use to describe this place would by schizophrenic. This is a city of amazing contrasts. I live in central London and I’ve never seen so many Range Rovers or Mercedes in a single day. Those luxury cars share road space with the archetypal white jeeps with a big black “UN” painted on the side (they’re here as part of the UNIFIL peace-keeping & stabilisation mission). At the same time you’ll find children tapping the windows for change. The downtown/”centre ville” area is absolutely pristine – cleaner even than Geneva. Other parts of town are shabbier, but overall Beirut leads other cities in the region in terms of cleanliness and tidiness.

Last night when I arrived, after spending about an hour walking around the Gemmayzeh district, I was under the false impression that Beirut is a city of serenity. Today’s experiences have proven otherwise. The noise of the traffic here is inescapable. The fumes from the car exhaust are ever-present. I have never seen traffic chaos like I saw today. There is serenity in places though, like the main Al-Omari mosque, which is one of the most beautiful structures I’ve seen – it’s like a huge yellow & blue diamond just fell out of the sky. You can’t walk anywhere near it without being captivated by its beauty and presence.

The Beirutis too are a contradiction in terms. You have the most glamorous looking people who could compete with the elites in London, Paris or New York. But they share a city with people at the far opposite end of that spectrum. A vast swathe of land between the seafront and the main down-town area has been reserved for luxurious high-rise apartments buildings, and hotels like the Four Seasons with its imposing security barricades and Lebanese tanks and soldiers on guard outside. The Hezbollah area in the south, quite close to the city’s international airport is a little less glam, but it appears on the outside at least, to serve its purpose.

People say that the Lebanese are quite an insular people, and I have mixed feelings about that. It’s not terribly difficult to start a conversation with people, but also I can see that many Beirutis can come across as snobbish and closed off. If you know people here though, I guess you might see things differently. People in the Middle East are usually impressed to speak to a white foreigner (this sounds awful I know), but not here. They don’t really give a damn who you are, because you’re in Beirut!

This is the last post from Lebanon – I will post some pictures I took when I get home.

First impressions are that this is a very rich country for the region. The roads and infrastructure generally seem very good, despite the regular power cuts here at Costa Coffee. The roads weren’t as scary as people said they were. The airport is quite new. The streets are safe 24/7 apparently, and so far I can see that people are very friendly and helpful – it feels safer than London. The plane had some ridiculous turbulence at around 10 minutes from landing – around the same spot where the Ethiopian Airlines flight went down earlier in the week. One of BMI’s flight attendants was injured, and the other attendants came dashing through the cabin with a look of death on their face. But hey, it got the passengers talking to each other.

The taxi driver from the airport showed me the boundary to the Hezbollah controlled area. Apparently I’ll be arrested if I go there, although they say that Hezbollah are quite friendly and very nice whilst arresting and interrogating trespassing foreigners… I’d rather not find out.

Now, after four espresso macchiatos, I better go and do some sight-seeing and take some more photos.

I’ve just read that the Lebanese PM Sa’ad Hariri fears an incursion by Israel soon. Jolly good – that will make this trip even more exciting then.

The picture here is of the Al-Omari mosque in central Beirut, which I took this morning.

The Times has supposedly obtained confidential documents which outline a multi-year plan to test a specific component required to trigger an atomic explosion, the “neutron initiator”. If it weren’t for the seriousness of the escalating stand-off over Iran’s nuclear programme, perhaps we would find it amusing that gadgets which would sound outlandish even in a James Bond film are making headlines in our major newspapers. Worryingly though, if this evidence is credible, it points to solid plans by the Iranian regime to develop nuclear weapons in the immediate future.

According to David Albright, a respected American physicist interview by The Times, there isn’t a use for the neutron initiator device except to trigger the explosion of a nuclear bomb.

Western powers have been patient and lenient in their approach to Iran. The past few years have seen round upon round of fruitless negotiation, and a concerted effort by the government in Tehran to hide their efforts to build a weapon. This isn’t the first time that new evidence has surfaced to contradict Iran’s claims to be building a peaceful nuclear programme; just a few months ago intelligence showed that a secret uranium enrichment plant had been constructed near Qom, some 200km from Tehran. So far it would seem, the Iranians have been skilful in taking advantage of relative weakness in the US, the UK and other major powers, due to the collective reluctance to intervene so soon after tiring efforts in Afghanistan & Iraq, and with an ongoing war in Afghanistan drawing on the resources of Western armed forces and finance ministries.

As I said in my previous piece, it’s time for Washington DC and London (and in an ideal world, Paris, Berlin, Beijing & Moscow) to pay more attention to this developing situation, and now in light of this evidence, to step up the effort to contain Iran’s nuclear programme. It’s looking less and less likely that the programme is for peaceful energy use only, and surely it’s better to be safe than sorry. I for one don’t want to wake up in a few months to breaking news that a nuclear bomb has been tested by one of the world’s least trustworthy countries, which has openly stated its hostility to other countries in the region.

Let’s hope that despite his recent “pre-emptive” Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama realises that now is the time to get tough on Tehran.

The next stage of the process is the short-listing, and the results should be known by December 18th. I’m very much looking forward to returning to Derby to talk to more members. My letter to every member in the constituency is going in the post today, which will add to the rather large pile of reading materials that the poor Derby North members have for this weekend! There were 15 candidates in total last night, including some very impressive competition from around the country.

Ultimately, if Derby North is to stay Labour at the next election, and at the moment that isn’t a certainty, Derby North needs to get out the sizeable youth vote in the area. Derby is a university city so there are large numbers of young people who have the option to vote. I’m standing as the young candidate in order to capture that vote, as well as the votes of older people. Philippa Latimer pointed out a couple of days ago that only 37% of 18-24 year olds voted at the 2005 general election, compared to 48% for the next age group up. If the difference between losing the seat could be 0.5-1% of the vote, then getting a few hundred more 18-24 year olds to the ballot box could make all the difference.

I want to get into politics because I still believe in the power of Parliament & government to make a difference in people’s lives. My life hasn’t been the easiest, but I have seen first-hand the difference the Labour Government has made to millions in this country. Derby North will be a bell-weather seat at the next general election: it is in fact the seat that David Cameron will need to take to have an outright majority. I want to bring my relative youth, my energy and vigour, fresh ideas and innovative online campaigning experience to the table in Derby North to ensure that we don’t give Cameron the win he so sorely wants.

This week I will meet Labour members in the constituency, and my letter to members is in the post. I have also launched my website at http://www.lukeforderby.co.uk, where you can find out more about me and get my contact details, as well as follow the campaign as it happens.

This is an exciting time for me, and I hope to at least add something valuable to the debate on who replaces the long-serving Labour MP, Bob Laxton.

Twitter makes us all lazy and completely hooked on a non-stop stream of crumbs of information. Those of us who could be classes as addicts (myself included) should all have a day a week when we resolve not to use it at all!

Britain’s official candidate for the role, backed by Gordon Brown was of course Tony Blair. Divisive at the best of times, Blair was never exactly a shoe-in. I’m a supporter of Blair, and I think he was a good Prime Minister and would have contributed something to the European project, giving the bloc a higher profile in the world. But I can understand how some leaders of Europe would have found it difficult to work with someone like Tony Blair with such charisma and weight. They would have been overshadowed by him. Of course, it was well known at the time of the Iraq war that the majority of European opinion was against the intervention, and I’m sure that didn’t help Blair’s chances (despite the fact that Sarkozy himself is an interventionist and wasn’t in office at the time of Iraq).

The Tories stuck their nose in by jetting around some of Europe’s capitals lobbying against the selection of Tony Blair as Council President. In my opinion, that’s highly unpatriotic and unforgivable. And now they will have to deal with a Council President who is far more federalist than Blair would have been.

Several names swirled around yesterday of potential candidates for the second job on offer, that of European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (EHRFASP – what a mouth full). Until the very last minute, there were no obvious British candidates for the post. Most attention was paid to former Italian foreign minister Massimo D’Alema and a few other unknown politicians from the continent. This was also disheartening for me – the thought of another Italian in one of Europe’s highest jobs just a few years after Romano Prodi left the Commission, and the fact that Mr. D’Alema really hasn’t done much lately and isn’t well known, even in Brussels. Towards the end of the afternoon however, a wild-card in the form of Baroness Ashton, the current European Trade Commissioner, emerged.

Cathy Ashton replaced Peter Mandelson as Trade Commissioner when he returned to Westminster politics in much fanfare. Trade Commissioner is a very senior role and Baroness Ashton has received praise for her performance, namely from Commission President Barroso, despite concerns that she was too low profile when she first got the job. Similar concerns are being heard now that she has been selected to become the first office holder of this European “foreign minister” position, a role created by the recently-ratified Lisbon Treaty. I can understand why people are worried that she’s too understated, but they shouldn’t worry too much. She’s done a good job as Trade Commissioner, and that role has given her some experience in negotiation and international affairs. She will have a diplomatic corps of several thousand working to her, out of embassies around the world. No doubt she will have some top-quality advisers in Brussels and member states will provide advice and support also.

Last night’s progress is good in several ways. Primarily, we can stop naval-gazing and get on with pushing forward and tackling issues that are pressing to Europe and the world. The Lisbon Treaty is now done and dusted, a victory for the progressives in Europe. No more negotiation or referenda, or speculation that Europe will have a flash President Blair. That’s good for Europe. Secondly, the fact that a British Labour woman is now the most powerful female in Europe, and in the top three most powerful positions in the EU, is good for Britain. It’s rare for a Brit to hold one of these high offices of Europe; they more often go to smaller states. But for the UK to be more central to Europe, and for British people to feel more engaged, it’s only logical that we should push for more of our citizens to take these big jobs. Cathy Ashton isn’t, as she said an “ego on legs”, she doesn’t make much out of the fact that she’s a woman; she lives in Hertfordshire and for all intents and purposes is quite normal and accessible for British people.

I don’t think it will be long before High Representative Ashton starts to ruffle feathers back in Westminster. She has her own mandate separate from the UK as a nation state, and it will be strange for UK ministers to see a British citizen striding the world stage as an important diplomat. Not only that, but if Labour were to lose the election next year (and by the way I still think there’s a chance we can win!) Ashton would in a heartbeat become the most powerful Labour figure. That would likely worry some in the Labour Party who have their own leadership ambitions. Baroness Ashton has five years to impress the British public, and after putting up with Cameron’s boys for a term, a Labour female prime minister might be just what the nation wants.

I’m sure we are trying to tackle these issues that affect children so badly, but we need to do more. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were agreed by 192 UN member states back in 2000, and they set out eight primary goals to improve the lives of billions of people by 2015. We are almost two-thirds through that fifteen year window of time. The MDG aimed at cutting child mortality by two-thirds by 2015, MDG4, will be missed if the world continue at the current rate; so far only 30% of the target has been met with only a third of the time left to achieve the rest.

I’m proud of Labour’s record in office on international development. We have almost tripled our national aid budget from where it stood when we took office in 1997, and we’re not far off the global best practice target of 0.7% of GDP going toward issues like the one I’ve outlined here. But only 3% of global aid is currently going toward improving child and maternal health. Raising the amounts of aid we spend on this issue isn’t sufficient alone – we need to ensure that the money is going to the correct countries (World Vision suggests that there are 30 “high burden” countries which account for 80% of the world’s child mortality). And just handing out money without adequately educating local populations about hygiene, family planning, adequate antenatal and postnatal care and how to improve nutrition, is pointless. As with all aid, all money we spend on development issues must be applied free of corruption.

As a dad myself, I find this heartbreaking. It’s upsetting when a child has a simple cold, or a fall or other minor injury. My daughter Sophia almost didn’t make it into this world due to complications at birth, but thanks to the British NHS and the huge investments we make in maternity care everything turned out fine in the end. We are so fortunate living in some of the world’s most developed countries, and we perhaps take it for granted that people living in other countries are receiving the care they need. But they aren’t. Perhaps if people realised this, they would be more inclined to put pressure on the politicians and diplomats who will meet in late 2010 to review the progress of the MDGs so far, and to do more to stop children from dying unnecessarily. If it were happening in our own countries, we would surely nip it in the bud sooner rather than later.

Here are two links from World Vision for further information:

- Why the campaign: http://www.worldvision.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.3361
- What people can do to help: http://www.worldvision.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.3371

I believe that we should all do, or at least be working towards, a job that makes us feel this way. I think that’s how you find happiness in life. Even if you don’t earn as much as you perhaps could in a job which makes you unhappy!

The other conversation took place late at night in a central London office of one of my close friends. I can’t name this friend for reasons of anonymity. You see, I think this person has a bad manager. What kind of company keeps a potentially vulnerable person in an office, alone, late at night when a client of the opposite sex will be in the building late into the night? Really I think it’s irresponsible. In situations like this, there should at least be another member of staff around, even if it’s just to make sure that if any problems arise they can be dealt with. So I decided to keep this friend company, and thus missed my TV programme (iPlayer here we come)!

What makes a good manager? Any manager will surely be more successful in his role if he spends time making the people he manages feel at ease. Feel at ease enough to mention when there are problems, not to feel afraid of rapprochement for speaking out – where appropriate of course. And they should spend a portion of their time thinking openly and honestly about how they can be better in their jobs. Making people work bank holidays, even when there is no real work that needs doing – effectively making their staff show that they’re committed despite the fact that there’s no work, will kill the morale of their staff quickly. As will keeping your staff late into the night without urgent need to do so.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in hard work. I’m completely happy to work long, long hours, weekends and bank holidays if necessary to get a project finished. I believe in delivering on promises and doing the best quality work that I can. But to get the best out of our staff, managers should make an effort to make their employees feel valued.