LibDem Blogs - Archived!

Labour has admitted that the behaviour of some of its supporters "may have fallen short of the high standards that the electors have the right to expect," reports the Birmingham Post. Such talent for understatement should be encouraged.For more on the murkier side of Birmingham politics, see John Hemmings' blog.

There's a bit of fuss being made in certain parts of the media at the moment about Ken Livingstone suggesting that an Evening Standard reporter was behaving like a 'concentration camp guard'. There are lots of outraged people getting very upset about it. The reality is, as usual, that a rather unimportant story has been blown out of all proportion.The comment may have been ill-advised, but the last thing anyone could accuse Ken Livingstone of is being racist. The reality is that he usually irritates the right wingers by being friends with people they hate (blacks, gays, immigrants, etc). The ...

Labour's 2005 General Election Campaign booklet is called "operation third term".In section 8 relating to Postal Votes it says:Labour supporters with a postal vote are four times more likely to vote than Labour supporters who vote at polling stations. If we can get them to apply for a permanent postal vote it helps our electoral prospects in future elections.That is not surprising if their vote is stolen and filled in for them. It only takes one Labour activist to fill in hundreds of postal votes.They say:After the ballot papers have dropped:From this point your election campaign should be all ...

It seems that the earth moved on Valentine's Day for the whole population of Colwyn Bay and surrounding communities. If only the Assembly had been able to claim the credit. They would never accuse us of ignoring North Wales again! Who am I kidding? Of course they would.

Six Birmingham Labour city councillors alleged to have masterminded a campaign of postal vote fraud will face a High Court hearing without legal representation.The Labour Party confirmed last night that London-based law firm Steel and Shamash was no longer acting for the Bordesley Green and Aston ward councillors. (extract from article in Birmingham Post linked above.)It remains that there is a question as to what Labour Candidates were doing on an industrial estate after midnight with hundreds (and possibly thousands) of postal ballots.Election Day story about postal votesIt also remains the case that there was electoral fraud not only in ...

Before Ken Livingstone's outburst, the previous big row over anti-Semitism had been over Labour's flying pigs advert. I thought about it again when writing my latest newspaper column (on another topic) as I nearly used the phrase "and pigs might fly" before pausing to consider if it was appropriate given the heightened sensitivities over that phrase at the moment.Anyway, much to my surprise I found that the posters in question are still on Labour's website.I thought they'd been pulled?

More at the Assembly today on Livingstone's rant at an Evening Standard reporter ("What did you do before? Were you a German war criminal? ... You are just like a concentration camp guard"). The Assembly voted unanimously to condemn him. Remarkably Ken didn't even see fit to apologise for his comments.You can read his comments in full on the Standard website - they are so over the top that if they'd not been caught on tape I think many people would have doubted their accuracy.Bizarre footnote: Ken claimed that anyone who worked for the Standard deserved criticism. Now guess which ...