You can read my thoughts as I have them on the 2007 elections in England, Wales and Scotland by heading over to my Twitter page as it’s the easiest way to live blog. Thanks to DoctorVee (Twitter) for this little applet that will show you other great bloggers talking about the Election live - including a [...]
Apparently there are lots of smiling Liberal Democrat faces at the Hull count. Looks like at five gains at least; six are needed for control. UPDATE: Control of council likely to come down to one ward where there is currently a recount underway. UPDATE 2: Liberal Democrats take control of Hull. Recount must have gone the right [...]
It is over. It is difficult to believe, but it is. I need a reassuring quotation from Shakespeare: "What 's done is done". Macbeth ( Quote Act III, Scene II). Thank you Will, I needed that sort of reassurance to move to closure. My daughter has coincidentally just sent me a chain email with a poem from a teenager dying of cancer. I don't want to risk abusing copyright by quoting it. But
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has held a ground-breaking meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem at a summit in Egypt. Hallejujah! It is a shame that what many people saw as a "no-brainer" to ease the Middle East crisis has been taken several years after it was an obvious move. How many have died unnecessarily in the meantime? And would it had happened at all if Nancy Pelosi
News from Bristol - big problems with the postal vote in one ward as more postal vote ballot papers have come back than the council issued! Most likely explanation so far is a bad printing error which results in one ward’s ballot papers going out across a much wider area.
First gossip from the counts - look out for a poor Tory performance in Hinckley & Bosworth (East Midlands) as the Liberal Democrats make gains … and worst bit of media coverage so far: ITV thinking that Wales is currently run by a Labour - Lib Dem administration. Err…. no.
Yesterday saw the launch of Young Kingston, with this logo, and a website. This is the charitable fund that I have been setting up throughout this year - and I'm tremendously excited that we have got to this point. It is a concrete expression of my theme of empowering young people. Young Kingston will give grants to young people between the ages of 5 and 19 who live or study...
“Let’s look at how the Scottish Parliament looks now” Well that’s roughly where Labour sits, but it’s not where the Lib Dems, SNP, Conservatives, or most of the ‘others’ sit. Good work.
Well someone else has been elected in my place now and I can say morally, if not legally, i am no longer a councillor in Fakenham. Of course it is yet to be decided if I have elected to Broadland District Council for Taverham, which is unlikely given the fact that electioneering has been severely curtailed for me by issues and concerns about my wife's pregnancy, which thankfully now seems to be going fine. So why the thank goodness ? Well, really it is for the simple fact that I have felt sidelines and an unwanted figure in the ...
Judging from my experience today Labour are in for a real drubbing in the local elections. Because there’s no poll in London this year I’ve been helping out in the town where I grew up – Guildford. Labour have just two councillors left in Guildford but I rather think they won’t have any by the end of tonight. I was canvassing in the one remaining Labour ward. I was amazed by how unpopular the Labour Party has become. Is it on the verge of being wiped out in the south of England? But in Guildford the big question ... 
The message on Ian Titherington's blog is that it is a two horse race - and he has been riding the donkey. This will be his last campaign, I imagine. Thanks to Andrea for pointing this out.
The Polls have just closed in the elections. Wolverhampton is counting on Friday this year so I am at a loss what to do now, and sadly I will be working tomorrow so will miss my own Count.
The four way debate I participated in for 18 Doughty Street can be seen here. My blog for the New Statesman is here.
It is a cold and lonely world, blogging on election day. I was at work all day, and at the Safer Neighbourhood Panel meeting this evening, so I could not help out. As a result, I am one of the only blogger left blogging. The rest of you are now poised, waiting for the count to start. Good luck. You deserve it. And I envy you all the thrill of election day.A site for political analysis and opinion of an avowedly liberal view. It's all about freedom.
A quick pause in tonight's phone canvassing for the Super Thursday local & regional elections gives me an opportunity to note that in the Good Friday edition of the South London Press a correction was printed in respect of Harriet Harman's spinning of the Wood Dene murder that this blog has been campaigning to get corrected since January. The correction reads: "We wish to correct our report headlined 'Asbo killing outrage' published on December 22nd. We reported that Diamond Bamamuboni, who was convicted of manslaughter over the death of Zainab Kalokoh at a family christening party, was ...
Another irony of the ending of the Blair years is that his Party claimed when it came to power that it wanted an "ethical foreign policy". And of course the irony is that a British company (British Aerospace) are being investigated by multiple foreign government whist the UK government tries to sweep allegations of bribery and corruption by BAE when dealing with foreign government under the table. So not only a war to remember Blair by, but a footnote about Britain being made to look like the land of the corrupt and greedy. Thanks a bunch Mr Blair ! ...
Hopefully you remembered to vote today. In case you didn't, you have until 22.00 hrs tonight to cast your vote. Go have your say.
Everybody hates Tesco, it seems. Even their own suppliers hate them! I now read that teachers are cross because one needs to spend £379,000 at Tesco to get enough of the vouchers that they give customers for school supplies to pay for a £681 computer. Which means that they are roughly giving away £1 for every £500 spent in their shops. This being Tesco, which apparently controls a third of the national grocery market, one might have thought that parents could pool together to buy a fair few computers nonetheless. If there is any criticism, it is that ...
According to the latest edition of Children Now, The Institute of Public Policy Research think-tank has called for the compulsory introduction of smart cards for 18-year-olds that would restrict the amount of alcohol they can buy. Those of you interested to learn more may purchase a copy (for the free exchange of ideas is not universal within the left-leaning Institute) of the article that Jasper Gerard penned for Public Policy Research. Those for whom US$ 39.00 is better spent elsewhere (anywhere!) may welcome a summary: [T]he UK has ‘lost the plot’ when it comes to regulating alcohol. [Gerard] ...
Yesterday I visited an estate in Woodside ward at the invitation of Ms Buzzacott - who is an extremely active woman who has lived on the estate (Bracknell Close, George Lansbury House etc) for a very long time. Twice a year she organises an estate inspection with Homes for Haringey, the Safer Neighbourhood Team and so on. And this time she invited me to join them. There was clearly a feeling
Southwark Council Leader Nick Stanton opened the new White Grounds Skate Park recently. "Too often we hear politicians talk about giving young people something to do but forget to actually take the action to put it in place," said Nick. "It shouldn’t be about ping pong in a draughty hall but about listening to young people and helping them to get what they actually want. This Council has provided skate facilities in Belair Park and Peckham Rye Park and this new skate plaza is a great addition to our work with young people." "In Southwark we take the attitude ...
Well, today's the day. I have just been and voted, and I already voted at home via the internet (which, today's Guardian tells me, may not be such a good idea, but never mind...) I have really nothing more to say, other than that I thought it would be nice to reprint (in slightly edited form) Marc Maron's work of literary genius on the subject of voting: Vote by Marc Maron If you want to
Nothing to say what election, or polling, it is. No figures. Doesn't relate to any real election result. Desperate Labour lies, trying to pretend it is neck-and-neck between them and the SNP to stop us winning! (Have Labour had ANYTHING positive to say in Edinburgh Central?)
I posted on A liberal view of Sheffield a letter I sent to the Sheffield Telegraph in which I suggested that Green Party hostility to business and trade threatened to condemn millions to poverty - billions worldwide. The Greens have replied to a similar letter to the Sheffield Star, and this is what they say:As for Lib Dem Joe Otten's claim that our
Exactly a month ago, I made my prediction for the projected national share of the vote for today’s set of Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and local council elections based on ICM's polling data: Con 42%, Lab 25%, Lib Dem 25%, Others 8%. (This would equate to a 6% swing from Labour to the Tories and a 4.5% swing from the Lib Dems to the Tories.)I have no reason to resile from this guesstimate…
The Guardian reports today that prosecutors from the Sweden, Austria and the Czech Republic will meet with representatives of the UK’s Serious Fraud Office in The Hague next week “to co-ordinate their corruption investigations into BAE.” The meeting of prosecutors will take place under the aegis of an EU body called Eurojust, set up in 2003 [...]
183 words down to 20:There’s a new Lib Dem Iraq film. I’ve written a piece about the latest polls. And remember to vote today.Now, back to rounding up some local cats and getting them down to the polling station.
It was noticeable today that the Tories, particularly in Taverham North have decided that street litter is the new way to win voters. Presumably the illegal fly posting they are doing by fixing poster boards to street signs and on other land owned by County highways is a sign of their desperation. I guess I will have to contact the council to ask if the Conservatives actually have permission to hang their poster boards from street signs and street lamps that were put in by the District Council, county and Parish Councils. Of course, it could be a ...
Southwark Council's Lib Dem led Executive yesterday approved a its secondary school outline business case to secure more than £200m in DfES funding for twelve secondary schools in the borough. The plan will: · build two brand new schools · rebuild one existing school, which will become an academy · refurbish or rebuild five voluntary aided schools · refurbish or rebuild our four secondary special schools · rearrange our special ...
Can be found here - got the link wrong earlier! 
Like the first cuckoo of spring there is a Scottish Conservative "Good Morning" leaflet falling through some doors in Edinburgh Central today. So what it is the aim? To promote their local parliamentary candidate? To promote their Holyrood list? No, none of the above. All the effort to produce a two colour A4 leaflet and it is only about their council candidate! Hello, there is a
the usual election day ritual has begun here in lincoln. Good mornings have been delivered, well for the most part we still have a 100 or so to go, votes have already been cast, and the street cleaners are out here in park ward, on pretty much the only day your gaurenteed to see them, making he place look clean and tidy all this and there still 11 hours left until the count starts :)
The very best of luck to all Liberal Democrats standing for election today across Scotland, Wales and England. With London curiously quiet, I’ll be doing some telephone knocking-up, which is less exciting but also warmer than a brisk tramp about the streets. If you’re somewhere that has elections today, please get out and vote… Ideally for your local Liberal Democrat, but voting for someone else is much better than not voting at all. Meanwhile, if you’re too eager for polling news to wait until tonight, or (understandably) fear that Mr Dimbleby will send you to sleep, ...
Denise Capstick, Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Health, has been busy with the campaign against the Government's proposed closure of the Maudsley Emergency Clinic in Denmark Hill. She reports back: On Monday I went along to the Pensioner's Action Group Demonstration outside the Maudsley Hospital against the closure of the Emergency Clinic. The group received a lot of support from passers-by and lots of toots of car horns. This was followed by a public meeting on Tuesday evening at Camberwell Leisure Centre, chaired by the Co-ordinator of Lambeth and Southwark Keep the NHS Public. Speakers included: - the Chair of ...
Eighty-five per cent of the French electorate turned out in the first round of their presidential election. That must be too much to hope for in the Welsh general election, but, given the good weather, there is no excuse for not bettering the poor turnout of 2003 - 37.4% in Aberavon, 39.1% in Neath. So, c'mon, pass judgment on your politicians!
Last night, Richard Thomas and the Council's development partners at Canada Water, British Land Canada Quays, hosted a celebration of two key milestones on the way to achieving the Council's vision for regenerating Canada Water. Six years ago, when Labour first launched their plans for the area, the community was at loggerheads with the council. Hardly surprising since Labour’s plans for Canada water involved getting rid of the water! After years of painstaking work, the Lib Dem administration has restored a large degree of trust in the community and there is a high degree of public support ...
Big day today as Scotland, Wales and nearly all of England (outside London) go to the polls. Wishing all my Liberal Democrat colleagues across the three nations the very best!
I know I said that I was going away for 24 hours but it is still a bit early to start knocking on voters' doors and I could not resist this. From an American blog, directions on Google Maps of how to get from San Francisco to Amsterdam. Line 29 is the crucial one.
Polls have now opened in this year's elections. They will stay open until 10pm.
Wednesday: Just GO already! And so the PROTRACTED demise of Lord Blairimort continues and, like in HAMLET, the entire COURT has been wiped out but the death scene STILL goes on FAR TOO LONG. As ever, the Labour seek to use their spin machine to try to cover up what is really going on. Rather than face up to the peoples' decisions in Scotland and Wales and the local elections, the Labour – just like in the Hartlepool by-election, when Lord Blairimort first got himself into this mess – are PRE-EMPTING the results and trying to ...
The polls open in 15 minutes, my legs are aching, my feet are sore and there is at least another 23 hours before I find out if I am to be an AM for four more years. I have lost a stone in weight, I have a tan (of sorts) and if you think I am blogging again before Friday then you have another think coming. I will be far too busy. As I set out to try and get our vote out I leave you with this final guide. It is the Press Association's estimated timings for declarations ...
Urging people to vote Liberal Democrat in the 2007 May elections, Ming Campbell focused on crime and the environment, the key themes that the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on: “Labour has presided over a failing criminal justice system. Less than one in 100 crimes are now punished in court, violent crime has risen, and [...]
Congratulations to one of my cricketing heroes on his appointment, which begins on 1 October. Since his cricket career ended in 1981 he has been working as a psychotherapist. When Brearley became England's captain in 1977 it was almost as though Jonathan Miller or Michael Frayn had been put in charge. Brearley was a representative of liberal North London in an age when cricket was still run by the Establishment. He was part of a more enlightened tendency within the game which embraced such figures as John Arlott and the Revd David Sheppard and had its finest hour when ...
May Day: Any of you out there fancying the greatest occult festival of the year after Halloween… you've just missed it! But my Daddies took the opportunity to CELEBRATE in the TIME-HONOURED FASHION of bunging on a DOCTOR WHO VIDEO. "The Dæmons" is the story that finishes off Doctor Who's eighth year, and it is also the concluding episode of a sort of story arc that has seen Dr Who pitted against his brand new arch enemy Mr the Master in every story that year. The Master is often described as "Moriarty" to Dr Who's ...
Anyone remember David Evans, the former Tory MP for Welwyn and Hatfield ? I remember him rather smugly saying on the night of the 1997 general election when Radio 5 asked him about the Tory meltdown "it looks like it will be just me and John (Major) left!" unfortunately for him, he was wrong and he lost too. However, just read this story of what one Australian MP said about a leading Labour female MP and it reminds me of the sort of awful and nasty comments that used to emanate from David Evans before the 1997 general ... | < | May 2007 | > | ||||
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