So there was I, a lazy morning getting up, going into Loughton to do a few quick jobs before heading to the committee room in Buckhurst Hill. Arrived at the committee room when suddenly my phone rang. It was Lynn from work. Thus meaning only one thing. We had received the call. So rushed back to school not getting back to the campaign until 7 that evening. So now my thoughts are on Wednesday and 
In no particular order here is a list of the reactions of Lib Dem bloggers since the result was announced last night: Boris is now the most powerful Tory in the country Meral hates Boris. Really seriously... So false. So David Cameron. Nich Starling Tory compares Boris to Mussolini Peter Black AM The last laugh Paul Walter We can't complain when the voters vote for other parties Paul Walter London - more than a little deflating Alex Folkes Reading the Runes Bridget Fox The London results Lynne Featherstone hopes Boris doesn't bugger up all the good things that have happened ...
"How Boris got the last laugh on his detractors" says the billing for Nick Robinson's latest post on BBC News online. The Mail's headline said similar this morning. Come off it. Boris has four banana skin-strewn years ahead in one of the most demanding political jobs in the world.There is plenty of room left for sniggering. Indeed, Liberal England suggests it may have already started.
Scary though it may seem, its really the case. Boris has now been sworn in as Mayor of London, and promises to work with everyone, and in particular to build bridges across London's ethnic minority communities. Of course we have all been told ad nausea of his Turkish background (his grandfather changed his name from Osman Ali to Wilfred Johnson) so he should blend in quite well in Green Lanes, close to his Highbury home. On the surface he seems genuine, but its the Tory advisers around him that will take care of the details and policies that we will ...
I have enormous respect for Mary Reid, and she is the last person I would expect to have a disagreement with. But I believe Mary is on the wrong track with her post 25% and 11% it doesn't add up: With support for Liberal Democrats running at 25% across the rest of the country, London stands out as an anomaly with only 11% for the party list. It seems that the heavy media interest in the Boris v
There were some mixed results for the Liberal Democrats in Leeds 6 which is/should be the party's heart land. The four "Inner North West" wards in the city cover the bottom half of the held Leeds North West constituency and in Mosaic terms could hardly be better for the party. There were some tight races. Firstly in Kirkstall the party failed to make its expected gain from Labour. Respected, Long serving and hard working Cllr Liz Minkin was retiring and our candidate Ruth Coleman was on her third consecutive attempt at wresting the seat. They cut the majority again but ...
al-Hajj has been in Guantanamo bay as a suspected "enemy combatant". He and his employer, Al Jazeera, have always professed his innocence. He has never had any charges brought against him, claims serious abuse against him, and has been on hunger strike. Now he is free. No charge. No apology. No compensation. No nothing. But, hey, what was it that Medvedev said? "Freedom is better than un-freedom".
Martin Bright writes on his New Statesman blog: I was sitting on a panel in the Sky News studios at 2.30am this morning when something horrible flashed up on the giant screen in front of us. Not the tally of lost seats or the projections of what the night's results would mean if reproduced at a general election - though these were bad enough.No. It was the sight of the Tory leader and Francis Maude enjoying a smugfest at their Millbank headquarters, all specially filmed for Webcameron. And this was just the local elections. Imagine what a general election victory ...
On the new unitary County Council of Durham, the Lib Dems went from 5 to 27 seats in the local elections on Thursday. In this interview, Carol Woods, prospective parliamentary candidate for City of Durham, explains why the Lib Dems did so well.
For a party that is so keen on proportional representation, the Liberal Democrats do disappointingly badly when the system is actually employed. In London neither the use of the alternative vote for the Mayoral election nor the top-up lists used for the Greater London Authority elections have done anything to boost Lib Dem support. In Wales we do very well where local authorities are elected by first past the post, and Assembly elections reflect our strength in a handful of Westminster seats. But we have yet to make much of an impact on the second "list" votes. The same broadly ...
Not London, Ludlow. Photo by Sabine J Hutchinson http://www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk/
Have you ever thought what will happen when the oil fields start to close down and the supply of petrol & Diesel starts to run out? Well there are people in towns and cities across the UK that have started to address this issue and they are easy to join and make contact with. These groups call themselves Transition groups and we have one here called Transition...
But how do I do it? Full details here.
I used to live, teach and do my politics in Fakenham for a number of years and despite moving away from the North Norfolk town, still go there to shop regularly. Now I know I am biased because the people of Fakenham once elected me with 66% of the vote, but I think Fakenham is a cracking place to live. Sadly I was cut up by a Tesco delivery lorry whilst I was there travelling along a road that Tesco promised they wouldn't use, but otherwise its a safe place to live with all the shops you would need. So ...
The BBC seemed very excited about the Webcameron coverage if David Cameron's reaction to the result in London last night. Over and over again they showed it as we were led to believe that David Cameron was in such suspense over the result. Of course, everyone knew the result some time before 11:57 when it was officially announced. Are we honestly to believe nobody had phoned Cameron with the result ? Nobody texted hm to let him know and that he had not been watching any TV or listening to the radio who had already announced that Boris had won ...
Here’s the email which Brian Paddick sent out to supporters earlier today: It feels a bit like waking up with a hangover but without the headache! Thank you so much for all the hard work and support that was put into our campaign. It is important to recognise the unique nature of this set of London elections set against [...]
It was with some trepidation that I opened my payslip this week, falling as I do into the group of people affected by Gordon Brown's catastrophic abolition of the lowest tax rate, which he himself brought in to almost universal approval in 1999. It's not like they weren't warned. Ming Campbell told them what a stupid idea it was in his response to the Budget last year. The Tories are now hanging on our coat tails on this one. Surely nobody really believes that Conservatives are actually going to stand up for the lower paid against the rich unless it ...
Chris Rennard, Chief Executive of the Liberal Democrats, on the English and Welsh local election results.
Having stormed City Hall and taken over the BBC, we in the People’s Republic are looking forward to a swift descent back to anonymity, hopefully with some new loyal citizens (a puppy for every new reader!). Already the stats graph has stopped shaking like a maxed-out Geiger counter, which is actually quite a relief. We [...]
The Liberal Democrats' leap into second place in the popular vote is mentioned in today's press but such an achievement deserves a bigger spotlight. It's not just a nail in Gordon Brown's coffin - it's spectacular in its own right. Some of the kinder predictions in the media suggested that we would be doing really well if we lost only 50 seats. Well, we gained 34 nationally and made some amazing gains in Sheffield. Two of my friends were on campaign teams which were responsible for more than a third of our total gains, in Sheffield and South Lakeland. I ...
Fiest I'd have to seriously countenance retiring to Skye to make matchstick models. However, if I decided against that what I wouldn't do is rush into a series of 'initiatives', or re-announcements of previous commitments. Instead, I'd bring together my second rate team and get everyone looking at a vision for the next two years. Once the various dunderheads in my Cabinet had had a good think I'd tell them what I wanted and expect them to play ball. I'd start to sell that idea in a more grandiose way than the managerial Brown seems capable of. This is the ...
The Lib Dems need to start thinking as soon as possible about who we get to stand as our candidate for London Mayor next time round. In my view, the candidate needs to be someone with impeccable London connections; with good name recognition across the capital; who can handle the media spotlight; is utterly cool under pressure; is intelligent, cultured and has an internationalist outlook; is not a conventional politician; has a good track record of success; knows the importance of getting a good team around him and knows how to spend millions of pounds wisely. Where would we find ...
This is another situation in which I can be very "male". I therefore don't think that it is necessarily sexism, so much as "confident people" versus "people with no self confidence". Often this is men versus women, but not exclusively so. I know that I can be pretty patronising and convinced of my rightness, and I can quite often ride roughshod over other people's opinions. I mostly try not to, but I recognise that it's a defect I'm prone to. I have never suffered from low self-confidence as a systemic thing. I have had periods of it, but they never ...
With thanks to all who helped this morning, most of the special edition of FOCUS for the area of the West End Ward around the Perth Road roadworks, was delivered and the remainder is now with those local residents in the area who kindly deliver their street for me. The FOCUS doesn't just cover the Scotland Gas Networks issue, but also covers local bus shelter issues, an untidy area in Steven's Yard (at High Mill) and a residents' parking update. You can download a copy by clicking on the headline above. 
Voting: the decision making process, with dogs—Ash Ash summarises the voter decision process, comparing the party policies on pet ownership. (tags: voting democracy dogs humour)
Council electionsA lot of the country has turned blue. I am with all the commentators who are saying that this is mainly a vote against Labour than for the Tories, but join {[info]} paulatpingu in his concern that my own party have not capitalised more on the massive disaffection with the governing party. Best post on this? If the political parties were furries... by {[info]} ash1977law - although I would paint the Lib Dems as fluffy bunny lovers, rather than cat lovers (in both senses of the term fluffy bunny). London Mayor and GLAAm unable to summon a huge amount ...
I'll admit if things continue as they are the SNP will gain more seats at the nest Westminster election. However, in light of an interesting graph attached to these articles in today's Scotsman I'm going to add a couple of caveats. The first is that this is not simply because of some uber-intelligent strategy of the SNP to attract more voters. But because the Labour party are in danger of going
There's no doubt about it, the London results took the gloss off what had been a pretty good set of results until then. It's not just the mayoral result, but the GLA too where the Party completely failed to live up to expectations. At least with the Mayor it is possible to understand what went wrong more easily. Some contests just get personal and this was one of those. But, for some reason, when it gets personal in that way, the public just can't seem to cope with more than two candidates in the mix and so everyone else gets ...
It felt quite extraordinary to be waking to a London with Boris as Mayor. We are so used to the Islington electoral landscape of Labour vs Lib Dems, that Tory victories are a bit of a shock It's a healthy reality check to find that everything looks the same as usual in Islington this [...] 
This weekend the Department of Work and Pensions have announced that they are going to spend the next year trawling through the National Insurance computer to find women who might be missing out on part of their state pension entitlement - the part that relates to time at home with children. I have some interest in this topic as I have been badgering the department about the issue for over a year. At first they were resistant, but they have been willing to look at case studies for me, and have now accepted that there is an issue here and ...
Here are a few pics from Nick's tour around the country yesterday. From top: Nick in St Albans with PPC Sandy Walkington and new Council Leader Robert Donald (in his 1974 era rosette); Thumbs up from the St Albans winning team; Nick congratulates Carl Minns and his team in Hull; Nick chats to the troops in Hull; Nick with Paul Scriven, new Leader of the Council in Sheffield; the six new councillors in Sheffield, with Paul; Nick and two of the Sheffield team.
I woke up this morning hoping that Boris winning was just a bad dream - but sadly - it really happened. His acceptance speech though was very gracious - I would advise keeping that speechwriter standing just behind him at all times! Much as I have enjoyed Boris on TV shows I didn't want him as Mayor of London. Didn't want Ken either. However, the people have spoken and now the opportunity belongs to Boris and I hope desperately that he doesn't bugger up all the good things that have happened in London since the GLA was created and that ...
Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for North East Fife, Sir Menzies Campbell, has reiterated his scathing attack on Gordon Brown's sleight of hand on the 10p tax rate at a time when those hardest hit will have now received their first pay cheque under the newly defined tax bands. Sir Menzies, who was the first person to bring this matter to the attention of Parliament at the time of Gordon Brown's final budget as Chancellor, has also lambasted the Government's spin on their tax rise by questioning the "compensation package" which is not only less than adequate but also offers ...
One of the glories of the BBC Thursday night coverage of the recent election results was the repeated claim (flashed on their screen ticker) that the LibDems had targeted Milton Keynes Council to get overall control from NOC in the Friday morning counts. This was news to the MK LibDem campaign team at least. How this notion got around we don't know. For those of you who were looking out for the results and thought we had a setback because we didn't win control, here are some facts. Mk was a heavy Tory target. The Tories had two good years ...
If you want to see how political narratives really work, look no further than Boris Johnson's successful bid to become Mayor of London. It gives me no pleasure to say this -- and I was appalled at the number of Lib Dems who voted for him as their first or second choice -- the Tory candidate's campaign came straight from the copybook of political storytelling. In The Secret Language Of Leadership (2007), Stephen Denning argues that telling the story is the way to make a personal and emotional connection with an audience. It needs more than rational argument. Denning argues ...
Any Questions last night was broadcast live from the Rose Theatre in Kingston. I was delighted to see Sir Peter Hall on the team, alongside some political stars - Harriet Harman, Vince Cable and Caroline Spelman. (If you're wondering whether the panellists are hidden in the dark - they're not. This was a sneaky shot taken as the audience arrived) Three...
Julian Harris reports a rather bizarre Mandelson-style acceptance speech from the foul-mouthed, chain-obsessive excuse for Barnet and Camden’s GLA member. The most under-reported aspect of this election is the fact that as the Tories have more than a third of Assembly seats, the new Mayor will be accountable to the Tory Assembly Group not the Assembly itself. Coleman and co ran on a manifesto they did not agree a single word with. However nice and cuddly Bozza himself might be, they will spend their time trying to drag him in the opposite direction. On the positive side, it is hard ...
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With so much attention focused on Boris Johnson’s win in the London mayoral election, what happened in the parallal GLA contests has been overshadowed. But for Liberal Democrats, those are the results that need to be studied closely. to try to work out what went wrong. First, the facts. On the constituency seats, just one changed hands: [...]
London: you’ve probably seen the results by now I suspect (!), but if you’re after full vote share details for the London Assembly seats they are here whilst the London list results are here. Labour’s hold of Enfield and Haringey and gain of Brent and Harrow Assembly seats are striking results at a time of Labour defeats in [...]
We did not have elections this year in Warwick & Leamington, though I have been greatly encouraged by the results across the country and especially closer to home in places like Stratford where we gained 5 seats from the Conservatives. Russell Field in Coventry was elected back onto Coventry City Council after a hard fought battle in one of Labour's top targets. I am not sure whether the local Labour party wheeling in Gordon Brown at one stage was more help to Russell. I'm especially pleased with these results in particular as I took the decision to pause our own ...
With support for Liberal Democrats running at 25% across the rest of the country, London stands out as an anomaly with only 11% for the party list. It seems that the heavy media interest in the Boris v Ken confrontation actually got in the way of good democracy. Labour introduced the idea of having elected mayors, partly to bring some excitement back into politics, and it has...
Many of the pathways in Redlands are becoming difficult to navigate. People are still leaving their bins on the footpath. In some roads cars are routinely parked on the footpath (either half-on, half-off...or squarely in the middle of it). In a number of cases, vegetation has been allowed to grow out of gardens or parks, blocking the way. Daisy, Glenn and myself have reported multiple problems of this kind. Add to this the increasing problem of people cycling without lights at speed down our pavements, and the rubbish left on our paths as a result of skips and flytipping, then ...
First of all congratulations to Glenn who joins Daisy and I as Councillor for Redlands, and thanks to everyone who gave him their help and support! Bus stops and shelters in the ward seem to be a real focus of anti-social behaviour. We have reported repeated vandalism on Erleigh Rd, Addington Rd and Redlands Rd. This vandalism often takes the form of graffiti, sometimes it involves the destruction of parts of the shelter (e.g. smashed glass or burnt litter bins). Sorry to say I reported another incident yesterday. What is also now happening is that young people are drinking before ...
Still very tired after polling day on Thursday. I feel as if I haven't had enough sleep for about a month! I was elected in Cressington ward - a Lib Dem gain as the former Councillor defected to Labour back in March (she stood in the elections for Labour but not in Cressington - in Kirkdale). When the defection happened, the Liverpool Echo editorial said that Cressington was now a marginal seat - so my majority of more than 1,000 is particularly pleasing! I was very sad to see Lib Dem Tom Marshall lose in Belle Vale. Tom is the ...
One has developed a habit of stealing from The website politicalbetting.com, An unbreakable habit, it is too, So in this post may it continue... ----------------------------- A couple of days ago Lib Dem Mike Smithson drew attention to this bar chart [left], which our clever conspirers at LDHQ have already created. A work of art deco brilliance, no less, bold and unashamed in its cunning depiction of vote patterns at the last election. As art should, this induces all manner of emotional reaction; I want to laugh, I want to grin, I want to cheer! I want to punch the air! ...
My piece on Comment is Free this morning is rather less “sunshine and buttercups” than my effort yesterday: Has the light at the end of the tunnel I was detecting yesterday turned out to be a freight train moving at speed in the wrong direction? Maybe not, but there is no disguising the fact that the London elections have been awful for the Liberal Democrats. For the record, and not that I’m complaining about being censored, my original draft was considerably more sweary. Read the full article here. Share This
Yes! Boris is Mayor! Our capital's figurehead is officially more verbally idiotic than President Bush. Boris-isms will reign supreme in the age of 24/7 news - every word and sentence he splutters will be flashed across everyone's screens until they finally remember that the Tories aren't lovable toffs, they really do mean what they say when they joke about the poor and make sexist and racist remarks. Hail the next year when Boris will make several f**k-ups for the Tory party. None of which, I predict, will accurately be recorded by the Evening Standard, who was the most powerful and ...
Tories will, quite rightly, be delighted by the win of Boris Johnson in London, but for me it is a sad indictment of the state our politics is in. When you look at what Boris stands for, privilege, Oxbridge, private schooling, the Bullingdon club, does he really speak for London ? Perhaps parts of Chelsea yes, but Hackney ? Putting aside what might be my own class prejudices (at least I don't refer to picaninnies or slag of whole cities like Boris), perhaps he has got something to offer. I hope so for Londoners sakes. The problem is that people ...
So what has gone wrong in London for us? The results do not paint a pretty picture. Brian's vote squeezed to 9.63% and a poor 11.22% in the assembly resulting in a loss of 2 seats. In a city that should be instinctively liberal, should we not have expected to do better here than the rest of the country? It is not as if we don't have a strong presence both in inner and outer London. I trust someone will do some analysis, we need to fully understand what went wrong if we are not to find ourselves totally left ...
Who'd have thought this would be the case 6 months ago? I've now had a few hours sleep, and Boris is still Mayor of London! Yes, congratulations to BJ for a convincing result in London. As indicated in my earlier posts, I gave my second preference to Ken. Londoners have woken up to a Tory run London. These were an extraordinary set of elections. Trouble was his growing unpopularity: many Londoners voted Boris just to get rid of Ken. The Labour party's unpopularity helped the Tories win control of London. The Liberal Democrats had a disappointing result in London, with ...
Before the election results were announced, Ken Livingston offered jobs to his three main rivals. His losing the election shows us why he did that. It's easy to make the offer, the electorate think you're being reasonable. But, if you take the job, then you can't really campaign against your employer at the next election. It's said that you can't win elections, you can only lose them by doing a bad job. Well, in that event, poor performance reflects on the whole team. So, in this example, Ken was invited back into the Labour party a few years ago. He ...
I know that the media has an agenda to talk the Tories up in these local elections and for once the results may justify that tactic, but I really do wish that journalists could maintain their perspective. Daisy McAndrew on ITV News last night stood astride a huge computerised graphic illustrating Tory gains. When she moved to Wales she launched into a flurry of hyperbole about how we used to weigh Labour votes here but no longer. It then transpired she was talking about the Vale of Glamorgan where, despite one or two significant majorities for local Labour MP, John ...
Today's Guardian quotes a Shadow Tory Minister as comparing Boris Johnson's victory in the London Mayoral election as like 'the March on Rome in 1922'. The quote is part of this article but the leading Conservative remains anonymous. I think that given the significance of this comparison it is only right that in this instance the journalist concerned names his source. I wonder what David Cameron thinks.
Aberdeenshire UA, Troup SNP 1721 (62.5%; +14.8%) Conservative 515 (18.6%; -5.7%) Liberal Democrat (Edward Acton) 503 (18.3%; +10.7%) Turnout 36%. SNP hold - elected at 1st stage (Percentage change since May 2007). Barnet LBC, Hale Con 2798 (50.1; +4.0), Lab 1882 (33.7; -2.5), LD Geoffrey Jacobs 487 (8.7; -1.8), BNP 213 (3.8; +3.8), Green 206 (3.7;
Well, who'd have thought it - Boris Johnson, the new Mayor of London? Personally, I can't see why anyone is that surprised. His victory was almost guaranteed from the moment he announced he was standing. Why? Put simply, Boris, unlike Brian Paddick and many of the other candidates, has something the public like, charisma. Whilst Paul Walter and Tim Ball are right, Boris does come across as a fluffy bunny who may turn out to be not capable of doing the job he's been elected to do we shouldn't loose sight of the fact that the good people of London ...
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Samsung re-define the gigabyte, originally uploaded by salimfadhley. It’s awful when marketroids are allowed to pervert basic science, in this case Samsung’s willful ignorance: Everybody knows that megabytes and gigabytes are based on base-2 numbering, so one KB is not 1000 bytes but 1024 bytes. Likewise 1MB is not 1000 of those funny decimal kilobytes, but 1024 of the regular sort of KB. This is just dumb, and I’m sure that someday in America they will ...
Following a small campaign by myself and fellow North Road ward councillor Fred Lawton, plans for a children's play area attached to the new North Road Primary School have been re-instated. But it was the Echo that told us - not the officers! Fred spoke strongly in the Children and Young People's Scrutiny Committee for the re-instatement of the play area, a speech which was picked up and
So Boris won. I've never been so glad to have left London - not that he'll get anywhere near power. The Tory suits will ensure he doesn't slip up. It's a sad day when you hanker after the liar as Mayor, in place of the bumbling blond buffoon. I was profoundly disappointed to see how far behind Paddick came. He deserves credit for his performance and I'd like to see him stand for Parliament for us. I can't help wondering how the Mighty Vince would have fared in this contest...Has our overweening internal democracy delivered us a defeat we might ...
There has been a huge amount of media coverage of Labour's disastrous local election results and of the success of the Tories yesterday. A few months ago it was difficult to see how Labour could do worse than its 2004 nadir, when in the aftermath of the Iraq war they lost 461 seats and eight councils. The Liberal Democrats did very well out of that Labour disaster and so were always on a tricky wicket this year in defending their gains, never mind seeking fresh progress. Despite this we have come out of the latest set of elections in good ...
I've kept out of commenting much on the London Mayoralty election, because I am out in the sticks with a straw in my mouth, and venture into London barely six times a year. I think Boris Johnson is a prat and wouldn't vote for him if my life depended on it. I am hoping we'll now get some entertainment from him. Just a 10 minute interview with any journalist worth their salt (not Andrew Gilligan
I wait to be convinced that Boris Johnson the new Mayor of London is capable of doing the Job that he has been elected to do. London is one of the World Financial Capitals and a leading trade centre and has to be seen as a place where business can be done with respect and dignity. I mentioned the name Boris Johnson to some overseas visitors the other day as probably the next...
My daily digest of texts, tweets and status updates.13:23 wants to kill the Calderdale results webmaster, it's awful tinyurl.com/3n9s5c we lost Brighouse by 80 votes. Gah! # 15:10 prediction: Johnson to get most first prefs, Ken to get re-elected after transfers, Tories to whinge it was "stolen" for the next 2 years. #ETA: Hmmm, was wrong on the latter, but only just. Interesting Times.Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter. {[info]} matgb_twitter is there if you're mad enough.
It would appear that an inquest is already underway into our disappointing result in London. So, I think to myself, perhaps a comment or two of my own is in order... Picking our candidates earlier is indeed a good thing. We do it for Europe about eighteen months out, and we probably should have done for London. Perhaps the then Regional Candidates Chair should explain why we didn't... The
Ros is taking a swim, so I thought that I'd take the opportunity to reconnect to the outside world. After three days in Bangalore to recover from jetlag and acclimitise to the weather (it's about 35 degrees and the sun is beating down from an almost entirely blue sky), we've moved on to romantic India of legend, with a visit to Mysore, where we toured the Maharajah's palace before retiring to
Local Newington Councillor Caroline Pidgeon has been elected as a Liberal Democrat member of the Greater London Assembly. Overall the Liberal Democrats lost two seats on the GLA while Brian Paddick scored just under 10% in the race for Mayor. These are not good results, although it's hard to read much from them other than that the party was successfully squeezed due to the closeness of the race between Ken and Boris.
Richard Barnbrook has been elected to the London Assembly for the BNP scum. Will the last person out of London turn out the light.
The one person I wouldn't want to be right now. But he bought it on himself.
I am going to keep some of my thoughts private (or at least to a few friends), but I believe one area that we went wrong was that our Assembly candidates were selected far too late. And when they were selected the first US consultant should have come in, on fundraising. A big onus on the candidates, just like in the US should have been fundraising. Big regional elections, with huge
Just in case anyone is wondering why I haven't been around that much lately - this is why: today I was elected as a Councillor for Hillsborough Ward in Sheffield! The result in full: Joe Taylor (Liberal Democrat) - 2739 Robert MacDonald (Labour) - 1620 Eric Collins (BNP) - 491 Chris MacMahon (Green) - 346 Neil Everest (Conservative) - 292 We now have two out of the three seats in Hillsborough Ward and more than doubled our majority from last time. We also gained five other seats plus control of the Council and wiped out the Tories in the process ...
Just back in Cornwall after a totally exhausting 24 hours with Nick Clegg travelling the country to congratulate various victorious Lib Dem teams. Set off from Lanson at 3am Friday morning to drive to Cowley St and then made it to St Albans, Hull and Sheffield before coming home again. Have to say, of all the great news stories (yes, I know we didn't do as well as the Tories, but...), the best was Sheffield. I've been there three times now in the past few months and they are a great bunch. And they managed to win everything they could ...
A former colleague emailed me this recently. I had put it in Facebook, but didn't get round to posting it here. Adam Boulton and me, Broadcast centre Reagan/Gorbachev Reyjavic summit October 1986tv
What will happen? We simply don't know. Brian Paddick: if "I voted Left List as second choice" is a joke, then work on your judgment. If it wasn't a joke, then leave the Liberal Democrats.
The London Mayor results are out, though the BBC are continuing their record in the reporting of these elections by only giving numbers for Ken and Boris. The Graun, at least, has given us the numbers. And they're not pretty. What happened here? Was this sheer Boris factor squeezing our vote, or has something more significant happened to our London support? The assembly numbers point towards the
Adam Boulton has just announced that Boris told him when he came off stage that he will be quitting as an MP as soon as possible.
Well the fat lady has sung, or at least Anthony Mayer has announced the result. And what is clear is that Bexley and Bromley has won it for Boris. The local result was: Boris Johnson Conservative Party 122,052 Ken Livingstone The Labour Party 40,670 Brian Paddick Liberal Democrats 17,332 Richard Barnbrook
Friday (just): Very Well Done Mr Brian! The results of the London Mayoral Election of 2008 have just been read out: First Preferences: Suicide Boris (Conservatory): 1,043,761 (43.2%) Mr Ken (Labour-Newzilla Alliance): 893,877 (37.0%) Mr Brian (IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIM!!!!!!): 236,685 (9.8%) Ms Sian Very-Berry (Taxi Party): 77,374 (3.2%) Second Preferences: Suicide Boris: 1,168,738 (53.2%) Mr Ken: 1,028,966 (46.8%) So Bozza is Mayor. Eek! So Bozza is Mayor. Eek! We are off to bed now. Maybe when we wake up it will all be a dream. Or, in Mr Vague's memorable phrase, a Night Mayor! | < | May 2008 | > | ||||
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