... according to Nick Robinson of the BBC:political reporters from the Tory-backing papers were called in one by one to discuss how Team Cameron would deal with "Cleggmania" and to be offered Tory HQ's favourite titbits about the Lib Dems - much of which appears in today's papers.Hands up any one who is surprised? * watches as tumbleweed rolls past * ... * bell tolls in the distance * ... anyone? Anyway, if you are not easily offended by naughty language and you want to see the contrast between how new media and old media treat Captain Clegg, check out ...
Just now on Newsnight's summary of tweets from tweetminster, they had tweets from Alistair Campbell, Ed Balls and Eric Pickles and then one from "another observer" but the author's name was clearly one "joswinson". I know that name from somewhere. Doesn't she have something to do with politics?
According to an article in today's Evening Standard Lib Dems could take control of one third of London's councils in two weeks time. City Hall Editor, Pippa Crerar says: "Local government experts predict that "yellow fever" could spread to up to 11 councils at next month's local elections, to be held on the same day as the general election." The article goes on to suggest that the Lib Dems are expected to hang on to Sutton, Richmond and Kingston , take overall control of Southwark and Camden, which are run in coalition, and push back the threat from Labour in ...
My one story to read today is the revelation on Lib Dem Voice that the Conservative Party called in the Tory tabloids to co-ordinate today's press attacks on the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg.
Hi Benedict, Saw that you just wrote: "The snap polls gave the debate to Mr Cameron." That seems a bit odd given the actual poll results are: YouGov and Populus – Cameron winner ComRes, Angus Reid and ICM – Clegg winner I can't quite see how that tallies up with your statement? Best wishes, Mark As if by magic (well, actually email) back comes a note that the post is being amended [IMG: :-)]
Tonight's Leaders' Debate on Sky was more edgy and more challenging than the one last week. It was a bit more boring too!! At times each of the Leaders landed punches, but overall, the verdicts in the instant polls suggest that Nick won again: Angus Reid - Clegg 35%, Cameron 33%, Brown 23% ComRes - Clegg 33%, Cameron 30%, Brown 30% YouGov - Clegg 32%, Cameron 36%, Brown 29% The Tory and Labour slogan tonight was more likley to be "I disagree with Nick" - but I'm happy with that personally!
Labour has neglected rural Wales and a change is needed at Westminster to ensure fairness in rural areas was the message as Welsh Liberal Democrats launched their rural manifesto in Ystrad Meurig, Ceredigion, today. The document, called "A fair deal for rural Wales ", outlines key priorities for issues such as rural transport, conservation and housing as well as delivering change that works for farmers. Priorities include: Ending the Post Office closure programme. Giving community control over bus services and second homesHelping farmers by regulating supermarketsMaking the planning system democratic. "Rural areas like Ceredigion and many areas across Wales have ...
Ilkley Churches Together held a very good election forum last night. The hall was full and the topics interesting. I listened carefully to the "clapometer" and Nader was definitely the most popular candidate. [IMG: Nader and some of the audience at the Ilkley Churches Together Forum] Have you spotted the "I agree with Nick" badges?
Thu 22nd
23:00
Telegraph smear story exposed as BBC states Tories behind 'Get Clegg' newspaper campaign
Last night the Telegraph splashed its entire front page with a silly smear story about Nick Clegg receiving donations into his bank account. It's been demolished within 24 hours, as the BBC reports: Mr Clegg released copies of his bank statements and other paperwork in an attempt to clear up the row. The figures released by the party show donations from three private donors amounting to £19,690 were paid into Mr Clegg's account between January 2006 and January 2008. But according to the Lib Dems' figures Mr Clegg paid £20,437.30 into party coffers between March 2006 and February 2008 for ...
I missed the TV debate this evening as I was at a debate of my own, in Derriford, organised by Churches Together in Plymouth. We faced questions mainly on the economy, education, health, as well as Plymouth-specific issues. I almost exclusively stuck to setting out the Lib Dem position on each issue raised, but there was one occasion where I reacted to something one of the other candidates said. The Conservative said something that bothered me, and that was that only the private sector generates wealth. I have heard this before from a Tory at a hustings, and it triggered ...
Watching the live poll results coming in on the Angus Reid website has been very illuminating. I genuinely believe that Nick Clegg won the second debate. Brown was his usual self, never any different. He just does not look comfortable, and bores me to tears. He has no life or vigour. He does not radiate the ...
Thu 22nd
22:48
Back from the #chelmsford hustings. Went very well. I wish there had been a clapometer! We even had ...
Back from the #chelmsford hustings. Went very well. I wish there had been a clapometer! We even had an #iagreewithnick moment when Lab cand said "Stephen's right"
The Murdoch Sun/YouGov einstant poll says that Cameron won. With that much directorial manipulation I am hardly shocked. YouGove probably manipullated the poll too. The fact that Palestine did not even get a mention in a foreign affairs debate is truly shocking.
Or so Nick Robinson said on his BBC blog earlier this evening: I now learn that political reporters from the Tory-backing papers were called in one by one to discuss how Team Cameron would deal with "Cleggmania" and to be offered Tory HQ's favourite titbits about the Lib Dems - much of which appears in today's papers.
I was amazed how many times Adam Boulton interrupted Nick Clegg tonight. I was astonished that Boulton then asked his own special question to Nick Clegg about the Telegraph slurs. Then after the debate they reported the result of only one post debate poll (the one that had Cameron ahead) and failed to report the statistics of the other two polls which had Clegg ahead and only said they were "close". It seems that Sky news is now firmly under the editorial control of Murdoch. It certainly makes the case for why we need a BBC News Channel so that ...
The verdicts are coming in – you can read what I thought here – and two out of three of tonight's instant polls show Nick Clegg edging tonight's Sky News televised debate: Angus Reid ... Clegg 33%, Cameron 32%, Brown 23% ComRes ... Clegg 33%, Cameron 30%, Brown 30% YouGov ... Clegg 32%, Cameron 36%, Brown 29% What's clear is that this debate was a much close contest than last week's first debate, much more evenly matched between the three leaders. Clegg was at least as good, but – to give them their due – both Cameron and in particular ...
Last night I was getting great reception on Sky News. This evening it was so poor that I had to turn the sound down and listen to the radio. My impression from this rather odd way of experiencing it was that the second leaders' debate was a score draw. Brown and Cameron had clearly learned from last week, so Nick Clegg did not enjoy the clear victory of last week. But his performance was good and became increasingly assured as the evening went on. He was at his best when putting the Liberal case on issues like Europe and immigration, ...
I'll do a proper review of the debate tomorrow morning, but one thing I would like to point out is the utter hypocrisy of David Cameron. He spoke consistently about not scaremongering. A fair point on the whole. Politics should not be about scaring the electorate into voting for you. The Labour leaflets on paedophiles and cancer are disgraceful and should be exposed for all to see. But David Cameron is not the person to stand on that particular pedestal and spout some kind of holier than thou rhetoric. The Tory party ran this poster as a Labour attack ad: ...
Just finished watching the second of the Prime Ministerial TV debates and the instant Sun/YouGov poll afterwards that gave Nick Clegg 32%, to Gordon Brown's 29%, with Cameron in the lead at 36%. This would give the Tories the most seats, but not an overall majority. Labour would have more seats than us, perversely, such are the vagaries of our electoral system. On immigration, Brown scored a point by saying that the LibDem amnesty for irregular migrants who had been here for at least ten years, spoke English and hadn't committed any offence, would act as a magnet for new ...
Tonight's Prime Ministerial debate appears to have given no leader an outright win like last week. YouGov had the results as Cameron 36%, Clegg 32% and Brown 28%. ComRes had Clegg: 33%, Brown: 30% and Cameron: 30% Whilst Angus Reid have (in what is still a live poll) Clegg 35%, Cameron 32% and Brown 23% So given the fact that there are three polls, guess which one the Rupert Murdoch owned Sky News are reporting ? Yes, the YouGov poll paid for by The Sun. I felt the debate was nowhere near as well run as last week. Sky seemed ...
It's that time of the week again and the #bbcqt Live Chat starts on this blog at 10:40pm (show starts at 10:45pm on BBC1). The same as last week, the show is being broadcast live this week so that the panel and audience can watch the leader debates (this week on Sky) and then respond to how they have gone on the programme. This week I am again unavailable during the programme (sorry - unavoidable work award do thing) but Lib Dem blogger Matt Raven (known on Twitter as @El_Cuervo) is again standing in. The panel includes the Work and ...
See here
I just watched the party leaders' debate. Nick Clegg gave another great performance. Interestingly, the need to clean up politics came up again and had all three leaders in agreement. Clearly David Cameron's views haven't percolated down to former mid-Beds MP Nadine Dorries (Con.). I heard her tell the hustings in Streatley (which she quaintly pronounced as 'street-ly') Village Hall on the evening of Monday 12 April about how she had been advised "not to mention expenses" in the run-up to the election, that it had died down and was a non issue. Nadine is wrong about MPs' expenses; they ...
This is how two Daily Mail readers reacted to today's attack on Nick Clegg by the paper (via Radio 5): Transcript: Tom: The way media interpret these things is really important. I contacted you because of the reaction my parents had given what was published this morning. They are Daily Mail readers. They are Telegraph readers. They voted Tory since Thatcher. They voted Tory in 1997. They, like me, do not want a Labour government. They felt uncomfortable with Cameron, particularly with his Inheritance Tax policy. They're ordinary middle-class people and they do not have anything like the kind of ...
All, Sorry about (possibly) my dullest headline yet - but we've had a chance to add up the results from your replies. 88% of replies opposed the building of 250 new (mostly for commercial sale, rather than affordable homes for local people) houses on greenfield sites off the Campden Road, and 80% opposed a foodstore. We have passed, as promised, the results of this survey to the planners at Stratford district Council. This is not the end of the matter. Later in the year the planners will publish their final proposals, with another opportunity for comments from local people. Last ...
BBC: Update 1939: I now learn that political reporters from the Tory-backing papers were called in one by one to discuss how Team Cameron would deal with "Cleggmania" and to be offered Tory HQ's favourite titbits about the Lib Dems - much of which appears in today's papers.The key personal allegation about payments from donors into Nick Clegg's personal bank account came, however, from the Telegraph's expenses files. Incidentally, the party has now published details of Nick Clegg's bank statements and party accounts showing that Mr Clegg received payments totalling £19,690 from three businessmen (Neil Sherlock, Michael Young, Ian Wright) ...
Here it is:
Having spent the bulk of today in Perth with the 'day job', late this afternoon I attended the Kingspark Project Board at the new school that will open in the near future. Project Board members were given a guided tour of the new school facilities - these are absolutely superb. It has been a well-managed project and delivered under-budget. A real credit to the City Council and a project of the previous council administration, of which the Dundee Liberal Democrats were a part. After my surgery at Blackness Primary School, I attended a meeting of the group tackling the graffiti ...
Its 2105 and it is clearly apparent that it was a disgrace to allow Rupert Murdochs Sky was allowed into the Leaders Live Debate club. When I have time I will analyse in detail - but seems to me a blatant attempt to shaft Nick Clegg. Look at the way the camera goes away from Nick whenever he speaks,... to scan the audience , the shots from behind, the reactions from Cameron - anywhere but Clegg's face... Meanwhile Cameron gets full face when ever he utters a word. Brown got a fair edit - but he's not the threat to ...
With voting starting in two days, a made rush this week to ensure that we successfully get our message across. There appears to be an increase in the amount of Postal Voters. This could be a sign that this election may actually buck the trend and see an increase in the turnout. Let's hope so. We should all play our part in the democracy so many people died to protect.Here in Epping Forest the
Well, I hate to say I told you so, but that Nick Clegg fella has turned out to be pretty good, hasn't he? So much so, that Britain's right wing press have had a bit of a field day today. I thought I'd have my own go with the headline above – it's about as believable as some of the ones in this morning's papers. In fact, you can create your own headline online here – go on, give it a go. My personal favourite so far? "Could Nick Clegg destroy Cliff Richard?". In fact, that's probably tomorrow's Daily Mail ...
John Barnett, Liberal Democrat candidate for Dundee West, campaigning this week with Sir Menzies Campbell. Ming will be visiting Dundee on 30th April to support John's campaign.
A question for all the leaders: What commitments can you give to the undecided voters in regards policy about introducing 'same sex marriage' with legislated equal rights in all aspects to those hetrosexual married couples receive? And, in what timescale after the election? Also, do you support the marriage without borders campaign, allowing parity of immigrant status ...
The current results are Which Leader Most Impressed You During the 1st Live TV Debate? Gordon Brown : Labour (18%, 941 Votes) David Cameron : Conservative (17.54%, 917 Votes) Nick Clegg : Lib Dems (64.45%, 3,369 Votes) Total Voters: 5,227 ref
I am twittering (?) on the debate Follow me at chrisLibDemNW1
Over on 'tweetville' the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Wallasey gives this wonderful insight: let me get this right – the Lib Dems are cool about Iran having nuclear weapons but not Britain? Er... I for one would like to know where she gets her information from? As far ...
Welcome to Lib Dem Voice's coverage of the second televised debate between the three main party leaders, an event perhaps even more keenly anticpated than last week's inaugural debate – though the viewing figures will almost certainly be fewer. As last week, we're co-hosting live-chat, below, simultaneously with the Mark Reckons blog. Verdict: Yes, I think Clegg did very well indeed, at least as good as last week. His closing speech was amazing. His answer on immigration was great: a genuine dividing line, expressed passionately. His only weakness was Trident, where he has the right policy – it must be ...
I am gratified that so many people have contacted me about my election communication but I have to rectify an omission. A number of people are asking me about myself as this did not appear on the leaflet. My apologies for this: such leaflets are a very general introduction to your local candidate and they are limited in terms of how much information they can provide. For the record therefore, I am 41, married with two children, I was born and brought up in London and moved to Oxfordshire in 2002, where I have been a parish councillor, parish clerk ...
My unexpected presence in the United Kingdom due to volcano-related travel disruption has allowed me to do a little more campaigning than had been originally planned, and so, yesterday afternoon, it was time to visit North Norfolk which, last time, saw Norman Lamb increase his majority from perilously small to really rather large. Without much on the itinerary, we took the pretty route via the Reedham Ferry, pictured here, and stopped at the Ferry Inn for lunch. The ferry is a chain ferry and is the only crossing of the River Yare between Great Yarmouth and Norwich, so it potentially ...
Timings are + an hour for some reason. Sorry. 8:29:04 PM: I'll be live blogging the #leadersdebate via Tweet here and accumulated blog here: http://bit.ly/8ZWOxi 8:34:08 PM: Slapometer latest: Brown 54%, Cameron 33%, Clegg 13% http://www.slapometer.com 8:39:45 PM: @mytimezoneis Europe/London 8:41:45 PM: "We want change but not in Euros" – snappy little Cameron line found on leaked notes RT@davidschnieder http://bit.ly/cD1kQi 8:44:06 PM: Live blogging the #leadersdebate http://bit.ly/bUqe2a 8:57:10 PM: This lasagne is too good to rush – #leadersdebate or #noleadersdebate 9:02:28 PM: Count Brown out if it's about style, he says – standing their with the most impressive make-up job ...
Election 2010 has published the list of what it claims to be the top 200 "political influencers on Twitter". As regular readers will know, I am not one to show off. But for what its worth, I (@lordbonkers) am at no. 83.
I confess that I can't really fathom what Labour's campaign strategy has been this week. Ever since the first debate last week they seem to have been content to focus on taking David Cameron down, even if that benefits the Liberal Democrats rather than themselves. Is this just simple cynicism that even coming in third in the public vote, they could still have enough MPs to form a fairly stable government? Surely it can't be - the British public's lack of interest in their extraordinary voting system is great, but a party coming in third, with just 27% of the ...
One of the things that I've been interested to note over the last few days, is that once the post-debate Lib Dem surge happened, their share of the vote pretty much stabilised at about 28-32%. While it's obviously mathematically possible that this is a different 28-32% of people each day, it's surely more likely that there is a relatively stable group of people who - at least this week - would vote Lib Dem. I must confess I was a bit surprised by this - as I had kind of assumed that the rise itself would "liberate" a few more ...
I will once again be live-blogging from 8 pm. As YouGov's latest tracker shows the Lib Dems down 3 points and in third place for the first time since last week's debate, there is some added pressure on Nick Clegg to shore up the surge which now appears to be fading a little. Some light reading for the hour until showtime: Live-blogging the Leaders' Debate - my blow-by-blow account of last week's humdinger Leaders' Debate: The Fallout - an analysis of what each leader needs to do this week What will the Tory excuse be this time? - Alex Wilcock ...
[IMG: bono_brown_415] Politicians generally disagree. Don't be fooled by Brown's recent nauseating sycophantism towards Clegg - in reality cross party consensus is very difficult to achieve. Banker-bashing aside, there are very few things that all three parties actually agree on and even fewer that they'd be prepared to admit. But, there is one idea on which all three parties do agree on, and unfortunately it's a shocker. All three parties have agreed in their manifestoes (Cons, Lab, Lib) to make it a legal obligation to spend 0.7% of national income upon foreign aid by 2013. This will cost an extra ...
[IMG: Manning the book stall in 2009] Stalls, games, displays, an ecology tour and a chance to quiz Katherine, Ed and me ahead of the Election – all form part of the third annual Neighbourhood Day which takes place in Stroud Green this Saturday (April 24) from 2-4.30pm. The idea behind the day is for people to get out and about in their local streets, meet their neighbours, have some fun and find out what is happening locally. Neighbourhood Day is organised by the Stroud Green Residents Association (SGRA) and covers Mountview Road, Stapleton Hall Road, Granville Road and all ...
Thu 22nd
18:00
Day 3398: Clegg Bought Flip-Flops for Nazi Immigrants... ON EXPENSES! aka the Day the Press went Mad
Thursday: Put on a happy face, Liberal Democrats: we're WINNING! The ESTABLISHMENT is closing ranks behind Mr Balloon, attempting to do something - ANYTHING - to block CHANGE: muckspreading on five front pages; Tell-lies-o-graph editor Mr Bendy Broken insisting "it's NOT a smear; it's NOT a smear"; Mr Roger Stavro Murdoch's son, Prince James, and his enforcer, Rebekah Oddjob, busting their way into the offices of the Independent... The BLATANT-ness of this attempt to snatch back out of the fluffy feet of REAL voters the system that has served their VESTED INTERESTS for so long has provoked a HUGE BACKLASH ...
It is significant to note that the independent candidate in Luton South being endorsed by former independent MP Martin Bell and the Independent Network he is fronting is Joe Hall not Esther Rantzen. More on this on the BBC, in the Mail, and in Simon Hoggart's sketch in the Guardian.
So following the first debate and Nick Clegg's performance the Lib Dems have shot up in the polls. Will the second debate tonight on foreign policy make any further difference? We are running a Live Chat on here which will also be running simultaneously on Lib Dem Voice. I am indisposed but Matt Raven and Stephen Tall will be moderating. We will also be running this for the final debate next week too. Please join Matt and Stephen below from 8:30pm: Leader Election Debate Live Chat - 2
Following on from Nick Clegg's success in the first of the leaders' debates in Manchester on Thursday, the campaign team here in Manchester Withington are eagerly awaiting the next installment. This time Nick will join Cameron and Brown to discuss Foreign Affairs, in a debate to be broadcast by Sky News. We're all very encouraged by ...
So, Lib Dem Voice and others have been making a noise recently about the twitter 200, and how it ranks influential tweeters... So I checked my TweetLevel, and lo and behold, I should be #60 on the list, but I'm not even on it. Lots of male mainstream bloggers are, though. So what gives, Edelman? I fit your categories. I'm an established political blogger. I'm a candidate in elections. And my tweetlevel is higher than Lynne Featherstone's. Perhaps this is a lesson for all of us in taking self-professed influence charts at face value.
Thanks to the wonder of Wordle, I've created a word cloud of my blog as it currently (well, no longer once I post this) stands. It's below – or you can see the original Java version
I'm still not quite sure what part of today I've found the strangest – the news that Marmite are suing the BNP over a Party Political Broadcast, that Iain Dale wrote a post deploring the personal attacks on Nick Clegg, or the fact that a brief conversation between me and Justin on Twitter spawned a ...
A news release tells us: Unlock Democracy, the UK's leading campaign for democracy, rights and freedoms, today unveils its new report which looks at how committed British political parties are to democratic reform. The report, 'A Vote for Democracy?' looks at the parties' policies in five key areas: fair, free and honest elections; rights, freedoms and a written constitution; stronger parliament and accountable government; bringing power closer to the people and a culture of informed political interest and responsibility. Allocating each party a score out of 100, the total scores are: Liberal Democrats: 81 Green Party: 80.5 SNP: 57 Conservative ...
you have to have an LJ log-in to do this one, but I still think it's interesting. Help miss_s_b and get your own badge! (The Livejournal Electioniser was made by robhu)
I shan't be blogging or tweeting during the leaders' debate tonight, though I shall be back online later. While you waiting for the debate, here is an observation form the well-informed Nottinghamshire political blogger Lobbydog:It's funny how people always said Clegg was too much like Cameron, and now it might be the other way round.
is here. No, it is not Nick Clegg viciously attacking a pensioner with a walking stick (hattip James MacKintosh of the FT). But it may explain why even cardcarrying members of the NeoClassical School of Economics may be starting to make these kinds of argument: In general, I am opposed to state-run, nationalized industries: managing industry ...
This is getting beyond a joke. I've heard the news that another independent candidate has entered the race to be the MP for Luton South. I don't have many details yet as the new person is rather unknown but I believe his name is Faruk Chudury. Who this guy is and what his platform will be I've no idea. One thing I do know is that the voter of Luton South aren't short of choice in this election!
The attacks and smears launched by the Tory "forces of hell" today, the establishment closing ranks behind David Cameron to try to block change, they all signify one thing: regardless of the actual outcome, they all expect Nick to win the second debate. So the question is, looking at Channel Four's "Ask the Chancellors" and the first Leader's Debate on ITV... what spin are the Tories planning to use this time? And will it be another U-Turn on what they said last time? Those excuses in full - - Vince only did well because he was in the middle and ...
As we get ready for tonight's second TV debate, it's worth taking a moment to reflect on one of the reasons why Nick Clegg did so well in the first debate and also why the party was poised in a happy and strong position such that Nick's debate victory boosted the party to first place in many polls. That reason? Chris Huhne. Not only did Chris Huhne play the role of Gordon Brown in the debate preparations, but the very fact that a closely defeated leadership candidate was used in such a role reflects on how closely and how well ...
You know you're doing something right when the right-wing press run full page spreads trying to label you a Nazi. Oscar Wilde once said that the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. If that's the case, then Nick Clegg should be absolutely ecstatic at today's media coverage. I wouldn't be surprised if Nick had a wry smile on his face this morning as he flicked through the headlines. He knows what everyone else knows, and what I've commented on before. He's got the Tories running scared, and when you get the kind of attack ...
Serious people like Munchau of the FT have been willing to use Greece as an illustration of another 'problem' like the CDS market. So too has Michael Barnier. While Munchau's foray produced plenty of argument in the FT Letters page (see my summary), and quite a lot in the blogosphere (I won't bother linking), the ...
Thu 22nd
15:39Positive response at Baddow Hall schools. Must have heard about Lib Dem policy to cut class sizes.
Positive response at Baddow Hall schools. Must have heard about Lib Dem policy to cut class sizes.
Something I noticed in Marina Hyde's Guardian election sketch yesterday: Thrillingly, Team Cameron appear to travel with their own Surrey wedding DJ, who thought he really knew how to warm up the largely middle-aged and pensioner crowd at Marston's. "Don't give up, you've got the music in you!" insisted the New Radicals. I do love it ...
A vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for the Lib Dems. It is not a vote for the Conservative or Labour Parties. It is not a way of 'Letting Gordon in through the backdoor', or of tacitly consenting to a Cameroonian 'DIY' society. It is a vote for the Lib Dems. Since the debates, the other two main parties have woken up to the idea that people may genuinely want a change in British Politics but, whether because they are deliberately obtuse or have simply been too well conditioned by their duopoly on power, neither seems able to ...
Will blog more fully about this later, but disappointingly, the inspector has allowed part of Loromah Estates' appeal. Full details at http://bit.ly/bEKiuc
Doubtless you'll have seen this morning's headlines in which it would appear that Nick Clegg has been blamed for everything from the death of Princess Diana to the invasion of Poland, regardless of the actual accusations therein being flimsy page-23 space-fillers at best and non-stories at worst under normal circumstances. I'm waiting for the first story that blames the Lib Dems for stealing Liam Fox's car. Mud, however, has a tendency to stick, especially when thrown by members of the Rothermere family; the Zinoviev letter of 1924 comes readily to mind. One can't help but feel there might even be ...
As a public sector worker I was extremely disheartened and have to question George Osborne's analysis of the public sector which he dismissed in an arrogant and superficial manner. This is the organisation that will have to implement the policies of any incoming government and George, for all his political ambition, does not appreciate the sector's commitment to duty and society. The 'low morale' that he refers to among 40% of public sector staff is directly as a result of the uncertainty that we are all living under as to whether we will have jobs still in the coming months. ...
The BBC report that the BNP are being threatened by legal action by the makers of Marmite so as to stop them from using a jar of the spread in a party broadcast. They say that it appears that the BNP is trying to tap into Marmite's "love it or hate it" advertising slogan: Unilever said in a statement: "Neither Marmite nor any other Unilever brand are aligned to any political party. "We are currently initiating injunction proceedings against the BNP to remove the Marmite jar from the online broadcast and prevent them from using it in future." In the ...
No, I'm not stalking him. Two posts in two days is not stalking, alright? But this is fine.
As many predicted, the hounds of hell have been unleashed on the Lib Dems by those who are fighting to save their precious 2 party system. The right wing press, acting as proxies for the Conservatives, are fighting a rearguard action to save the system for Cameron and Brown. We will have more of their attacks in days to come. The choice of subject matter is interesting and shows a
It seems an age ago that the opening salvos of the General Election were dominated by arguments, claims and counter-claims over Labour's proposals for increases in national insurance. In response, the Conservatives produced letters supporting their opposition signed by a number of business-people. Not suprisingly, many of them are known to be long-time Conservative party members, supporters and donors; others Labour claim were "deceived" into signing. This issue then got diverted by the triumph of Nick Clegg in the first of the Prime Ministerial TV debates. One thing interests me about these people-I cannot help myself speculating as to how ...
It seems an age ago that the opening salvos of the General Election were dominated by arguments, claims and counter-claims over Labour's proposals for increases in national insurance. In response, the Conservatives produced letters supporting their opposition signed by a number of business-people. Not suprisingly, many of them are known to be long-time Conservative party members, supporters and donors; others Labour claim were "deceived" into signing. This issue then got diverted by the triumph of Nick Clegg in the first of the Prime Ministerial TV debates. One thing interests me about these people-I cannot help myself speculating as to how ...
As you have undoubtedly noticed, the right-wing press is trying desperately to smear Nick Clegg. The worst they've been able to come up with so far is that he took donations to pay for staff and declared those donations properly, and that eight years ago he said we shouldn't be rude about the Germans. Seriously, that's ...
Hmm, this tweet from George Hollingbery is now gone. Well fancy that!
Benedict Brogan has taken to the Telegraph blog to defend today's coverage and comes up with this: The likelihood must be that it is evidence of disorganisation, nothing more, but don't know that yet. Even if you agree with the first part of the sentence, that's a remarkably weak excuse for a huge front page splash of a story. Oh we don't know. And there's most likely nothing wrong. So we'll just splash it all over page one. Ah bless.
It'd be bad enough if Vodafone Customer Services were only continuing to send me emails that give no indication of my previous messages having been actually read. The real mark of genius though is that several of these emails including a link to a mini-survey on what I thought of the email. Each survey includes a mandatory question where you have to pick from a drop down list the name of the Vodafone person who had emailed you. I think you can guess the next bit, can't you? Yes indeed. On not one occasion has the name of the person ...
Jennie has made the quite reasonable point that we shouldn't discourage new activists from working in their own area. So, perhaps I should respond... There is no doubt that many of our activists prefer to work in their own patch. They have, after all, a direct interest in campaigning to make it a better place, to change their community. Any new volunteers will be the same, a bit more idealistic perhaps - I know that I was when I started, and I like to think that I remain so to some extent - so they'll want to change what's around ...
So blatant and poorly founded are the smears against Nick Clegg in this morning's Tory newspapers that there is every chance that they will rebound in our favour. These newspapers can be lumped together with "the old parties" to form a larger What We Are Fighting Against. Given the current anti-politics mood of the electorate, there is every chance that this approach will resound with them. In the mean time, if you want chapter and verse on the smears join the Facebook group Fight the Smears (UK). And if you want some fun generating smears of your own, use the ...
If you haven't seen it yet, the kind-of-famous DailyMail-o-matic headline-creating tool is now featuring our very own Dear Leader in every headline. Click on it, go arrrrn: http://www.qwghlm.co.uk/toys/dailymail/ There are literally minutes of fun to be had. My favourite so far: Is Nick Clegg having sex with the middle class? We demand to know, Cowley Street. We have a RIGHT to know.
Perhaps not the fashionable thing to say these days, but Parliament deserves credit for getting one legal change right: altering the law a while back so that the deadline for joining the electoral register falls during a general election campaign rather than before it. This time that means the deadline for registration fell on Tuesday – after several days of heavy media coverage about the election and after the surge in interest from younger people courtesy of the first TV debate. Imagine all the frustrations if people have been enthused and then found the law meant it was too late ...
Liberal Democrat candidate, James Taylor, has pledged his support for Vote Cruelty Free, a new non-partisan coalition of animal protection organisations working to put animals on the political agenda. James is the second candidate in Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock to pledge to Vote Cruelty Free, following Labour candidate and former MP Sandra Osborne. The alliance has ...
I understand from a phone call from the daughter of an elderly couple, that their local GP practice in town cannot take them as new patients, even though they only live a couple of minutes walk away, because "priority is given to people who live on the other side of town."I'm writing to the PCT about their policy for admittance on to GP lists, the apparent inadequate supply of GP services in our
I like Peter Oborne. He is partially responsible for my decision to get involved in active politics. I read his books "The rise of political lying" and "The triumph of the political class" a while ago and both books helped nudge me a bit further along the road to making the leap from interested of observer to participant. I told him so when I met him the The Convention on Modern Liberty last year. His analysis of the "political class" as he defines it is compelling reading. It is formed of the people who take political power and patronage for ...
Let's be clear: I am trying very hard not to romanticise. I am trying to do what Lib Dems keep exhorting each other to do, which is keep your feet on the ground, and also keep calm and carry on. Which is tricky. (There's a lot of things to keep in there.) I'm definitely trying to ...
... and dispels the case for the Robin Hood Tax in several elegant paragraphs. A financial transactions tax is not focused on core sources of financial instability. An FTT would not target any of the key attributes—institution size, interconnectedness, and substitutability— that give rise to systemic risk. Its real burden may fall largely on final consumers rather ...
When Nick Clegg made the case for scrapping Trident in Thursday's debate, his case was that it was too expensive, and designed for a threat that no longer exists. And the predictable response was to accuse Nick of being soft on defence. But there are more fundamental problems with the type of defence offered by Trident. Trident provides "defence" only in a very limited sense. It's actually just a "deterrent". It can't shoot down incoming missiles or turn back advancing enemy armies. Its point is to dissuade an enemy from attacking us in the first place because, we claim, we ...
What a terrible indictment of the British press we see this morning. The Mail runs a spurious story about Nick Clegg making a supposed Nazi slur against Britain. The Express reckons he wants us to be overrun by immigrants. The Telegraph accuses him, of well, properly declaring donations made to him to employ a member of staff. I haven't seen The Sun yet, but judging by their tirades against him over the last few days, he will probably be accused of fathering Kerry Katona's latest child and then paying her to get rid of it. What a disgrace. And they ...
Many thanks to LVIG for organizing yesterday's hustings meeting, it was very well attended and the questions raised from the floor were excellent, I was very glad to be there representing the Lib Dems and explain what our plans for the future of Lewisham are. I found myself surprisingly ferocious against the Lewisham Labour administration, ...
Well - the roar of rage by the Tory establishment was all over the right wing press this morning - and then some. Clearly seeing their chance of gaining power slipping - they reckon their only hope is that old game of smear, smear and smear again. Have they learned nothing from that first TV debate? When people saw the last debate they found Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats to be a refreshing and different alternative to the old abusive politics of yesterday. And yet - the Tories seem to think that acting like children who have had a ...
My flinty old heart is melted into a big pile of goo right now. The number one global trend on twitter as I type is #NickCleggsFault - a typically British reaction to being told what to think by the dead tree press. Everything from Andrew Hickey's new bald patch to Shappi Khorsandi's inability to impersonate Geordies is, apparently, Nick Clegg's Fault. Because what do we do when some hysterical extremist tells us what to think in this country? We point and laugh, and we take the piss. Oh internets, I love you. Don't ever change.
Ever since the first Leaders' Debate a week ago, the focus in the campaign has been on one party: The Liberal Democrats. This has been reflected in the polls which increasingly show the popular vote as being a two-horse race between them and the Tories (the make-up of the Commons is another matter and a product of our broken electoral system) with some polls showing the Lib Dems out in front. With all that as a backdrop, it was inevitable that the two old parties were going to become concerned, even scared, of the challenge of the Lib Dems and ...
.. that I expect I won't have time to moderate the blog very often. That would mean comments would sit around for quite a while before being published. So as a short term experiment I have taken the moderation off. I will check comments when I can and anything I believe to be defamatory or unfair to a third party (of whatever political persuasion) will be deleted.
Yesterday several people called me about an incident in which a constituent was arrested. They made a lot of serious allegations which, if true, are really shocking. They asked me to look into it. Sadly however, despite at least three of the callers promising to e mail me details (time , place, source etc) nothing has arrived. So, if you are reading this can you please e mail me the details. My e mail address is paula@garstonld.org.uk
I'm going to suggest something that might seem strange, backwards or childish on an intelligent political blog: I'm going to review a video game. Don't worry, it isn't going to be very soon, so I will still be able to devote myself to the Liberal cause 100% in preperation for the coming elections. However, there is this ...
This (posted below) might be of interest. It's come to me from a group organising campaigning against the BNP. Dear Friends, Just a reminder that our final benefit night before the election takes place this Saturday (April 24th), 8.30pm - midnight, Pilgrim pub, Pilgrim St. £3/£6. We've got folk and ceilidh bands, and an open mic session for singers and musicians to get up and entertain. All proceeds go to our campaign against the BNP between now and polling day. We're going to cover as many homes as we can in the areas where they have candidates. Leafleting this weekend ...
If you need something a bit more substantial – either to persuade a person to switch their votes or to help get them engaged – don't forget the excellent "Why vote Liberal Democrat?" book that is available (book review and online purchase links here). Alternatively, if you're involved in organising your local campaign and getting lots of new offers of help, why not get a copy or two to give away in prize draws open to anyone who comes out canvassing for the first time?
Parliament met in Strasbourg this week and has been very quiet indeed. No votes, an agenda which finishes formally on Wednesday evening, and the only MEPs present being those who live within easy car or train distance or those (like me) who were unable to get home at the end of last week. There is a row going on between Parliament and the Council of Ministers, the two 'houses' of the EU's legislature, about the setting up of the new European External Action Service. This is the EU's diplomatic service, agreed by the 27 heads of state and government in ...
This applies just as much to the Dead Tree Press as it does to the other political parties. This morning's headlines show that everybody is now at stage 3. I don't propose to link to any of the horrendous slurs, half-truths and outright lies that the papers have in them this morning; as Cicero says, the Dead Tree press is increasingly irrelevant, and they are only hammering nails into their own coffins. What I will do is this: I will make suggestions of what you can do if you think this level of sustained ad hominem attack on one man ...
Today's handful of newspaper front pages (as seen here) show that the media have had enough of the Clegg love in. What surprises me is why it took so long... The groundwork is clearly being laid for an assault on everything to do with the Lib Dems. The fact that the Telegraph was desperate enough to ...
There seems to be an assumption that the Tory right wing press are "trying to dictate the political agenda" and "supporting their Tory friends through attacks on Clegg". Stuff and nonsense. The first duty of a newspaper is to.....er.....sell newspapers. That's a surprise isn't it? That is their enormous over-riding concern and that dictates what they print – not some sort of political agenda. It really is rubbish to suggest otherwise. I am reminded of the words of Glenn Beck: I could give a flying crap about the political process. We're an entertainment company.
[IMG: Hope] Photomontage: Steve Caplin, for the Guardian Plenty of others have been posting about today's coordinated attacks on Nick Clegg in the build-up to tonight's Prime Ministerial debate. Not least Iain Dale, whose sensible, balanced response to the headlines blazoned across the Tory papers does him immense credit. I am reluctant to say it, but this election is starting to remind me more and more of another one just a couple of years ago. It happened on the other side of the Atlantic and eventually it led to the inauguration of Barack Obama as the President of the United ...
There has been much media discussion about the strange meandering course the Tory campaign has taken over the last week, when its single big theme – 'Change' appears to be in danger of being returned to its rightful Lib Dem home. This is presented as a new thing; a surprising upset for the Tory juggernaut. ...
I've recently taken part in DEMREF 2010, a non-party election web initiative that allows voters to compare the reform policies of their candidates - on fixed-term parliaments, free voting, the electoral system, open primaries, the voting age, recalling MPs and House of Lords reform. There is also space for candidates to put forward our own additional preferred reforms. Following the expenses scandal that has seriously damaged public trust, voters want to know where we all stand on reforming politics. So it's interesting that neither the Conservative nor the Labour candidate for North East Cambridgeshire appears - so far, at least ...
For entirely ego-driven reasons, I feel the world needs to know how this morning's Twitter meme began: chickyog: Morning all. has Nick Robinson exploded yet? nickjbarlow: @chickyog No, but when he does, the Telegraph and Mail will claim it's Nick Clegg's fault. chickyog: @nickjbarlow Ha. I feel a meme coming on. chickyog: Just stubbed my toe #nickcleggsfault Oh, and my ...
Last night after my McAfee anti-virus downloaded some updates, I got a message saying my XP machine was going to reboot in 60 seconds. Being annoyed by this (as I was doing stuff) I didn't really read it and just cursed McAfee for forcing a reboot on me so issued the "shutdown /a" command (to abort the shutdown) then a minute later it happened again and all my desktop theme disappeared (start bar went grey). (If you are looking for a solution please go the end of my ramblings.) I thought I'd better let it reboot if it wanted to ...
As I pointed out yesterday I'm proud as a fan of Douglas Adams to be standing once against for the Scottish seat than when ranked in alphabetical order comes in at number 42. People will also see that the header to this blog still holds the comment that I know the "true meaning of 42" from the time that Labour fought to bring in 42 days detention without charge. As Caron kindly pointed out via twitter, me reacting in such ways cements my geek status. I was of course referring to line in The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy ...
It is quite astonishing to look at the front pages of some of the press this morning. They are really going for Nick Clegg, especially the Telegraph and the Mail, both of which has very flimsy "stories" that really do not stand up to scrutiny and are blatant smear jobs not warranting even page 17 status let alone splashed across the front page. I'm not linking to them, you can find them if you wish. Tom Bradby, Nick Robinson and Jeremy Paxman all suggested last night that the Telegraph story is a smear or something and nothing. It can only ...
In the run-up to the 2005 general election, there was some excitement as a rolling poll commissioned by ITV from Populus showed the Conservatives slipping to a result even worse than 1997. However, there was a sharp (5 point) recovery in the final pre-election day poll from Populus, which was a normal non-rolling poll. Picking over the polling after the election, the explanation looked to be one aberrant sample on one day but which, due to the workings of a rolling poll, 'infected' the poll results over a longer period of time. It was only with the final pre-election poll, ...
In Milton Keynes, over two constituencies, there were 1500 late registrations for the vote. Almost all came in the last few days, after the First Leaders Debate. The word is most of these are young first-time voters. I wonder what might have prompted this surge? How are other parts of the country doing in terms of late registrations? Milton Keynes does have a high proportion of young residents so it might not translate out pro rate UK wide... if it did it implies over 400,000 more voters on the rolls than this time last week.
(Repost due to do technical issues – apologies to my regular readers!) On Thursday's second Leaders Debate, Cameron will no doubt make much of the fact that the LibDems are proposing to allow anyone who has been in the UK for ten years or more to stay, regardless of their immigration status. This ...
Ugh - the battlebus cold has struck. Luckily I've got a relatively quiet day ahead with just a single photo op ahead of the debate this evening. A combination of the cold and lack of connectivity meant I couldn't update my diary yesterday, so apologies for the delay and for the brevity of this post... First up was a press conference on the subject of schools with David Laws. Traditionally, all three parties held press conferences every weekday morning. With the advent of the debates, the Lib Dems decided that pressers on Thursday and Friday mornings would be pretty much ...
The backlash against Nick Clegg has begun today with Tory papers printing stories attempting to smear Nick Clegg and an intriguing story on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning about James 'Sky & the Sun' Murdoch and Rebekah 'Sky' Wade turning up at the offices of the Independent to have a 'discussion' with the editor in chief, Simon Kelner. The inference drawn by that programme was that News International might be unhappy at having nailed its colours to the losing team at this election. There is now no question that there is now blind panic among Conservative campaigners and ...
Just a quick post to let you know I am on BBC Radio WM (95.6FM) today at 3pm on their MP3 slot - which is effectively Desert Island Discs.
When Tony Blair was Prime Minister and Alastair Campbell his media advisor, British politics became familiar with US-style 'spin': presenting a story in such a way that made it favourable to the government. The climate of New Labour spin led to government advisor Jo Moore's notorious email after the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington declaring that 'this ...
Thu 22nd
09:20Too busy to read all the 'Get Clegg' smears in the rightwing press? Here they all are in one handy d...
Look, we have two choices today as Liberal Democrats. We can either get frustrated and depressed at the rightwing media's decision to fling every possible smear at Nick Clegg and the party – or we can regard it as a massive compliment that, perhaps for the first time ever, the Lib Dems have got the vested interests of the Tory newspapers genuinely frightened that their cosy world is about to be disrupted. We looked at the Torygraph's desperate smears in a post last night. But even that weak story looks credible when placed beside the Mail's attempt to link the ...
Nick Clegg couldn't have anticipated the effect his 90 minutes TV exposure would have on the general election, and on our wider politics. When sage commentators said the 'honeymoon would be short', they weren't kidding. All hell has been unleashed against the Liberal Democrats, and Nick is accused of just about everything in the Tory media, including a 'Nazi slur against Britain'- which Peter Black blogs about. The Sun's veteran Trevor Kavavangh, on R4's Today this morning accused the Liberal Democrats of using 'smear tactics', and that we were now getting a dose of our own medicine. This from The ...
My LibDem colleagues standing for Stroud Green ward - Cllr Ed Butcher, Cllr Richard Wilson and Katherine Reece who is the candidate replacing Cllr Laura Edge - were interviewed by stroudgreen.org. The discussion in the video ranges over their reasons for standings, their priorities for Haringey, their favourite things about Stroud Green, final thoughts and how to get in touch. Congratulations to stroudgreen.org for this - bringing politics to the people!
The anticipated establishment backlash against the Liberal Democrats has been visited on us with a vengeance today with a series of smears against Nick Clegg that defy belief. By far the most exceptional of these is the Daily Mail's, who claim that the Liberal Democrat leader has made a 'Nazi' slur on Britain. The Daily Mail of course should be the last paper to make such claims as Wikipedia makes clear: On 10 July 1933, Rothermere wrote an editorial titled "Youth Triumphant" in support of Adolf Hitler, this was subsequently used as propaganda by the Nazis.[22] In early 1934, Rothermere ...
Well done Chris Huhne – all that really matters are the policies.
Why, you wonder, am I linking to a blatant Torygraph smear of Nick Clegg? This is the story that accounts how he received donations to cover part of salary costs in his office and registered them absolutely properly with all the relevant authorities at the time. When you read the headlines "Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Donors and the payments into his private bank account", you are led to think that this is something murky, even if you don't read the article. It could plant an entirely false suggestion in your head about what the story was about. I suspect ...
It was the last wish of the Icelandic economy that its ashes be scattered across Europe. No flowers by request.
When this election campaign started, Norwich South was considered to be a challenging contest. With a popular enough, rather rebellious MP in Charles Clarke, an ambitious Green campaign (their second target seat nationally) and a significant, if not decisive, residual Conservative vote, this falls into the category of potential four-way marginal, with the big question, can anyone gain credence as the best placed candidate to defeat Labour? Simon Wright, our candidate, has been working incredibly hard for some time now, having been selected early in the election cycle, and has been the focus of a serious campaign effort. However, the ...
Lest we forget.
So Ken Clarke with his Law degree thinks that leaving the economy in the hands of Doctor Vince Cable (that PhD is in economics) and former lecturer at Glasgow University and the London School of Economics will lead to the IMF having to bail out the UK. At least that seemed to be implied as the Tories continued to say that only by giving them the keys to Downing Street as a block set will that be avoided. I'm sure Clarke doesn't think that Alistair Darling a fellow lawyer is better qualified that the former Shell Chief Economist. So that ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] [IMG: Mushy] Lib Dem plans to Scrap trident have now been backed by senior military figures. Field Marshall Lord Bramall agrees with the Lib Dems that there are better, cheaper alternatives. During the lifetime of a replacement to Trident it would cost £80 bn! It has been described as "one of the most expensive weapons programmes this country has seen." Lib Dems think its not right to spend £billions to replacing a cold war relic which has little relevance today defending us against modern threats. I'd go further and say we shouldn't replace them at all - and ...
Until the 1970s the British regarded the referendum as an alien concept used by authoritarian foreigners to gain a spurious legitimacy. In this land of enlightened parliamentary democracy referendums had, I believe,been used only twice, each time at local level, for English local authorities to decide whether or not the cinemas should be allowed to open on Sundays, and ditto for the pubs in Wales. Then along came Tony Benn and his agitation on Europe and the British decided by 2 to 1 that we should remain a member of the EU. Today all three parties are either promising or ...
A late (or early) post for yesterdays election diary due to the fact that I didn't make it through the door until midnight and I really couldn't summon the energy to get my thoughts down. I was struck by the following comment on Greg Stone's twitter feed. this General Election is now a Manichean struggle between the Lib Dems and the right wing press I think this neatly sums up how many Lib Dem activists will be feeling this morning. As predicted, the right wing press is throwing all sorts of smears slurs and half truths at Nick Clegg in ...
I do not think I have ever seen such a concerted attack by the press against one man in a single day. The range of headlines from the Daily Mail "Clegg in Nazi slur on Britain", The Sun "Wobble Democrat", The Daily Telegraph "Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem donors and the payments into his private account", The Daily Express "Clegg's crazy immigration policy", the FT, "Clarke unleashed to attack Liberal Democrats", Metro "Lib Dems plan new house tax". The problem for the press is that the attack is so random, it looks rather like a drunk in a pub car ...
Yet again, the astonishing arrogance of our Conservative friends astounds me, as first David Cameron, and then Ken Clarke, try to terrify the British people into voting for Nurse. First, Dave. Dave would like voters to believe that Britain needs a strong government. No, what Britain needs is good government - and he isn't offering that, just more of the same, the only big difference being that the guys in the ministerial limousines will be wearing blue ties and not red ones. Of course, if one party dominance is required, people could always opt to vote Liberal Democrat and, if ...
...and your government has been long accused of demolishing our civil rights, you might not want to choose someone whose last best film project was as the "big brother" character in a dystopian totalitarian future: Advertisement: --> read more [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
... Especially one of a political bent. First comes the news that Paddy Ashdown has better taste in Doctors than Our Glorious Leader. On the one hand, this is hardly unexpected in that Paddy is awesome on two legs, and Clegg is 1, younger and 2, more populist, but I still feel a tiny twinge of disappointment. You're a Liberal, Cleggy! You don't have to pick the one every bugger else does! (FWIW, of the four on offer I'd pick Pertwee, but only if they wouldn't let me say Colin Baker) Second, and more importantly, comes the terrible gnawing away ...
I've often wondered how other parties, and their supporters in the twin super-structures, would react should we be up there in the running. Look no further to the smears and hyperbole of tomorrow's papers. It's going to be hugely tough to go through the next fortnight but we must do it by: 1. Supporting each other 2. Sticking ...
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It is slightly amazing to realise that Ros and I are two today. Yes, it's our wedding anniversary and, as I understand it, the appropriate gift is paper. Luckily, there's a lot of paper around at the moment, so I might give my wife a Focus leaflet to mark the occasion...
I was listening to Radio 4's World at One on Tuesday and I heard Lord Pearson speaking on the leaders's election call section of the programme. As the leader of UKIP he took questions from listeners and one person phoned in from Tours. The caller asked if the plans to leave the EU had taken into consideration the effect on the couple of million British citizens in Europe. He asked about the reciprocal health agreements with the EU as well as the right to live and work in Europe. These rights could easily be removed if Britain left the EU. ...
