I visited The Porter Butt this evening and met with Dave from the Black Cat - who are the organisation currently squatting. Talking to them they didn't know of the future plans for the building so I updated them and said that their squatting may delay things further. They said that they don't really want to delay things but would like to somehow stay until Richers are ready to start works. I have passed their contact details onto Richers and I hope that things can be resolved without long and costly court battles etc. They do run a blog if ...
Well it was another busy day at Team Bradbury! I was up at 8am to go to Durham market to be involved in a debate on Radio Newcastle. You can probably still catch it on the BBC iplayer. I was debating against the Labour candidate for Newcastle North (again!) and the Conservative hopeful for Durham North. I think it went OK. Then it was out to Chopwell and Rowlands Gill to deliver leaflets, then back to Blaydon to knock on some doors.
Been somewhat out of the national election loop today, as I've been concentrating on working here on the campaign here in Colchester. Been glancing at Twitter on and off during the day, which has provided an interesting way of skimming the election news through an odd filter. This has included the rather odd news that ...
Earlier this week I attended a business hustings organised by the Thames Valley Federation of Small Business. Karen and Nicky from the FSB who both live locally put a lot of effort into planning and organising the event and it showed. I found the meeting very interesting and useful both to gauge local opinion and what matters most to local business people and also to listen to the other candidates responses on some key issues. I was looking forward to meeting the UKIP candidate but sadly he didn't attend. A wide range of issues were raised on the night by ...
An excellent piece by Richard Wilson highlights the Tories hypocrisy over press freedom. When they were accused yesterday of organising the right wing press to make a co-ordinated attack on Nick Clegg, they claimed that the press should be free to report what they want without political interference. Yet as Richard points out, the Tories made legal threats against the BBC to stop them showing a programme about Tory donor and "non-dom" Lord Ashcroft. It appears, as ever, that the Tories like to talk about press freedom but don't actually believe in it.
On Liberal Democrat Voice, Mark Pack examines the fine detail of opinion polls taken following yesterday's second leaders' debate: "Clegg's performance continues to attract people to the party which Cameron's performance did no more than tread water for the party overall." During that debate, Andrew Sullivan wrote a live blog for The Atlantic. He concludes: Clegg grasps the change mantle, the Obama message, in a restive and anti-political country. In that sense, I think he won this. And I would not be surprised to see his party emerge - historically - as the leader in this race.Don't Get Fooled Again ...
Having just seen the English Democrats PEB on TV, I have to say I am slightly bemused. Some bloke presented the whole advert, looking neither excited or energised about what he was saying whilst the bullet points he was talking about were not even put on screen means you were left wondering the whole time who this rather boring bloke was. Also, the broadcast appeared to have been filmed on a cheap camcorder meaning that the colours looked slightly washed out. Also, I was confused about their line about not being "left or right", when they stood sown in North ...
The Conservative BlueGreen push of David Cameron is nothing but a sham. Anyone involved in politics knows this - now Friends of the Earth have exposed this truth. Election 2010: Conservative candidates slammed over climate commitment 23rd April 2010
Having just finished watching Paxman's little chat with David Cameron, I thought I'd put out some observations. First of all, Cameron would not have been doing the Paxman interview were it not for the fact that the election is so close, courtesy of the momentum gained by the Liberal Democrats. After all, Clegg did his ...
David Cameron's true colours shined through during his interview with Jeremy Paxman tonight. He made it pretty clear that he believed the 1980s inequality was justifiable and tolerable in order to achieve a 'sustainable' economy and growth. However, he then tried to claim that if he became Prime Minister now it would be somehow different ...
It's official: the UK economy has enjoyed a second quarter of growth, as the BBC reports: The UK economy continued to recover from recession in the first three months of the year, according to official estimates. GDP grew by 0.2% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Here's what Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable had to say – in text: These figures show that the promised recovery is barely visible. There is a real danger of the UK going into a double dip recession. As people deal with their own debts and as the banks ...
The Liberal Democrat campaign in Dundee West is galloping ahead, following another excellent performance by Nick Clegg at the second Prime Ministerial Debate last night. John is pictured above with me and some other members of the team at the Kingsway West retail park today. John said, "Nick Clegg gave another excellent performance again last night and the Liberal Democrats are continuing to soar in the polls. The response on the doorsteps across Dundee West has been superb."
Best not shout it too loud or Jeff and James will get uset. I've seen the future of the bar chart and I've got goosebumps.
We went to see The Real Thing last night at the Old Vic (me excitedly refreshing the liveblogging of the debate through the interval). I thought it brilliant, very raw, funny of course, thought provoking. What tends to wind me up about the Stoppards I've seen – and writers like Iris Murdoch – is that ...
Our website now has a link to the Liberal Democrat manifesto. It's very readable and will lead readers to the section to answer your queries as to our policies and intentions. Please continue to email me about local issues and I'll try to respond as soon as possible.
There is no solution to the current problem of care and maintentance unless it is recognised that an ancient and beautiful Church fulfils its primary function merely by existing. It is, in itself, an act of worship. Such a church, whatever its surroundings, is a perpetual reminder of spiritual values. In Shakespeare's phrase it is "a sermon in stone" and its message is delivered, not just for an hour on Sunday, but for every hour of every day in the year - not merely for those who enter, but to all who pass by. This passage is quoted on the ...
Another day, another Nick Clegg triumph - and the LibDem surge in the polls is maintained, despite desperate Tory smears. I heard Malcolm Rifkind from the Conservatives on Radio 4 yesterday maintain that the Conservative Party would not have influenced the Tory-supporting newspapers to run Nick Clegg & LibDem smear stories. The truth is now out with the following information last night on the blog of Nick Robinson, the respected BBC journalist. It also shows up the smear story in the Daily Telegraph about Nick Clegg's bank account for the total rubbish it is : I now learn that political ...
A few years ago I used to exchange occasional emails with the East Midlands' bright new Liberal Democrat MEP Nick Clegg. In one of them he mentioned that he had been offered a regular column by the Guardian website and asked if I thought he should accept. (These were the days when I wrote regularly for the paper's website myself.) Unfortunately, I cannot find my reply, but I recall sucking on my pipe and typing something like this: Hi Nick I know writing regularly for the Guardian website seems a good idea, but I would advise against it. You see, ...
YouGov have come in for a fair amount of flack online following last night's instant debate poll for The Sun. Some of the criticism has been wrong or misplaced. Yes, one of their senior figures has Labour roots. But then one has Conservative roots and other staff support the Liberal Democrats. They've even done polling for the Lib Dems in the past. But – and it's an important but – that was not the whole story. In amongst all the chaff were claims that YouGov's polling started before the debate had actually finished and that it was collecting people's verdicts ...
The day Nick offered me an ice cream and I turned it down... Another debate over and another debate won for Nick Clegg - in my opinion and that of three of the five polls anyway. And, for the first time in a week, we had the plane back again. So it was an early start to catch a flight to Newcastle and a rapturous welcome by local supporters before a visit to the Newcastle College of Aviation. The college trains students in all aspects of the aviation industry and, at least from my point of view, was a great ...
Today, like all fellow Lutonians, I have been proud to celebrate St. George's day. Our country is rightly proud of its culture, values and traditions and if elected as our MP I will be honoured to represent our country and serve my fellow residents. While the current election is dominating events for the time being, let us take time to reflect on the tremendous pride we all feel for our home and our country. Let us also remember to think about those serving our country and fellow residents, whether they be in the armed forces, the nurses in our hospitals ...
It just gets crazier and crazier! In a good way. Email inbox bulging with offers of help, phone incessantly ringing with same and enquiries from every sort of journalist – local school magazines to national TV stations. And then there's thousands of leaflets to deliver and doors to knock on. Been out on the streets ...
Off to BBC to record post-debate #GE2010 discussion for R4 World Tonight, 2215ish. # http://twitpic.com/1g2gvq – Somehow I was expecting the BBC bathroom to be a mite more glam # Trying to guess Spectator line on YouGov poll showing LDs at 30%: 'Danger for Clegg as Lib Dems peak too soon' 'Only way is down for Clegg'? # Interesting via @JTownend >> ComRes stats: Who's to blame for misreported Lib Dem leap frog poll? http://bit.ly/ccqzcF # Telegraph: Hung Parliament: markets say 'so what?' http://bit.ly/9cECMj << do they really dread it? No, seems to be the answer. # Why Turnout Matters ...
In fact, Clegg dealt with Boulton's reference to the Telegraph so well, I think Clegg was done a favour by Sky.
Total hypocrisy from the Tories exposed by Richard Wilson.
I am going to be doing the newspaper review on Radio 5 Live this evening at midnight tonight on Stephen Nolan's show. Then tomorrow morning between 11 and 12 I will be a guest on Ken Livingstone's LBC show along with former Tory cabinet minister David Mellor. Very much looking forward to both!
So I've given my opinion on the debate, but what did the polls say? Bear in mind here that I'm only including polls that were properly sampled and weighted. They are the most reliable, and they best reflect the public view of the outcome. There were 5 polls conducted in the aftermath of the debate asking which leader people thought 'won' the debate, and here is what they showed: YouGov: Cameron 36%, Clegg 32%, Brown 29% ComRes: Clegg 33%, Cameron 30%, Brown 30% Populus: Cameron 37%, Clegg 36%, Brown 27% ICM: Clegg 33%, Cameron, 29%, Brown, 29% Angus Reid: Clegg ...
"Will you be voting at this election"? "I don't normally vote, but I will be this time" The expectation was that this election would have a low turnout as a result of disillusionment after the expenses scandal. The reality seems to be that the voting public are engaged in a way that they haven't been for a number of years. What will this do to the result? No-one knows, and it's just one more factor to allow for in this incredibly fascinating election.
Lots of emails coming in at the moment. Some from lobbying groups, some from national organisations and some personal emails from people living in Penrith and The Border. It's these latter ones that take priority, but they all need an answer. It really could be a full time job just dealing with these and I'm looking for ways of making it possible to streamline things at this end. I've decided to beef up our website with a few extra features in order to answer some of the many questions coming in. I'm doing that this evening, so come back to ...
My column from today's Liberal Democrat News. Had spaced permitted, I should have made a couple more points. The first is that the centrality of televised debates to American Presidential debates is a more recent phenomenon than many imagine. The famous Kennedy/Nixon debate 1960 was the first, and the next one did not take place until 1976. My second point would have been that an emphasis on getting voters to register at all will in many ways represent a return to 19th century British politics. Then, when the franchise was still limited, more than half the battle was getting your ...
During the election campaign, the Guardian's Comment Is Free website is publishing posts by a number of about their polling booth intentions. Today, one of their authors, Rebecca Jenkins, declares her hand for Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems. Here's an excerpt in which she explains why: I never thought I would say this, but the Tory press has made up my mind for me. It was the array of front pages attacking Nick Clegg on Thursday that did it: the "Nazi" headline, the silly schoolboy word games, and even the Daily Telegraph's marginally more dignified attempt to make a ...
I finally have some time today to write a blogpost, it's been a truly intensive and eventful day, a non-stop that started bright and early with leafleting to commuters outside Hither Green Station, followed by work, followed by a gruelling session of hand-delivering of letters to postal voters up and down the ward. This afternoon, ...
I have just cancelled my Sky subscription after watching the debate on Sky News. This is because I was horrified to see Adam Boulton point out the Telesgraphs Nick Clegg donation story during the debate. This is surely in breach of the rules of the debate as Adam Bolton should be impartial and its for the party leaders to bring this subject up during the debate. I also complain to ofcom about this which can be done here. These attempts at smears on the Liberal Democrats or indeed smears on any political party are totally discussing. How is that type ...
Here's my pick of today's best and most insightful post-debate analysis ... Live-Blogging The Second Brit Debate: A Clegg Triumph (Andrew Sullivan) A fascinating outsider's perspective from a US-resident English writer who identifies as a political conservative – and has no doubts that Clegg was the victor of last night's second debate: Clegg seems able to grasp hot-button issues and present himself as a fresh approach. ... A quote for the night: "You can't deport 900,000 people when you don't know where they live." yes, Clegg again, and he pushes Cameron for a specific number for a cap on immigrants. ...
I got home today to find amongst the mail a letter which says: "As someone who has had cause to visit me at one of my regular constituent consultations or contact me by telephone within the past five years, I hope you will agree that I have done my very best to resolve the complaints or problems that you have contacted me with. "I have not always been successful but I hope you will accept that I never give up until all avenues have been pursued on your behalf." Well actually I wouldn't agree and as I get around the ...
Happy St George's Day to everyone in Chorlton! Manchester Lib Dem Group Leader Cllr Simon Ashley has today called for St George's Day to be made into a Bank Holiday. Cllr Ashley said today, "Scotland and Northern Ireland have more Bank Holidays than England and Wales, and have a Bank Holiday for their patron saints. Why can't England do the same? Only by celebrating our diversity and collective achievements can we reclaim nationalism from those on the far-right who seek to subvert it." Cllr Ashley added, "St. George's Day is a brilliant opportunity for our country to come together and ...
[IMG: Reclaim the Night Banner] I'm not going to be able to get along to this myself, but I'd like to let you know about a Reclaim the Night march this evening, leaving from Manchester University Student's Union at 8pm (though you can turn up from 6:30pm for free food and placard-making). All genders are welcome. Reclaim the Night is an empowerment campaign and protest against violence towards women. Marches have been going for over 30 years, around the world, each organised locally as a grassroots statement. Unfortunately, violence against women, both public and domestic, is still a major concern ...
Updates to my blog have been a bit thin on the ground lately, but the campaigning has not stopped! In between bunches of 11 hour shifts at work (including a night shift that screwed my body clock up for days after), leafletting/canvassing and attending the various hustings/debates with General Election candidates there has been little time for blogging. Last night I set the Sky+ to record the Leader's Debates and headed off to Irlam to lend my support to Richard Gadsden, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Worsley & Eccles South. Since most of our efforts are going into the ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week 1. Poll surge continues: is this 2003 or 1974? (43) by Mark Pack 2. Dear Labour Party, You're messing with my head (11) by Stephen Tall 3. The Second Leaders' Debate: live-blog and live-chat (21) by Stephen Tall 4. Daily Mail: big boost for Lib Dems in poll - but editorial line even more striking (29) by Mark Pack 5. Torygraph smears Clegg: is this the best the rightwing press can do? (45)by Stephen Tall 5 active ...
[IMG: The Flag of St. George] Today is the day of St. George, patron saint of England. We live in a diverse and inclusive society, and it's only appropriate to celebrate all the elements that make up our society, including the English traditions. These days, definitions of Englishness might well include a chicken tikka masala as well as a pint of real ale (indeed, I'm a fan of both!), but it's entirely appropriate that we take time to celebrate England and Englishness, however we choose to do so. This Sunday, there's a St. George's Day Parade in Manchester, starting at ...
It's a scandal that we still live in a country in which opportunities are regularly closed to people with disabilities - at school, at work, and across our public services. All politicians talk about fairness, but there is no fairness for Britain without fairness for people with disabilities. So the Liberal Democrats will build a truly fair society, ...
Overall the pattern of the debate polls is one of a close result: 3 polls make Clegg the winner, 2 make Cameron the winner. The political impact is more contentious: edging it in the majority of polls would, in any other circumstances be a triumph for Clegg – but was it enough given what happened one week before? Similarly, failing to clearly win the debate in other circumstances would be a disaster for Cameron (remember all those polls and betting odds in advance of the debates saying Cameron would win?). But after last week, perhaps this was good enough? Well, ...
Fri 23rd
16:03
Great reception in the High Street, with Lib Dem leader from House of Lords Tom Mcnally.
Great reception in the High Street, with Lib Dem leader from House of Lords Tom Mcnally.
I'd like to rebut the strange claims made about the Lib Dems on this Facebook group. The original text is black; My comments are green. Tricky Nicky and his U-turns, flip flops and budget black holes is hardly something we can afford. Before now Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats have said whatever you want to hear, and been able to get away with too little scrutiny. We want scrutinising! We want people talking about us and our policies. We've been systematically ignored for too long. In 2010, nothing's changed. Huh? Did you see the newspapers on Thursday? They were ...
All, Planners for Stratford District Council have recommended that the development of a new Waitrose off Shipston Road in Stratford should be allowed to go ahead. In their recomendations, the planners say (and I'm sorry, the full document is very long!): In relation to Shipston-on-Stour the situation is more uncertain because the application site has a closer relationship to it and Shipston has a much weaker foodstore offer. The two existing small supermarkets and various specialist food outlets have a well-established role and should not be unduly affected by the foodstore proposed in the application. There has however been considerable ...
For an issue that ranks second only to the economy in importance for voters, the campaign debate on the NHS has been oddly disconnected from the chilly reality that awaits it beyond May 7th: a significant reduction in the generosity of funding compared to the past ten years, regardless of which party comes into power. Most parties have been making offers in their manifestos with resource implications: more single rooms, shorter waiting times for cancer tests, more choice of GP. But on the whole there has not been much discussion of the need to save, beyond the ubiquitous offers to ...
An average of five polls conducted immediately after the Sky TV Leaders Election debate on Thursday night put Nick Clegg as the winner, with all instant polls showing him ahead of Gordon Brown. After the Foreign Affairs-led debate from Bristol dominated by issues like Iraq, immigration and climate change, Nick Clegg won 3 of the 5 polls on the night, building on his position after the first debate.
An average of five polls conducted immediately after the Sky TV Leaders Election debate on Thursday night put Nick Clegg as the winner, with all instant polls showing him ahead of Gordon Brown. After the Foreign Affairs-led debate from Bristol dominated by issues like Iraq, immigration and climate change, Nick Clegg won 3 of the 5 polls on the night, building on his position after the first debate.
An average of five polls conducted immediately after the Sky TV Leaders Election debate on Thursday night put Nick Clegg as the winner, with all instant polls showing him ahead of Gordon Brown. After the Foreign Affairs-led debate from Bristol dominated by issues like Iraq, immigration and climate change, Nick Clegg won 3 of the 5 polls on the night, building on his position after the first debate.
An average of five polls conducted immediately after the Sky TV Leaders Election debate on Thursday night put Nick Clegg as the winner, with all instant polls showing him ahead of Gordon Brown. After the Foreign Affairs-led debate from Bristol dominated by issues like Iraq, immigration and climate change, Nick Clegg won 3 of the 5 polls on the night, building on his position after the first debate.
Wishing you all a great St. George' Day. The campaign seems to be going very well with a great response from everyone we talk to. Thanks for all your support! John
A burst of political blog reading, that's what. Hitwise have just released a report titled "UK Online Media Round-up: April 2010 general election special" which, alongside the solid but unsurprising findings (lots of people searched online for Nick Clegg after the first TV debate, Guido Fawkes gets more readers than other political blogs etc.) has a few that shed new light on the role of the internet in politics: [Mosaic] Group O* - Liberal Opinions (broadly speaking, younger people with liberal socialattitudes living in cities) are over-represented on each of the major parties sites, indicating a high level ofcuriosity with ...
Listen to Edinburgh City Council Leader Jenny Dawe explain to Guardian listeners how we are delivering "A Bright New Future" for the people of
After the outbreak of Cleggmania last week, the second of the series of leaders' debates at the Arnolfini in Bristol was always going to prove a bit like the dustcart after the Lord Mayor's Show for LibDem supporters, and it was obvious that both Cameron and Brown would up their game from last week. What was of paramount importance, though, was that Clegg dropped no obvious clangers, and that proved to be the case, though I thought his answer regarding the very strange question about the forthcoming papal visit was rather equivocal; Brown's was better. Yet, Clegg got stronger as ...
Now the manifestos are out, the guys behind the Who Should You Vote For test have updated the question set to try to make it more accurate. Here's mine: Take the Who Should You Vote For? England quiz Liberal Democrat 102 Green 88 Labour -18 UK Independence -26 Conservative -32 You expected: LIBYour recommendation: Liberal Democrat Click here for more details about these results Now, it's better than it was, and has given me a stronger distinction between LD and Green, which is good. But, I don't think that distinction is strong enough, and there's very little to nothing in ...
Well I didn't actually get to watch it live last night because I was at an awards ceremony with my company. Instead I watched some this morning and then finished off watching it over lunch just now. So this time I had read other people's blogs, tweets and comments about it all before I actually watched it for myself. It was a bit less exciting for me than last week's because I knew there were no major gaffes coming up. Anyway, I agree with what quite a lot of people have said in that the standard of both Cameron and ...
[IMG: Eggbuckland Vale community woodland & its new clean sign (April 2010)] Eggbuckland Vale community woodland now has a clean, graffiti-free sign and the metal poles that were sticking out of the ground have been removed all thanks to Liberal Democrats challenging the council to sort it out. The vast majority of the rubbish that was there has been collected too. The Lib Dem candidate in Eggbuckland in the upcoming city council elections, Emma Pedlar, and I issued THIS challenge to the Conservative-run council: clean up the wood or Lib Dems will don our own gloves and do the ...
The freezing conditions this winter produced potholes everywhere around the country, including round here. The roads that suffered most were the ones that were already taking the strain of buses. So the Council is steadily resurfacing the most severely damaged roads and filling in potholes around the Borough. Next in line are Stormont Way and the remaining stretch of Woodgate Avenue. They will both be done between Tuesday and Thursday next week, during the daytime.
On Wednesday's Today programme, BNP leader Nick Griffin told the Radio Four audience that "Liberal economics... have utterly bankrupted this country." It's laughable. The truth is that Nick Griffin was himself declared bankrupt in 1991. Over several years thereafter, he destroyed his parents financially as well. In this link, Griffin's parents tell the story of how their son ruined their lives. It is the story of a man whose gross personal financial incompetence brought significant misery to his entire family. Griffin racked up debts of several hundred thousand pounds through a series of disastrous property investments, which he describes as ...
So the dust has settled on the second leaders debate, so now is a sensible time to try and wade through the spin and offer my own opinion on who came out best from last night's performance. First thing to say is that I didn't enjoy the debate as much as last week. The foreign affairs section was interesting, but the open questions just dragged us over alot of the ground that was covered last week and that was a little bit tedious. I thought that Adam Boulton was a better host than Stewart (except for when he forgot he ...
Four of the parliamentary candidates for North East Cambridgeshire were at BBC Radio Cambridgeshire this morning for an hour's live debate on everything from crime and disorder to out of town supermarkets to migrant workers. You can listen here for an hour - start at about 1hr:03min into the programme. The link should only work for about seven days, I believe.
Phil Stephens video (FT): Gordon Brown becoming irrelevant, which is extraordinary; Clegg keeping post 1st debate position, also extraordinary Robert Shrimsley (FT Blog): One of the most LibDem positive things I've ever read: David Cameron is not in trouble because he lost the first debate. He lost the first debate because he was already in ...
I believe that in a fair society, everyone should have the right to a decent home. This is not the reality of Hammersmith today. Instead, the Conservative-led council has been using every power at its disposal to prevent the further building of affordable homes and to rid the borough of much needed existing social housing stock, condemning thousands to lengthy waiting lists and sub-standard rented accommodation.
As far as I've been able to find our, Cllr Robin Smith (Conservative) is the same as Robin Smith, Independent Parliamentary candidate in Wokingham, where the Conservative candidate is one John Redwood. Curious.
The Islington Lib Dems got together last night to watch the second leaders debate. Nick was on great form, and his closing statement summed up the mood: "People are beginning to hope we can do something different this time. Don't let anyone tell you this time it can't be different: it can." There's a few ...
This is classic New Labour spin. And classic Gordon Brown clunking fist (in which he issues himself a knock out blow). Brown's comment last night about Clegg and Cameron comparing them to his sons squabbling at bath time was clearly well rehearsed (and poorly presented as Nick pointed out immediately). It was also a poor copy of Nick's comment in the previous debate about the two old parties.Alas
I love the 23rd of April, St George's Day, Shakespeare's Birthday, and World Book Day (to commemorate Cervantes'passing away). A veritable triple whammy. I know there's the whole Julian/Gregorian calendar thing going on, but I'll let it pass. Anyway hope you can make it to the candidates' debate in Keighley tonight organised by the Churches Together. It promises to be fun.
The Times is reporting that four former senior military commanders ask if our nuclear deterrent is value for money and support the Liberal Democrat position. The article follows:
After Last week's debate slam dunk Nick Clegg's job tonight was simply not to blow it. Expectation was sky high. In the face of the smear campaign by the Tory press which kicked in this morning a lesser person would have buckled under the pressure. Nick won 4 out of 5 polls of viewers. Clegg was attacked over Europe, Immigration and Trident. I am proud that he stuck to his guns and didn't take the populist line. It was great to hear the EC properly championed. It is clearly in our national interests to be at the heart of Europe. ...
Since Clegg has been held responsible for every known evil our Tories appear to have followed the lead of the Daily Mail-never mind the truth go for the smear. I wake this morning to discover I am responsible for the digging of a hole in Upper Aughton Rd by United Utilities (UU)! I have no power to direct UU to dig holes. A minor matter in comparison to the rubbish that the right wing Tory supporting media has flung at Clegg (after the editors were called in and briefed by the Tory high command) but a straw in the wind. ...
Another solid performance from Nick Clegg last night in the Sky Debate on Foreign Affairs has consolidated the week for us Liberal Democrats. Locally, the pace has been frenetic. Monday evening we had a fantastic turnout – there must have been at least four hundred people – at the Hastings & Rye Church Together Q&A ...
I missed this yesterday in the Guardian-an editorial about a comic political novel written by a former Liberal Party President written on the eve of the 1929 General Election. That was an election when the Liberals fighting under Lloyd George and his Yellow Book manifesto won the debate and lost the election. The President was Ramsey Muir an academic based in the NW at Liverpool and Mnchester universities. His 'hero' Robinson was a the Clegg of his times. As the Guardian editorial writes: Published in 1929, it describes an election ending in a hung parliament in which neither Labour nor ...
The Geek the Vote campaign has started spreading the message that the Liberal Democrats have the strongest case for building a geek-friendly Britain. I registered the domain name and started work on the site on Monday lunchtime. By Wednesday evening we had 408 Facebook fans, 272 supportive tweets using our campaign hashtag #geekthevote and a mention in the London Evening Standard. Geeks are an emerging force in the political game. I personally became more interested in politics through following a number of single-issue campaigns online: Ben Goldacre's tireless assault on irrationalism in public health (among other issues); a Number10.gov.uk petition ...
Last night Bristol hosted the second televised Leaders' Debate of the 2010 General Election. The event was staged by Rupert Murdoch's Sky News but, unlike ITV, NewsCorp did allow the live footage to be streamed to the BBC News Channel. However, interest seems to have dipped as early indications suggest that combined viewing figures were ...
I am in my second year of university, almost there, just on my last essay of the term, so my awareness of life is a bit hazzy to say the least. The three main rules of uni life are: don't do any work, or atleast don't admit it; never tidy your room, well ive only ...
PR Week has a story today, including this comment from me: Lib Dem-supporting Mandate Communications head of digital Mark Pack said: 'The debate and the post-debate polls have confirmed how the first TV debate has overturned the usual two-party political and media dynamics of UK election campaigns. For Nick Clegg and his party that's a dramatic achievement.' You can read the full piece here.
I have mentioned before that John Pugh MP (at the time) rated Robin Cook's resignation speach as the best parliamentary performance he has witnessed. I noticed it at the foot of a posting on Tom King's blog and thought it worth reproducing
There is a strange bit of spin being put out by the Tories that a hung parliament with a large number of Lib Dem MPs returned would mean Gordon Brown remaining as Prime Minister. Well, they would say that, wouldn't they? This assumes that somehow the Liberal Democrats who clenched their teeth throughout 13 years of Labour violation of civil liberties, corruption, and senseless war, are suddenly going to fly to Brown's rescue. That's playing fast and loose with the facts. For a good precedent, look no further than the last hung parliament in 1974, when Ted Heath's Tories won ...
The EU, and its parliament, continue working as normal - even though there are General Elections underway in both Hungary and in the UK. Volcano The unsatisfactory dithering over whether to close and whether to re-pen the skies above the UK and the Continent is, for me, yet another example of the failures of "inter-governmentalism". Each EU member state controls its own air-space. So, it took a video-conference between 27 national Transport ministers to get any agreements. The EU has been given no powers over airspace in any of the treaties. Biden in Brussels On 6th May, Joe Biden, the ...
"The instant verdict on the debate reflected the national polls - it's a two-horse race between Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg.." The Daily Telegraph "If either Labour or the Conservatives were hoping that the second party leaders' debate in Bristol last night would see the Liberal Democrat genie forced back into the bottle, it was soon obvious they were destined to be disappointed." The Independent "An hour after the end of the debate, a Guardian/ICM poll of 504 voters who watched the broadcast gave Clegg a narrow win, with the Lib Dem leader on 33% and Cameron and Brown on ...
YouGov spluttered and denied push polling in response to my exposure of their push polling. Where did they publish their denial? Conservative Home!!!!! Entirely appropriate, in fact. Here is what Mr Shakespeare, Chief Executive of YouGov, says: Push-polling is a very different beast. Push-polling is unethical. Push-polling is conducting a poll to influence a respondent for some particular purpose. Mainly it is when people are pretending to conduct a poll, but actually they are contacting hundreds of thousands of people to repeat attack lines - it's campaigning masquerading as polling, and in New Hampshire it's even illegal (and ...
The old parties, notably the Conservatives are allegedly up to their old dirty tricks. Radio and TV reports yesterday said that the Cons had carried out smear briefings against Nick Clegg in time for the morning papers. Seems that they must be pretty worried - this was going to be Cameron's positive campaign! "The vested interests of British politics are fighting back. The Liberal Democrats' remarkable surge in the opinion polls has provoked a deluge of attacks and smears on the party from those who would like to preserve the traditional two-party status quo." The IndependentTory Press Wades In Under ...
I'd like to take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy St Georges's Day, and I hope you can join me at Manchester's parade on Sunday, which starts at 11.30am at Park View Community School, Miles Platting. It's a great event that brings together various organisations such as the British Heart Foundation, Greater Manchester Fire ...
Time for some fun with the second debate transcript. Before we begin, might I suggest opening my post from this time last week, because it's very useful for comparative purposes. There are a few surprises in store for this week's word analysis of the debate. Last week we discovered Gordon Brown likes the word "got", ...
Well well, I've found something that's not #nickcleggsfault! Yesterday, I suggested that one way of dealing with the smears on Nick Clegg, particularly the ridiculous one in the Torygraph which tried to depict his entirely correct receipt and registration of donations as something murkier, was to write to the advertisers in that publication to suggest that their brand was being damaged by being associated with such shenanigans. Well, it seems that that argument has been reinforced by none other than Nick Robinson the BBC's political editor who confirmed last night that the Tories had had the political correspondents of the ...
Fri 23rd
10:50
Some crowdsourcing please: how many people have just joined the register in your area?
Early signs are that as many as 500,000 – 750,000 people rushed to join the electoral register just before the registration deadline earlier this week – hopefully reflecting a surge in interest in politics, particularly from younger people. The evidence though is rather thin at the moment, so a simple request – check with your council how many people have joined the register in the latest rolling register update and post the answer below. (If you're an agent or campaign manager, remember that you can ask to get these names and addresses – which if you are doing any addressed ...
Update: If your computer has had horrible problems in the last few days, you're at your wit's end, and you're reading this on a different machine to distract yourself, this may well be the answer: follow the link in the comments, then get rid of McAfee Anti-Virus. I've used them for over a decade, but never again. An update to my PC on Wednesday evening seems to have stopped it functioning properly. Anyone got any ideas? Taking a break from how ill I am, yes, now my computer seems to have come out in sympathy. So why do I think ...
So far in British political debates the word "Swedish" is usually bandied about in support of "free schools" by the Conservatives. But you won't see anything about schools in this post - instead I will highlight a different political lesson from Sweden. In 2006 the centre-right Alliance for Sweden (which includes our sister party) ended twelve years of Social Democratic government; this was only the third time that the centre-right has defeated a Social Democratic government since the Second World War. An important factor in the victory was that the four parties finally put aside most of their disagreements and ...
Nick Clegg attained enormous popularity with the British public literally overnight. A week ago this morning, the nation woke up to headlines proclaiming the arrival of a new force in our national politics, a fresh face who promised we could do things differently. Today, the nation wakes up to headlines which cast Clegg in a new light: as a serious option for the electorate, alongside two other equally serious candidates. A week truly is a long time in politics. Yet what makes Nick's performance last night truly impressive is the week he's had. Yes, he's had a surge in the ...
In an interesting example of the increasing importance of online comment, today's Guardian says: Later today, the editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, will hold an open meeting for staff to discuss what political position the paper should adopt in its election editorial... This year, for the first time, the Guardian has decided to hear not only from its staff, but from its readers and web users, too. So tell us who - or what - the paper should back in its election editorial as polling day approaches. The editor has agreed to have at least a representative sample of ...
This morning I'm feeling an emotion that I haven't experienced in a long time: Fear. I wondered if it was something I ate last night but no, it's fear and its being driven by Rupert Murdoch and the right wing press. Now, I used to be no stranger to fear. I've lived in some dodgy parts of Scotland where local gangs liked to shoot people with crossbows in the pub at the bottom of my street. I've been scared to walk home late at night in leafy Kingston upon Thames after being threatened by a junkie I stopped stealing stuff ...
Here is a list of some of the search terms which have brought people to this blog via search engines in the last hour: tory bias in sky debate sky biased against clegg adam boulton bias debate was adam boulton biased why civil liberties not on debate agenda murdock pushing tories in debate sky bias sky news bias debate yougov murdoch sky news biased moderator yougov bias lib dem smear questions fixed PM debate yougov anti Lib Dem survey Interesting isn't it? I expect hundreds more in the course of today. There are a substantial number of people out there ...
The Conservative strategy, in public at least, of insisting that only a strong government with a clear majority can solve our nation's problems is not unexpected. After all, any political party would prefer a free hand rather than having to compromise. However, in the event that the British people don't give them it, is there a Plan B? The key elements in forming any coalition are; sufficient agreement on policy, trust in your partner and, if possible, a set of personal relationships that are modestly cordial. Ask any council group that has been part of a ruling coalition, and they'll ...
Ian Cowie really is plumbing the depths here. I should not read such stuff on so much caffeine. Imagine a starving Jack Russell being electroprodded by a toddler and you are nowhere near the level of irritation. Here is Cowie's thinking, to put it kindly: The last time a British election failed to produce ...
Missed last night's second leaders' debate on Sky? Want to re-live some of Nick Clegg's best bits again? Then here, via the Lib Dem Voice YouTube channel, are his opening and closing statements ... Nick Clegg's opening statement: (Also available on YouTube here). Nick Clegg's closing statement: wonderful stuff (Also available on YouTube here).
Forgive me for my banality, but my hatred of certain massive news corporations being able to influence the vote in favour of the Tories somewhat irritates me. Even more so, on the second debate Adam Boulton made a comment that, quite frankly, really irked me. The reason for that was I feel it influenced the ...
LJ Voter meme: Help lizw and get your own badge! (The Livejournal Electioniser was made by robhu)
One of the best 90 seconds of speaking I've heard from Nick Clegg, courtesy of last night's Sky Leaders' Debate:
It is fascinating that the Murdoch media tempered their enthusiasm for Cameron in their 'later editions'. At first, Sky's YouGov poll, declared suspiciously soon after the debate, proclaimed Cameron the winner and the Times' first editions went with "Cameron nicks it". This was after the Sky broadcast of the debate showed obvous signs of pro-Cam/anti-Clegg slight bias, noted by many tweeters: Boulton interrupted Clegg several times, but not Cameron plus long lingering camera shots of Cameron. Perhaps old Rupie rang up at about midnight and said "Make it 'neck and neck'". And so it was. The Times changed their headline ...
Who is England's modern St George? And who or what is the dragon? To my mind the dragon represents the vested interests of the media barons and the stranglehold of the Labservatives whilst St George is - Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, surely. We strive to fight the dragon of inequality. That's what has kept me going and still inspires me. [IMG: Brave knight] A poll result for last night's debate on the evening of 22 April showed 34% saying Clegg had won the debate, 33% Cameron and 22% Brown: Angus Reid Public Opinion Poll, evening of 22 April ...
Call me old fashioned, but I dimly recall that we have a democracy in this country. The idea is that political parties lay out a platform for government, it gets picked apart by the media, by opposition political parties, by members of the public. Then, the electorate go out to vote, and may the best party win. Easy, isn't it? It does seem that there has been some interference here though. Ben Brogan describes yesterday's Telegraph front page as scrutiny. No Ben, scrutiny is when you receive information, test it out, ask some questions to verify it or not, then ...
Despite the best efforts of the right wing press, the fury of the Tories and the pressure that the outstanding performance of the first debate put on him - Nick still came out on top. General consensus shows Nick won the second Leaders' debate as he tops three polls and comes second in two more. After the first debate - you could feel the nation take a collective deep breath as a sense of freedom from the old political chains began to break through our rotten, unfair and corrupt political system. Nick spoke directly to the people about the issues ...
This morning's Independent reports that The Sun newspaper failed to publish a YouGov poll showing that voters fear a Liberal Democrat government less than a Conservative or Labour one: YouGov also found that if people thought Mr Clegg's party had a significant chance of winning the election, it would win 49 per cent of the votes, with the Tories winning 25 per cent and Labour just 19 per cent. One in four people Labour and one in six Tory supporters say they would switch to the Liberal Democrats in these circumstances. The party would be ahead among both men and ...
I really enjoyed this one. Having squandered the millions that his tax avoiding mate Ashcroft has given to the Tories -to no discernible effect- Hague is emailing his supposed poorer friends to ask them for cash. He pleads: ..............I want to ask you today if you can give just one pound a day to our campaign until we get to polling day.If you give now, you'll be giving just £14. We're not bankrolled by union barons, so small online donations like this from people like you are crucial to our campaign. Ashcroft said no then? I will be posting later ...
Just to add my sixpence worth on the second leaders' TV debate. I think Brown and Cameron raised their games. Nick Clegg was a bit flatter than last week, but he was still scored as either first (by most observers) or very close second to Cameron (by Tory supporters). Despite the attempt to smear the Liberal Democrats back down in the polls, and to launch personal attacks on Clegg ahead of the debate, Nick Clegg was generally unruffled and again did well. That Cameron did better than last time is not enough: he needed to obliterate the memory of the ...
Unfortunately after yesterday's hasty early morning blog posting, circumstances, or more accurately campaigning for Willie Rennie in Dunfermline and West Fife and then being so knackered that I couldn't even move from the sofa to switch on the laptop. I spent my day mainly squealing with excitement. It seemed like every time we turned a corner in Inverkeithing and Rosyth we saw another Willie Rennie diamond. Not once, anywhere, did I see any posters supporting anyone else. To add to my glee on that front, every so often I checked Twitter and was very amused to see the internet's reaction ...
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: More data and charts in Top Search Queries - http://bit.ly/cHVdLX # @owenblacker Yeah, a true liberal would be standing out from the crowds today and, er..., Well, let's leave being liberal for another day. in reply to owenblacker # Anyone got a collection of the voodoo (anyone can vote online) polls from the #leadersdebate ? Would be fun to compare with the proper polls # @chriskeating Only for one small corner of the country these days! in reply to chriskeating # RT @mandateblog: Brown & Clegg Praised For Debate Performances: what the comms experts at ...
My colleague Richard Hands clearly had problems sleeping last night as he had scan the morning newspapers before I'd finished my first cup of tea. He was most delighted that the smears against Clegg had been effectively refuted-even if the were no front page banner headlines apologising. He was most taken with the editorial in the Independent: Leading article: Feeble attacks and reprehensible smearsFriday, 23 April 2010 The vested interests of British politics are fighting back. The Liberal Democrats' remarkable surge in the opinion polls has provoked a deluge of attacks and smears on the party from those who would ...
I really enjoyed yesterday's liveblogging. 4,426 unique viewers dropped in. In retrospect, the strongest impression was of Sky News' Tory bias. The most startling moment was when Adam Boulton, the moderator, brought up yesterday's Daily Telegraph slur about Nick Clegg. But the directorial bias was what stayed with me. There was a telling moment when Cameron told a very weak "joke" indeed, and the Director instantly cut to three smartly dressed people in the audience who were improbably laughing uproariously. It happened again later, cut so quickly it must have been pre-arranged. When Brown was speaking, there was a lingering ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] This is a Letter I sent to Getreading... In response to Cllr Debbie Edwards Letter (getreading, Friday 16 April), I have always respected Cllr Edwards and consider her to be a morally and politically astute lady. However, I must say I was quite disappointed to read her attack on Cllr Daisy Benson. The Labour party has been awash with negative campaigning lately. I would say that other parties should by all means scrutinise our policies, but it becomes gutter politics when they attack the person. This sort of behaviour is seriously turning people off of politics! I notice ...
Last night I had to watch the leaders' debate at the house of a friend, as I do not have Murdoch's Sky system. At the end of the debate both of us agreed that Nick Clegg had again done well, but not, this time outstandingly so, that Gordon Brown had greatly improved his performance and David Cameron remained unconvincing. At the end of the debate the result of an instant YouGov/Sun pole was flashed on the screen and, to our surprise, declared Cameron the clear winner. This "news" remained on the screen. We waited for the results of other polls, ...
I scored the debate much the same as many of the polls insofar as I thought there was not much between the three of them last night. Three polls scored Nick ahead and two Cameron ahead but the happiest person this morning will Nick Clegg. Interestingly if I had to score it I would have had Clegg, Brown, Cameron but for the second week in a row I seem to be scoring Brown higher than Cameron It will be interesting to see how the numbers play over the weekend but after a day of vicious attacks from the right wing ...
So, the second TV debate on Sky for the Prime Ministerial debates took place last night, I didn't watch it live, but thanks to Sky+ watched it soon after. I was sort of following it via Twitter as I was writing target letters. What was interesting is despite the UK media turning it's guns and might (not as honestly as you would have thought) on Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, we wnot only withstood it but yet again Nick Clegg came out as the winner of three of the five polls last night, not as clear a victory as ...
Full council in Gateshead this afternoon and the smooth flow of events hit a bumpy patch when my colleague Frank Hindle proposed an amendment calling on planned increases in home care charges be referred to a scrutiny committee. The amendment was defeated. Well, there's a surprise. Next up was the cabinet report. I got up to speak on plans for play equipment in Sunniside Park. I was welcoming
ahead of the leaders' 2nd debate (won again by saint nick) my old climbing partner 'chach' plays a blinder in this ex-labour area der ledder der ledder
Both Cameron and Brown tonight had to up their game and both did. Nick needed to hold his own. He did. But Cameron needed a knock out blow and whilst his performance was more self-confident this week, he did not dish out the knock out blow on either Nick or Brown. And for Cameron that could be a problem. It waits to be seen however what effect the debates will have on voting. Polls are one thing,
Commenting on the the 2nd leaders debate broadcast from Bristol yesterday, Kirsty Williams, leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "Nick Clegg was articulate and passionate in last night's debate with policies that struck a chord with many people across Wales. His performance last Thursday was strong but last night's debate proved that all is to play for in this election. "People right across the country want a change from the old, out of touch and tired Labour and Conservative politics that has dominated this country for the last 65 years. Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are the only ...
Following on from my comments yesterday about Lord Pearson's phone-in on radio four, I will mention another point that he made as it was a wonderful. He was astounded that the televised leaders' debate from last week did not mention that very important subject of Europe. Martha Kearney told him that the debate last week concerned domestic affairs and only this week would the subject be international affairs. Lord Pearson had already said that he thought it absurd that the leaders had not spoken about Europe. It would have been absurd if they had spoken about it. Which makes Lord ...
It was closer tonight, I watched it in my local, but our Nick seemed to have scored a second success in the leaders' debates. We were expecting a backlash, and boy did it come. I must admit although I was impressed as ever by Cleggy, I thought that ...
