Three polls published tonight: ComRes for Indy/ITV ... CON 37%(nc), LAB 29%(nc), LIB DEM 26%(nc) YouGov in the Sun ... CON 35%(nc), LAB 30%(+2), LIB DEM 24%(-4) Harris in Metro ... CON 36%(+4), LAB 26%(+1), LIB DEM 28%(-2) What to make of those? The YouGov poll is the least good news for the Lib Dems, showing a sharp 4% drop in support. It's hard to see anything that's happened in the last 24 hours triggering such a sudden dip, so this may turn out to be an outlier caused perhaps by the difficulties of polling over a bank holiday weekend. ...
I have been neglecting this blog a little over the last few weeks. I hope my regular readers will appreciate that this is because I have been dealing with the hundreds of email and letters that I have received in the course of this campaign. (I still actually have a few to reply to now) I would like to thank the many people who have offered me their support either in person about the constituency, via email or twitter. All have been greatly appreciated and if you haven't already sent in a postal vote remember to turn up to vote ...
My friend George was telling me of a Public meeting he attended during the Hillhead By-election. This was a hard fought and landmark win for Roy Jenkins for the SDP/Liberal Alliance. Roy was asked by a gentleman, with a strong Highland accent, what he intended to do about the Gaels in Partick. Roy stated, earnestly, that he thought it was very windy up in Hyndland too! The room fell about laughing.
Is `carrying my luggage` a new Gay euphemism. Ooh, matron, I was just `carrying his luggage`
CONSERVATIVES: 34% (N/C) LIB DEMS: 28% (-1%) LABOUR: 28% (N/C) Changes based upon last time (yesterday). Sample consists of all polls with mid-point fieldwork dates within the last 10 days, including today (n=29). Includes all British Polling Council registered pollsters. The results above are the median figure for each party. This election has been like ...
I've been in Dunfermilne helping my chum Willie Rennie who is facing his first re-election having won the seat in a famous by-election a few years back. Willie was my campaign manager when I stood for Parliament in Ochil in 2001. We had great fun then and I was so proud of him when he was elected to Westminster in 2006. Labour are desperate to win the seat back not least as Gordon Brown lives there. They will struggle. In 25 years of campaigning I have never seen a candidate better suited to a seat than Willie Rennie. He has ...
I am quite fatigued after several weeks' campaigning, but there are things that can really perk me up. A perfect example of that was an email I received today. I'll quote one paragraph of it: "You have been absolutely fantastic throughout this campaign and have given me so much information I can hardly tell you. You have certainly restored my faith in British MPs and the British political system - you are not all crooks out for what they can get. No one could ever say you did not give the voter all they need to know to make an informed ...
This is the first General Election in which I have been heavily involved on the ground, campaigning actively for Julian Huppert, the Lib Dem candidate for Cambridge. It has taught me several things about politics: It is a lot of fun. What I've mostly done is sit about answering the phone, writing letters and giving people leaflets to deliver, but the energy and excitement is unlike almost anything else I've experienced. It is terribly hard on the candidates. I went to Julian's last hustings tonight - the candidates agreed it was their 35th hustings of the campaign. Imagine going to ...
'I used to be a long term Labour Supporter – but then I overheard one old lady whisper to the another whilst sitting on the park bench at lunchtime. She said "Do you know what? The first time in my life I think I'm going to vote Lib Dems" as if she was coming out. ...
This is the first time I have stood for election and I have enjoyed it immensely. From buying too many cakes at Chalgrove's May Day fete to the hustings at Dorchester Abbey it has been a whirlwind of meetings, discussions with residents, radio interviews and school debates. Plaudits must go to the students of the Henley College, who managed to stump me with two questions which I had to answer after the meeting. My thanks should also go to my Labour, Green and UKIP opponents for engaging fully with the election and giving residents a chance to grill us and ...
This morning Paddy Ashdown gave a wonderful hoofing to Sir Richard Dearlove on the Today programme. Dearlove is a former head of MI6 and was representing a group of senior members of the security establishment that has attacked Liberal Democrat policy on the fatuous grounds that it "deviates from the cross-party consensus". On the Daily Telegraph site Andrew Gilligan quotes what Paddy said in reply to Dearlove: "This is the man who delivered erroneous intelligence on WMD to Tony Blair in the Iraq war. I'm not about to take advice ... from the man who after Tony Blair is probably ...
My partner in podcasting, Stuart Sharpe has created a great application for iPhones for the general election. It's called Election 2010 (website is here). As Stu says it: ...gives you tons of information about the general election. All through May 6th and 7th, this app will provide live results, telling you which seats have changed hands and which party is out in the lead. Also in the app is information about all 650 UK parliamentary constituencies (with quick links to more details from Wikipedia and UK Polling Report). You can view seats in your local area, see a map of ...
I've had dozens of e-mails and phonecalls over the 48 hours about missing election leaflets in Ilkley and Addingham. Firstly my apologies for people not having received anything through their letterboxes. You should have had an addressed leaflet delivered by the Royal Mail, we've not been ignoring you, but there has been a glitch. I think that some 7,000 leaflets have been sent to the Leeds sorting office by mistake, because Ilkley and Addingham have Leeds post codes whilst the rest of the constituency has Bradford post codes and will have gone to the Bradford sorting office. My agent, Judith ...
Following the rush-hour crash last Friday at the City Road/Tullideph Road junction, I have been contacted by a number of constituents concerned about the junction. I have raised the issue with the City Council and will update residents with feedback when this is received.
Nick Clegg's pledge reads: "This is my personal guarantee that I will use all the support you give me on Thursday to deliver fairness in Britain. "We need a fairer tax system. I will use your votes to cut taxes for those at the bottom and in the middle and close the loopholes for those ...
In the last few weeks someone has started using the messaging service Twitter under the identity of 'lutonliberal'. This person goes by the name of Terry Spencer and describes themselves in their bio in the following terms: "ex lib-dem town councillor now living in Luton firmly behind Qurban Hussain" So you might think that a Liberal Democrat activist has decided to use Twitter to promote Qurban Hussain's campaign in Luton South. Yet I think that something distinctly fishy is going on and some questions need to be asked. Firstly, there is nobody involved in the Luton Liberal Democrats with the ...
In an interview with New Statesman magazine, the Children's Secretary said there was an 'issue' in constituencies that are Tory-Lib Dem marginals. and further added that "I always want the Labour candidate to win, but I recognise there's an issue in places like North Norfolk, where Norman Lamb (Lib Dem) is fighting the Tories, who ...
Another interesting straw in the wind is the column in today's Evening Standard from Andrew Neather, speechwriter to Tony Blair 2001-2. It ends: PR is what we need, for future elections not to render results as illogical as 1983, 2005, or, I fear, this Thursday. Nick Clegg is right: only such thoroughgoing reform will break up the cosy Labour-Conservative duopoly of power. And if you doubt that deep down it's cosy, check out those expenses receipts. The system is rigged. There is only one real option for voters who want to change it – and as a lifelong Labour and ...
The new wikio charts will be out soon and you can taste the anticipation in the political blogosphere. Will I be up or down? Will the egregious Tory tosser still be number one? Well, Charlotte has the answer to the second of those (hint: it's not the answer we're all hoping for). But what's this? There's a new willy to wave on the block: The House of Twits HoT whatevernumberitistoday. It started off at 50, and then it was 100, and now it's 200. I'm (at the time of typing) #109; the wife is at #79. Two things please me ...
"This is my personal guarantee that I will use all the support you give me on Thursday to deliver fairness in Britain. "We need a fairer tax system. I will use your votes to cut taxes for those at the bottom and in the middle and close the loopholes for those at the top. We need to support our children. I will use your votes to ensure extra funding for schools, to cut class sizes and give all children a fair chance. We need to clean up politics. I will use your votes to reform Parliament, to deliver a fairer ...
Paul Krishnamurty writes on the Betfair blog: Nick Clegg was in Streatham yesterday, where he gave an impressive speech to a notably large crowd. This is exactly the type of diverse, inner-city seat where the Lib Dems are threatening to replace Labour. Until 2005 it had been as safe as houses, before the unpopularity of the Iraq war handed the Lib Dems a 10% swing, bringing it within range. Clegg will need a further 9% to gain Streatham, slightly more than the expected national swing, but very manageable if recent London polls are to be believed.
It's the final few days of the 2010 campaign and we've been delivering the above leaflet across the ward. If you'd like to access an electronic version it's available here (via The Straight Choice website).
Word has reached me that some of our supporters and helpers have received contacts allegedly from the Labour party as to my supposedly limited ambitions. If true, you have to hand it to Labour, they are a crafty bunch, and I guess all is fair in love and elections. But maybe I did not make myself clear, so please let me clarify. I want to win this election and become the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. I do not want to be second, third, fourth or seventh, I want to be first. I have worked very hard these last four ...
Apologies if this reads like a rant, but I've just endured five minutes of Cameron's campaign in East Renfrewshire on Sky News. Where he said things like this: "Where has Gordon Brown's moral compass been for the past five weeks? By the time he finds it, it'll be spinning around like a ceiling fan." Does he stop there? Nope. He goes on to suggest that unlike the Labour Party, who've fought the "most negative electoral campaign in modern British history," the Conservatives have consistently maintained a positive message. Huh. On the Lib Dems, he offers this world-class tagline: "A vote ...
Oh, this is classic! Labour reveal to the world they really are in a state of panic in Blaydon. You always know when they have hit the panic button. It's when they put out leaflets claiming it is a 2 horse race in Blaydon between Labour and Conservatives. Last time, the Conservatives got only 8%. Desperate or what? Talk up the Tory vote to save Labour skins.The reality is that the Conservatives
The Electoral Commission has today published the latest donation and borrowing figures for the political parties, showing that the Lib Dems raised just over £1.9 million in the first three months of this year. Below is the full breakdown of cash and non-cash donations received by quarter since 2005, and annually between 2001 and 2004. By comparison, the party raised £3.7m in the first quarter of 2005 (leading up to that year's general election) – but that did of course include that £2.4m donation from Michael Brown. If we exclude that one-off donation, which had to be spent immediately under ...
The leafleting and press advertising campaign against a hung Parliament by the Young Britons' Foundation has run into a mini-blizzard of legal queries and complaints Given at least one newspaper advertisement today and how widespread the leafleting campaign has been (as partly documented by Paul Walters), including several reports that at least some of the leafleting is being carried out by paid-for delivery firms, it is extremely likely that the YBF has incurred costs in excess of the £10,000 limit. However, whilst this would require registration as a "third party" with the Commission, and the Young Britons' Foundation Chief Executive ...
Apologies to people in Ilkley and Addingham. Addressed leaflets for every household in Keighley & Ilkley were supposedly sent to Royal Mail direct from the printing company in plenty of time - but somehow you haven't received yours yet. We haven't been ignoring you, but there has been a glitch. Our Keighley & Ilkley General Election candidate is Nader Fekri. Some of you will have heard him speaking at Ilkley Grammar School or at the Ilkley Churches Together Forum. Our District candidate for Ilkley is Vaughan Bruce who lives in Ilkley and has a record of campaigning for equal rights, ...
My Personal Guarantee This is my personal guarantee that I will use all the support you give me on Thursday to deliver fairness in Britain. We need a fairer tax system. I will use your votes to cut taxes for those at the bottom and in the middle and close the loopholes for those at the top. We need to support our children. I will use your votes to ensure extra funding for schools, to cut class sizes and give all children a fair chance. We need to clean up politics. I will use your votes to reform Parliament, to ...
The Times has the story: Naturally, when every conversation you hear in the real world seems to have something to do with the General Election, Microsoft are getting in on the act online too. Their far from rigorous voting preference poll is open to gamers of any age, and as far as we can tell in any country. Nevertheless, as these screengrabs show, it's clear that Cleggmania is intensely powerful among the young web-literate demographic that populates the virtual worlds of Twitter, Facebook and Xbox Live. You can read the full story here.
Do you remember four weeks ago? When BBC News spent half an hour showing us live footage of Gordon Brown's car driving through London, when David Cameron told us he was going to campaign for the 'great ignored' and the media didn't really care who Nick Clegg was? Yes, we're four weeks into this campaign, with ...
Tue 4th
19:14
Within the LibDems' grabs: Devon Central, Dorset West, Ealing Central & Acton, Meon Valley, Nort...
In the last two days, the LibDems' chances in five key seats have been upgraded in the PoliticsHome's projections: 2nd May 4th May Devon Central Too close to call (leaning Conservative) Too close to call (leaning LbDem) Dorset West Too close to call (leaning Conservative) Too close to call (leaning LbDem) Ealing Central & Acton Too close to call (leaning LbDem) Likely LibDem Meon Valley Too close to call (leaning Conservative) Too close to call (leaning LbDem) Northampton North Too close to call (leaning Conservative) Too close to call (leaning LbDem)
Tue 4th
19:05Tories short of overall majority by 43, 35 or 18 seats - you pays your money and you takes your choi...
Conservatives Liberal Democrats Labour Others Cons short of overall maj Seats UK Polling report 283 86 250 31 43 Seats FiveThirtyEight 308 113 198 31 18 Seats Politics Home 291 97 230 32 35 % UK Polling report 35 28 27 10 % FiveThirtyEight 35.2 28.3 27 9.5 % Politics Home 35.1 28.6 26.7 9.6 From: PoliticsHome Polling Report FiveThirtyEight
Sean Haffey a conservative Councillor on Hart District council who blogs at http://sean-haffey.blogspot.com has written a blog which he calls Three of the Best. Sean has set a challenge based on a Tory/LibDem parliament asking for his readers to choose one policy from the Tories, Libdems and a third from another party. Well I'm going to change the rules. Which policy would you pick from two main parties you don't support and one policy from a smaller party? Here are mine; One from Labour; Well I would of taken the minimum wage but we now have this so im going ...
Stephen Fry, once a staunch Labour supporter, has already dropped hints during this election campaign that he's thinking of voting Lib Dem ... After the rightwing press's desperate smear tirade at the height of 'Cleggmania' he declared "Frankly I'm tempted to vote Lib Dem now. If we let the Telegraph and Mail win, well, freedom and Britain die." Well, Mr Fry didn't quite make it onto the Lib Dems' list of celebrity endorsements announced yesterday, but he has thrown his weight fully behind one Lib Dem, Oxford West and Abingdon's Dr Evan Harris. Neil Fawcett's Liberal Dose blog quotes his ...
Tue 4th
18:06
A Facebook friend just stopped me while I was delivering to wish good luck and agreed to deliver las...
A Facebook friend just stopped me while I was delivering to wish good luck and agreed to deliver last few. Thanks Sarah
..or is it Flash Mobs? I dont know... Anyway I doff my hat to those facebookers over at RATM for what they pulled off. I went to the London one. Many things struck me about the day, not least just how many young, previously uncommitted, non-voting young people they have not just connected with, but persuaded to actually do something. Nice one. I looked on the web and found a number of great videos/pics etc. As I had this music running round in my head on the day...I put the two together. Hope those that attended like it - and ...
My blog has fallen by the wayside in recent weeks - and I've really missed putting thoughts down at the end of a sometimes unusual day. The last few weeks have seen over 80,000 leaflets delivered throughout the South Cambs constituency, and many miles walked and doors knocked on in Caldecote, Kingston and Toft whilst introducing District Council candidate Tumi Hawkins to local residents. It's almost all over - one last push before the polls open at 07:00 on Thursday morning. Waking up to the result on Friday morning is certainly going to be very different to anything we could ...
Nick Clegg has just launched 'My Personal Guarantee', a pledge that will run in leaflets and newspaper advertisements ahead of polling day. Here's what it says: This is my personal guarantee that I will use all the support you give me on Thursday to deliver fairness in Britain. "We need a fairer tax system. I will use your votes to cut taxes for those at the bottom and in the middle and close the loopholes for those at the top. "We need to support our children. I will use your votes to ensure extra funding for schools, to cut class ...
There has been much talk about David Cameron having Momentum. This has been hyped up in the last week by the Tory leaning press. Is there any substance in this? Well No! Looking at the BBC Poll of Polls he was sitting on 37% at the end of March. He is now on 35%. Momentum is defined as Mass times Velocity. Their rating suggests they have neither the mass nor the velocity to go all the way. The Tory press are clearly trying to get a bandwagon rolling behind their favoured candidate. Trouble is that the substance belies their claims ...
I'm no longer doing the regional swingometer: I trust people to agree with me that tactical voting is more interesting. I have updated the tactical one so that you can look up current seats by who won the election last (MP's name). In the meantime, I have done a little research into how the Tactical ...
Tue 4th
17:47
Predictions on the total parliamentary seats, and result Islington South & Finsbury: a summary.
For those of you who don't want to wade through my analysis on the earlier posts about these topics, here's a summary of the results with a link to the detail if you want it. Islington South and Finsbury • swing against Labour of 8.5% • LibDems to take the seat comfortably Click HERE for ...
I recently interviewed Dan Haycocks from the Goodbye Andrew Mackay campaign. He is standing at this election as Scrap Members Allowances which I interviewed him about. Rather than provide my usual Q&A blog this interview has been recorded on video see below;
Isn't it annoying when you have no computer or motivation to work?! I am led in bed at 5.34 like a common slut, with used fags upon my tallboy and three spliffs resting on my side table enticing me. This Is Uni life? A life Ive so far paid 18 k for, an ever increasing ...
Paul Hughes has become the second Bournemouth Conservative councillor to switch to the Liberal Democrats in a matter of weeks. In late April Michael Griffiths switched, criticising a "ruling clique". Today it's been the turn of Paul Hughes.
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] Locally and nationally, Tories and Labour are rattled that the Clegg bounce has remained... they're attacking us at every opportunity... Want to do some thing positive today? If you support Nick Clegg and want to help us out - print this and deliver it in your street [IMG: :)]
I agree with those finding it distasteful, and in all likelihood counterproductive, that Hain & Balls have come out with a call for tactical votes. Of course, people should vote how they want, and that might be framed in negative terms: if I had Beelzebub standing locally, I would vote for whoever beats him. Or ...
The Guardian reports: David Cameron's close adviser, Andy Coulson, has come under fresh attack after the disclosure of new evidence of the News of the World's role in the illegal interception of the royal household's voicemail messages during his time as editor. The evidence is in the outline for a book planned by the private investigator at the centre of the affair, Glenn Mulcaire. The outline was written before Mulcaire signed a deal with the paper which stopped the book's publication and gagged him from speaking about the scandal. The outline directly contradicts the News of the World's claim that ...
No I'm not talking about John Pugh but Jon Ball who the Evening Standard had suggested could win his Ealing seat. Jon comes from Southport and his father, Ashby, lives in Birkdale. The other evening I noticed that someone had printed off some Lib Dem posters from the internet and put up 3 of them in the bay window. I called with some day glow orange ones (I know that everyone else fight in yellow but we were still fighting in red into the 1970's) to replace them. And who was internet savvy voter-Jon's father. Good luck Jon
If the papers are to be believed the election is virtually in the bag for Cameron. Today's Daily Telegraph proclaims that the Tory leader needs just 14 more seats for outright victory. This on the basis of a poll of Labour-Conservative marginals. The problem with these sort of projections is that even in a poll of marginals we do not get uniform swings. There will be huge regional variations and even differences within regions. Seat projections in these circumstances amount to guesswork. Cameron is actually not much higher in the polls than Michael Howard in 2005. The only thing certain ...
The News Shopper reports: Labour parliamentary candidate for Gravesham Kathryn Smith has been arrested on suspicion of drink-driving after crashing her car into a roundabout. The incident reportedly took place in University Way, Dartford, at the junction of Joyce Green Lane, at around 10pm on Monday. It is understood she was breathalysed at the scene and asked to provide a blood sample... A Kent Police spokewsoman said: "A 49-year-old woman from Welling has been arrested on suspicion of drink driving following a road traffic collision on April 26." ... In a statement to News Shopper, Miss Smith denied she had ...
This morning's Guardian reports that David Cameron is prepared to defy the Queen and insist that he be invited to form a government immediately if he ends up leading the party with the largest number of votes after the General Election: Shadow ministers have criticised the guidelines drawn up under the supervision of the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell. The Tories accused O'Donnell of overstepping his constitutional authority by giving his blessing to a delay in the return of parliament to allow talks on a coalition in the event of a close poll result. David Cameron was not consulted on ...
Remeber this super video from last week? Well, Nathankw (who is actually a Nathan and not a K W Nathan who's a girl) has continued with his very talented ability to hit the nail on the head. Enjoy!
Fathom Consulting have run the numbers, using the Bank of England's economic model. And as the FT reports (and I complained, pre-Cleggmania), the whole NIC cuts debate is an irrelevance: Danny Gabay, Fathom director, lambasted both Tories and Labour for arguing over the issue. "It's not even rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic – £6bn is ...
I have just watched one of the more bizarre episodes of this General Election campaign, as the (for now, but surely not for much longer) Labour candidate in North West Norfolk, Manish Sood, has demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt his unfitness for public office. When I read the story this morning courtesy of Political Betting, I assumed that this was a case of a candidate caught making an indiscreet comment by a political opponent, perhaps out of frustration. That is, until he appeared on Sky News, where he launched into a rant about the inadequacies of a large swathe of ...
So apparently the Lisbon treaty which appeared to be done and dusted will actually be back before parliament in a few weeks time for technical ratification of a few points regarding seat distribution that had to be rushed through previously. Now at first glance this may seem like a golden opportunity for David Cameron. He always said that he wanted a referendum on Lisbon and in a few weeks time he may well be Prime Minister. The question is what will he do? There are suggestions that he could announce a referendum and then use that as a bargaining chip ...
Group Membership Benefits An increasing number of the more successful Liberal Democrat Groups are in group membership of ALDC. This is where a whole Council Group joins ALDC together, very often this is part of what Councillors receive in return for their "Group Subs". To encourage even more Groups to sign up, and as a "Thank you" to those groups who been in group membership for many years, we've got together a package of Group Membership benefits. - Group Members receive 12% off all membership rates - Free places at the Local Government Conference (buy 2 get 1 free) - ...
Over at the Daily Mail, Lib Dem shadow chancellor Vince Cable takes a look at the hard reality of being a politician during a gruelling election campaign. Here's an excerpt: Mostly elections are a punishing schedule of interviews, meetings, encounters with voters and lots of travel. I am often asked if I enjoy it. It seems ungracious to say no but enjoy is not the word I would choose. Perhaps there is a parallel with extreme sports, the same combination of adrenaline and the knowledge that disaster is potentially just seconds away. Vince then gives us an insight into his ...
Gordon Brown showed up in Wrexham today much to the bemusement of the Town's Welsh Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Tom Rippeth. Tom immediately issued a statement suggesting that the Prime Minister's visit might not be unrelated to the Labour party struggling to win votes in the constituency: "Gordon Brown's visit to Wrexham today shows that Labour are panicking about their support in this seat and across North Wales. The amount of visits they've had here over the last few days just goes to show that they need something else to boost their support as their record of government over the ...
New Councillors' Discount As an exciting new initiative this year all NEWLY ELECTED Lib Dem Councillors will be able to join ALDC in their first year for HALF PRICE! As all of us know their first months as a Councillor are important. We want to make sure as many of our new Councillors benefit from the advice and support that ALDC offer from Day one. This makes ALDC membership for new councillors less than 75p a week! The new offer is only available in May and June 2010 - after that it's back up to the normal rate. It is ...
Two more days of campaigning left. This has been the most extraordinary experience of my life. I have received an amazing level of support from members of the public, and our number of supporters has gone through the roof! How that will pan out on Friday in terms of the Skipton and Ripon result remains to be seen. But these things I can now be sure of: 1. People are absolutely gagging for change—particularly the young. They really see the old system for what it is, fundamentally unfair. Though I am not a fan of UKIP's policies, their representative came out ...
GOOD LUCK from all of us at ALDC for Thursday 6th May 2010. ALDC will be open for emergency calls on polling day 01422 843 785 up to 5.15pm. We will be open again at 11.00am on Friday 7th 2010. Outside office hours if you need urgent advice please contact us via the website here. Just to let you know that on FRIDAY during the day we will be running a results service for the local elections. I suspect there might be "bigger news" nationally - but we're still interested in what happens in the local elections as well! The ...
I have now obtained under the Freedom of Information Act a heavily censored copy of one of my telegrams from Tashkent protesting at the use by the UK government of intelligence obtained under torture. Every British person should read this telegram and hang their head in the deepest of shame. This is the pitch blackness of New Labour's embrace of authoritarianism. Read it, and remember I was both smeared and sacked for this attempt to apply simply the most basic of humane standards. Download file Page 2 Download file The censored passages detail British ministers' receipt of the torture intelligence ...
Nick Clegg and Paddy Ashdown united today in condemning three retired members of the defence establishment who have a letter published in today's Times attempting to frighten voters away from voting Lib Dem with crude warnings what perils await Britain if the party gains power. The letter has just three signatories: Peter Clarke, Sir Richard Dearlove, and Lord Guthrie. Former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown issued a masterly put-down of the trio in the Times: Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, the former Lib Dem leader who helped to draw up the party's defence and national security policies, responded to today's letter, ...
Speculation is growing as to the future of the Tory Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan following her party's decision not to field her in the BBC's Welsh leaders' debate. Nick Bourne, the Opposition leader at the National Assembly, appeared in Sunday evening's debate instead. Today's Western Mail reports the official version, that Ms Gillan, who was generally regarded to have performed poorly in the first leaders' debate, had withdrawn to accompany David Cameron to Flintshire. But opposition parties said it was extraordinary that Ms Gillan, who would normally be considered a certainty to become Welsh Secretary, had ...
Kirsty Williams joined Newport East candidate, Ed Townsend, on the campaign trail, telling people how the Liberal Democrats would make the tax system work for thousands of people in Newport and right across Wales. The Liberal Democrats will make the first £10,000 workers earn tax free. People earning £10,000 or less will not pay any income tax and those on the basic rate of tax will have a tax cut of £700 per year. The tax switch will be paid for by making sure the rich pay their fair share by introducing a mansion tax on the value of homes ...
We will reduce classroom sizes in schools. This will mean more attention to all students, high ability and low. (you may well be wondering where reason 4 is, well that was helpfully provided by a few of my facebook friends as :Nick Clegg is fit.)
So Peter Hain wants voters to "vote with their heads", code surely for Labour supporters voting Lib Dem in seats where Labour cannot win with the quid pro quo being that Lib Dem supporters should vote Labour in a vice-versa situation. Ed Balls seems to agree. And yet Gordon Brown keeps screeching about how a vote for the Lib Dems could "let the Tories in" and Tony Blair has been banging a similar drum today. What on earth is the electorate supposed to make of such hopelessly mixed messages? I also think this exposes how out of control Labour's campaign ...
By this point in a campaign blisters on feet and holes in socks are a common occurrence. So on your behalf dear reader I've been trying out some Liberal Democrat socks from My Favourite Socks: [IMG: Lib Dem socks] News to report so far: each sock comes supplied with the right number of holes (one). Testing putting them in and taking them out of my washing machine has so far resulted in no lost socks. As an added bonus the logo bird is the right (new) logo rather than the old one. What more could you want? Full disclosure: I ...
Results of the 6 May 2010 Local Elections will be posted here.
Sitting in some cafe on Sunday up in London alone on lunch, chewing on apple pie and slurping on coffee, I listened into the conversations around me, its clear that the election isn't the preoccupation of everybody, although outside on the Caledonian road there is a rash of "Lib Dem Winning here" posters and briefly a rather cute crayoned version "my mums winning here" in the same style. I tune in on one conversation, some middle-aged bloke wittering on about where are today's rock giants and note that the younger companions meet this thought with apathy. Still this thought sort ...
Only one in five voters think David Cameron should try to form a minority government if his party is the largest but short of an overall majority after Thursday's general election. The finding comes in a YouGov poll for The Sun which finds that 37% think in such circumstances Cameron should try to form a "grand coalition" with Labour and Lib Dems and a further 24% think he should "seek to work with the Liberal Democrats". Only 20% said he should "seek to form a minority government, without doing any deals with any other party". Although The Sun has previously ...
Here's a thought. I read over on the CNN website that sales of parties manifestos have reached record levels for this election. As they say - no apathy here then. It reads.... "Now evidence of this comes with news that election manifestos - the documents in which political parties lay out their planned policies - are selling in record numbers, according to book trade media. "Political manifesto sales at Waterstone's have already outstripped those during the entire 2005 election period," reported UK trade paper The Bookseller.com, "up 160 percent with just eight days to go to the election." Andrew Lake, ...
Two days to go. Our chance to change politics and change our nation for the better is at hand. [IMG: [The Liberal Democrats]] Vote Liberal Democrat
Well, what is this all about? The trend in the gilt market: Recall two pieces of conventional wisdom. One, the end of QE spelt doom to gilts. Take away that one big sucker-buyer and they will fall out of bed*. Two, if there's a hung parliament, the great British Politician will spend months and months ...
The Co-op has announced the sale of its store in Kingsway Gardens, King Arthur's Way to McColls. The store has been sold as a going concern and the 13 staff will transfer to McColls. The store will cease trading as a Co-op on 24 May. A Co-operative Group spokeswoman said: "We are pleased to have concluded a deal which secures employment for the staff and our thanks to them for their commitment and hard work." The spokeswoman emphasised that The Co-operative Group is committed to community retailing in the region and in the past year had invested more than £17 ...
Over the Bank Holiday, I thought I'd check exactly what Labour's manifesto says about getting a House of Lords where at least a majority of its members are elected. After 13 years in power with repeated commissions, studies and votes on the matter, not to mention senior Labour figures proclaiming their commitment to having at least some democracy in the Lords, you've have thought they'd be planning to get a move on. But oh boy. Under Labour's manifesto it'll take one Parliament (typically 4 years) to get to a one-third elected House of Lords. Then it will take another full ...
Evan Harris has had sone high profile endorsments during the campaign: Ben Goldacre, Dr Simon Singh and Richard Dawkins, to name but three. And now Stephen Fry has urged 'Oxonians and Abingdonians' to back Evan saying: On one front alone I would absolutely urge you to vote LibDem and that is if you live in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency. Your incumbent member, now under threat because of boundary changes, is Evan Harris MP, far and away the most persuasive and impressive parliamentarian in the cause of good and open science and enquiry that we have had in the ...
Tue 4th
11:03Glad Angela cd join me chatting to parents at shops after school drop off. About to go see older peo...
Glad Angela cd join me chatting to parents at shops after school drop off. About to go see older people to reassure that LD will keep winter fuel allowance despite scaremongering by @Labservative party.
Possibly the greatest Liberal gathering in Blackheath since Gladstone, yesterday's visit of Nick Clegg was a very busy affair. Despite a miserable looking weather the people of Lewisham came out for Clegg, eventually outnumbering the members of the press of a factor of 4 to 1. But instead of writing a full report I'll just ...
This story is actually incredible. To me it shows a few things. First, Labour is admitting defeat. It is clearly a sign that Labour know they cannot possibly win a majority, and that in order to leave them in with a chance of staying in power, they need to ensure that the road ahead for ...
I liked it when a woman asked Gordon Brown in a radio phone-in whether he would support the Tories or Lib Dems if no party had an overall majority and Labour came third. However, to be realistic, the chances are with our ridiculous voting system that Labour will come at least second in seats even if it is third in votes. So, if no party has an overall majority, the Lib Dems are more likely than any other to hold the balance. How would they use it? Could they achieve PR by STV with it? Should they? If one party ...
Tue 4th
10:00My predictions for total seats in the next parliament using the "follow the money" betting method
Yesterday, I set out the reasons why I think that the LibDems are almost certain to take Islington South and Finsbury, based on the principle of "following the money" by looking at the betting odds on Betfair, a betting exchange site. In fact, the odds indicate a swing to the LibDems of 8.1%, enough for ...
[IMG: donningit] The Archbishops, donning it. (© Manchester Evening News) Those who have been reading my blog for some time may well have noticed a frisson of wariness towards organisations like The Christian Institute, and specifically towards the general approach adopted by these organisations towards political debate. Several posts in the past have dealt with political ideology, the Equality Bill, and the way that the Christian media propounds certain viewpoints in an unhelpful, uncaveated way. Many churches are encouraging Christians to read the Christian Institute's Election Briefing. I believe that this is a helpful document as far as it goes, ...
Extraordinary news emerges this morning of rumours that David Cameron's Conservatives are planning to mount a smash and grab raid on 10 Downing Street, regardless of the outcome of Thursday's election. The Conservatives have always made it clear that they oppose the introduction of a fair voting system, because they prefer a system that gives one party a majority to one that reflects what voters actually say they want. To prepare to overlook the result of the 'first past the post' system they favour, if it doesn't suit them, therefore seems not only anti-democratic but hypocritical too. Somehow, this doesn't ...
There's no point in being virtuous on your own. There's no point in wishing to be on our own. We're connected to one another, across the globe, more than ever before and I raise my glass to that. The right-wing press mantra that 'all legislation comes from Brussels' fails to understand the reality of Europe and of member states. Alas, aside from the Lib Dems, both the Tories and Labour have sided
Sunder Katwala has an interesting post on Next Left this morning where he highlights a report in the Guardian which discusses how David Cameron and The Conservatives are very unhappy with the current constitutional arrangement whereby the Prime Minister remains in office in the case of no party having an overall majority and gets the first chance to try and form a government that commands the confidence of the Commons. There are suggestions that David Cameron may try and use his media cheerleaders to shout loudly about the unfairness of this (if the Conservatives have the largest number of seats) ...
[IMG: http://www.wikio.co.uk] [IMG: tumblr_l1cik3ug9q1qbdcj9o1_400.jpg] And some other amusement...
You may if you are particularly devoted recall the analysis in Slash and Grow – about whether exports, households or investment can lead us out of recession. The bearish view is that households can't, because they are very indebted and need to keep saving, after a credit crunch has shown them how dangerous it is ...
One of the great things about being a candidate is the opportunity to speak to members of the media about your priorities. It really is great to be able to outline your views on the issues that matter, and know that you have the opportunity to reach large amounts of people in your constituency. My ...
At Jack Straw's gathering last night it was announced food would not be served as it would be against electoral law. This is something of a victory. About a quarter of the audience left immediately and most of the rest wandered out less obviously during the next half hour!
I may not find time to blog again between now and the election. So in case I don't I want to say a huge thank you to all the people who have been in touch by phone, letter or e mail, or who I have seen when out campaigning, who have said they are supporting me. It is really heartening to see such an interest in politics, particularly at a time when commentators were all saying no one cared. Being selected as a Parliamentary Candidate is a huge honour - particularly for me being selected for a third time in ...
Not at my best yesterday, as some of you already know; and my mood was not enhanced when, after popping out to the newsagents' for cigs and milk, I returned to find one of these leaflets on my doorstep, which had clearly been delivered by a couple of impossibly well-scrubbed and rather lost-looking young gentlemen who were hanging around at the end of my street, and who resembled those Mormon missionaries from Utah that are often seen around these parts, only without the immaculate Brooks Brothers suits; these were more your Man at C&A types, and stuck out like sore ...
Over at the Financial Times, Lib Dem MEP Andrew Duff offers a European perspective on the UK's general election – and finds the continent as gripped as the rest of us by Thursday's national poll: In Brussels and across Europe there has been a surge of interest in the British general election campaign. People had more or less accepted that David Cameron would form a Conservative government, probably with a large majority, but now the outcome looks far from certain. ... Yet the thing that has galvanised continental political interest is the exposure of the iniquity of British electoral procedure. ...
For part of this campaign I have had to combine my work as a University Lecturer with being a Parliamentary Candidate and Councillor. These are all demanding roles and while multi tasking might be possible at times it's really illustrated how difficult it is to do two important things at once. That's why, if I am elected to Parliament, I will be standing down from Liverpool City Council. I won't be doing this immediately as there are quite a few things I am half way through. But I will be doing it. And if I am elected to Parliament I ...
[IMG: Launching our campaign pledges at Stationers Park] As you are probably aware, the children's play fort at Stationers Park has seen better days and has been due for replacement for over 4 years now. The great news is most of the money needed to replace the fort has now been secured and fundraising is ongoing. The fort has been treasured by local families for years - and we need to make sure it is replaced with something even better. The design of the new play area should be down to local residents - especially the children who will use ...
Tue 4th
08:38
Guardian acknowledges its close in Bromsgrove, but the Liberal Democrats are picking up votes from e...
Article by Gary Younge in the Guardian on Saturday "Apart from a hiatus under Labour in 1973, Bromsgrove has been Tory since 1950...It was about as safe as a Tory seat could get. This time the Tories are having to work hard for it. An independent Conservative is standing against the official candidate, Sajid Javid. ...
The Philippa Stroud story rumbled on on Twitter, a very low level rumble that is, but didn't get into the mainstream media. I think any chance it will do is now extremely small. But that doesn't mean we can't extrapolate a few truths from the incident. 1) Here's a little paragraph from this article yesterday on why the media ignored the story: "It's interesting that today the Conservative Party quietly launched an equality manifesto, which among other things suggests that a future Conservative Government would "consider" the case for full gay marriage. But there was no press conference, so no ...
Tue 4th
08:16
Men with vested interests and dubious record criticise Lib Dem policies on security in Tory supporti...
'Nuff said. When it comes to Iraq and draconian attacks on our civil liberties I certainly hope that the Lib Dems will remain 'outside the consensus'!
"No more moats and duck houses, no more party funding scandals, no more unelected chambers changing the laws of the land just because they have done favours for other politicians. Let's take this unique opportunity, and it is a unique opportunity, for ...
The Norfolk and Waveney Church Leaders have issued a joint statement on the values which they believe should guide voters in the General Election. General Election - 6th May 2010 A Statement from the Church Leaders of Norfolk and Waveney On 6th May the people of Norfolk and Waveney will choose our representatives in Parliament at the General Election. Five years ago almost four in ten of those registered to vote did not do so. As Church Leaders in this area we encourage everyone to exercise their right to vote and to do so with the wellbeing of all people ...
The Norfolk and Waveney Church Leaders have issued a joint statement on the values which they believe should guide voters in the General Election. General Election - 6th May 2010 A Statement from the Church Leaders of Norfolk and Waveney On 6th May the people of Norfolk and Waveney will choose our representatives in Parliament at the General Election. Five years ago almost four in ten of those registered to vote did not do so. As Church Leaders in this area we encourage everyone to exercise their right to vote and to do so with the wellbeing of all people ...
Breaking with its more traditional Labour support, The Mirror is encouraging readers to vote tactically for the Lib Dems in seats like Carshalton & Wallington to keep David Cameron's Tories out. The article says: "This is a Labour paper with a long tradition of supporting Gordon Browns party, but we are urging some of you to vote Lib Dem this time." And the paper carries a guide to how to vote - including a recommendation that Labour supporters vote tactically for Tom Brake on Thursday Meanwhile, two senior Labour politicians, Ed Balls and Peter Hain have got pretty close to ...
What we need now is a government with only a third of the people who would vote, would vote for them, and when you factor in turnout that means the actually percentage of the population who vote for the government might be close to a quarter. However we should give them a strong mandate to force ...
That seems to be the implication of Labour's education secretary's interview in the New Statesman, where he says: For Balls, defeating the Tories is the top priority. Given this, what is his advice to Lib Dem supporters in the 100 or so Tory-Labour marginals? "I urge Lib Dem voters to bite their lip and back us." But what about Labour supporters in Tory-Lib Dem marginals? "I always want the Labour candidate to win, but I recognise there's an issue in places like North Norfolk, where my family live, where Norman Lamb [the Lib Dem candidate and sitting MP] is fighting ...
In recent weeks a serious of Earth tremors in California have reminded people there that the state is still waiting for "the Big One"- a move on a major fault line, like the famed San Andreas fault, that would cause a once-in-a-century massive Earthquake. It was 1906 when the last major 'quake took place, causing the near-destruction of the City of San Francisco, and such 'quakes have historically taken place roughly once every 90 years: after 104 years we are still waiting, and the underground pressures are building up to ever higher levels. When the fault ruptures, the size of ...
Postal voting in Haringey has already got off to a shaky start, with the ballot papers arriving late and in some cases with the wrong instructions on them. If you have a ballot paper which you haven't got around to filling in yet - or you have done the voting but haven't posted it yet - then you might want to consider taking your postal vote along to a polling station instead, just to be on the safe side. Of course, if you post your vote back to the council today (or even tomorrow) it should make it there on ...
All of a sudden, West Lothian seems to have taken over from Rochdale as Gaffe Central in this election. First of all, a few weeks ago, Linlithgow and East Falkirk Labour candidate Michael Connarty put out a leaflet in which he had failed to fill in his name - confused local voters have apparently been searching Twitter and Facebook for someone called yourname. Scott at Love and Garbage has more. Then Jeff over at SNP Tactical Voting found himself in some potential hot water over a post (now deleted) didn't see (not having the time to read too much at ...
As usual I was up at the crack of dawn yesterday to do "trade bell" deliveries. Imagine my astonishment when I noticed some "outside heavies" delivering a leaflet on my patch! How very dare they! Anyway, I nonchalantly crept up behind them to see what they were delivering. It was certainly heavy gauge card with a picture of Big Ben tower on it. When I got home, I saw that the "outside heavies" had very kindly delivered one of their leaflets to my house. It was a single A4 piece of card saying that the entire civilised world will go ...
So - what is it that will make your mind up? When the people of Britain finally met the Liberal Democrats in the form of Nick Clegg in that first debate - the welling up of hope gave us all that feeling of what might be possible. The establishment roar of rage that followed was a horrific to behold on the front pages of the right wing press. Now we have a chance, a once in a lifetime opportunity, to do something different and to change - otherwise the establishment waters will close over our heads and this opportunity to ...
The futures market in bonds and sterling does not normally open until 8 o'clock in the morning, but, according to yesterday's Guardian (03/05/10: Sterling faces battering within hours of polling) Euronext Liffe, which runs the gilts and futures exchange, has arranged that on Friday, as the election results begin to come it, the market will open at 1a.m As economist Hugo Radice has pointed out in a letter to the Guardian (27/04/10): "...bond purchasers have an interest in talking down the issue price of UK government debt in the short term... They are happy to exploit our electoral jitters safe ...
Merlene Emerson, Lib Dem PPC for Hammersmith shares with OBV a glimpse of what it is like fighting this high profile marginal seat.
[IMG: Platt Fields Centenary Festival] I'm really looking forward to the election being over. Not only because with any luck I'll be representing the people of Fallowfield in Manchester City Council, and Qassim the constituency of Gorton in Parliament. Not only because I'll be able to catch up on sleep, let the blisters heal and actually see my friends when they're not helping me deliver leaflets. I'm looking forward to the Platt Fields Centenary Festival this weekend, which starts on Friday 7th May, the day after the election. There's a lot going on this weekend, with celebrations, live music on ...
I have, apparently, enthused a local pensioner so much by my support for her position on matters to do with her housing estate that she is going round several pensioner groups and telling all her friends to vote for me. Hurrah for the principled grey vote, say I! There have been articles in the Torygraph and the Fail over the last week ridiculing various of our candidates for the heinous crimes of being a ventriloquist, or an ex-clown, or (worst of all) a Doctor Who geek (my immediate thought was if they've only found one they've not looked very hard)... ...
At a recent Student Union hustings, where the Liberal Democrats were represented by John Leech, Labour failed to send a representative. Obviously, this is pretty embarrassing, and suggests that Labour don't take students and the student vote seriously What makes it much worse, and the reason I'm posting about it, is that when Student Direct investigated, a Fallowfield Labour councillor decided to threaten news editor Girish Gupta for exposing the organisational incompetence which lead to the Labour no-show. This is clearly unacceptable - they should have just owned up to the mistake, admitted that they got it wrong by failing ...
I'm not a huge fan of celebrity endorsements, whether it's for consumer products, charities, or dare I say it political parties. However, I have to make an exception for Colin Firth's comments yesterday about voting Lib Dem, "As a once-committed ...
Mick Henry, Labour leader of Gateshead Council, is not someone I have seen very often in the west of the borough. So it was interesting today to receive a report that he was in the Blaydon Labour HQ, along with cabinet member John McElroy. I received reports that they were also seen out delivering. What this suggests is that Labour are now pulling out all the stops to hold on to Blaydon. If I
Story here. Duncan Borrowman, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Old Bexley & Sidcup, has pledged to give £15,000 per year to local Bexley charities if elected on Thursday.Duncan Borrowman says: "I have been sickened, like everybody else locally, by the greed of politicians. I am not in politics for myself, but for local people. That is why I am pledging, that if elected, I will give
So we all know that Daniel Hannan made a whistle stop visit to Woking the other day to support his pal the Conservative PPC for Woking Jonathan Lord. I've already documented Lord's hypocrisy in this matter in that he is campaigning heavily on the NHS against Nurse Practitioner Rosie Sharpley, and then chooses to have ...
There is an issue of SNP posters being defaced and removed in the Linlithgow and East Falkirk constituency, I am using this blog post to publicly condemn such action. I know that nobody involved in my campaign has been involved in such action and I trust that from my experience that neither the Labour nor Conservative camps would have been either. However, I also take offence at the strong and untrue wording of the SNP agent Martyn Day over on the SNP candidate's blog. While asking quite correctly calling for the three candidates to join in publicly condemning such action ...
Aarggggghhhhh. Really. Joanne Cash - the infamous Cameron cutie standing in Westminster North really did just say that. I just caught the BBC ONE Local London News. They ran a piece on fight in the seat. Just at the point when I was about to switch over to catch the tail end of the snooker, I was stopped in my tracks. OMG. No . Yes. No ..OMG... Yes!!! She really did say "If this was a safe seat we wouldn't have to do this work". If ever there was an argument for a change to the voting system of this ...
So they keep saying that Woking LibDems are lying in their literature. Lets clear this up once and for all shall we? There is nothing that is inaccurate or a lie in the LibDem literature. Lets take a look at the facts below: Jonathan Lord tried to get the nomination for Royton, Lancs and Maidstone ...
The first leaders' debate set the scene for the election. The polls adjusted and have settled in a position which is wonderful for the Liberal Democrats. I spoke with a voter last week who was thinking that the polls may still be volatile but my opinion is that we have had no major gaffes and unless we get any more faux pas (everyone knows about Gordon and Rochdale) then what we have is what we will get on May 6th. Francis Pym was famous for answering a question on Question Time about whether we need an effective opposition. He admitted ...
Not so much sunburnt today as windburnt! Another busy day with many good wishes.
