On Monday 10th November a Liberal Democrat Opposition Day debate was held in the Commons on a motion on the Post Office Card Account.
The wording of the motion was the same as that used in Early Day Motion (EDM) 2008 from this session. The EDM was signed by 47 Labour MPs. In the vote on [...]

The Government will allow the Post Office to keep the Post Office Card Account contract until at least 2015.
The contract had previously been put out to tender, risking the loss of 3,000 Post Offices if a private firm won the contract.
To cheers in the House of Commons, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell announced [...]

From eclectech, soundtrack by Mushroom: a jolly database ditty about our stalker Government.
Enjoy!

The Guardian has news of Labour’s further inconsistency in their plans for the Post Office network:
Lord Mandelson is urging the prime minister to save the Post Office network by allowing it to provide government services and financial products, according to a leaked letter seen by the Guardian.
Mandelson suggests that the current economic downturn and “recent [...]

It’s always valuable to meet with campaigners from neighbouring areas, to share ideas (and helpers!)
In a change to the printed guide which has been sent out to London Region Liberal Democrats, this Saturday’s Autumn Conference now features a campaigning pick-me-up.
Campaign Surgery, a fringe event at 11.45, is great for development parties. Here’s the idea:
Are [...]

It’s London Region’s turn to have their Autumn Conference and AGM.
Come to: Haverstock School, 24 Haverstock Hill, London NW3 2BQ (Nearest tube: Chalk Farm)
On: Saturday 15 November, from 9.30am to 5.30pm.
There’s a packed agenda, useful training and fringe events, and guest speakers – including Chris Huhne MP, Graham Watson MEP, Tom Brake MP and Baroness [...]

From Saturday’s Liberal Democrat Presidential Election count at Cowley Street: Ros Scott’s acceptance speech.
Special bonus scenes: The announcement of the result, clips of Chandila Fernando and Lembit Öpik and the promise of a new First Kitten. (6:34)

I’m at Cowley Street, at the election count for the next President of the Liberal Democrats.
The count has just been completed and the result is as follows:
Ros Scott: 20,736 votes (72%)
Lembit Opik: 6247 votes (22%)
Chandila Fernando 1799 votes (6%)
Commenting, the new Liberal Democrat Party President, Ros Scott said:
I’m really proud to belong to a Party [...]

Guido Fawkes writes today that Jacqui Smith’s fingerprints have been taken away for analysis and potential copying:
Jacqui Smith gave a speech today at midday on ID cards to an audience invited by the Social Market Foundation, at the end of the event the glass she was drinking from during the Q & A was whisked [...]

News for caffeine-fuelled campaigners!
From Transfair USA, a non-profit organisation which certifies and promotes fair trade products in the States:
Starbucks, one of the largest buyers of Fair Trade Certified coffee, will double its purchases to 40 million pounds in 2009, making the company the largest purchaser of Fair Trade Certified™ coffee in the world.
“This commitment from [...]

This clip from the Simpsons is a timely reminder of the problems still to be ironed out if E-voting is to be trusted.

Curt Wagner blogs at Show Patrol:
Thankfully, the frightfest opens big—as in, Homer not being able to squeeze into a voting booth. He has to use the “double-wide” booth instead, but his problems don’t [...]

London blogger Tory Troll has this piece about Andrew Gilligan, frequent critic of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone.
Gilligan used a rather unusual turn of phrase in his Evening Standard column on Monday, on London’s bendy buses. The same phrase had cropped up earlier in anonymous comments on the same subject in other London political [...]

At US website Politics Online, Anthony Man writes on how the internet has changed the way local and national campaigns are run:
“As more and more people spend more and more time online, the Internet is reshaping political campaigns in ways large and small. From the presidency to the lowest-profile local office, the Internet is permeating [...]

From the Associated Press of Pakistan:
LONDON, Oct 27 (APP): Politicians, activists and grass-root leaders joined thousands of British Muslims to celebrate peace, in defiance of divisive smear casters. They gathered Sunday to take part in an annual jamboree to celebrate British Islam and discuss how the community can reach out to wider society in peace [...]

In the US, as in the UK, some people don’t like to reveal who’ll get their vote. But there are suburbs where residents are risking controversy by putting up huge campaign signs in their front gardens.
With days left before US voters go to the polls, many homes in Bay View, Milwaukee are displaying “yard [...]

The BBC reports today that the start of recession in the UK has now been pronounced:
The UK economy has “deteriorated dramatically” in the past three months, and is already in a recession, top forecasters have suggested.
The Ernst & Young Item Club says the UK [economy] will shrink by 1% next year, before recovering in 2010 [...]

Mayor’s Question Time yesterday at London’s City Hall was interrupted twice, by protesters in five different parts of the public gallery.
They were calling on the Mayor to ensure a living wage for workers on the London Underground, particularly those employed as cleaners. I’d noticed the young woman sitting next to me, fiddling nervously with [...]

Yesterday saw the FTSE 100 sustain its biggest percentage fall in a single day since ‘Black Monday’ in 1987.
Although the banking crisis is having global repercussions, it has raised questions in our own country about blind faith in markets. Just as in the Thatcher era, the Conservatives won’t solve the problems of another Labour [...]

In his first meeting as Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority yesterday, Boris Johnson faced criticism for causing Sir Ian Blair’s resignation.
Johnson maintained that he had sought the opinion of “a great many” of the MPA’s members. However, the majority of MPA members said that they had not been consulted about the Mayor’s decision [...]

Ruth Kelly, replaced today as Transport Secretary by Geoff Hoon, has announced that she will step down as MP for Bolton West at the next election.
Having already resigned from the cabinet to spend more time with her four young children, Ms Kelly told a meeting of Labour supporters in her constituency that she will not [...]