Tag Archives: phil woolas

Meet the Lib Dem bloggers: Nick Thornsby

By Mark Pack | Published 25th April 2011 - 8:55 am

Welcome to the latest in our series giving the human face behind some of the blogs you can find on the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator.

Today it is Nick Thornsby who blogs at http://nickthornsby.wordpress.com.

Nick Thornsby1. What’s your formative political memory?
The 2005 election was the one I was probably first properly aware of as a 15/16 year-old. I remember reading the Liberal Democrat manifesto and seeing posters up in my area (mainly Labour, though I’m pleased to say that’s no longer true, and orange diamonds …

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Mike Hancock wins courts case over paedophile allegation

By Mark Pack | Published 24th February 2011 - 8:55 am

The BBC reports:

A rival who falsely claimed a Liberal Democrat MP was a paedophile has been convicted of attempting to affect a result in the general election.

Les Cummings, 66, made the false statement about Portsmouth South MP Mike Hancock.

Mr Hancock had strenuously denied the allegations made in an election leaflet pamphlet.

Cummings, who stood for the Justice and Anti-Corruption Party, was fined £500 at Southampton Magistrates’ Court.

He had falsely written on the flyer: “Mike Hancock is a paedophile.”

It then showed a picture of Mr Hancock with children and the words: “Would you let him get this close to your children?”

This …

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The final Phil Woolas judgement: its legal implications

By Mark Pack | Published 6th December 2010 - 5:55 pm

Although the BBC got rather excitable in its coverage of Friday’s legal defeat for ex-Labour MP Phil Woolas, talking about how the ruling was set to have a major impact on how elections are run in the UK, the reality is rather more prosaic. The law which Woolas broke isn’t new and nor has the case thrown up significant precedent or previously overlooked aspects to it.

There probably will be some candidates and agents whose eyes have previously skipped over the part of the guidance from their local returning officer, the Electoral Commission or their political party which makes reference to …

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Posted in Election law | 4 Comments

Now is the time to help in Oldham East and Saddleworth

By Chris Davies MEP | Published 4th December 2010 - 10:55 am

As you may have heard on the news, High Court judges have dismissed the appeal by former Labour MP, Phil Woolas, against his conviction for illegal practices in the General Election.

There will now be a by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth with a likely polling day of January 13th.

Last May, Elwyn Watkins lost by just 103 votes because of the lies told by Phil Woolas that have been condemned by the Court.  A couple of days ago I canvassed one couple who told me: “We we’re going to vote Liberal Democrat, but when we read what Labour were saying about your …

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged , , | 9 Comments

BREAKING: Phil Woolas loses bid to overturn election court ban

By Helen Duffett | Published 3rd December 2010 - 12:30 pm

The BBC reports:

Phil Woolas has lost his bid to overturn an election court’s ruling that stripped him of his Commons seat and barred him from politics.

He narrowly won his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat in May but the result was declared void by an election court over his conduct in the campaign.

He argued that the election court’s interpretation of the law was flawed.

But three High Court judges upheld the election court’s decision. If he does not appeal there will be a by-election.

Lord Justice Thomas, Mr Justice Tugendhat and Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said that, although Mr Woolas was entitled

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , | 25 Comments

Help early in Oldham East and Saddleworth, regardless of when it’s called

By Helen Duffett | Published 22nd November 2010 - 10:24 pm

Unexpected by-election HQ poster!
There’s been a lot of speculation about the possible date of the Oldham East and Saddleworth election rerun. Three High Court judges are considering Phil Woolas’ request for a judicial review of the ruling that voided the election result in the constituency.

Today there have been reports that there may not be a court judgement this week, which would delay an election until after Christmas.

Lib Dem Voice understands that the situation isn’t quite so clear cut and there is still the …

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Posted in Parliamentary by-elections | Also tagged , | 14 Comments

Tim Farron asks Labour where they stand on Phil Woolas

By Helen Duffett | Published 19th November 2010 - 4:42 pm

From a party news release:

Liberal Democrat Party President-Elect Tim Farron has written to the General Secretary of the Labour Party, Ray Collins, asking him to clarify the Labour Party’s position on Phil Woolas following criticism of Harriet Harman’s decision to suspend him by a number of backbench MPs.

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear General Secretary,

Firstly may I offer you my heartfelt congratulations on the news of your elevation to the House of Lords.

However, I am writing to you to raise the matter of the judgement of the Election Court in Oldham East and Saddleworth on November 5th and

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Memo from Phil Woolas to Labour MPs

By Mark Pack | Published 10th November 2010 - 7:57 pm

MEMO

From: Phil Woolas
To: Labour Party MPs

Dear colleague,

Thanks for speaking up about how outrageous it is for the courts to oust someone elected by the public with a surprise ruling that sets an awful legal precedent for what was a spur of the moment decision people made during the election.

As the media are building up a welcome interest in the number of MPs who share your views and mine, I have prepared the following brief notes to help you avoid any snarky questions from journalists on this topic.

DON’T say it’s awful for someone the public elected to be ousted from office …

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Posted in Humour | 11 Comments

Michael Meacher faces legal action for repeating Phil Woolas’s claims

By Mark Pack | Published 8th November 2010 - 12:42 pm

Labour MP Michael Meacher is facing the threat of legal action after he took to his blog at the weekend to repeat some of the allegations made by now disgraced Labour MP Phil Woolas despite the court ruling that they were false.

Michael Meacher represents the neighbouring seat of Oldham West and Royton and claimed on his blog on Saturday that, “In the course of the one-week election court proceedings it appears that Watkins himself admitted that he had spent some £200,000 on the election, which is 7 times above the maximum permitted limit.”

Yet the court judgement (which appeared before Michael …

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged | 19 Comments

The Phil Woolas judgement: Arthur Balfour was right

By Mark Pack | Published 8th November 2010 - 8:55 am

The election offence for which Phil Woolas’s election was overturned is, deliberately and rightly, drawn narrowly and precisely (a point Nich Starling made very robustly on his blog and which Iain has also made on Lib Dem Voice).

The law gives very broad scope to contentious and aggressive claims, partly because – as Arthur Balfour succinctly put it when pushed to expand the law in 1905, “It is evidently not easy to go further, if only because of the difficulty of distinguishing between the mis-statements which are due to malice and those which are due to mere stupidity.”

The …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Allowing Woolas’ behaviour is not “vital to our democracy”

By Iain Roberts | Published 6th November 2010 - 9:15 am

Phil Woolas has vowed to fight on to keep his parliamentary seat of Oldham East and Saddleworth, following the ruling on Friday that voids his General Election victory and bans him from standing as an MP for three years.

He no right of appeal against the judges’ decision, but wants to take it to judicial review, though on what grounds isn’t clear.

Mr Woolas would like us to think that the judgement is not only wrong but fundamentally damaging to political discourse – that it will allow politicians to get away with all sorts whilst their opponents cower, unwilling to risk …

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Posted in Election law, Op-eds | Also tagged | 20 Comments

Phil Woolas loses court case over his election

By The Voice | Published 5th November 2010 - 12:28 pm

The Guardian (and many others) reports:

Labour’s shadow immigration minister, Phil Woolas, was ejected from parliament today after a court ruled he had breached election laws by falsely claiming his Liberal Democrat opponent had “wooed” extremist Muslims in the run-up to the 6 May poll.

For the first time in 99 years a specially convened election court has overturned the result of a parliamentary poll and ordered a rerun after two high court judges ruled the result of the Oldham East poll void. They upheld the claim by Elwyn Watkins that Woolas knowingly made false statements.

UPDATE 14:20 – Elwyn Watkins has …

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged | 133 Comments

Ed Miliband’s home affairs appointments: can we really take him seriously on civil liberties?

By Stephen Tall | Published 11th October 2010 - 8:15 pm

One of the more cheering bits of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference was his pledge that the party under his leadership would once again take seriously the issue of civil liberties, of individual rights

My generation recognises too that government can itself become a vested interest when it comes to civil liberties. I believe in a society where individual freedom and liberty matter and should never be given away lightly. … we must always remember that British liberties were hard fought and hard won over hundreds of years. We should always take the greatest care in protecting them.

…

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Posted in News, Op-eds | Also tagged , , | 14 Comments

Woolas trial: court delays verdict

By Kevin Peters | Published 7th October 2010 - 4:14 pm

Lib Dem Voice can reveal that the rare Election Petition Court which was held in Uppermill for the constituency of Oldham East and Saddleworth earlier in September will be delayed in giving its verdict.

Mr Justice Nigel Teale, one of the two High Court judges hearing the case, originally indicated that they would give their verdict sometime in mid-October.

Helen Mountfield QC asked whether there was a likelihood of a verdict at the end of the week of giving evidence, but Mr Justice Teale made plain in the politest and firmest way that neither he nor Mr Justice Griffith Williams, the other …

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Woolas trial report: day four

By Kevin Peters | Published 16th September 2010 - 8:41 pm

This report is from the Lib Dem Voice court reporter. You may also like to read Nick Thornsby’s account of the trial

Helen Mountfield QC today led the special election petition court through the substance of the arguments, case law and disputed facts of the case. Representation of the People Act 1983 section 106 was a specific time limited right of prosecution in relations to the conduct of a particular election. Both Helen Mountfield and Gavin Millar used many of the same pieces of case law and legislation. Amongst these was the Human Rights Act which …

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Posted in Election law, News | Also tagged , | 14 Comments