Tag Archives: rochdale

Opinion: Why Sir Cyril was wrong

By David Hennigan | Published 4th August 2011 - 11:49 am

Now, it’s easy to pretend that your political hero is perfect. It’s easy to write hagiographical accounts of a life without mistakes.

I felt that about the late Sir Cyril Smith MBE, formerly MP for Rochdale. I shall forever feel proud about how Cyril took me under his wing. I will be forever proud now that Sir Cyril called me his friend and gave me so many tips, so many words of advice about how to do my job. (I was Lib Dem Agent in Rochdale from 2004 – 2009) I wrote about ‘our Cyril’ for his 80th …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Is it time to rethink postal voting?

By Stuart Wilks-Heeg | Published 4th May 2011 - 11:54 am

Allegations emerged recently of voters in Rochdale being asked to hand postal ballots for the local elections to party representatives to complete and submit to the Returning Officer. A decade ago, this might have made the national news, but now such stories are probably too familiar to make the headlines.

While electoral fraud is not rife in the UK, the scale of the problem is almost impossible to estimate. One thing is for sure – the Rochdale case does not represent an isolated local difficulty.  Based on joint reporting by the Electoral Commission and the Association of Chief Police Officers …

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Posted in Election law, Op-eds, The Independent View | Also tagged , , | 14 Comments

In other news… Croatian justice, the monarchy, death penalty impeded and elections news

By Mark Pack | Published 17th April 2011 - 11:57 am

More good news on the increasing reach of international justice: “Two Croatian military leaders have been convicted of atrocities against Serbs during the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s” (BBC)

Both Lynne Featherstone and Evan Harris have previously pushed for the rules of royal succession to be changed to remove the precedence given to males over females. As Lynne has put it previously, the monarchy is about symbolism – so it should have the right symbolism. Now Nick Clegg is also on the case: “Mr Clegg, who is responsible for constitutional reform, told the BBC the issue …

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Six Rochdale Lib Dem councillors resign over leadership

By Helen Duffett | Published 19th November 2010 - 3:05 pm

From BBC News Manchester:

Six Liberal Democrat councillors in Rochdale have resigned from the party in protest over its leadership nationally and locally.

Pat and Ted Flynn, Peter Davison, Doreen Brophy Lee, Barbara Todd and Naim Mahmood will sit as independents.

Councillor Pat Flynn said the party was “doing too many U-turns”.

Councillor Dale Mulgrew, deputy leader of Rochdale Lib Dems, said the resignations were part of a dispute over the party’s selection process.

Two of the councillors had been deselected by the party ahead of next year’s local elections.

Rochdale Council is led by a coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives.

Read the full story …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 34 Comments

Rochdale’s first female leader

By Alex Foster | Published 22nd December 2009 - 5:52 pm

News reaches t’Voice (via the Middleton Guardian) that Lib Dem Irene Davidson has become the new leader on Rochdale Council – and in doing so has become the first female leader of the Council.

Coun Davidson, who works as a prison officer in Manchester, will be replacing the leader Alan Taylor, who decided last week to stand down due to ill health.

Earlier this year, she stood in for Coun Taylor during one of his bouts of illness. She was acting leader when Rochdale hit the national news headlines after installing its Christmas light decorations in August.

Councillor Davidson said: “It is

…

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RIP Sir Ludovic Kennedy

By Stephen Tall | Published 19th October 2009 - 7:34 pm

The BBC reports:

The author, broadcaster and campaigner Sir Ludovic Kennedy has died aged 89. A former BBC Panorama journalist, Sir Ludovic spent decades investigating miscarriages of justice, including the case of the Birmingham Six. He contributed to the abolition of the death penalty and was also president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society.

Nick Clegg has joined in the tributes to Sir Ludovic, a member of the Liberal party and later the Lib Dems, for most of his life:

Ludovic Kennedy was one of the great thinkers of his generation. His pursuit of justice and his championing of sometimes unpopular and

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Trouble for Labour in Rochdale as former mayor quits party

By The Voice | Published 24th September 2009 - 12:20 pm

Rochdale Labour party is in turmoil this week, after seven Labour members were disciplined for bringing the party into disrepute for calling for an investigation into allegations of domestic abuse by their parliamentary candidate, Simon Danczuk. The former mayor of Rochdale, Robin Parker, has now quit the party in protest at what he regards as a miscarriage of justice, describing the position of Mr Danczuk as Labour’s candidate as “untenable”.

Here’s an excerpt from the in-depth report at Rochdale Online:

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Posted in Opposition watch | Also tagged , , | 1 Comment