Author Archives: Mark Pack

Following on from the case of Lewisham East MP Bridget Prentice getting into trouble over how she is using her MP allowances, now it is the turn of Labour MP for Lewisham West, Jim Dowd. As with Bridget Prentice, he looks to be using the funds provided to help him communicate with his constituents to instead publicise his work to other people whose votes he will be wanting at the next general election.

Local Liberal Democrat Alex Feakes writes:

Reports are emerging from residents of Penge that they have received a new publication recently from a politician aspiring

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A sign of the financial crisis times: over the weekend, I took advantage of Open House London to visit various properties that are normally closed to the public (including the modern house on my street – hello neighours!). Chatting to a friend who also visited various properties, I discovered that the Bank of England had also been due to open its doors to the public over the weekend, but pulled out at the last minute from opening on Saturday because they had to have so many staff in working over the weekend.

A bit out of character you might think 🙂 but Dizzy’s piece seems to hit the nail on the head:

Last week, the Tory Leader of the Opposition on the Council was stopped by Police and accused of being a terrorist whilst he took a photo of the local Police station for a ward by-election campaign leaflet.

This is not a joke. Councillor Spencer Drury (pictured) was out in Plumstead High Street to gauge opinion on the issues down there in advance of a ward by-election next Thursday. He was also taking photos and when he got to the Police Station

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Bridget Prentice (Lewisham East, Labour) is to be investigated for using the funds made available for constituency work to promote herself to people living elsewhere. As the local newspaper reports:

Lewisham Liberal Democrat councillor Cllr Mark Morris made the allegation in a letter to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

It came after a report, containing an invitation to join MP for Lewisham East Bridget Prentice’s support network, was delivered to Mr Morris’s home in Catford’s Rushey Green ward in July.

Mr Morris claims that, since his local MP is Jim Dowd, the newsletter has broken parliamentary guidelines

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From the Daily Mail:

A senior Labour MP is facing demands for a sleaze inquiry after intervening in a court case on behalf of a party donor.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the influential home affairs select committee, urged the High Court to delay proceedings involving a friend from whom he and his family had received lavish hospitality.

We can reveal that the friend – controversial lawyer Shahrokh Mireskandari – was on the brink of losing a long-running legal costs battle with an airline when Mr Vaz intervened…

Legal sources said the judge was furious at what he perceived to be ‘political interference’…

Lib Dem

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… it’s ok, this piece is actually by a Labour Parliamentary candidate. It’s true that if you click through on her name or scroll beyond the end of the story, you can find this out, but it does raise the question about how clearly articles from MPs and candidates should be labelled as such on newspaper sites.

Good news from the TES (Times Education Supplement) this week: a poll of 6,000 teachers puts the Liberal Democrats top with positive views on 4 out of 5 party policies compared with 2/5 for the Conservatives and 1/5 for Labour policies.

From the FT:

The ban on short-selling bank stocks marks another political victory for Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, who has proved a prescient forecaster of financial doom.

Mr Cable’s lacerating attacks this week on hedge funds “hunting in packs” to drive down bank shares appeared in tune with a populist backlash against the “short-selling spivs” deemed responsible for forcing HBOS into a takeover…

Before the ban was announced George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, defended short-selling as a “symptom” not a cause of the problems. The Tories last night said they welcomed “any short-term action that will bring stability to

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Earlier this week Vince Cable called for action on aggressive short-selling of bank shares … and now Guido has spotted the news that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is indeed banning short-selling in financial companies. Plaudits for Vince, but this drastic action is also a sobering reminder of just how deep the current financial crisis runs.

To lose four people in a handful of days would be bad at the best of times, but the chaos surrounding the departures only deepens the mess Labour is in.

We’ve already had the failing-to-sack-someone-because-it-turns-out-he-has-already-quit-but-you-didn’t-notice-manoeuvre.

And then today brought us not only the departure of a minister, but a departure in rather chaotic circumstances. The story starts last night when the BBC ran a story that a minister was set to quit. This morning the Daily Telegraph named him as David Cairns. Then a “source close to” the Scottish Secretary of State Des Browne said David Cairns had, …

David Cairns, Scotland Office minister, has resigned, saying

The issue of leadership and direction are being discussed and argued over, and to go on denying it is hardly credible.

To that end I believe that the time has come to take the bull by the horns and allow a leadership debate to run its course.

I know that it is incompatible to hold this view and to remain a serving minister, and although it had not been my intention to resign, I have reluctantly concluded that it is the only honourable course of action left open. (BBC)

For details of the three previous …

A quick piece of breaking news: I’d blogged before about the way in which a taxpayer-funded magazine from Labour MP Glenda Jackson was being used to gather canvassing data for the Labour Party. She has now agreed to pay back in full the costs of the magazine, including postage.

Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP for Mitcham and Morden, was sacked as a Labour whip after calling for a leadership contest.

Joan Ryan, Labour MP for Enfield North, was sacked as Gordon Brown’s Cyprus advisor and a Labour Party Deputy Chair.

Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, quit as Brown’s Special Envoy for Forestry (though that didn’t stop Gordon Brown subsequently trying to sack him anyway) accusing Brown of, “vacillation, loss of international credibility and timorous political manoeuvres that the public cannot understand.”

So far, twenty-odd Labour MPs are calling for a leadership contest, either in public or in private – and …

As the Daily Telegraph reports:

He told the party’s Bournemouth conference he will take time off when his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez gives birth. She is due in February.

Mr Clegg, 41, told delegates: “Yes I will take paternity leave, absolutely and unambiguously yes.”

Nick explains further in The Independent:

He said: “If I’m given a choice between spending an evening in a Westminster bar with other politicians or reading a book to my children, it’s a no-brainer.”

The Liberal Democrat leader added: “We are mothers and fathers before we are politicians. We’ve got a long way to

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Liberal England has the news that Telford & Wrekin council has backed down over their policy of questioning adults seen walking in a local park without children.

Conservative councillors and the brothel: David Bourne has now resigned from the council cabinet and from the Conservative Party. Whether or not his wife, Carol, has also resigned is not known.

Council questions people without children in local park: this story has now hit the national media, including Metro and Telegraph.