Author Archives: Mark Pack

Labour MP and former Minister Nick Raynsford has an intriguing article on the New Statesman website today. His basic argument is that Labour’s position is closer to that of the Conservatives in their depths of unpopularity in 1990 (when they went on to win the next general election) than that of their depths of unpopularity in 1995 (when they went on to landslide defeat).

Nick Raynsford writes:

After the Glasgow East by-election, no one can doubt that Labour is in a deep hole. This is much more serious than mid-term blues which may be expected to evaporate as the General Election

…

This week the revised traffic accident figures for 2007 were published, and they confirmed the previous good news about a sharp fall in the number of deaths in road accidents:

1994-8   3,578 (average)
1999       3,423
2000       3,409
2001       3,450
2002       3,431
2003       3,508
2004       3,221
2005       3,201
2006       3,172
2007       2,946

What always strikes me about these numbers (even after the very welcome fall in 2007) is just how high they are compared to other forms of death which the national media reports …

As pointed out in the comments, the BBC reports:

A Gloucestershire county councillor has resigned his position on the county’s police authority after accepting a caution for theft.

Alan Preest, a Conservative councillor, was arrested on Friday in connection with an incident at a supermarket in Lydney and cautioned.

So writes Gill Hornby in today’s Telegraph:

When the Ian Oakley scandal first broke, the official Conservative response was that it would be “inappropriate” to comment. But now he has actually pleaded guilty to a three-year sexist vendetta, and still the new, modern, forward-thinking, women-friendly party has failed to come up with even a line. Could we perhaps, future prime minister, hear your views?

Yesterday Chris Huhne set out the party’s approach to cutting youth crime:

“If we want to tackle the problem of youth crime, we need to take action early to stop kids from embarking on a life of crime before it’s too late.

“The old parties are falling over each other trying to be tough on crime, but nothing is being done do stop young people getting sucked in to a cycle of crime.

“Ministers know that programmes to divert kids away from crime work, and are even happy to promote such projects. However, they have failed to fund them properly in favour of

…

Though not perhaps quite in the way you’d expect. SNP councillor Jahangir Hanif took his children to see him firing off an AK-47, whilst Conservative councillor Philip Thomas has been praising a meat cleaver and two machetes as being “cool”.

This is an issue that pops up fairly regularly in the Liberal Democrats, with some internal contests seeing candidates given contact details for the electorate (e.g. when selecting Westminster Parliamentary candidates) but others not (e.g. federal committee elections).

So it’s interesting to see how a similar debate is playing out in another party. The Greens are currently electing their (first) leader, and this contest has included a dispute over whether the candidates should be given members’ details. Jim Kilock’s posting from last month (and the comments to it) seems to give a good flavour of the arguments being used …

Ian Oakely, the Conservative candidate for Watford and Hillingdon councillor*, today appeared in court and pleaded guilty to five charges of criminal damage and two of harrasment. He also asked for 68 other offences to be taken into account, making a total of 75 offences.

A fuller piece will follow later today, but in the meantime I’m sure that many people will both be shocked at the number of offences but also relieved that after all the years, someone has finally been brought to justice.

* After he was arrested, he quit as Conservative candidate and left the Conservative group on Hillingdon Council.

UPDATE: …

Nick’s been in the media a lot in the last few days, including talking about housing (interview with 24dash.com), a more general interview with Building magazine, writing about the fight against corruption (with an article in the Yorkshire Post) and the prospects for getting Liberal Democrat MPs in Hull and Derby.

Make of this photoshopping what you will.