Author Archives: Mark Pack

Crikey, it’s hard work keeping up with all these stories at the moment… the latest is from Birmigham where a Labour councillor was already facing a trial over accusations that they lied about their opponent to win the seat (sound familiar?). Today’s twist is that the Crown Prosecution Service has now been called in to investigate allegations of witnesses for the trial are being nobbled.

As The Times reports:

The Director of Public Prosecutions is to examine allegations of witness-nobbling in a trial where Labour is accused of corruptly winning an election.

One witness has gone into hiding, and another told a

…

Lawrence Bailey, the previous Labour leader of Swansea Council, has been banned from being a councillor for two and a half years. There were two reasons for this ban. The first: the finding of indecent images on his computers on more than one occassion. The second, and more unusual: the finding of 253 documents on his laptop computer, most of which were letters to the Swansea Evening Post but:

“Although the police examination showed Mr Bailey as being the author, the documents purported to have originated from various residents of Swansea,” stated the report .

“In some cases the addresses did not exist or

…

The Standard reports:

Gordon Brown’s chief fundraiser advocated the use of unlawful third parties for donations, it emerged today.

In a potentially explosive revelation, it’s been reported that Jon Mendelsohn suggested that at least one Labour deputy leadership campaign should use a “network” of people to cover up the real identities of donors…

The Standard has learned that Mr Mendelsohn himself raised the idea of keeping donors’ names secret – a practice which the Prime Minister this week said was “unlawful”.

Read the full story here.

In May 2002 Charles Clarke (then chair of the Labour Party) announced the creation of a new six person committee to vet all Labour Party donations of more than £5,000 (source: BBC).

The members were:

• Charles Clarke
• Lord Evans of Temple Guiting, chairman of Faber and Faber 
• Margaret Prosser, deputy leader of the Transport and General Workers’ Union 
• Lord Levy, the Labour party’s former chief fundraiser
• David Triesman, Labour’s general secretary (during whose tenure several David Abrahams donations were received) 
• Baroness Jay of Paddington, former Labour leader of the House of Lords (who has featured in the David Abrahams story already)
  (Source: The Independent)

The first of the David …

Let us give credit where credit is due. Baroness Jay, Labour member of the House of Lords and daughter of former Labour PM Jim Callaghan, appears to be remarkably sharp.

Until earlier today, everyone in the Labour party was categorising themselves into one of two groups:

(a) The “we didn’t know anything about the David Abrahams” group, and
(b) The “we knew about David Abrahams but didn’t think there was anything wrong with his approach to donations” group.

Step forward then, Baroness Jay. She tipped off the Hilary Benn for Deputy Leader campaign that the £5,000 it was being offered in the name of …

This.

From 24dash.com:

A Tory councillor came under fire tonight for praising former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith as a “great and wise” leader.

Richard Willis – a member of Reading Borough Council and aide to local MP Rob Wilson – insisted Mr Smith’s white minority government had been “benign and successful”.

The death of 88-year-old Mr Smith, who was regarded by many as a white supremacist, was announced yesterday.

In spite of international sanctions and opprobrium, he held power for 14 years after illegally declaring independence from Britain in the 1960s…

In comments added to the politicalbetting.com website, Mr Willis defended Mr Smith’s record

…

As the BBC reports:

Raghib Ahsan, a councillor in Sparkhill, Birmingham, for seven years, claimed discrimination by a selection panel before the 1998 local elections.

The House of Lords accepted his appeal against a court ruling which rejected his claim he had been discriminated for being a Pakistani candidate.

It restored an employment tribunal’s decision that found in his favour…

Lord Hoffman said the Court of Appeal had been wrong to overturn the employment tribunal’s decision.

He said the court seemed to be saying it would be acceptable to discriminate against a Pakistani candidate if the panel held no racist views but thought

…

This is one story about another party that I wish weren’t true. From The Mirror:

George Hollingbery, a Tory councillor in Winchester , Hants, has sparked fury by calling the death of Lib Dem colleague Sue Fitzgerald “very useful”.

Sue died suddently at the weekend, aged just 52. To his credit, the Conservative Leader of Winchester Council, George Beckett, gave a rather more appropriate reaction:

Both councillors and staff of Winchester City Council have been sad to hear of the sudden death of Cllr Sue Fitzgerald. After living in her ward of Wickham for over 20 years she took a keen

…