Author Archives: Mark Pack

In case you’ve missed the news about this award, here’s the advert that has appeared in Liberal Democrat News:

Sadly on 29th May 2005 Patsy Calton, MP for Cheadle, died. Patsy was a wife, a mother, a teacher, an activist, a Councillor, a Parliamentarian, and an inspiration to us all. Her energy, enthusiasm and achievements truly were phenomenal, and she undoubtedly would have wanted to see other female Liberal Democrats actively involved in the Party too.

Nominating a female local activist, Councillor or MP/AM/MSP/MEP for the Patsy Calton Award is a brilliant way for you to acknowledge the fantastic contribution …

Well, well – Gordon’s claim to have left his control freakery behind and to now be a shining example of openness, accountability and honesty in politics hasn’t lasted very long.

Put to the test on IDs cards, he’s decided keeping the costs secret is best after all. There had been freedom of information requests from both the Liberal Democrats and No2ID to get released the Government’s own review of the costs of ID cards.

The Labour Government has consistently tried to stop the documents coming out, and even having the Information Tribunal rule against the Treasury hasn’t made Gordon Brown publish …

Oh dear. The Sunday Telegraph has done a survey of 50 Conservative council leaders, and found that 41 of them are unhappy with David Cameron’s grammar school policy and the way it was presented.

By comparison, his MPs are dancing in the streets with joy – only 50% of them told the Sunday Telegraph that they are unhappy too.

From today’s Daily Telegraph:

The rebellion has also reached the Tory grass roots, with activists preparing to stand against the party at the next election as “pro-grammar school” candidates.

Brian Wills-Pope, chairman of the National Grammar Schools Association, said he had been approached by four people preparing to stand as candidates on a pro-grammar school ticket in marginal Tory seats.

The association is considering supporting them financially and is setting up a “friends of grammar schools” section on its website to rally support.

The modern 24 hour rolling news world really doesn’t get more exicting than this.

(Oh ok, the story is about the able-bodied Conservative MP who thinks it is ok for him to park his car for several days in a parking bay reserved for Blue Badge holders).

The BBC has the politest version of the story. The Mirror is at the other end of the spectrum and The Telegraph somewhere in between.

One curiosity – according to the story Anthony Steen (Conservative MP for Totnes) says he was “rushing” to Westminster but the date of the incident seems to be for a day Parliament wasn’t sitting.

And one exciting detail – my car park expert sources have counted the parking bays and say there are 230 at the train station, of which six are for people with blue badges and four are for parents with children. …

The words are Gordon Brown’s:

“You have accused us of being a bunch of control freaks. Well in a way that’s what we have to be because we don’t have an identifiable aim which is ideologically based: because there’s no core idea to hold the party together in tough times we have to use discipline instead.”

Source: Ashdown Diaries, Volume 2, 2nd December 1997. (Hat tip: Hywel Morgan)

Support for a local income tax is one thing that the Liberal Democrats and SNP agree on in Scotland (cue argument about how many other such things there are…). With the SNP minority government there’s now quite a good chance that a local income tax will be introduced, but the SNP want a flat rate of tax across the whole country whilst the Liberal Democrats want councils to be able to set their own tax levels.

There’s more detail at the BBC. This will be an interesting one to watch as (yet again in Scotland) there’s a very real chance …

Congratulations to Pawan Gupta and Brent Liberal Democrats for winning the by-election in Dudden Hill:

Liberal Democrats 1,262 (39.8%)
Labour 1,177 (37.2%)
Tory 412  (13.0%)
Respect 160 (5.1%)
Green 156 (4.9%)

Majority 85
(In 2006 the three Lib Dem majorities were 32, 114 and 297 in this ward).

Turnout 34.2%

A particularly good result as the Liberal Democrats have taken the lead in running Brent Council, having made huge gains in the 2006 local elections, though not quite enough to have an overall majority.

This is a similar story to the previous Kentish Town (Camden) by-election – which was also a Liberal Democrat win – and also, like Dudden Hill, …

Oh dear. Just when it looked like Conservative MP (and their ex-Chief Whip) David Maclean’s bill to exempt Parliament from the Freedom of Information Act might fall in the House of Lords due to the lack of a peer to sponsor it … step forward Conservative peer Lord Trefgarne, who has said that he will do just that.

So after having nine Conservative front benchers voting to back the bill from their former Chief Whip, we now have one of their Lords (and a former minister to boot) ensuring the bill doesn’t fail at the first hurdle in the Lords.

PS So …

After suffering a two-year hate campaign, Liberal Democrats in Watford are probably welcoming the news that the police are stepping up their investigations and offering a £5,000 reward to help track down the culprit(s).

As The Times reports,

Tyres on cars have been slashed, poster boards damaged and members plagued by malicious letters and late-night silent phone calls … Detectives have linked 84 offences between April 1, 2005, and May 9, 2007. Before the local elections this month a number of Liberal Democrat supporters reported silent calls. Twelve malicious letters were also sent to residents.

Full story here.

Ming Campbell has stepped up the pressure over the bill to exempt Parliament from the freedom of information rules by both launching an online petition and also urging people to lobby members of the House of Lords (where the bill goes next for debate).

Details at the special campaign site, www.ourcampaign.org.uk/foi

No, not the dead African American gospel singer, but a Labour councillor in St Helens. As Jonathan Wallace points out, this means Labour is no longer the largest party on the council.

Such a shame that Gordon Brown’s face is all but hidden behind the teleprompt screen on the BBC coverage. Someone has got their camera angles horribly wrong.

A trivial historic footnote for the bank holiday.

During the 1966 general election campaign, Prime Minister Harold Wilson visited the Birmingham Rag Market for a public meeting (scene of a famous* public meeting in the 1964 campaign when the then Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home got shouted down).

Compare and contrast the media coverage of the time.

Exhibit A: a Labour supporting paper
WILSON GETS THE BETTER OF TORY HECKLERS (The Worker)

Exhibit B: a Conservative supporting paper
HECKLERS GET THE BETTER OF WILSON (Daily Sketch)

However, to be fair, the Tory papers did not present a united reporting front on all issues:

WILSON: 15,000 IN BIG RIOT (Express – …

A possibly interesting statistic: there were 21 councils in which the Liberal Democrats lost 7 or more seats on Thursday. The total loss across these seats was 255. In other words, across the rest of England the party made net gains (just).

By comparison, the top 21 councils for gains saw the party make total gains of 134 seats. So the overall result does seem to have been particularly skewed by a small number of particularly bad results.

Intellectual hat tip: Pigeon Post whose posting on similar lines made me work out these numbers.

Also – belated congratulations to Ashfield Liberal Democrats. …

Best of luck to everyone who is standing as a Liberal Democrat candidate; slightly more tepid wishes for other candidates 🙂

From the Worcester News, via RecessMonkey:

A CONSERVATIVE candidate in the Worcester city council elections has plunged her party into chaos by secretly joining the UK Independence Party … When confronted by the Worcester News, Miss Heider initially denied being a UKIP member, but she was later forced to come clean.

Oops.

Compare and contrast:

Caroline Spelman … the Shadow Local Government Secretary questioned the wisdom of moving towards more fortnightly bin collections (from the Conservative Party website)

with

Fortnightly collections ‘boost recycling’
LGA chairman Lord Bruce-Lockhart said: “The move by some to alternate weekly bin collections is aimed at working with residents to reduce waste, increase recycling and slowing rising costs” (from news reports on an LGA report)

That wouldn’t by any chance be one senion Conservative saying one thing in one place, and another senior Conservative saying the opposite somewhere else would it?

As the Western Daily Press writes:

The Tory Party in Wiltshire descended into outright civil war yesterday on the eve of vital elections over plans to axe five local councils and replace them all with one super-council.Three of the county’s four Conservative MPs attacked their own party’s county councillors for seeking greater glory for themselves over democracy, and disputed claims the move would save millions of pounds. The shock move has exposed massive splits within the Conservative Party in Wiltshire.

Well, that’s one way of spending the last few days before polling day. Full story is here.

After the May 1978 elections (i.e. the last round of elections before they won the general election) the Conservatives had 49.6% of councillors.