Author Archives: Mark Pack

Edward Davey MP (Chair of Campaigns and Communications) has written to the Chair of the Labour Party Hazel Blears, asking her to suspend those responsible for alleged postal vote electoral fraud in Leeds.

You can read more on the party’s website.

The Liberal Democrats have today launched a report on the state of Britain after ten years of Blair and Brown being in charge.

Launching the document Ming Campbell said:

“The Blair-Brown government started with so much hope but now we are left with so much disappointment. This Government has wasted its opportunities and wasted your money.

“They have invested in health and education but lacked the courage and principles that would have enabled them to spend it effectively.”

You can read more, including the full document, on the Liberal Democrat website.

The BBC has the details.

So far the Conservatives are investigating rather than having suspended him as a member, which is a little curious given how eager Francis Maude has been to call for the immediate expulsion of people from other parties when the far right have been involved. Let’s hope that was just him falling prey to passing political temptation to try to score a few cheap points rather than evidence of serious sustained double standards from him on these sorts of issues.

From the Sunday Mirror:

One senior minister said: “The Tories aren’t doing well in the North, but we reckon we could suffer big losses against the Lib Dems in the South, especially London.”

All pretty good until those last two words. Full story is here.

The Sunday Times has a got a story about Labour breaking the rules on postal voting:

All three main parties, meanwhile, have signed up to the Electoral Commission’s code of conduct … Today we report that the Labour party in Leeds has driven an articulated lorry through this code in a desperate attempt to gain power on the city council. An undercover reporter posing as a student activist was part of a team told by the leader of the Labour group on the council, Keith Wakefield, and a fellow Labour politician, to collect postal votes in two key wards,

…

News from Portsmouth:

Tory Jezz Baker was arrested at 1.30pm yesterday after a month-long police investigation. It is understood to be alleged that Cllr Baker, who sits on the city council planning committee, took money to support planning applications.

The full story is on the local newspaper’s website.

The Chingford Green by-election (London Borough of Waltham Forest) took place last night:

Conservative 1694 (55.2; -14.8)
Lib Dem  Graham Woolnough 1022 (33.3; +14.3)
Labour 208 (6.8; -4.2)
UKIP 143 (4.7; +4.7).
Majority 672
Turnout 38.5%
Conservative hold
Swing: 15% Conservative to Liberal Democrat

That’s the question posed by Chris Huhne MP in his article for today’s Guardian which you can also read on the party’s website.

Here’s the evidence from Bristol. Judge for yourself.

First, the background: Busharat Ali is the Labour candidate in Lawrence Hill ward, Bristol. He didn’t like being attacked in a Liberal Democrat leaflet over Blair and Iraq.

He responded with a leaflet that said: “I was on the National March in London against the Iraq war” and had this photo next to those words:

The photo does not have a caption and, being next to the text it is, is clearly meant to illustrate him being on the march against the Iraq war. The photo is a pretty …

Calling for a 20mph speed limit to be introduced on a stretch of road that has actually had one for four years would be a bit of an embarrassment. Add in your candidate being a bus driver in the area and it’s a bit of a blunder. But when it then turns out that the route the buses driven by your candidate include the said road it all becomes a bit farcical.

After each round of elections there are various chances for us to provide feedback to those involved in running the elections, including both the Electoral Commission and the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

If you have any examples of things being done badly (e.g. typos on ballot papers, Returning Officers refusing to provide lists of postal voters, etc) or examples of things being run really well, please let me know – either in the comments or by email to [email protected].

Dave Anderson (Labour, Blaydon) has been told off for the second time for misusing the “free” (i.e. paid for by taxpayers) postage available to MPs. This time it was 30,000 letters that were wrongly sent out. Easy to see how such a small error could be overlooked 🙂

Jonathan Wallace has the full story about Dave Anderson.

More love and haromony in David Cameron’s party:

A FORMER council leader has claimed his own colleagues are more concerned with their allowances than working for their constituents. Tory Rochford district councillor Peter Webster launched an astonishing attack on his fellow members who, he claimed, were “too lazy”.

Chris Black has the full story.

Meanwhile over in Wales the Western Mail reports:

THE former leader of the Conservatives in the Assembly has announced he will not be voting for the party this time around.

Hat tip: Pigeon Post

I’ve commented before on Communicate Research’s highly fluctuating polls. So it’s with a pinch of salt that I point out that their latest poll has the Liberal Democrats up two points, which in turn follows the previous month’s increase of three points. Better up than down though, and these last two polls follow a change in the way CR carry out their polls (switching to include some weighting for people’s recollection of how they voted previously).

And now in overseas news: concern about global warming has doubled in the US according to ABC (and full credit to ABC in that story for distinguishing between small, statistically insignificant changes in poll results from those that really are significant; there’s a lesson there for many UK media outlets).

More fallout from the sacking by the Conservatives of someone for having cancer. This week’s Sevenoak Chronicle contains a letter from the former chairman of the Conservative Association:

Your article last week on the tribunal verdict was a credit to the Chronicle: it was accurate, balanced and informed (Woman speaks out over bitter Conservative row, April 12).

What is almost beyond belief, in my opinion, is the orgy of self-congratulation entered into by the association’s chairman and spokeswoman, who seem to be portraying it as some sort of victory for them.

The facts are unequivocal: the Sevenoaks Conservative Association was found to have unlawfully dismissed their agent who was suffering from cancer.

Headline says it all really. Details on Colin Ross’s website.

That’s the latest take on the Scottish elections from today’s Times.

First it was asking the Liberal Democrats if, pretty please, he could stand a joint candidate with us in the London Mayor elections and now it’s the selections for the European Parliament elections.

Ah, what bliss it must be to be a Conservative member this week. Perhaps things would be happier if Cameron just stuck to changing his clothes a few extra times each day?

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about Labour, but well, the Conservatives will just keep on doing silly things.

To make up for it, here’s a story about a road in Newcastle. It goes between two wards. Councillors in one ward want the road closed to stop rat-running. Councillors in the other ward are up in arms against this idea. Oh, and both sets of councillors are … Labour.

The phrase saying one thing in one place and the opposite in another sound familiar by any chance?

Hat tip: Labour Watch

Yup, it is David Cameron and the Conservatives again. Not Greg Dyke this time, but instead the elections in Tendring.

As the local paper says:

YOU couldn’t make it up if you tried. Just as the Conservative Party have the local elctions in the palm of their hand, a bright spark in Essex decides to clamp down on some of the most well known and best loved personalities in Tendring and cause a schism that will take years to heel.

Who knows what advice Conservative Central Office has been listening to, but it has been an absolute public relations disaster and …

That’s the verdict of the FT on David Cameron’s idea of asking the Liberal Democrats if he could stand a joint candidate with us for London Mayor.

The Daily Mail is hardly nicer, calling it a “disaster for Cameron” whilst the Sun says “David Cameron was left red-faced”. For variety, the Evening Standard goes for Cameron being “humiliated” and quotes a Conservative saying, “the whole thing has now descended into farce. It is very embarrassing for David Cameron and shows how badly he is handling the whole contest.”

Ooops. Mind you, I guess it was a better …