Author Archives: the founding editor

Press release from Burnley Lib Dems:

A sixteen percent swing to the Liberal Democrats saw local campaigner Allen Harris elected Councillor for the Brunshaw Ward in a Burnley Borough Council by-election last night.

Allen and the Liberal Democrats comfortably beat the British National Party for the former Labour seat. The BNP vote dropped from their May 2006 total – the last time they fought the Brunshaw seat.

Allen Harris’ win confirmed the Liberal Democrats in their leadership of Burnley Borough Council, which they took up following last year’s local elections, after many years of Labour rule in the town.

I’m just about to upload another article on Trident. Here for reference is the Federal Policy Committee motion which is going to conference, and the amendments proposed by the LD peace and security group.

There was a working group set up on the future of Trident – the FPC motion reflects the majority report (PDF) of that group, which was voted for by seven members. The amendments reflect a minority report, supported by three members of the working group. These figures are fact, and are not intended to promote or diminish the standing of either report – at this stage it looks like the conference vote could be a close call.

In brief, as I understand it the official motion basically says we should keep Trident going for as long as possible, but immediately halve the number of warheads we have. A final decision on Trident should be taken in 2014. The effect of the amendment would be to scrap Trident at the end of its extended lifespan, rather than waiting until 2014 to make the decision.

Local councillor Stephen Tall has more.

Patrick Cormack, the Tory MP who huffed and puffed about not being able to take his rightful place in Parliament and whinged that he couldn’t participate in the 1922 committee elections because of the minor inconvenience of his Liberal Democrat challenger dying during the last election, has failed to be reselected by his constituency party. And a good thing too.

According to the Guardian yesterday:

State funding of political parties could rise to £28m a year under one of the proposals being put forward by the former civil servant charged with seeking a cross-party agreement on cleaning up the system.

Sir Hayden Phillips has drawn up proposals under which parties would earn 60p for every vote they received in general elections or byelections for Westminster seats. Up to 30p would be earned for each vote in European or Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland assembly elections.

They went on “Under the most generous of his schemes, 60p for a Westminster vote and 30p …

Eight awards, three Tory wins, one Labour win, no Lib Dems (Sandi Toksvig doesn’t count).

No-one could doubt, I’m sure, that our parliamentarians are working hard – but these awards measure the impact of that work.  Listed below, the prize winners – Lib Dem nominees appear in brackets.  For what it’s worth, Greg Mulholland was robbed.

• Politician’s politician – Dominic Greave (David Heath)
• Opposition politican – David Cameron
• Humour – Sandi Toksvig
• Campaigning politician – Lord Ramsbotham (Greg Mulholland)
• Political innovation – David Cameron (no LD nominee)
• Political Book Award – Thatcher & Sons, Simon Jenkins
• Peer of the year – Lord Rooker (Baroness Walmsley)
• Channel 4 news award

…

Tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday has the story, which is online now.

Ian Richardson, star of the House of Cards trilogy, has died.

He was a great actor with just the most stunning voice, and I’m sure the political world will be greatly saddened by his passing – I watched the full trilogy only last Christmas. My condolences to his family.

The Guardian reports:

The Conservative party has sold its old headquarters in Smith Square, central London, to a European property developer for a profit of more than £15m, it emerged last night.

This follows on from reports that they have already amassed a £21m campaigning war chest – £3.2 million more than they spent at the last election, though the same report suggests that membership of the Conservatives fell by six thousand in the first nine months of David Cameron’s leadership.

The count in tonight’s East Barnet (London) council by-election has been postponed due to snow.

Snow may have stopped the counting, but it didn’t stop the delivering!

…you may wish to call by the house of Justin Hinchcliffe, chair of Tottenham Conservatives, and take a close look at his bathroom.

I’m not going into great detail, but there were about 40 people here on Saturday night (not bad considering I have a small flat!). Up until about 11pm, people were chatting to each other and things were very civilised. Then the fun stated. There was substance-misuse in the toilet, a relationship breakdown, several rows, people thrown out for bad behaviour and a physical

…

Something is rotten in the Rochdale Constituency Labour Party.  A local Lib Dem supporter in Rochdale has pointed me in the direction of Private Eye, which covers a quite extraordinary story of bullying and intimidation.

Simon Danczuk, Labour’s Parliamentary Prospective Candidate in Rochdale (sitting MP: Lib Dem Paul Rowen), received an anonymous phone call prior to his selection warning him that if he pursued his candidacy his “body parts would be strewn across the M6 motorway.” Clearly no coward, Mr Danczuk stood and won.

The upshot of which is that he stepped out of his front …

Indigo public affairs have e-mailed through their predictions for the outcome of the May elections.

Four years on from a huge protest vote to the Liberal Democrats in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, with around half of all Liberal Democrat Councillors in England up for re-election this year, it may be a suprise to see the ‘L Dem gain’ column looking quite as long as it is in these predictions. 

In the absense of a polarising national issue to convert the local elections in to a real referendum on the Labour government, people are more likely to …

For the next election the Liberal Democrats will produce a web-based interactive manifesto, which will use audio-visual communications as its centrepiece rather than the written word.

Commenting, Steve Webb said:

“This site is all about giving party members a real say in our manifesto for the next General Election.

“Unlike the other parties, we want a genuine conversation, and the manifesto we produce will be better as a result.

“The days of the mass-produced print manifesto are over. Our manifesto for the next election will embrace new technology designed to reach people who have been excluded from the political process for too long.”

The …