It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for photographs of bollards, but first the news.
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:
- The Mood at Lib Dem Conference: Nick Thornsby takes the pulse
- The Saturday List: Lib Dem Constituency Songs: Will Howells does politics. Will Howells does music. This time he does politics and music at the same time.
Spotted any other great posts in the last day from blogs that aren’t on the aggregator? Do post up a comment sharing them with us all.
2 Big Stories
Sarkozy faces heavy loss in French regional poll
Reuters reports:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a regional vote on Sunday that opinion polls suggest will result in a heavy loss for his center-right UMP party in the last ballot box test before he comes up for re-election in 2012.
Unemployment in France is running at more than 10 percent, public finances are under growing strain and a series of controversies over issues ranging from lavish executive pay to immigration and security have undermined Sarkozy’s popularity.
“Rarely has a regional election been so national,” the leftwing daily Liberation declared in an editorial on Saturday. “The last vote before the presidential election in 2012. It can change the political landscape.”
Sarkozy has said the election will be about local issues and he has ruled out a major reshuffle if the results are as bad as expected, but he said last week that he would be “attentive” to what voters say and some cabinet changes are possible.
Vote Lib-Dem – Mandelson
The Western Morning News reports:
LORD Mandelson has made a direct appeal to non-Tory voters in the Westcountry to support the Liberal Democrats in a bid to hold back a Conservative landslide in the region.
The Business Secretary and key architect of Labour election strategy told the Western Morning News that the Lib-Dems “have more in common with Labour than with any other party”.
Sunday Bonus
It’s a blog. It’s about bollards. It has photos of bollards. Including a particular fine rising bollard. Go read it. NOW.
2 Comments
The most interesting result of the Regional Elections will be who it brings forth as potential candidates for the Socialists for 2012. The field is more wide open than it seems. There are a couple of candidates I’m looking seriously at and I’ll be interested to see how it goes in their regions today.
Surely if anything is going to put people off voting Lib Dem it’s endorsement by the Dark Lord. I think I’d leave the party if it ever became part of a government that also included Mandy.
Also we must remember that most Lib Den voters in the south of England are LD-Con waverers. Any implication that the Lib Dems are primarily an alternative way of voting Labour is likely to drive such voters to the Tories.