2 General Election/statistics-themed stories

Holding general election on May 6th would save £7m says Government
Which is nothing compared to, say, scrapping the Child Trust Fund – but Gordon Brown’s timing of the election has only ever been about saving political skins, not money.

Figures disclosed in a Parliamentary written answer show that it will cost £82.1m to stage the election on the most likely date, five weeks today.

But if the country went to the polls on any other day, it is estimated that the cost would rise by more than £7m to reach £89.6m.

The 2005 general election, which also coincided with regional votes, is said to have cost £80m. [Telegraph]

Gordon Brown ignored by nine in 10 Labour election candidates

The Prime Minister’s photograph does not appear in 93 per cent of leaflets for Labour’s General Election candidates.

Mr Brown’s name is also omitted from 86 per cent of the election leaflets.

The figures come from a random sample of 120 pieces of election literature from 90 different Labour MPs and candidates from throughout the country. [Telegraph]

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:

• A victory for free speech

Andy Crick celebrates the news that science writer Simon Singh has won his libel appeal.

• The Eleven Faces of Doctor Who

by Alex Wilcock on Love and Liberty. Apparently a new series of a certain popular programme is imminent. Alex tells you how to prepare over the Easter weekend. (“Just don’t tell your local Lib Dem campaign team…”)

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.

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