2 Big Stories

Ministry of Justice plans to cut polling day costs

Thousands of polling stations would be closed and voting hours reduced under a plan to cut the cost of elections.

Other proposals include cutting staff, replacing polling cards with e-mail requests, increasing candidates’ deposits, fixed-term parliaments and reducing security at election counts.

The options, outlined in a working paper drawn up by the Ministry of Justice for the Treasury, are designed to save up to £65 million. They were condemned last night as a “threat to democracy that would save peanuts”. (Times)

Tony Blair fails to secure Merkel and Sarkozy’s support in EU President bid

Tony Blair’s hopes of becoming Europe’s first sitting president were receding fast last night as Britain admitted his chances of success were “fading” after the continent’s centre-right leaders made it clear one of their own must have the post.

Hours after Gordon Brown delivered his strongest statement of support for Blair – disclosing that he had spoken to him earlier this week – British sources indicated that the former prime minister was unlikely to assume the high-profile job.

“It would be right to describe Tony’s chances as fading,” one source said. “Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are not terribly enthusiastic. Silvio Berlusconi remains his strongest backer.” (Guardian)

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:

• Battle of the Bloggers? on Linda Jack’s Lindylooz Muze blog. Congratulations to Linda, on being selected as PPC for Mid Beds. Linda’s obviously relishing the prospect of blogging it out with Tory opponent Nadine Dorries…
• Fact Checking Nick Griffin’s Claim from Stephen Glenn’s Linlithgow Journal.

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.