It’s Sunday. It’s 9am. It’s time for the best pothole photo, ever. FACT. But first, some other stuff.
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:
- Fraser Macpherson has the party’s latest Scottish TV broadcast
- The Futility Monster ponders how many friends we can have
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
Brown ‘disingenuous over war funds’
The Press Association reports:
The head of the Armed Forces at the time of the 2003 invasion accused the Prime Minister of being “disingenuous” in saying that he provided military chiefs with everything they asked for.
While he expressed “regrets” over the failure to plan properly for the aftermath of the invasion, Mr Brown strongly rejected allegations that, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he had failed to provide the forces with the resources they needed…
“He’s dissembling, he’s being disingenuous,” Admiral Boyce told The Times. “It’s just not the case that the Ministry of Defence was given everything it needed. There may have been a 1.5% increase in the defence budget but the MoD was starved of funds.”
Who is winning the grassroots campaign?
The British Elections Studies has the first results:
The British Election Study currently has a large-scale pre-election survey in the field which asks people if they have been contacted by one or more of the political parties in the last six months. Such contacts could take the form of canvassing, telephoning, leafleting, emailing, or messages via social network sites like Facebook and Twitter, the most common form being leafleting. This provides a measure of the ground war so far.
The survey shows that about a quarter of the electorate have been contacted since July 2009, and the chart shows the percentages contacted by the different political parties. It is apparent that the Conservatives are way ahead of their rivals in contacting the voters, reflecting in part the effects of the funding provided by Lord Ashcroft. Even more interesting is that the Liberal Democrats came second in the list with a contact rate of 46 per cent [to the Conservative Party’s 58%], and Labour came a poor third by contacting only 35 per cent.
Sunday Double Bonus
Ironic psephology corner: Conservative voters favour electoral reform. Should someone tell the MPs?
But more important, the best pothole photo ever. FACT.
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Six council by-elections, spread over two days
Carers remain forgotten in government's welfare overhaul
Steffan Aquarone's Commons debate on coastal communities
Getting things done - Saggar Street - an update #dundeewestend
Loving our neighbours
Getting the basics right
Roland
Joseph Bourke
Stephen Nash
Margot Wilson
One Comment
And here’s one you missed:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7052611.ece
Liberal Democrats rule out deal with Gordon Brown
… But senior Lib Dems have disclosed that the price of their party’s support for Labour would be Brown’s removal.
A source close to Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, who would be likely to hold the balance of power in a hung parliament, said: “Nick just could not work with Gordon. It would be a deal breaker.”
…
Publicly Clegg has declared that he would keep all options open. However, in private he has said that Brown’s “patronising” style and deafness to differing views mean that striking a deal with him would be close to impossible.
A senior Lib Dem said: “Nick was scarred by the experience of trying to work with Brown last year over expenses reform. Brown said he wanted ‘consensus’ and then just tried to ram through his own ideas without consulting anyone.”
A formal coalition, in which leading Lib Dem MPs such as Vince Cable, their economics spokesman, would take seats in a Labour or Tory cabinet, is unlikely.