It’s Friday. It’s five o’clock. And when I tried to high-five Stephen Tall by way of celebration, he thought I was putting up my hand and asking to compile the Friday Five again. Ah, why not –
What was the typical total on the constituency election expense returns from candidates in the 1910 general elections who fought contested elections? Answer in today’s money is below the jump.
Welcome, Daily Viewers, to January 15th – and a public engagement special.
A year ago today US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing into New York’s Hudson River. Eyewitness Janis Krums took this famous photo of the plane (right) and immediately shared it with the internet via Twitter, thus proving the website could be used for so much more than telling the world what you had for breakfast. (The only twitpic photo that’s come close since then was of a fox on the London Underground, but I live in hope and carry a camera…)
Statutory instruments. A Bill of Rights. Freedom of Information. Proportional Representation.
Such ideas are not ones you hear bandied about by your average man or women on the street. Yet they were among those chosen by members of the public to try and mend the lack of trust in Britain’s political system.
For those of you who’ve not yet heard of Power2010 it’s a campaign which launched in the wake of the expenses scandal, with public trust in politics at an all time low. It’s a campaign for political and democratic reform, but with …
As Helen has covered on The Voice, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is running a public consultation on MPs’ expenses. Comments on its proposals can be submitted until 11 February 2010.
A couple of people mentioned in comments to that post that the proposals are rather better than the media coverage made them fear, and reading through the IPSA’s proposals I’ve had the same reaction.
Even so, it is well worth responding to the consultation because the IPSA will very likely be receiving significant lobbying from some MPs to water down various proposals. Unless other MPs and the public lobby back, there is a risk of a lopsided impression being changed and important reforms being lost.
So here’s my response, which picks up on a couple of weak areas but otherwise backs the proposals:
Lib Dem pensions spokesman Steve Webb has claimed the total pension deficit of local authorities in England and Wales is likely to hit £60 billion this year.
If true, it would mean the deficit has increased by nearly a billion pounds a month since 2007.
The Electoral Commission and police have just published a report into the allegations of electoral practice held in June 2009. What does the latest one show about the state of our electoral system?
The good news is that the headline figures for number of allegations and convictions are relatively modest:
A total of 48 cases involving 107 allegations were recorded by police forces across Great Britain.
The largest single case in Great Britain involved allegations that 24 photocopied ballot papers were sent to a Returning Officer in Aylesbury.
A total of 38 cases (79% of all reported cases) involved only one allegation against a single individual.
Less good is the degree to which time continues to be consumed and hassle generated by imprint issues. Just under one in five of all cases were about imprints. The occasional imprint case involves (alleged) serious abuse – passing off a leaflet as if it were from another party – but many involve simple clerical errors with not only no intent to deceive but with it being clear who the published material was from and how to contact the publisher/promoter.
It is a reminder that good intentions are not enough to keep election agents free from police cautions – or worse – but it is hard to see how this ends up being a good use of time for the police and CPS.
That is particularly so because other, more serious, cases can take a long time to be resolved. At the time of the report, just over a third of cases are still under police investigation or awaiting a decision by the CPS (Crown Office in Scotland). For allegations to be left hanging in the air so long after an election has concluded is highly unsatisfactory.
Of course, electoral law is by no means the only area of law to suffer from this problem and it is an oddity of the tough on crime rhetoric of the last few decades that speeding up the exercise of justice almost never features. Perhaps in part that is because the big losers are the innocent people who have police investigations or charges hanging over them for months and years, with the hurt, anger, disruption and depression that often goes with that. But the hurt and damage done to people who turn out to be innocent is only rarely talked about.
Both the question of imprint allegations clogging up the system and the speed of justice problems are not new and the 2009 round of elections does not seem to have thrown up any new problems or trends in electoral fraud.
With the measures taken over the last few years against postal vote fraud having had a good impact in most areas, the main danger for the future looks to be personation (stealing someone’s vote by turning up to the polling station and pretending to be them). Over a quarter of all cases and nearly half of all allegations arising from the June 2009 elections related to personation.
A plan to try tackling personation by requiring people to sign for their ballot papers (which would provide a paper trail, including finger prints, to help track down fraud as well as providing an extra security check) was previously abandoned in farcical circumstances. Although the law allowed polling station staff to ask for a signature, due to faulty drafting they would still have had to hand over a ballot paper even if someone refused to sign. Hence signing for ballot papers is still stuck in the starting blocks.
Here is the full Electoral Commission / police report:
Here’s the verdict of The Economist’s columnist on British politics, the pseudonymous Bagehot:
In some ways, miraculous to report, the Liberal Democrats have the most mature position on the deficit. Nick Clegg, their leader, this week demoted some of the party’s spending pledges (for example, on pensions and university funding) to aspirations, pre-emptively narrowing his manifesto to a few, affordable core themes. He has not promised to protect any departmental budgets. Vince Cable, his Treasury spokesman, has a longer list of items for the chop than Mr Osborne, including some cherished defence projects, but accepts that the axeman’s hand should
Earlier this week I highlighted how Nick Clegg’s speech laying out the foundations of the Liberal Democrat general election manifesto was based around four steps in which health and crime did not feature. Those two policy areas have been dominant in the party’s campaigning over the previous three general elections – in particular in marginal seats.
However, whilst the party seems to be at least dallying with downplaying the emphasis on those two issues from the key national headlines, Labour is headed in the opposite direction. Labour’s 1997 five pledges included one each on health and crime, whilst their likely …
Five days ago, LDV launched our search for our annual Liberal Voice of the Year, open only to non-Lib Dems, with you, our dear readers, forming the electorate. Voting will close this Sunday, 17th January. Here’s how the votes currently stack up:
11% (69) – Guy Herbert, general secretary of NO2ID, for his campaigning work against the database state;
30% (180) – Peter Tatchell, for his tireless and fearless international human rights campaigning;
13% (79) – Joanna Lumley, for her campaigning for justice on behalf of Gurkha veterans;
2% (13) – Rory Stewart, for his straight-talking common sense on
The Liberal Democrats today set out plans to bring a quarter of a million empty homes back into use, making homes available for people who need them and creating 65,000 jobs.
There are over 760,000 empty properties across England which are no longer used as homes but can be brought back into use with some investment. People who own these homes will get a grant or a cheap loan to renovate them so they can be used: grants if the home is for social housing, loans for
Innocent people’s DNA profiles are being removed from the national database at a rate of barely one a day, figures showed today.
Home Office minister Alan Campbell said just 377 profiles were deleted in 2009 after appeals to police chiefs.
Liberal Democrat policing spokesman Paul Holmes, who uncovered the figures through a written parliamentary question, described the situation as a “disgrace”.
Mr Holmes said chief constables were being discouraged from removing the genetic fingerprint of innocent people until new legislation is passed, which he insisted would not happen before the general election.
Congratulations to all those shortlisted in the various categories for the Councillor of the Year awards, run by the Local Government Information Unit and CCLA.
Particular congratulations to the nine Liberal Democrats:
Warren Bradley (Liverpool) – Leader of the Year
Carla Butler (Newhaven) – Young Councillor of the Year
Alexis Rowell (Camden) and Paul Tilsley (Birmingham) – Sustainability councillor of the year
Alex Folkes (Cornwall) and Dennis Meredith (Northants) – New Councillor of the Year
Daisy Benson (Reading) and Alex Perkins (Canterbury) – Online Councillor of the Year
Tracy Ismail (Islington) – Community Champion of the Year
Good morning afternoon and welcome to Daily View on a largely uneventful day in history. 152 years ago today, Napoleon III wasn’t assassinated. It’s the day Martin Niemöller was born, the author of the words about Holocaust victims, “First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out.”
Today Richard Briers, Faye Dunaway and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall are celebrating birthdays, and we remember Lewis Carroll’s death.
2 Big Stories
Haiti victim search
All the papers lead today with news of the continuing search for survivors amongst the debris following the massive earthquake in Haiti.
Just over a year ago, I highlighted how YouGov consistently found the Conservatives relatively more popular amongst women than men compared to other pollsters:
YouGov, MORI and ComRes are the three of the main polling companies who also provide a gender breakdown of party levels of support using the same methodology as for their headline voting question…
Whilst YouGov consistently finds the Conservative party more popular amongst women than men, the other two consistently find the opposite. There is a similar difference amongst the pollsters when it comes to Labour support, though this time the gender pattern is reversed.
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 14th January 2010 - 10:20 am
Calls for the First-Past-The-Post voting system to be abolished in the UK were given a real kick-start last year after it became clear – thanks to the work of Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson – that it was MPs with large majorities who were more likely to be implicated in cheating the expenses system.
It’s obvious if you think about it: if you were given life tenure in a safe seat where the Labour/Tory majorities are weighed not counted, how concerned would you be with the irksome business of being transparent and accountable? To put it bluntly – as …
Ministers have given a concession over what critics claimed were “draconian” powers which would enable them to crack down on online copyright infringement.
A clause in the Digital Economy Bill would have allowed ministers to amend existing laws on online piracy without the need for further legislation.
Google and Facebook were among firms to complain about the measure, saying it would hamper digital innovation…
Section 17 of the bill, which has attracted the most anger, would give ministers “reserve powers” to draft fresh laws to tackle net-based copyright infringement without needing parliamentary approval.
A city councillor has been expelled from the Conservative Party after making offensive remarks about rape at a meeting.
Eddie Wake, 56, a Tory councillor at Sunderland City Council, is alleged to have made the remarks at a meeting of the authority and left one woman in tears.
Conservative party chiefs said comments by Washington South member Mr Wake, at the end of a meeting with police about a rape prevention campaign, were “totally unacceptable”…
Group leader Lee Martin told the BBC: “When I ask anyone to go out and vote for a Conservative candidate, I’ve got a
Nick Clegg pressed Gordon Brown to volunteer to appear before Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry into the Iraq war this side of the general election “before people decide how to vote on his record in government?” The Prime Minister replied that it wasn’t a matter for him. (Odd how when you become the most powerful person in Britain, you seem to lose the power to volunteer to do something inconvenient).
So Nick asked again, telling the Prime Minister he “should insist on going to the inquiry now”, and asking “What has he got to hide?” Again Mr Brown said, “Sorry, guv, more than my job’s worth” (or words to that effect).
Nick still wasn’t happy, so has now written to the Prime Minister, chalenging him to do the decent thing:
Dear Gordon,
I am writing to urge you to indicate immediately to Sir John Chilcot that it is your strong preference to go before the Iraq Inquiry ahead of the General Election.
Following developments yesterday at Alastair Campbell’s hearing, your personal role in the decisions that led to the war in Iraq has now come under the spotlight. The notion that your hearing should take place after the election in order that the Inquiry remains outside of party politics therefore no longer holds. On the contrary, the sense that you have been granted special treatment because of your position as Prime Minister will only serve to undermine the perceived independence of the Committee.
As I said to you across the floor of the Commons today, people have a right to know the truth about the part you played in this war before they cast their verdict o n your Government’s record. I urge you to confirm publicly that should Sir John Chilcot invite you to give evidence to the Inquiry ahead of the election you will agree to do so.
Nick Clegg
Well, I don’t suppose Mr Brown will change his mind – but Nick has at least exposed the Prime Minister’s relief-cum-satisfaction that he can dodge the Chilcot bullet, dominating the main political headlines as a result. And by the time Mr Brown does eventually appear he will be a genuinely powerless ex-Prime Minister so who’ll care what he has to say any longer?
Meanwhile David Cameron asked some windy, unfocused and instantly forgettable questions of the Prime Minister who gave at least as good as he got. Score-draw for theatrics; no-score draw for content.
Here’s Nick’s questions, courtesy the BBC. The Hansard transcript’s below it.
Nick Clegg has taken the opportunity of an interview with The Independent’s Johann Hari for Attitude magazine to lay out a comprehensive range of measures to promote gay equality – and has laid down the gauntlet to the Tory leader David Cameron to justify his ‘liberal Conservatism’ by following suit.
Commons Speaker John Bercow has granted MPs an emergency debate after one Member claimed he had been “intimidated” by a firm of solicitors.
Liberal Democrat John Hemming, who represents Birmingham Yardley, complained about an e-mail he had received from Withers LLP.
Mr Bercow said the MP believed it amounted to a “contempt of the House” and ordered a debate for Thursday. It was a matter “to which I should allow precedence”, he told the Commons.
By Sara Bedford
| Wed 13th January 2010 - 12:42 pm
In his blog post in today’s Daily Telegraph Lord Tebbit asks, “Why won’t the two main parties do anything about the madness of taxing the poor?’.
“And I hate to say it, but only one party leader seems to have grasped that, if you construct a system where unskilled people are worse off by taking a job than by staying on welfare, they remain trapped in poverty – and that is Nick Clegg.
Political coverage and blogging in the UK has a rather odd love-hate relationship with electoral numbers. On the one hand, the latest opinion poll figures get reported, re-reported and mis-reported at length, with the mere fact that a change in ratings is well within the margin of error not being reason enough to stop a cavalcade of comment.
Yet despite this love of talking electoral numbers, those that are talked about come from a fairly narrow range of sources.
So here instead are three other numbers – all simple in concept, but interesting in implication.
By Iain Roberts
| Wed 13th January 2010 - 10:17 am
There’s been a lot of debate over the last few months about the merits, or otherwise, of holding General Election counts on the Friday instead of counting through the night on polling day.
But no-one has seriously suggested it might be an opportunity for politicians of any party to break into ballot boxes and fix the election. After all, such a claim would be the cheapest of smears, based on zero evidence.
Step forward Labour Minister and MP for Newcastle East and Wallsend, Nick Brown.
As if to prove there’s little new in the world, the recent spat between Nick Clegg and childcare expert Gina Ford reminds me of this 1899 poem by Harry Graham.
Father heard the children scream,
So he threw them in the stream,
Saying, as he drowned the third,
“Children should be seen, not heard!
The number of published opinion polls into British general election voting intention hit a twenty plus year high in 2009 with 141 polls carried out during the calendar year.
That is the highest figure since at least 1987 (when my records commence)* and more that completes the polling industry’s recovery from its post-1992 nadir. You can see the quarterly trend in this graph:
First up, there’s a report from the Hansard Society which has surveyed MPs and their use of the internet (“A study into how MPs use digital media to communicate with their constituents”):
To recap, the four steps to a fairer Britain which Nick Clegg laid out yesterday were:
Fair taxes.
A new, fair start for all children at school.
A rebalanced, green economy.
And clean, open politics.
In terms of what’s there, no huge surprises. After the MPs’ expenses scandal, it’s no great shock (and very welcome to many members) to see political reform back in the list of top issues for the party.
The emphasis on early years education reflects a common theme of Nick Clegg’s speeches before and after becoming party leader. Expect that story about ‘a young child in Sheffield…’ to be said many, many …
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Anthony Harris Alex Macfie, electronic voting is a bad example. Over the past decade, 34-36 countries have used it to count around 4 billion ballots. We have the infrastructur...
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With a driver-controlled vehicle, liabil...
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LDV word limits do not always make it possible to say everything one might like!
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