Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London Brian Paddick is one of the three panellists on tonight’s Question Time (broadcast on BBC1 and online from 10.35 pm GMT).
The panel will also include (you may have guessed) Labour incumbent Ken Livingstone, and Tory hopeful Boris Johnson.
So, if you’re watching, and want to sound-off, please feel free to use the comments thread.
Following yesterday’s double reports of Conservatives in trouble with the police (in Slough and Swansea) today brings news of a third legal incident involving the Conservative Party. This time, it’s Sutton. (What is it about places starting with an S?)
The time: Wednesday 16 April, approximately 3pm
The place: near a front door in the London Borough of Sutton
An aggrieved resident takes up the story:
“I was watering plants in the space near our front door when I heard the sound of the letterbox flap. I looked round to see a hand take out the Sutton Gazette … I waited …
Tsk, tsk. Boris looks to have broken Parliamentary rules by failing to declare all his shareholdings. Ken seems to have been keeping secret plans to raise transport fares in London. Meanwhile, Stop Boris has a tactical voting guide on, er…, how to stop Boris.
Google’s coming under criticism for how it names different seas in Google Earth as this petition highlights. Google’s policy is explained here.
Blogger Chick Yog believed that the Lib Dems are staffed by robots.
This proved not to be the case.
Although some believe our fearsome leafleting capability is due to an army of robotic leafleters, the sad truth is in most cases it’s a handful of overworked activists punching way above their weight. And so it is in LDHQ – although the output might look like it is the result of a fearsome supercomputer processing all known political information and spewing it out in dozens of helpful different feeds… in fact, it’s just Will Howells and Mark Pack, with, between them, a …
Brian Paddick and Nick Clegg are holding a Q&A at London Metropolitan University next Tuesday, 29th April.
Anyone can attend, ask any question, on any topic. This is a direct conversation with people – no spin, no hand-picked audiences, and no planted questions.
Further details – and an option to RSVP – can be found over on Facebook.
Norman Whitlock, the Conservative candidate in Swansea facing allegations of forged signatures on nomination paperwork, has now quit the party.
It isn’t that easy to get a ship to sail to Uganda you know. What with it being a land-locked country and all that.
How Gordon must have been dreading this session of Prime Minister’s Questions, after what has been one of his worst weeks since becoming Labour leader: condemned by all sides for his decision to disadvantage the poorest in society by abolishing the 10p tax rate.
In the circumstances, then, he didn’t perform too badly. There was, of course, no apology: simply a restatement of his commitment to help those in proverty. And it was clear Labour loyalists were under strict instructions from the whips to bellow their support for the embattled Mr Brown. As ever, David Cameron came up with a handful of smile-out-loud quips; but he landed no devastating blows.
Nick Clegg stood up to the customary barracking from all sides – this was his first PMQs’ appearance since that GQ interview – and deployed what is becoming a trademark question: asking the Prime Minister how it feels to be out-Torying the Tories. It’s a cheeky but effective way of creating equidistance between the Lib Dems and Labour/Tory parties. It does, of course, guarantee him an even rowdier reception. I suspect, though, his last question may still be echoing in Labour backbenchers’ minds: “if he cannot deliver on poverty, what on earth is the point of this increasingly pointless Prime Minister?” Quite.
You can watch the full encounter on the BBC site here. Below is the Hansard extract of Nick and Gordon’s exchange:
Last Friday, we published a link to an online survey being conducted by the new Politics Home website, asking a number of questions about what Nick Clegg should do about a range of issues: in the event of a hung Parliament, in establishing the party’s ‘brand’, and the Lib Dems’ strategic options.
Despite some reservations expressed in the comments thread about the questions’ wording, over 100 of you responded in double-quick time, and the results have now been made available to LDV. You can view the full breakdown here.
(I must of course enter the caveat that as …
The background: earlier this year a special election court ruled that Eshaq Khan and his supporters carried out “corrupt and illegal practices” to secure his election as a Conservative councillor in Slough. Subsequently, five people were charged by the police with electoral fraud offences, including both Eshaq Khan and the Deputy Mayor, Cllr Mohammed Aziz.
And now … after dawn raids, four more people have been arrested by the police on suspicions of perjury and conspiring to pervert the course of justice.
News reaches me that the police are now investigating allegations of forged signatures on a Conservative candidate’s nomination papers in Swansea.
At issue is the nomination paper collected by Norman Whitlock, one of the four Conservative candidates in Uplands ward. Local Liberal Democrats called for an investigation after several residents said that their were down as signatures on a nomination paper, but had not actually signed it. The residents then lodged statements with the council, who have now called in the police.
(Corrected as per Peter Black’s comment below – thanks Peter.)
Just in case you missed it, yesterday Brian Paddick had a piece on the Guardian’s Comment is Free
Londoners want a serious alternative. Time and again during this campaign people have said to me: “Ken did all right for the first few years, but power has gone to his head.” But they have also said that they can’t imagine letting Boris run a bath, let alone London’s transport system. Typically they conclude that either Ken or Boris is marginally less bad than the other. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but that’s how most of us vote most of the time.
Read …
Welcome, finally, to the 61st of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (13th-19th April), together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.
Let’s get straight down to it, in descending order of popularity:
A short and to the point letter from Brian Paddick in today’s Times:
Sir, Your headline “I could work with Boris but I couldn’t trust Ken, says Lib Dems’ Paddick” (April 22) is inaccurate. Let me be clear. I would not work for Boris Johnson. Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson are both wrong for London’s future, and I am not prepared to work in either of their administrations.
Brian Paddick
London SW1
A hurried, late weekly catchup this week:
Lots of comments on:
We covered the ongoing London Mayoral debate with
Guest writers this week included
Our regulars brought …
Isn’t it nice of Labour to be running a special website asking Gordon Brown whether there are enough police in Downing Street?
So says Hitwise, the internet traffic analysis company, in this interesting report.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, this interesting tracker of online discussion says that Brian Paddick is getting the most positive online buzz, though Boris Johnson is the person most talked about.
Brian Hendley is the Labour candidate in Davenport and Cale Green ward, Stockport Council. Given his background, this raises some questions as to what standards we expect of councillors and would-be councillors:
“Striking Dr Hendley off the medical register on Friday, committee chairman Professor Kenneth Hobbs said: ‘The consequences of your failings were that the lives of patients under your care were put at risk. The nature of the findings against you, both on this occasion and on your previous appearance before the committee, are extremely serious. It would not be safe to allow you to continue in medical practice.'” (BBC, …
Huge project, budget goes horribly wrong. Not much of a surprise there given the track-record of many large projects in Britain, but I do love some of the details as to how the budgets for the 2012 London Olympics went wrong:
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) were criticised for omitting security, tax and contingency costs.
Security? It’s not as if you ever hear the Home Secretary worrying about security. Tax? Never heard of anyone having to pay such a thing. Contingency? Nothing ever goes wrong you know.
Bob Spink, elected in 2005 as Conservative MP for Castle Point, was kicked out of the Conservative Party last month and has now joined UKIP, calling his former party “dishonest”.
From a local news release:
On April 14, 2007, the Conservative Portfolio Holder for Environment, Health and Safety stated in a reply to a Liberal Democrat question at Council that the current combined recycling and composting rate for Winchester was 36.7%.
A few days later, George Beckett, Conservative Leader of the Council published a leaflet claiming that the recycling rate was 40% on the front side of the leaflet.
By the time he reached the rear side of the same leaflet, the figure had reached 85%.
Lib Dem Councillor Jim Wagner, who asked the
…
Raising social mobility: an opportunity to empower individuals to improve their own capability
There is a cross-party consensus that the UK has a social mobility problem. Gordon Brown has called it “the great mission of the next decade”. Recent discussion has focused on the abolition of the 10p tax rate which is seen as a blow to those on low incomes. The Liberal Democrats have called it a “betrayal of the most needy in our society”. However, income taxes are just one piece of the vast tax and benefits jigsaw puzzle.
What is required to improve social mobility is a comprehensive …
Election fever is gripping the nation. Well, maybe not, but political activists up and down the country are currently wearing out their shoe leather canvassing and delivering leaflets ahead of the local elections in 10 days’ time.
Since the last national test of opinion, in May 2007, both the Lib Dems and Labour have replaced their leaders, a general election has been hyped-up then postponed, and a global credit crunch has become reality. So there’s plenty for the voters to pass judgment upon. And of course many local votes will be decided, quite rightly, on the performance of local government with barely a reference to national policies.
We’re asking you to use all your psephological nous to tell us what you think will happen this year. Here are the three questions:
1. How many Council seats do you think the Lib Dems will gain or lose on 1st May? (This is net seats as recorded by the BBC website at 5pm on Fri, 2nd May).
2. What do you think will be the Lib Dems’, Labour and Tory national projected share of the vote? (Again, as stated by the BBC website at 5pm on 2nd May)?
3. What do you think will be the percentage of first preferences won by the three main candidates for London mayor?
Please leave your entries in the comments box, below. You can use a pseudonym if you prefer to remain anonymous, but you must use a valid email address for your entry to be included.
And the prize? Leaving to one side the admiration of your peers and glory of victory, you’ll win a limited edition Lib Dem Voice mug.
Here’s some historical background to help you in your deliberations…
Looks like the new week will be much like the old week when it comes to Labour infighting, for Monday’s Times brings us a letter from Charles Clarke in which he lays into Ed Balls:
His injunctions about the “indulgent nonsense” of “private briefings against the Labour leader” certainly come from one who is well acquainted with this kind of activity. Such things do discredit politics and take us back to the days of faction and party-within-a-party that were so damaging in the 1980s…
It’s certainly true that many Labour MPs, including myself, are disappointed by policy decisions such as the
…
What could have been a rather interesting piece about the internet and politics in The Economist is rather undermined by two of the statistics at the core of its analysis and one major oversight.
First, the relative website traffic levels are taken from Alexa. Now, I’ve used Alexa in the past myself and their statistics have their uses – but only when taken with several pinches of salt because, as pointed out in one of the comments made on the piece, they are also one of the most controversial sources of statistics too.
Second, the comparison made between website traffic levels …
In one of the less cerebral contributions to the London mayoral debate, SpendapennySendapenny invites you to select your least favourite of the four main candidates for the Mayoralty and flush them away.
More people have flushed Livingstone than any other; Johnson is second – and our own dear Paddick is currently winning by a whisker with Berry being flushed just a few more times than him.
Just a bit of fun, just a bit of fun.
On Friday night, Brian Paddick became the first British politician to use UStream.TV for a live question and answer session, broadcast over the internet. The 60 minute session was hosted by Susan Kramer, Liberal Democrat MP for Richmond Park.
Taking into account viewers at the time and since, it garnered approaching 1,000 viewers, with the number continuing to go up as the event can still be watched again via the UStream website. There was also a moderately lively chat channel up and running during the event, which saw extra questions being posed and discussions spinning off from Brian’s answers. A …
Variants on the question “Is Gordon Brown finished?” continue to dominate much political commentary, with The Guardian today running a fascinating first-hand account of what it’s like working with him:
When Gordon Brown used to hold meetings at the Treasury, coffee would be served with the milk already added. I always thought that summed up his style. Such was his eagerness to get on to business that he had no time for the 20 seconds it would take to pass round the jug and the biscuits, a ritual that broke the ice across the rest of Whitehall.
The pieces goes on to …
From their Prospective Parliamentary Candidate in Westmorland and Lonsdale:
I seem to be in the middle of a nightmare at present. The BNP are standing all over my home constituency. Everyone seems depressed where I am standing for parliament. Gordon has decided to take money away from his core vote, PPS’s are threatening to resign!! When are we going to wake up!!! There is hundreds of councillors who are going to lose their seats if Gordon doesn’t listen. I am asking please Gordon for the last time wake up and smell the coffee and save the party as in
…
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Looking good!
Sarah 
Hywel 
Tristan Ward 
Ellyott Ellyott 
