The latest Communicate Research poll has Conservatives 35%, Labour 31% and Liberal Democrats 20%.
The Lib Dem score is up three points, though the party’s rating in the last six Communicate Research polls has bounced around all over the place: 14, 17, 14, 21, 17 and now 20. So make of that what you will.
I only ask because of this apparent outbreak of existential angst.
Did the movers of the Trident motion act properly by sending a mailshot to constituency chairs outlining their policy ahead of conference?
Yes: 40% (41)
No: 60% (62)
Total Votes : 103
Francis Rook (apologies for getting his name wrong initially!), a Parish Councillor in Tunbridge Wells, has switched from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats.
His switch was triggered by Conservative plans to shut the council offices in Cranbrook, plans which the Tories tried to push through without any public consultation until there was a huge public outcry.
Looking to the Liberal Democrats, he found that our party actually matches his own beliefs much better than the Conservatives, so he switched.
The Liberal Democrats promised a “fair, green future” as they launched their campaign for the Welsh assembly election on 3 May.
They pledged guaranteed NHS service standards, a fund to help families go green and smaller class sizes.Mike German, leader of the Lib Dems in the assembly, said the party would take action to deal with climate change and to give young people opportunities.
Part of a £2.4 million donation received by the Liberal Democrats from a disgraced financier came from a pensioner who is being forced to sell his home.
Robbin Watts, a retired building contractor, unwittingly invested £155,000 with Michael Brown’s company, 5th Avenue Partners, in April 2004 believing that he was investing in guaranteed bonds.
His money, which was raised against his home, was then given to the Lib Dems to help to fund their most successful postwar election campaign and the party is refusing to give the money back. The disclosure is the first time that a British taxpayer has claimed that
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The result of our last poll will be announced tomorrow, but you can now vote in the latest poll: Get the pigeon? Is it time to ditch Libby, the Lib Dem Bird of Liberty logo?
The voting box is over on the right-hand side of the page.
The Mail on Sunday had an exclusive about the ruling due this week on the use by David Cameron and other Conservative MPs of Parliamentary facilities to raise funds for their campaigns.
In short – the Tories broke the rules, but so many of them broke the rules they won’t all have to apologise individually:
David Cameron will this week face embarrassment as the Commons sleaze watchdog bans controversial fund-raising banquets which net the Tories up to £1million a year.
Standards commissioner Sir Philip Mawer will criticise the Conservatives for exploiting Parliament as a venue for dozens of dinners with the aim
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If you say you’re concerned about the environment and your name is David Cameron, the answer is here. (Green travel tips for Birmingham to Warwick also included).
Do you want to run the Rally at Autumn Conference?
Federal Conference Committee has reopened the tendering process for the autumn 2007 conference rally. This process is open to any party body or group of members who wish to organise the rally.
The deadline for bids has been extended to Monday 14th May and a decision will be made at the beginning of June.
The organisation that wins the bid will get support from the Conference Office and FCC but needs to be prepared to put the time in to make it a good event. It is a great way to raise your …
Half of the Conservatives in Stoke-on-Trent South have resigned from the party in a bitter row with former political allies.The split involves allegations of mismanagement of city council funds. Authority managers, the police and the Standards Board for England have been asked to launch inquiries.
From This Is Staffordshire, which has more details. “Half” means seventeen members, which says rather a lot about the state of the Conservative Party in Britain’s cities.
Senior people are planning to ditch gold as a Lib Dem colour apparently – orange is the one true way. The bird is safe… for now (I’ll get dat pigeon one day..)
The fifth of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator, together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.
Budgets and by-elections dominate this week’s selection. So, here we go, in descending order of popularity:
1. ‘Labour annihilated & Tory defection to Lib Dems’ on Matt Davies’s blog.
Highlighting this week’s sensational council by-election victory by the Lib Dems in Nottinghamshire, and a Tory defection to the party in Torbay.
2. ‘How David Laws scored one over the Tories’ by Mark Pack on Lib Dem Voice.
A gold …
Today’s psephological trivia: The Telegraph reports its own YouGov poll today as showing the Liberal Democrats down one point, but the actual figures on YouGov’s website shows the party’s rating unchanged. Oops.
Remember that Simon Hughes told conference in the closing session before Ming’s speech that he was planning to help in a Nottinghamshire County Council by-election on his way home?
Despite the filthy weather that day, Simon’s help clearly paid off. Today was polling day, and an intrepid count-goer has texted the result to Lib Dem Voice’s Night Editor.
Members of the Labour Party should look away now.
| UKIP | 70 | 2% |
| Con | 222 | 8% |
| Lab | 435 | 16% |
| Lib Dem | 1979 | 73% |
Congrats to all concerned, including newly elected Cllr Jazon Zadrozny. I’m sure someone will be along in the morning who can calculate swing properly, but my calculation from the
Excellent post by James Graham.
Apparently not, given his wrong answer to Ming Campbell at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
Hats off to David Laws – the Liberal Democrats’ very own “two brains” – for seeing through Gordon Brown’s tax promises today. It was Mr Laws’ sharp eyes that allowed the Lib Dem Budget team to trump the Tories in the Commons today, I’m told. The Lib Dem work and pensions spokesman spotted that the Chancellor, even as he promised to reduce the basic income tax rate from 22p to 20p, was abolishing the 10p starting rate he himself introduced in 1999…
The story continues at The Telegraph.
Ming Campbell’s verdict on the budget:
“The big increase in taxation is a doubling of the starting rate of income tax rate. The income tax changes announced in the budget will mean that anyone earning less than around £15,000 will pay more in income tax.”
You can read more on the Liberal Democrat website.
Michael Crick has been appointed political editor of Newsnight.
The journalist famous for his exposés of Jeffery Archer is taking over from Martha Kearney – who is moving to host BBC Radio 4’s The World at One next month.Since 1992 Crick has worked on Newsnight as a politics specialist.
Prior to that he worked for two years on Panorama and before that he was a founder member of Channel 4 News.
Crick is best known for his tough questioning and terrier-like investigations.
Ever since I set up Lib Dem Voice back in September of last year I’ve struggled with what to call myself – founder? manager? significant other?
But my struggle is over – changes in personal circumstances mean I will be handing on the baton of running Lib Dem Voice to someone else from May of this year.
Who? You. No, seriously, are you interested?
I have someone who has kindly volunteered to look after the technical work, and there’s a great team of part-time contributors who I’m sure will rally around who ever decides to take the site to the next level – but …
The Cumbria News & Star reports that Kate Clarkson has been selected to stand for Penrith and the Border – congratulations to Kate.
A group of twenty-five Liberal Democrats on the social networking website Facebook have created a group called “Navnit for mayor!” to, well – you know the rest.
The group includes a number of former and current PPCs, and also a handfull of former and current campaigning staff.
Islington’s Lib Dem council has broken new ground by setting up a £3M climate change fund to take local action on climate change, through promoting renewable energy, energy conservation and sustainable transport (walking & cycling). This is despite Islington’s council tax rise being around 1.5% (continuing to deliver a longstanding pledge to keep Islington’s tax below the London average) and giving residents like me who pay by direct debit a £20 discount. In a neat twist, there’s an invitation to give the £20 to the climate change fund – a free ‘I feel good’ moment with every tax bill…. what’s …
Yesterday Susan Kramer MP and others presented the latest batch of Liberal Democrat ‘save our post offices’ petitions to 10 Downing Street:
The Liberal Democrat petition is online at www.libdems.org.uk/postoffices
The fourth of our weekly round-ups from the Lib Dem blogosphere, featuring the seven most popular stories according to click-throughs from the Aggregator, together with a hand-picked quintet you might otherwise have missed.
After last week’s post-Harrogate post mortem, this week’s list has a more eclectic feel. So, here we go, in descending order of popularity:
1. ‘Lembit’s played a blinder!’ from Nich Starling’s Norfolk Blogger blog.
Deserved praise for Mr Öpik’s barnstorming Question Time performance.
2. ‘BREAKING NEWS New Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor?’ from Pink Dog’s eponymous blog.
No, not Lembit despite the rumours. Ken must already be …
As Sarah Ludford MEP has discovered, Labour Home Secretaries only bother to turn up to one in three meetings of the key European Justice and Home Affairs Council, whilst their German equivalents turn up more than nine times in ten.
Sad news of the death of another long-standing Liberal and then Liberal Democrat activist – Hugh Warren. For many years no Lib Dem by-election campaign has seemed complete until (a) Erlend was printing leaflets on the RISO and (b) Hugh had turned up to deliver them. I was amazed to discover that he was 89 when he died; his ability to keep going delivering leaflets put many people decardes younger than him to shame.
A couple of bloggers have commented on Lembit’s strong performance on the BBC’s Question Time last night – see Nich, and Anders.
“A LIBERAL Democrat councillor has been expelled from the party and is at the centre of a police investigation. Cllr Sera Kentman, who has represented Whitefoot ward in Lewisham since last May, was axed after breaching rules, which included failing to disclose her debts as a councillor.”
Hat tip: Indigo
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