I’m just about to upload another article on Trident. Here for reference is the Federal Policy Committee motion which is going to conference, and the amendments proposed by the LD peace and security group.

There was a working group set up on the future of Trident – the FPC motion reflects the majority report (PDF) of that group, which was voted for by seven members. The amendments reflect a minority report, supported by three members of the working group. These figures are fact, and are not intended to promote or diminish the standing of either report – at this stage it looks like the conference vote could be a close call.

In brief, as I understand it the official motion basically says we should keep Trident going for as long as possible, but immediately halve the number of warheads we have. A final decision on Trident should be taken in 2014. The effect of the amendment would be to scrap Trident at the end of its extended lifespan, rather than waiting until 2014 to make the decision.

Local councillor Stephen Tall has more.

Patrick Cormack, the Tory MP who huffed and puffed about not being able to take his rightful place in Parliament and whinged that he couldn’t participate in the 1922 committee elections because of the minor inconvenience of his Liberal Democrat challenger dying during the last election, has failed to be reselected by his constituency party. And a good thing too.

According to the Guardian yesterday:

State funding of political parties could rise to £28m a year under one of the proposals being put forward by the former civil servant charged with seeking a cross-party agreement on cleaning up the system.

Sir Hayden Phillips has drawn up proposals under which parties would earn 60p for every vote they received in general elections or byelections for Westminster seats. Up to 30p would be earned for each vote in European or Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland assembly elections.

They went on “Under the most generous of his schemes, 60p for a Westminster vote and 30p …

Eight awards, three Tory wins, one Labour win, no Lib Dems (Sandi Toksvig doesn’t count).

No-one could doubt, I’m sure, that our parliamentarians are working hard – but these awards measure the impact of that work.  Listed below, the prize winners – Lib Dem nominees appear in brackets.  For what it’s worth, Greg Mulholland was robbed.

• Politician’s politician – Dominic Greave (David Heath)
• Opposition politican – David Cameron
• Humour – Sandi Toksvig
• Campaigning politician – Lord Ramsbotham (Greg Mulholland)
• Political innovation – David Cameron (no LD nominee)
• Political Book Award – Thatcher & Sons, Simon Jenkins
• Peer of the year – Lord Rooker (Baroness Walmsley)
• Channel 4 news award

…

Tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday has the story, which is online now.

Ian Richardson, star of the House of Cards trilogy, has died.

He was a great actor with just the most stunning voice, and I’m sure the political world will be greatly saddened by his passing – I watched the full trilogy only last Christmas. My condolences to his family.

The Guardian reports:

The Conservative party has sold its old headquarters in Smith Square, central London, to a European property developer for a profit of more than £15m, it emerged last night.

This follows on from reports that they have already amassed a £21m campaigning war chest – £3.2 million more than they spent at the last election, though the same report suggests that membership of the Conservatives fell by six thousand in the first nine months of David Cameron’s leadership.

The count in tonight’s East Barnet (London) council by-election has been postponed due to snow.

Snow may have stopped the counting, but it didn’t stop the delivering!