Lots of views have been expressed today about the Southall by-election, but nobody seems to have commented about how charming and pretty the constituency is. Well at least the little bit of it that I came across late yesterday whilst delivering Tory squeeze leaflets. As can be witnessed here: Not perhaps what you'd expect? The result in both by-elections has been good. Especially considering
By-election junkie that I am I was compelled to stay up and watch Sky News last night (thanks to the ex-pat community here it is widely available in Prishtina) and follow the results of the by-elections. Congratulations to Greg Stone who did a great job with Ruth Milburn and the team up in Sedgefield and congratulations also to Nigel and the team in Ealing Southall. I'm sorry that I was not able to play a more active role. Despite all the hard spin I think David Cameron will have been feeling rather concerned that the Tories are ...
Tonight I rest my weary feet after great victories for Don Campbell in our street wars in Little Ealing and Trumpton. My day started early with Signor Rennard's Good Morning project, a method of subtle encouragement designed to ensure local people know who is Godfather in this town. It involve switching on megaphone, pushing open letter box at 4 in morning, and inviting occupants to show Don Campbell their respect. Generally it also involve not hanging around long enough to receive their tokens of gratitude. It personal attention that count. Later in day we hear that Signor 'Bollywood ...
Monday had one of those moments of unalloyed joy that are so rare. I fell in love with Durham, when I studied there, way over and above affection for a old University town. Before heading off for campaigning duties I spent an hour walking round the river banks of the Wear by the Castle and Cathedral and along the Bailey passed my old College. The magic was as much aural as visual, the morning chorus of the birds, the river, the swish of oars and the rustling of the leaves. I'd defy anyone to begrudge the Durham peninsula ...
Thursday: You don't HAVE to be mad to leave £8.3 million to the Conservatories… I have to admit, it was a GOOD NIGHT to be Mr Frown. The Labour managed to hold on to both of their safe seats in the by-elections, which ten years into government is easier said than done! As Liberal Democrats I think that we must be both HAPPY and a little bit DISAPPOINTED with these results. Congratulations, Mr Nigel! {Posted by Picasa} I am HAPPY because we came SECOND in both of them ...
The Norfolk Blogger has left a comment at my previous posting about his son. What he said was: Thanks. He is now eleven days old and it looks as if he might be able to come and stay at home for good now. He's putting on weight and all the other tests are positive so I thank you all for your concern. Great news! I am sure we all hope the progress continues and send our continued best wishes to
Getting off the topic of politics for one moment, and onto beer...my wife bought me a few bottles of Ruddles Rhubarb, which I had never encountered before. It is probably one of the best two bottled beers I have ever tasted. You tend to think...rhubarb in beer? Yuck! But in fact it is a match made in heaven....well worth a try.
US Vice President Dick Cheney will asume the powers of the presidency tommorrow, when the current President undergose a routine colonoscopy. Cheney will assume the powers, under section 3 of the 25th Amendmant, which permits through written decleration to the president pro-tempore of the senate, and speaker of the US house of Representatives that the president is unable to discharge his duties (this time because of the anesthesia) and the VP will become Acting President. The 25th Amendment has been used many times in the past, because of its implications on the executive branch. the Amendment aloows ...
From Necropolis : London And Its Dead by Catharine Arnold: “One of the most spectacular monuments [in Kensal Green cemetery] is the £3,000 tomb of Andrew Ducrow, an Egyptian extravaganza that The Builder dismissed as ‘ponderous coxcombry’. Ducrow (1793-1842) was a showman, ‘the Colossus of Equestrians’, who wrestled with lions, re-enacted scenes from Napoleonic battles, [...]
No time to blog at the mo, but in a rare act of cross-partisanship, I thought I’d make my new Ealing Southall button available to all. Subtlety is my middle name! UPDATE: here’s the code if you want to add it to your page: Share This 
Could blog about how happy I am that “Cameron’s Conservatives” came third in the big by election push. Let’s not forget he made that election 100% about himself. He stuck he’s own name on the ballot. Actually worse than that not they were his, actually written down on paper they called themselves his conservatives. The Conservative party aren’t Conservatives any more their Cameron’s Conservatives do they have no respect really. Actually now I know what I will do, I’ll change my tags to Cameron’s Conservatives.
Lord Tom McNally, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, has unveiled his new frontbench team. LIBERAL DEMOCRAT SPOKESPEOPLE AND OFFICE HOLDERS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS LEADER Rt Hon Lord McNally DEPUTY LEADERS Lord Dholakia OBE DL Lord Wallace of Saltaire LORDS SPOKESPEOPLE HOME OFFICE Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer Lord Avebury (Civil liberties) Baroness Harris of Richmond DL [...]
My friends have summarised rather well the results of yesterday's parliamentary by-elections. Nich Starling points to a week of ironic contrasts: on Monday pundits were speculating about Ming Campbell; now they are all speculating about the wheels falling off the Cameron bandwagon. Jeremy Hargreaves describes Cameron's failings - he does not go down well in places like Chelmsford.
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT SPOKESPEOPLE AND OFFICE HOLDERS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS LEADER Rt Hon Lord McNally DEPUTY LEADERS Lord Dholakia OBE DL Lord Wallace of Saltaire LORDS SPOKESPEOPLE HOME OFFICE Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer Lord Avebury (Civil liberties) Baroness Harris of Richmond DL (Police) SHADOW ATTORNEY GENERAL AND MINISTER FOR JUSTICE Lord Thomas of Gresford OBE QC Baroness Linklater
After the Sedgefield count last night we went back to the HQ to await the result from Ealing. I then drove home, getting back at 3.30am and went straight to bed. I woke up at midday. This is to be a politics free weekend. We are on the road now to Cambridge where we will stay at David's mother's house. Politics is being shelved for the weekend. I suspect I will use a bit of time this weekend to
The BNP got 9 percent of the vote in Sedgefield and saved their deposit. Their members were looking jubilant at the count last night. An extremist fringe party reaching this level of performance should make us all stop and think about why they got the result they did.Firstly, let's put it in perspective. By main stream party standards, the BNP performance was poor. It would not be worthy of
David Cameron is starting to seem more like the heir to Kinnock than the heir to Blair Today must be something of a crossroads for how David Cameron goes about his project for making the Conservatives electable again. For the first year and a bit of his leadership, his plan seemed clear and seemed to be going [...]
A few weeks ago I made a few headlines by stating on my blog that I wanted to see a change in leadership of the Lib Dems. I did so because I felt Ming was not up to the task of leading the Lib Dems any further and I needed some convincing that the party could still move forward. Yesterday's by-election results left me with the feeling that the party can move on and that although we might do better with another leader, Ming is safe and has my support (for what that is worth). The irony is ...
Ooops. A very silly mistake, courtesy of www.ealingsouthallconservatives.org.uk Click on the thumbnail and read the text next to the cross I’ve added.
Well well, it looks like we have not only held what was a very narrow second place over the Conservatives in Ealing Southall, but halved Labour's majority. That is a sensational result given the...
Well, you’re spoiled for choice, as you can read one assessment over at Lib Dem Voice, and a second assessment over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free blog (under a title not of my choosing). I might also point you to the predictions I made last Wednesday. Looking at what I wrote, I think it’s fair to conclude: Labour will be relieved, but not ecstatic;The Lib Dems will be satisfied, but not
UPDATE - Thames Water Emergency Line this weekend: 08459 200800 The torrential downpour this morning has affected many of the roads around Kingston. On the latest updates from the Council's travel section it seems that hardly any buses are running in or out of the town centre at present. In fact, all traffic was diverted out of the town centre as part of the Kingston's Emergency...
Commenting on Lib Dem Voice, Lib Dem chief executive and by-election supremo Lord Chris Rennard has posted the following assessment of how the party fared in the Ealing Southall and Sedgefield by-elections: In Ealing Southall, our campaigns teams’ assesment of the state of play over the final weekend was not very far off the result. [...]
I would have blogged about this yesterday but as it was polling day, I had other things to do. However, here it is.The revelation yesterday that Home Secretary Jackie Smith is a former pot smoker would normally be the stuff that would not register on my radar screen as being of significant interest. Except this time. Jackie Smith herself was in Sedgefield on Monday to support the Labour campaign
How INSaNe are you? 45% Quirky - You are only insane very rarely and when you do go insane it is hilarious. 'How Insane are You?' at QuizGalaxy.com You fit in with: Atheism 60% scientific. 80% reason-oriented. Your ideals mostly resemble those of an Atheist. You value objective proof over intuition or subjective thoughts. You enjoy talking about ideas and tend to have a lot of in depth conversations with people. Take This Quiz at QuizGalaxy.com 
As Nich Starling has pointed out, last night Conservative MP Grant Shapps said on TV: The third placed party in by-elections always gets their vote squeezed … [and] … I cannot remember a by-election in the last ten years where the third party has not had its vote squeezed. So here are fourteen by-elections since 1997 that must [...]
The screen shot above was taken at 14:45 today, 20th July from Iain Dale's Diary. Presumably Iain Dale is still contending that in some way the Tories have "lit up Ealing Southall". Have they burnt David Cameron's effigy in the middle of Southall High Street perhaps?
More on the Tory fallout from the Ealing Southall by-election, this time from the blog of the Daily Mail's Benedict Brogan: In its jollier moments, the Bullingdon Club - members: D Cameron, G Osborne, B Johnson - liked to lock wayward guests in a Portaloo and roll them down a hill. And today I suspect Mr Cameron would like to do the same or worse to whoever it was who talked him into betting the farm on Ealing Southall. The noises coming from the floors below me here in the Commons suggest the person who thought it was a brilliant ...
Hurrah- this weekend is Lincolnshire Pride - its the second year it has been held and this year its being held at the Engine Shed at the University of Lincoln! It promises to be a fantastic weekend of community cohension and fun for all - despite the dodgy wheater forecast (much unlike last year's of scorching temperature - and the huge thunderstorm that put pay to 2hours of entertainment!)! Also - the tory blog of hate has finally been taken offline - hurrah again!! Will learn how to upload pic and things so I can put the pride ...
It's not been a good week for the BBC. Watching the Sedgefield by-election declaration my calculator worked out that the slashed Labour majority was 6,956 and not the 7,956 they put up on the sc...
Liberal Democrats in Redcar have called on Redcar & Cleveland's ruling Labour Councillors to pull out all the stops in a bid to include a Post Office in the new Roseberry shopping centre. Newcomen Ward Councillor Glynis Abbott asked why the plan to house the post office in the new Sainsbury Local store had not materialised as expected. "Why were Councillors and residents not told about this in advance. It was clear to me at the Council meeting that even the Labour Cabinet member was not fully aware of what was happening. Liberal Democrat's Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, Ian ...
The latest edition of the Liberty newsletter carries an interesting piece on ‘The art of liberty’, discussing freedom of expression. It features a quotation from Adolf Hitler, who possessed what I think it’s reasonable to call fairly reactionary tastes. He once said “Anybody who paints and sees a sky green and pastures blue ought to be sterilized”This reminded me of the Stone Roses track (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister from the band’s eponymous debut album, which contains the memorable lyric“Until the sky turns green And the grass is several shades of blue Every Member of Parliament trips on ...
What to make of last night’s by-elections? Well, for the Labour Party there is evident relief that they have held on to both Ealing Southall and Sedgefield, albeit with considerably reduced majorities, and swings to the Liberal Democrats of 6% and 11% respectively. There is probably a nagging sense of disappointment among Lib Dems that our [...]
Mark Field, the Tory MP for the Cities of London and Westminster, has written a devastating critique of the way his party fought the Ealing Southall by-election. You can find it on the ConservativeHome website. A few tasty morsels: The centralised imposition of a Sikh candidate, who first became associated with the Party ten days before the by-election was called and whose most recent political activity had been attendance at a Labour Party fundraiser in mid-June, always had the makings of a fiasco. The way in the sensitivities [sic] of local Tory activists were bypassed amounted to contempt towards ...
Ealing LBC, Cleveland Con 1519 (43.3 +5.7), LD F Fruzza 1288 (36.7 +1.5), Lab 539 (15.3 -2.9), Green 165 (4.7 -4.3). Majority 231. Con Hold. Last fought 2006. Ipswich BC, Castle Hill Con 1028 (60.6 +11.8), Lab 385 (22.7 +3.5) LD N Cheeseman 284 (16.7 -6.0), Green [0.0 -4.3], Ind [0.0 -5.0]. Majority 643. Turnout 28.7. Con hold. Last fought 2007. Rushmoor BC, Heronwood Lab 423 (37.3 -1.7), LD P
Liberal Democrat Councillor, Glyn Nightingale, former Cabinet member for Resources, on Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council has defended the Coalition's four years of excellent performance whilst in charge of Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council with an attack on claims made by the Leader of the new administration: "The leader of the Labour Group is setting up his excuses for breaking his election promise of Council Tax cuts when an increase next year is inevitable, especially because his Government's grant continually penalises Redcar & Cleveland. "This year they gave £7.1m less than justified by its own assessment of needs. ...
It's Friday so it must be time for my House Points column from Liberal Democrat News. Loopy tax When Vince Cable persuaded last year’s Conference to accept his new tax package - scrap the 50p rate, more green taxes, close loopholes for the rich - I had two reactions. The first was that he was probably right. The second was that it would be hard to sell it to the voters. So I was pleasantly surprised by the press coverage when the policy was launched last week - there was even talk of “the lowest tax rate ...
Well, despite my cross-country journey and sunshine leafleting at the weekend, we didn't quite manage to pip Labour to the seat in ealing Southall. But it was still a pretty impressive night for us there and in Sedgefield. Nigel Bakhai slashed the Labour majority in Ealing Southall to just 5,070 votes. The Tories, despite the personal intervention of David Cameron, trailed home in third, picking
Well, the votes for the major party candidates at least. You can find the full results on the BBC site.Ealing Southall Virendra Sharma (Lab) 15,188 (41.48%, -7.28%) Nigel Bakhai (LD) 10,118 (27.63%, +3.19%) Tony Lit (C) 8,230 (22.48%, +0.91%)Sedgefield Phil Wilson (Lab) 12,528 (44.77%, -14.11%) Greg Stone (LD) 5,572 (19.91%, +8.02%) Graham Robb (C) 4,082 (14.59%, +0.19%)
So everyone won apparently. Labour won, the Liberal Democrats won, the Conservatives won and even the BNP won in Sedgefield (they didn't contest Ealing Southall) - don't ya just love spin?
Staff and parents have now been given notification about the result of last night's Fortismere governors vote on a move to foundation status for the school. With a vote of 14 to 3, the governing body approved the move. The statutory consultation period hadn't thrown up any new concerns, but it was reassuring to have received a large number of letters from parents in favour of the move - the 'pro' and 'con' camps ended up roughly balanced. Later I'll blog in more detail about my reasons for voting in favour, the behaviour of Haringey Council and the ...
The way football is going I think we are going to see live coverage of South Devon League football soon. What next ? Maybe it'll be Upton Athletic versus Brixham Villa indoors as the clubs have no lights - all exlusively on numpty satellite channel 'Devon Sport ' ?! My point is that TV is killing 'live' football - as 'in the flesh and at the stadium'. Already Torquay United and Exeter City combined will be on the box for seven live matches on the Setanta channel before Christmas, with the Gulls opener not on Saturday 11 August 3pm, but ...
Yes, the happy outcome in the Ealing Southall by-election. The Tories third in a two horse race !! Only the Tories can stop Labour claimed 'David Cameron's' Conservatives. How wrong they were ! 5 visits to the constituency from dashing 'Dave' and even his name on the ballot paper, rather than Mr Lit being listed as just the Conservative party candidate - all to no avail. To see the knives sharpening on ConservativeHome is a guilty pleasure for sure ! Maybe, bearing in mind Tony Lit's very recent donation to Labour he should have been listed as Conservative AND Labour candidate. After ...
The new code of conduct from the SRA (see link). Has the following: 3.01 Duty not to act (1) You must not act if there is a conflict of interests (except in the limited circumstances dealt with in 3.02). (2) There is a conflict of interests if: (a) you owe, or your firm owes, separate duties to act in the best interests of two or more clients in relation to the same or related matters, and
With all the drooling over the by-election results (in which I have indulged liberally) it is easy to overlook the extraordinary "end" to the cash for honours inquiry. "A disaster for the police" is how the Guardian reports a senior Labour MP describing it. Lord Levy is beaming from ear to ear. Without knowing some of the evidence unearthed, it is difficult to take a view. However, it is the
Tories are very quiet this morning, and with good reason. As the gyroscopic spinning subsides, it becomes apparent that they are in trouble. Labour will rightly crow about how they hung on to their safe seats with respectable majorities. For anyone to overhaul either of these seats would have taken a massive swing - and we [...]
I stayed up to hear the results last night, and am pretty pleased that there was a substantial swing to the Liberal Democrats in both seats - 6% in Ealing Southall and 11% in Sedgefield. David Cameron must be a very worried man. His candidates were pushed into third place in both by-elections. Over in Ealing Southall (where I had my moment of fame as a balloon carrier) he...
The event in Chamberlain Square may have been cancelled due to the weather, but even so, I wish everyone a very happy Talk Like a Brummie Day!
Doing a search of the Tory blogs this mornning brought up the following From Ellee Seymour "coming third was a bitter blow and a huge embarrassment." "Tont Lit, despite his dashing Bollywood looks and huge popularity was obviously a flawed choice" It is worth noting that Tony Lit was David Cameron's personal choice ! The Thunder Dragon puts it in even stronger terms when he says; "It was pretty much an abysmal failure. At this stage in a Parliament, the Conservatives should be doing far far better in by-elections than a less than 1% increase ...
A local production company has made a video of the latest demonstration against the closure of Winchester's Tower Arts Centre. Good news is that the County's decision on the future of the Tower has been postponed until September - so there is still time to campaign and still time to sign the online petition, now with nearly a thousand names on it.
Click the button on the right for links to the details of the parliamentary by-elections. Go to Peter Black's blog spot comments for those of Swansea Llansamlet council election. In all three, the Liberal Democrat vote rose and the Conservatives made no impact. Labour were smart to hold the Westminster by-elections during the Gordon Brown "honeymoon" period, or the results might have been worse for them.
Iain Dale has written about the press criticism of David Cameron's trip to Rwanda in the Telegraph, and for much of the article tries to justify "Dave's" 24 hour round trip photo opportunity as part of Cameron's learning curve about the world and events. Perhaps David Cameron does need to learn about these things. However, Iain, you cannot attack the press for being critical of Cameron when he does go the North Pole or plays at being a school classroom assistant or if they ask about his carbon footprint for a 24 hour trip to Africa because on each ...
So, now the dust is settling, what did the Ealing Southall by-election prove? a) David Cameron fools noone. b) Grant Shapps MP is a prat. c) Ming CAN lead and develop the Liberal Democrats. Now I’ve never been sold on Ming. He didn’t get my first choice in the leadership election. But right now, he is proving a solid, [...]
The Conservative leadership cannot be too happy this morning after their imposed candidate in Ealing Southall, standing as a David Cameron Conservative, limped into third place in the by-election. This result will offer succour to those dissident voices in the Tory Party who have expressed doubts about the Cameron revolution, whilst it also underlines just how rootless those changes really are. As if to reinforce the impression of a Tory leader making it up as he goes along this morning's Western Mail carries news of a new Cameron initiative. The paper's Political Editor tells us that Mr Cameron has ...
No, me neither. They must all be hiding under their bed covers, afraid to face the cold harsh reality of last night’s by-election results. Come on Grant, we won’t laugh too much! David Cameron is in TROUBLE. To come 3rd in the first by-elections following Gordon Brown’s coronation is nothing short of a disaster. Where does [...]
After spending the last three weeks in darkest Arslikkan, Iain Dale has woken up. After quoting a Grant Shapps press release which performs some remarkable limbo dancing with reality, Dale comments: The words straws and clutching come to mind. I genuinely thought the Conservatives would come a good second here, but let's not pretend this was a satisfactory result. It patently was not. But Grant
It is worth reading Conservative Home this morning. Here's a gem from "Traditional Tory": So...David Cameron's Conservatives - Labour donors one moment, 'Tories' the next - have been tried and found disastrously wanting. Cameron's fingerprints were all over this total disaster. The naive triumphalist drivel that was written again and again on this blog by his servile supporters should be quoted
When Ming's interview with John Humphrys just finished on Today I let out a rejoicant "yes!" He was interviewed about the cash for honours investigation (note: not a foreign affairs issue!). He quite rightly pointed out that the Michael Brown donation has never been linked to any possibility of preferment. When asked about the by-elections he said, before Humphrys could finish his question: "
The Tories threw everything they have at Ealing, including their party leader's name on the ballot paper "Dave Cameron's Cool Conservatives", but failed to make a breakthrough, indeed, failing to even close on the second place Lib Dems. In Sedgefield, the Tories slipped to third and Labour romped home ahead of the Liberal Democrats. With majorities in by-elections usually at a premium, Labour must now be seriously thinking of holding an Autumn general election. Yes, the seats where the by-elections were held were by any stretch of the mountain "difficult" seats for the opposition to make progress in. ...
John Hemming (Birmingham, Yardley) (LD): The Government have caused some confusion with the announcement about changes to public service agreement targets. Will the Leader of the House arrange for an oral statement on the issue of adoption targets and whether they are to be cancelled? Roughly between 15 and 20 children are wrongfully adopted every week and it would be useful to clarify the
I am pleased to be able to say Paul Keetch was yesterday discharged from hospital after a successful operation where an implantable cardioverter defibrillator [ICD] was fitted.
Labour held on to Ealing Southall because the opposition vote was divided. This was because the tories ran a strong campaign. Labour could easily have been lost had the tactical message been recognised. Then we could have won that seat. In Sedgefield a 3 week campaign was insufficient to dislodge Labour. Virendra Sharma (Lab) 15,188 (41.48%, -7.28%) Nigel Bakhai (LD) 10,118 (27.63%, +3.19%
I highlighted a few days ago the number of amateurish mistakes that have littered the Tory campaign in Ealing Southall. This was even before the Tories leaked (illegally)the results of the postal ballot to The Telegraph, for which the Tories are now being investigated by the police. But what really showed Grant Shapps up was his interview on BBC News 24 at about 1.45 am this morning. When thew BBC asked him about coming third, firstly he said (words to the effect of); "The tally and box counts are very difficult to get a clear picture from ...
In all the talk about cannabis and the oft repeated but rarely quantified assertions that today's drug is a different thing to that which our national leaders will have encountered in their heady youthful days when they clearly had a disregard for the law ill-befitting people who now want to tell us how to live our lives Matthew Norman in the Independent today relates his experience of having hallucinations on modern "skunk". Well don't believe it, or at least don't take it as definitive proof of the aforementioned unquantified assertion. In the general spirit of confession that seems ...
Let's take stock a bit from the Conservative viewpoint. They were forced into a bad third place in Sedgefield by the LibDems. So, David Cameron's Tories did worse there than Michael Howard's Tories at the last election. That's worth repeating - the Tories did worse under Cameron than under Michael "Don't worry - I won't hurt you" Howard. It proves again that David Cameron's brand is a turn-off
Apologies to everybody who posted a comment yesterday, I appear to have been so tired after returning late from a Swansea by-election that I pressed the wrong button and deleted them by mistake. Please feel free to re-post them.
Well, results are in from both byelections: Sedgefield was a Labour hold, no surprises there, and as predicted, a large increase in the Lib Dem vote. Interesting to look at the change between 2005 and now, here: 2005: Tony Blair (Lab): 24,421, 58.9% Al Lockwood (C): 5,972, 14.4% Robert Browne (LD): 4,935 11.9% Reg Keys (Ind): 4,252 10.3% 2007: Phil Wilson (Lab): 12,528, 44.77% Greg Stone (LD
Nothing spectacular, but it's still the Liberal Democrats who are gaining on Labour in ethnic minority areas and in the North.
Results just in: Labour Party: 15,188 (41%) -8% compared to 2005 Nigel Bakhai, Liberal Democrats: 10,118 (28%) +4% David Cameron’s Conservatives: 8,230 (23%) Huge congratulations to Nigel Bakhai, the Ealing Southall Lib Dems, and all those who helped the campaign, on achieving a 6% swing from Labour, and keeping David Cameron’s Tories firmly back in third place.
Well done to Ming, Nigel Bakhai and the team at Ealing Southall! To keep the Tories very firmly in third place is an excellent result given the ferocious Tory campaign starring their beautiful candidate. Cameron made five visits to Ealing Southall during the campaign. Ming Campbell made eight visits!
This is something of a live blog. The early bits are at the beginning and the later updates at the end (sort of!). Jo Cowling of the BBC is reporting that Labour have held Ealing Southall. Chris Rennard and Ed Davey are leading some very smiley LibDems with a photo call at the front of the stage. Jo Cowling says, Labour hold, LibDems second! 43% turnout (57% last time) Numbers from the BBC are
I loved this story I saw on Yahoo News earlier. I liked that Penguin's response was: "Thank you for your recent letter and chapters from your book 'First Impressions'. It seems like a really original and interesting read". And, when caught out, A spokeswoman for Penguin noted that its rejection letter had said only that it "seemed" original and interesting. "It would not have been read," she insisted. So they weren't stupid, they just lied. That's alright then!
While I’m waiting to hear the by-election results, a quick note of congratulations to cycling’s Team Barloworld for their two victories in three days in the Tour De France. As far as I know, I’m no relation to the company behind the team - and I’m really not that sure quite what an ‘industrial brand [...]
Just got home from Ealing. There were definite signs of a strong swing our way in the last few days - exactly how far, one can never tell, but there was something of the feel of Brent East or Dunfermline to it. When people want to come out of hospital, or even from other constituencies, to vote for Nigel Bakhai there is clearly something up! Watch this space. The only thing I am comfortable predicting is egg on Conservative faces. Interestingly, a lot of people in Southall seemed to think that it waas illegal to campaign on polling ...
I reckon the Conservatives are in for a thrashing tonight at Sedgefield and will come third, a poor third.However watch out for an unwelcome BNP vote.---Sent via BlackBerry
Another morning waiting around at Wood Green Crown Court for jury service - sent home again and so into work for the afternoon. Will be in work again tomorrow, then have to report back to the court on Monday morning. So might yet be on a jury. Straight from work to a governors meeting at Fortismere this evening, which as usual was a long one. We were voting on a possible move to foundation status for the school - I'll blog properly about all that in the next day or two, after staff have been informed of the result. ...
Monday: What with all the organising that went into our Doctor Who party, it was Monday before my daddies were able to disguise me as a PARTICULARLY LARGE Chocolate Frog and smuggle me into the cinema in order to see the latest Harry Potter movie. I should probably mention that there are going to be great big spoilers for this film in my review today – and I would NOT take kindly to any for the final book. So, read on ONLY if you DARE! Ms J.K. Rolling-Pin's book of "and the Order of the Phoenix" is ...
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