A boy, a girl, a set of drums and a big sound - it can only be the White Stripes... Or not.
Since Matthew Oakeshott stood down as the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman in the House of Lords — almost exactly a year ago — he has enjoyed the luxury of saying exactly what he thinks about the way the Coalition government is approaching the ongoing financial and economic crisis, not least regarding the shortcomings of the ...
The insolvency of one of the UK's largest and richest football clubs - Glasgow Rangers - has dominated the back pages for most of the week. And as each day goes by it becomes clearer that the regime of the dubious Craig Whyte was built on sand. The Beeb reports that the local plod are now investigating the apparent disappearance of £24 million in future season ticket sales. But the place to go for real insight and analysis of the Rangers case is this rather good blog by a Scots lawyer, Albion Rovers supporter and Douglas Adams fan - with ...
Today's lesson is taken from Exodus Chapter 16 beginning to read at verse 21."And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted."Murdoch, take note !
All, Yes – you're right, the headline isn't where my sympathies lie! I suspect over the next few weeks you'll hear quite a lot about the supermarket plans from ASL and the District Council's draft Core Strategy which I will write about over the weekend. If you want to read more about ASL's proposals you can do so here, or if you want to read about the Core Strategy consultation you can do so here. This is a guest post from one of the leading lights of the pro supermarket campaign, and I for one think its right that local ...
The Yellow Bastard asks if the Liberal Democrats are missing a trick by not championing England. Alex Hilton, on LabourList, sends a humdinger of an open letter to Ed Miliband: "My problem is that you are not a leader. You are not articulating a vision or a destination, you're not clearly identifying a course and no-one's following you. You're simply coming out with unintelligible guff in response to the latest headlines and seemingly hoping that we'll think its impenetrability is down to our lack of understanding rather than your lack of coherence." In defence of the Labour leader, I don't ...
Last Thursday saw Basingstoke and Deane Council meet to discuss the budget and Council plan. With the risk of snow on their minds, repetition was limited, which was good and contributed to a reasonable finishing time. Apart from not agreeing with the budget or Council plan which was voted through by the Tories (which I kind of expected) I was a little disappointed with the Labour group who
The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black is asking constituents who live in park homes to make the Welsh consumer watchdog aware of any issues they face so as to provide an evidence-base for his private members bill. Consumer Focus Wales is interviewing individual park homes residents from across Wales about their experiences for their major report, which will be launched in autumn 2012, and want more residents to get in touch to discuss their experiences - both good and bad - of living on a park home site. Some residents have reported blocking of ...
These are not the actual items seized merely an example On Tuesday 14th February local Police, working with Trading Standards, seized a quantity of goods believed to be counterfeit, from a business address in Bretton and a large sum of cash from a house in Werrington. Trading standards had received a number of complaints relating to copies of various Disney items, ipad covers, phone socks and T shirts. Investigations resulted in the seizure of goods and equipment. Once confirmed that the items are counterfeit persons will be summoned to court. A spokesperson for the police said: "On the subject of ...
My life at the moment is a combination ofrugby and politics. Playing at the weekends for Warlingham 4th XVand working behind the scenes during the week on the Mayoral Election campaignfor London Liberal Democrats. There are occasionally interesting parallels between the two worlds. Boris and Ken seem to me a bit like two batteredold props locking heads in the front row of a the political scrum. If thelatest polls are anything to go by they are pretty evenly matched. They arespending the time biting lumps out of each other trying to get a slightadvantage. The skills required for success in ...
Ken Livingstone has been at it again, this time he's made a speech calling for bankers to be hung. I refuse to give him or stories about him any more publicity so I won't be linking it. This is just one of many horrifying "jokes" he's made. He's doing it for fun now and raking in every bit of publicity he can. Now is the time to stop feeding him. Yeah I said it, Ken is a troll, let's just stop feeding him, after comparing himself to Churchill in a fight against Hitler, saying that tories should be flayed in ...
Ah! So this is where the REAL money is, not in the pockets of the disabled or those who have lost their jobs and have to rely on Welfare.
I have to wonder what is going through Rupert Murdoch's head right now. Everyone knew when he closed 'News of the World' that the 'Sun on Sunday' would only be a matter of time. It's not in the nature of the world's biggest media mogul to abandon a profitable market without a plan. Why, then, ...
I've now updated this blog, and updates from the original can be found in red. With independence referendums over the not so distant hill, devolution from the United Kingdom, is something all countries except ours have taken note off. The question I ask is are we as Liberal Democrats in a strong position to champion the English identity, and should we? I must also say that these are not dogmatic views I've long held, they represent a recent thought process after surveying the political landscape, whilst secondly, please feel free to challenge and add comment. As Scotland rises, one has ...
Everybody agrees that the UK economy needs more growth, like pretty much every other developed economy. On the right it seems to be taken for granted that cutting corporate taxes will help. This view deserves to be challenged. An example of the argument for lower tax rates is this one from Tim Knox on the LSE website, promoted by the conservative think tank CPS. Mr Knox suggests cutting the main rate from 28% to 20%, while simplifying a lot of the deductions. The logic is simple. The economy needs businesses to invest and expand. A high corporate rate of tax ...
The Guardian reports: [IMG: Mike Tuffrey] Mike Tuffrey, the distinguished Liberal Democrat London Assembly member, is displeased with Boris Johnson and with Transport for London (TfL), whose board Boris chairs. This is not unusual, but the particular reason for Tuffrey's present annoyance distills some significant issues. The headline irritant is the failure of the mayor to answer two questions Tuffrey asked last month – questions that should have received written replies a fortnight ago. They concern TfL's contract with Associated Newspapers and the London edition of its Metro freesheet, which is distributed each weekday morning at about 250 Underground stations. ...
The government has today successfully defended a judicial review challenge against its decision to raise university tuition fees. The case – brought by two students – alleged that the government acted in breach of various provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights and/or numerous pieces of equality legislation when it took the decision to raise fees. On virtually all the points, the government – and Vince Cable as the relevant minister – were vindicated, both on the substantive effects of the policy and the way in which the decision was made. You can read the full judgment in the ...
There has been a lot of talk lately about executive pay yet very little people comment on low pay as well. I've heard numerous people talk about how executives are paid 300times the lowest paid but aren't 300 times more productive than the lowest paid. Part of the problem is this is as far as ...
Note to readers the following press release is reproduced here to give some balance, concerning the recent perilous state of Kent's child services, regular and fair minded readers will acknowledge that I don't slavishly promote a single political view, indeed ironic as it is, one councillor has resorted to abuse and fiction, having been a "guest" poster on this site on more than one occasion.Anyway I thought reading this, it gives some perspective, to the onslaught of public relations and bluster coming from conservatives in the county, as they have failed to address the route cause of this failure.Kent had ...
It's Friday. It's five o'clock. Here's a fistful of lists that sum up the LDV week: 5 most-read stories on LDV this week Liberal Left: why I'm underwhelmed (55 comments) by Mark Pack Why Liberal Left? (80 comments) by Linda Jack New Liberal Reform group to launch today (35 comments) by Zadok Day This week's council by-election results: Lib Dems GAIN in Towcester (14 comments) by Helen Duffett Opinion: left-leaning Lib Dems should be united, pragmatic and positive (38 comments) by Mathew Hulbert 5 Lib Dem factions to watch Lib Dem Friends of Cake LD Friend of Biscuit Lib Dem ...
Nations 28 (+6) Competitors 2407 (+399) Sports 14 (-8) Events 102 (-8) 5 May - 22 July 1912 Stockholm, Sweden In 1909, with only one application to host the V Olympiad Stockholm was duly selected as the hosts for the 1912 games. It was the fourth time in the five official Olympiads that we had been in Europe. However, the final continent Asia finally had representation at these games with Japan taking part for the first time. The other newcomer also broke new ground as Egypt was the first Arab Nation. Portugal, Iceland, Turkey (as the Ottoman Empire) were also ...
Millennia ago, an Chinese general, Sun Tzu, wrote the ultimate guide on how to wage war. This book is just as relevant in today's world as it was then. In this series aimed at experienced campaigners, we look at a verse every week, to gain a higher understanding of how to trample our opponents underfoot ...
The Corinthia Hotel off Whitehall this lunchtime hosted a reception in honour of the 4th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Kosovo, the state that seceded from Serbia after a bitter conflict in which NATO convinced Belgrade by military means to release its iron grip. Many Serbs are still bitter about this, but the predominantly ethnic ...
At the end of January the Medway Liberal Democrats wrote to Nick Clegg regarding Medway Council's application for City status - the Letter is (here) and the Press statement (here) and other articles on the subject (here) Councillor Jarrett was quite scathing in Dan Bloom's article that appeared in the Medway Messenger stating the following; Cllr. Alan Jarrett (Con) said there was support from most parties and residents claiming, the letter was by "a couple of local activists" who "want to do Medway down." After reading the comments in the article, editorial comment and the odd letter in the KM's ...
Money is tight. The party is far from being flush with cash and there is not enough in the coffers to fund the level of campaigning we need. We rely heavily on voluntary donations, and equity demands that we dust off a recommendation of the 2008 Bones Report – the one calling for Lib Dems at every level of government to give a proportion of their income to support activities that can enhance the effectiveness of the party. Most councillors already do this, donating 5-10% of their allowances. ALDC even provides model standing orders that require each voting member of ...
In my detailed history of the Liberal Democrat 'triple lock' (the four-step system for agreeing major decisions such as entering into coalition government, as used in May 2010) I made a brief a reference to a Federal Appeals Panel ruling on it. The ruling had previously been shrouded in some obscurity (or, if you take the Liberator magazine's line, conspiracy). It is now available in full for all to read, courtesy of the NewcastleGateshead spring 2012 reports to conference booklet. Pages 16-31 cover the proposals being made to amend the existing triple lock (proposals that are not without controversy) and ...
Part of our "back to nature" experience earlier this week was a visit to the Magic Lantern cinema in Tywyn. What a marvellous place! And we saw "War Horse" which is a fantastic film. It gets a bit schmaltzy at the end, but generally it is superb. I was particularly impressed by the cinematography. The pictures of the horse going through no-man's land and the trenches are just mind-blowingly brilliant. Janusz Kaminski is the cinematographer responsible. He deserves an Oscar for "Warhorse", which will be his third. There is one shot of the horse running towards the camera along a ...
Every local authority makes mistakes especially in the filing - it is inevitable. However back in 1998 there was a massive cock up with paper work in the Medway towns that meant that the city of Rochester upon Medway, a city of the realm since 1211 accidentally lost the paperwork and failed to reapply thus down grading it to a town. Whether this is was done deliberately or not is open to debate but the truth is it is truly gone. The only way to get it back is for the whole of the Medway towns to apply for City ...
I put a question down at Full Council last night on Birkdale High Scool. The answer to it raised further concerns about the Chair of Governors. it is reproduced below (my italics etc). I have contacted our MP about this issue. Mine was the third question on the order paper. I shall comment further on this matter. Can any let me know if they have an example of a school going from Good to Special measures and the fate of the Chair of Governors and Headteacher? (3) Question from Councillor Brodie-Browne to the Cabinet Member - Children, Schools and Families ...
Boris Johnson has come in for more thoroughly deserved stick in The Guardian today for hijacking Operation Trident to mount a pre-election tough policing blitzkrieg targeted at black youth. Not those with guns, which was what Trident was set up to tackle... just ... Continue reading →
Following on from the recent cold weather and the County Council's decision to increase maintenance funding for work on the highways it seems to be a good time for a reminder of the best way to report highways issues. The first point to make is that "highways" is not just roads. Highways covers roads, paths (both those bordering the road and, potentially, those off-road paths like the Spine) it also covers the state of roundabouts, signage, and (amongst other things) public rights of way. To report an issue you can call the County Councils Highways Agency on 0345 045 5212, ...
Durham County Council have successfully prosecuted a trader for selling fake goods. The man appeared at Peterlee Magistrates Court on Monday February 13 and pleaded guilty to seven offences of selling fake goods including Ugg hooded sweatshirts and boots, an Ed Hardy purse and Chanel jewellery. He also pleaded guilty to continuing to sell fake products against earlier advice. He was previously investigated following complaints to trading standards officers in 2010. The trading didn't happen in Consett, but I thought I'd publicise it because people need to know that if they are sold a fake, they do have a come-back ...
Whether it's the cost, the environmental impact or the disruption to operating the organisation, the continuation of two locations for the European Parliament has few friends. The friends it does have, who think it's a sensible way of spending time and money to shuttle one institution back and forth between Brussels and Strasbourg, are very tenacious though. Yet as a result the obvious waste of these arrangements continues to overshadow the steps the European Parliament does take to cut waste elsewhere. As a result, progress has been slow, but another step has been taken as London Lib Dem MEP Sarah ...
A builder has been sentenced for unfair trading and overcharging his victims, following a successful prosecution by Hertfordshire Trading Standards. Mark Tatham (50), now residing in Somerset, was convicted yesterday of 14 offences of knowingly engaging in commercial practice that contravened the requirements of professional diligence (offences under regulation 8 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008). He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment which was suspended for 18 months. He was also ordered to complete 240 hours of unpaid community work as well as being disqualified as a director for eight years. The case was brought against ...
So Trevor Phillips says that Christians should break the law of the land and only follow their religious law. Well I think there is an answer for him in Mark Chapter 12 verses 13-17 13 Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. 14 They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay ...
There are no scheduled meetings at Blyth Town Council next week (week commencing 20th February) Two extra meetings have been scheduled for the week commencing 27th February, further details to follow
Paying money by mobile phone - it's a good idea, pioneered in Africa, in fact. But we need to be careful about this, if the big banks are not going to increase their monopolistic strangehold over our payments system:
Chris Huhne made his first appearance before a court yesterday, following the news earlier this month that the Crown Prosecution Service planned to bring charges against him and Vicky Pryce, his former wife, of perverting the course of justice. Given the vague way in which matters of legal procedure are reported in the media, there now follows a bit more detail about the procedure of what will happen next and when we might expect the case to be resolved, for those not familiar with the details of the system. The offence of perverting the course of justice is one which ...
Earlier this week I took part in a discussion about the impact of social media on political protest with Jonathan Lea, Andy Williamson and Peter Lekarev for Voice of Russia radio: You can read more about my views on the role of social media (and rather more traditional media) in the Arab Spring in my magazine article on the topic.
Thanks to John Leston and Nigel Amor.For Another Fine Mess no.1 see here.
A Press Statement re our excellent Parks The quality of Edinburgh's parks and greenspaces has been recognised with a gold award at last night's COSLA Excellence Awards (16 February). The ceremony in St Andrews saw the City of Edinburgh Council's Parks and Greenspace service chosen from a shortlist of three other local authorities. The gold COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) Award commends the excellent practice adopted by the Council's parks and greenspace service. In recent years a new approach to joint working has seen Friends groups, local residents and the Council working closely together to deliver well-managed and well-maintained ...
I am actively involved with the Social Liberal Forum, which is an organisation open to Lib Dem members. As it mission statement says "The Social Liberal Forum campaigns for the adoption of policy - by the Liberal Democrats and the government - that seeks to promote social justice and actively narrow gaps in power and opportunity between rich and poor". You can read the rest of the statement here. The SLF claims that it represents the mainstream of the Liberal Democrats, and exists to ensure that social liberal ideas permeate throughout the party. SLF was founded over a year before ...
Following pressure from local Lib Dems, including Mark Hunter MP, the car park at Gatley Station is to be brought up to British Parking Association standards, with the bays repainted and better signage erected. We've been concerned that drivers have received parking tickets from Northern Rail (who run the car park) even though there are no yellow lines or no parking signs and the bays are so faintly marked out as to be all but invisible. Tickets have been cancelled and Northern Rail have undertaken not to give out any more penalty notices until the car park has been brought ...
Well, it wasn't actually him, to be honest. It was as I was watching him being interviewed on BBC Newsnight Scotland last night, with the Forth Rail Bridge in the background that I started to wonder if he was in Orocco Pier, the hotel, perhaps the very room, where Andrew and Roger Reeves were married last January. Twitter seemed to confirm that he was. As many of you will know, Andrew died very suddenly of a heart attack on 3 June and is missed every day by his huge legion of friends and family. It made me think how he'd ...
Vince Cable has done the right thing, for the right reasons. The new student loan system requires well off graduates to pay a higher rate of interest on their loans - up to three percent above inflation. This helps to cover the government losses on loans to graduates who end up on low incomes - overwhelmingly women working part time after having children - as well as making the system more progressive. Cable was worried that well off graduates would pay off their loan early, to avoid paying the interest charges. He commissioned his department to look into creating early ...
I was shocked to read the admissions adjudicators report about The Charter School admissions. The report is shocking. Amazingly Southwark Council supported the school submission to the adjudicator despite the council leader being a ward councillor for the most negatively affected area. BUT I'm pleased to see the school has now acted quickly to accept the reports findings about the schools admissions administration hadn't reflected the actual policy and this is corrected. This will change who goes to this school – probably at the margins – but only time will tell what impact this has. People will buy and sell ...
Yesterday morning, a special meeting of Ceredigion County Council was held to meet with the Chief Executive and senior officers of Hywel Dda's Local Health Board. The meeting had been called after Cllr Elizabeth Evans from Aberaeron and I proposed and seconded a motion back in November, requesting this very meeting as I blogged about at the time here. The request to meet with Chief Executive Mr Trevor Purt and his officers came with the backdrop of a fierce public reaction to the proposed changes that the Hywel Dda LHB are seeking to implement at Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth. It ...
Buses. Buses and markets. Markets for buses. It's not a topic I have spent much time thinking about. But it's been on my mind. And it's my own fault. Last week I ran a session with some students discussing the economic critique of government and its consequences, mostly privatisation. One point we explore is that an understanding of why an activity is in the public sector in the first place can be helpful in anticipating what will happen when it is transferred to the private sector. If we're talking lame duck industry nationalised to stop it going under then we'd ...
Britain's triple 'A' credit rating is now in doubt. This, if nothing else so far has, should raise concern in the mind of George Osborne that a new approach to Britain's economy, and future, is needed. The Green Liberal Democrats are wondering whether he can be persuaded to take a new approach that aims for a triple G rated economy? An economy triple rated as Great Going on Green Issues? Fears around the severe weakness of Britain's economy are due to the reality of the unsustainable nature of many of our business practices. An economy that is dependent on oil, ...
UK Now Seizing Music Blogs (With American Domains) Over Copyright Claims | Techdirt More on the RnBXclusive thing (tags: censorship ) The curse of Grace Hopper This is fabulous. If you're even slightly geeky you should take the 30 seconds out of your day to read it. (tags: Feminism comics ) Cooking for Geeks - O'Reilly Media Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant (tags: food ) The Girls' Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse 3 (tags: zombies Feminism ) David Cameron knows the drug laws aren't working; his failure to change them is simple cowardice WARNING: contains Torygraph (tags: politics ) More attempts by the music ...
Fri 17th
08:40
Join me Friday, 12 noon, on the Guardian's #HElivechat - The future of philanthropy in higher educat...
I'm one of the panel members on the Guardian's live chat about the role that philanthropy can play in the future of university funding (Friday 17 February, 12pm – 2pm GMT): With an 80% cut in public spending set to hit universities, can an increase in philanthropic donations ease HEIs' reliance on the market for funding? Chacona Winters Johnson, president and CEO of Detroit Public Schools Foundation, certainly believes this to be the case in America. "Today, government funds are simply not enough to alone pay for quality public education. The state does not allocate enough and local schools districts ...
You may remember that recently Tesco, which is opening up on Holmefield Road where the old SPAR was, applied for a licence to sell alcohol. There was some worry about this because of the anti social behaviour linked with alcohol sales there before. But the license was given for sales from 7 am to 10pm Monday to Sunday. I've recently heard that, having got the licence, Tesco is now applying for an amendment to it to extend the hours to a 6am start and 11pm finish. This may be innocent but I have to say it strikes me as somewhat ...
@gnomeicide @libdemvoice On NHS Bill, here's what members said: http://t.co/4mwIxzkK in reply to gnomeicide # @maxatkinson Stats not that granular! Tho 4 ex-Magdalen in the cabinet. in reply to maxatkinson # Have just written a comparison of Borgen and the 1998 film Elizabeth – may need to sleep on this piece of pseudery. # @po8crg Okay, you deffo win. Makes me feel much better about my 'narrative arc' and 'mirroring Machiavelli'. in reply to po8crg # @po8crg I never waste my most pretentious phrases on Facebook [IMG: :)] in reply to po8crg # Lol » RT @strmrgn "A conservative, a ...
There's going to be some work going on on grass verges and the central reservation on Speke Boulevard starting next week. It'll mean traffic delays while it's going on. Here's the list of where and when it'll be taking place 22/02/12 - central res from Morrison's to Woodend Ave. 23/02/12 - Woodend to Speke Hall Rd. 28/02/12 - Speakhall Rd to B&Q roundabout29/02/12 - B&Q roundabout to Banks Rd01/03/12 - Banks Rd to Horrocks Ave.
During my stay up eight trees, I read through Carol Thatcher's "A swim-on part in the goldfish bowl". It's an entertaining little book which relates some aspects of Carol Thatcher's childhood, which I found engrossing. It then relates the story of Maggie Thatcher via little anecdotes. The style is all a little bit "jolly hockeysticks" for me. But Carol Thatcher deserves full marks for broaching the subject of her mother's dementia. It is a shame that her honesty was rather taken advantage of by the makers of "The Iron Lady". [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
I spoke too soon. After Lembit Opik (sort of)Sarah TeatherDavid LawsJeremy Thorpewe have this deeply unfair song about the Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey and Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Thanks to @abjtal on Twitter.
Today sees the official opening of the magnificent Drumbrae Library Hub by Lord Provost George Grubb. The Hub has been a long time coming - 40 years or so. I am really pleased it has been opened on our watch. Every Lib Dem budget since I was elected to the City council had the Library in it. In spite of being in power for 24 years on the old District and City Councils Labour never proposed this library. ell in the 17 days since it opened 10 000 people have visited it! That is extraordinary! The team of officers who ...
Schools converting to academies in Cambridgeshire have been cashing in at the expense of pupils who need extra help because of their special needs. The Children and Young People's Scrutiny panel has been told that services will be reduced for disabled children, for young people in care and for those with special needs. An officer report said that "services will be spread more thinly" and "lower levels of need will not receive support". There will also be a reduction in specialist teachers who support primary age children with special needs and a cut in family support packages. These cuts are ...
Schools converting to academies in Cambridgeshire have been cashing in at the expense of pupils who need extra help because of their special needs. The Children and Young People's Scrutiny panel has been told that services will be reduced for disabled children, for young people in care and for those with special needs. An officer report said that "services will be spread more thinly" and "lower levels of need will not receive support". There will also be a reduction in specialist teachers who support primary age children with special needs and a cut in family support packages. These cuts are ...
Former Conservative Cabinet Minister, Jonathan Aitken tells this morning's Telegraph that he has doubts as to whether the Liberal Democrats are temperamentally suited to high office. The man, who himself was forced to resign his cabinet post and went to prison for perjury, thinks that the Liberal Democrats have been out of office for so long that we have lost touch with the basic, unwritten rules of political survival. His evidence lies in the level of churn amongst Liberal Democrat cabinet ministers: The party has five positions in the Cabinet, two of which have already had to be replaced amid ...
It's been the talk of the town this week, so here is The Leaning Traffic Light of Market Harborough before some spoilsport puts it to rights.
Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we're publishing the full results. Today we focus on the performances of the leading lights of the Liberal Democrats — those of our MPs in the cabinet, those occupying ministerial positions, and other leading Lib Dems. LDV asked: How would you rate the performances of the following leading Liberal Democrats and government ministers? Full results are published below, but here's three key lists for those who ...
I'm really delighted to be able to report thatmy friend and colleague Roger Roberts was elected to serve the people ofWorcester Park in the council by election yesterday. Roger has lived in the area for 40 years and wasone of the Lib Dem councillor team for many years until May 2010. Roger won the electionwith a whopping 1367 votes, strongly beating the Tory candidate into secondplace with 977 votes. Labour received a measly 315 votes, surely dashing theirhopes of local support for the London Mayoral Elections in May. Roger is a hard workinglocal man and I'm really looking forward to ...
