political archive

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More on the alleged forged UKIP nomination paper in Norfolk

21 May 2013 , ,
A newly-elected UKIP councillor, at the centre of an investigation into a forged electoral nomination paper, has said he has not "done anything wrong".
Prison fence

Sending a criminal to prison costs more than sending a child to Eton

20 May 2013 ,
The Independent reports: Sending a criminal to prison costs more than sending a child to Eton and “we need a better return on our investment” Nick Clegg will say tomorrow. Announcing an extra £7million of Government money to help the rehabilitation of offenders the Deputy Prime Minister will warn that successive Governments have been tough [...]
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Another week, another round of nasty comments by UKIP councillors and officials

From the Sunday Mirror: Ukip’s Chris Pain, leader of the opposition at Lincs Council and the party’s East Midlands regional chairman, wrote: “Have you noticed that if you ­rearrange the letters in ‘illegal ­immigrants’, and add just a few more letters, it spells, ‘Go home you free-loading, benefit-grabbing, resource-sucking, baby-making, non-English-speaking ********* and take those [...]
Watch and laugh: Clarke and Dawe - A Big Week in Publishing thumbnail

Watch and laugh: Clarke and Dawe – A Big Week in Publishing

19 May 2013 ,
More comedy genius from Australia’s Clarke and Dawe: Also on YouTube.
Wedding rings. Photo courtesy of http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1384052. Some rights reserved

Ssssh! Don’t tell Tory backbenchers, but…

19 May 2013 , ,
From today’s polling: Public supports same-sex marriage; The public thinks more positively of David Cameron because of his support for it; and Of those who say it will be an important issue in deciding how they vote at the next general election, those who say they will be more likely to support a party that [...]
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Labour council hires spin doctor on salary equal to £169,000pa

16 May 2013 ,
Liverpool City Council has hired a consultant spin doctor who charges local authorities up to £1,000 a day for his services.
Old computers - photo courtesdy of Brother Magneto on Flickr. Some rights reserved http://www.flickr.com/photos/brothermagneto/3802039480/

Does the internet win elections? It’s the wrong question to ask

16 May 2013 ,
I first started doing online political campaigning before the first tweet about breakfast was sent, before the first Facebook status update about reality TV was posted and before the first cute cat appeared on YouTube. All through that time questions along the lines of, “But is it worth it?”, “Can you win elections by using the [...]
Paddy Ashdown

Opinion: Adonis’s complaint – Ashdown was not mind-numbingly stupid with the memory span of a goldfish

16 May 2013 , , ,
Andrew Adonis’s account of the days after the public voted in a hung Parliament in 2010 have already received a rightful savaging by Andrew Stunell. Given that we already know the Mandelson/Balls preparation for coalition talks with the Liberal Democrats was a quick cup of tea, you might think that not even Andrew Adonis’s account [...]
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Four Tory councillors quit in Merton

15 May 2013
Four Conservative councillors dramatically resigned from their group at a Merton Council meeting over claims of "backstabbing and duplicity" in the party.
Nick Clegg at party conference. Photo (c) Liberal Democrats, some rights reserved. http://www.flickr.com/photos/libdems/8026227541/in/photostream

In praise of internal party democracy

14 May 2013
Traditionally, outside commentators (whether from the media or other parties) have often been quite sniffy about the Liberal Democrat internal democratic procedures and things like having party conference vote to decide party policy. The latest convulsions in the Conservative Party over Europe compare to the overall pretty disciplined ‘we made a deal, so we will [...]