119 posts from 25 blogs (490 total feeds).
Having spent a year strutting around Holyrood like a brutal prison guard, with a sycophantic anti Labour media urging on the bully. Salmond (the spiv) has been forced ...
Post election there are a lot of things to analyse. On the whole we feel that Labour posted some good results in north London, from a lower point 2 years ago. Here i...
The state of the parties in the Council today is as follows: 1. Labour - 41 seats 2. Conservative - 10 3. Independents - 8 4. CAP - 7 5. Liberals - 4 6. Independ...
Don’t forget the CLP dinner tonight at the Brown Cow in Winton!
See you all there!
Imagine you are a local Tory - it is May 1st and after years of hurt and pain you see that the party nationally is on the up and locally it has won seats and is going ...
I was going to leave the subject of politics at this point but it has just been reported that yet another sitting councillor has deserted the CAP to go independent. Th...
A newly elected Tory councillor has been forced to resign today after his past as a liar and a cheat was exposed by the Daily Mirror. He took time off his job at Tesc...
I still have about a dozen exam scripts to mark, an article for Manchester City Council, a speech to write for tomorrow's Labour Briefing AGM and have just h...
A speeding farmer has been found guilty of causing the death by dangerous driving of Deepings student Katie Shields. According to today's Stamford Mercury, the farmer...
Appalling news for Labour In what is perhaps the most sensational opinion poll for decades the pollster that got the London Mayoral election spot on, YouGov is tonigh...
Intrigued to learn from last week's Local newspaper that Brynley Heaven who now lives in a village near Bourne worked closely with Ken Livingstone some three decades a...
Yep, the one with the 26% Tory lead. I think it's about right in terms of a snapshot of where we are now - which is a pretty dark place for Labour. I'm not even going...
There was one last night, and it was in line with the main May 1st results (and in a key marginal parliamentary seat): Rochester South and Horsted ward, Medway Counci...
CLP Secretaries have been sent the list of valid nominations for the NEC. I'll do some analysis of this in due course. There now appear to be only 10 people in the r...
'Boris's election campaign was an insult to my intelligence...' Not my words. Not Ken Livingstone who Boris beat to become Mayor of London last week, but the judgemen...
I just knew Boris Johnson, within days of being elected, would be a disaster as London Mayor ... ... proof-positive, of just such a terrible start, now being reported...
Off to sunny (hopefully) Sheffield this weekend on the 2.05pm train tomorrow - bit of a weekend escape for the family - and we're staying in a 'houseboat hotel' ... re...
As a born-again biker - and an Army-trained HGV driver - I have no sympathy for the irresponsible trucker who went to jail for seven years today for doing a u-turn whi...
Will "the spiv" and the SNP people who called Gordon Brown a coward for not calling an election because they say he thought he could not win it now apologise to the PM...
I'm not entirely sure when I'll be blogging again, so I'd better stick this on just in case! I've got an op tomorrow morning (at a ridiculously early hour!) to fix m...
Fantastic e-mail received from the Labour Party just now with a whole section about the Lib Dems being soft on crime, that goes as follows: "CRIME: LIB DEMS ARE SOFT ...
This week's total so far is £2 from not buying the Standard on the way home plus £2.40 from not buying the Ham&High for the last month. Keep you posted.
The following piece is in this week's Hebden Bridge Times . Newsflash: I have hopefully ditched the egg mayonnaise sandwiches ( would rather die than eat one) insist...
Believe it or not, 1278 people in Great Bridge, Sandwell, on the 4th May 2006, cast their vote to allow this man to represent them in the Council Chamber. "Holocaust
A..."
Camden Council's 4 year assessment, covering the period from 2003/04-2007/08, has resulted in Camden being named the best council in the country. Camden Labour pays t...
I never thought I'd say this, and whisper it quietly, but I actually agree with Boris Johnson on something. I know many people are upset that Boris is planning to ban...
The party in Crewe and Nantwich have set up a website for the by-election campaign. I’m showing my support with a copy of their website button, but more important...
It seems there is a game going round at the moment where you pick up the nearest book to you, open it up to page 123, find the fifth sentence and post the next three ...
A reflective look at the state of our nation, and more particularly the state of our Party, from Johnny Guitar, a socialist in Belfast... Your friend in the North. "Ba..."
Steve Hanlon has provided an interesting analysis of the local election results in West Lancashire – some comforting, some a bit disturbing. All I would add to Steve’...
Luke Akehurst has snared me into an email tag chain, requesting that I: Pick up the nearest book Open to page 123 Find the fifth sentence Post the next three sentenc...
Communities affected by last summer's floods across England are to get much less compensation from the European Union than originally thought. In March, the European ...
My rule is never to blog past midnight but breaking it because tomorrow I am doing an interview on a Halifax radio station and I have a message for all the right-winge...
Came across this clip with the goals from last weeks play-off final. Tried to convince the family that we should go, but Lily’s operation meant that it wasn̵...
Interesting blog being maintained by Leyland Labour. Might be a useful template for West Lancs to follow. I like the broader non-labour items: local people and the noti...
Depressing to see the Democrats take collective leave of their senses. We now have George McGovern endorsing Obama, which would be a bit like Michael Foot anointing a...
| Hurt (1 day, 16 hrs, 7 mins ago) | |
Hurt" is a song written by Trent Reznor, first released on Nine Inch Nails's 1994 album The Downward Spiral. In 2002, "Hurt" was covered by Johnny Cash to critical acc...
Ken's letter, below, shows the other story of this election - the one that the journalists are not writing about. Obviously we did not win, but what was achieved in a...
| Tags (2 days, 33 mins ago) | |
I'm not a great fan of tags, the online equivalent of chain letters, but it seems rude to ignore them: Jane Griffiths (whose views on Reading Labour Party I definitel...
| Links (2 days, 38 mins ago) | |
A good new Labour blog has started: http://colenotdole.wordpress.com/ - by Andy Lomas, part of the Oxford Labour team that got such a great result against the tide la...
John McDonnell... or... Jack McConnell?
Is Jack McConnell, the former 1st Minister in Scotland going to try to oust Go...
Don't usually do girly stuff on this blog but the other week I had a bit of a clothing crisis and ended up at St Pancras buying one or two things I had not an...
Last night the UK Parliamentary Football Club held its inaugural awards dinner at the very plush (i.e. well out of my price range) Cinnamon Club. Although the 2006 s...
Hard to say which political story is more gripping just at the moment: this or this? ... and they say modern-politics is boring??
Sorry no posts for over a week...Just woke after a terrible dream: Tories win 300 council seats and Boris becomes Mayor of London. OK, more a nightmare than a dream. ...
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As The Tory Troll points out, Boris Johnson said before the election, that he would..."end the "cronyism" and "secrecy" at City Hall, and publish on the internet as mu..."
There's an excellent post on the intertwining of policy and communications by Hopi Sen in narrative follies on his blog. At the moment, Brown is very much stuck in th...
Liberal leader Nick Clegg just went on the attack at PMQs saying "Labour have no principles and the Tories have no policies". Whereas the Lib Dems are the perfect po...
Burton Albion have done the whole town proud with their march to the play-offs. Bad luck and bad refereeing let them down inthe semi-final vs Cambridge United. Nigel ...
Apparently, a new poll says that 55 per cent of Labour voters want a "younger, fresher, charismatic leader," which almost makes me feel sorry for Charles Cl...
Professor Bernard Crick writing to The Guardian letters page today: "Strangely, Gordon Brown set out clearly a new theme and potentially popular direction for Labour in..."
| The End (2 days, 11 hrs, 38 mins ago) | |
The BBC has finally got it ;-) ... he is now the Democratic candidate - there may be 6-more contests through until 3rd June, but the final result can surely no longer...
Here are my formal comments to the planners in Knowsley about the plans for the new Everton stadium/Tesco complex. The comments focus on traffic implications for Bick...
It is bad enough to have a bad day at the office which the labour Party did in the council elections last week. Now we have Miss GB standing for election in Crewe and ...
Well done to James Purnell for his speech yesterday which set out clearly what Labour's values are and was in sharp contrast to the "we're all doomed" message emanatin...
At our AGM last night I'm pleased to say that my fellow Regent's Park councillor Nasim (Nash) Ali, has been elected as Deputy Leader of the opposition Labour Group. N...
Yesterday the death toll was 10,000 in Burma. Today, it’s 22,000 with another 41,000 missing. Sadly, most of these will be dead. And there’s still no n...
No, not a reference to a referendum…although come to think of it, that’s one possible theme song.. My closing comment to the Tesco enquiry was - let’...
So, the Tesco enquiry has finished taking evidence and we just have to wait for the verdict. It was an interesting experience , speaking to the enquiry and trying to ...
At the West Lancashire Labour group AGM tonight, there was encouragement to get down to Crewe this Saturday to help with the bye election called in the aftermath of Gw...
Too many folks are calling me and taking last week's results to heart. There's nothing to be done for now, so relax and chill with this....... nick
I thought Cllr Malik was playing a joke on me when he texted at 5pm that there was to be a by-election in Holywell ward of Oxford City Council. But no, he wasn’...
Here's a question, what do me and David Lloyd George have in common? It's a tricky question, but before your minds get too over-active, I'm referring to the statue o...
Well it is finally here, that mythical period "after the election" where everything is shunted to. So now there is no excuse. I have to sort out the back yard - clea...
Earlier today I launched a tirade against the hopeless policy direction New Labour is taking us in. Well , the Labour left is clearly up and running and on the offens...
It’s not the biggest headline of the day, but I did note with some disappointment Andew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff’s tactics for his alleged speeding (...
After numerous delays the through route from Timberland to Lakeside has eventually been opened (Wednesday 30th April).
This will hopefully begin to alleviate some of...
Archant group and the Ham&High will now not be able to promote their damaged brand at a Camden council awards ceremony for community volunteers (the EPIC awards), ...
A weeks a long time in politics, so it is !
Last time I wrote we had three Labour Councillors in Parks, now there are two Labour, myself and Steve and one Tory, Graha...
Former New Labour acolyte Polly Toynbee makes many sensible remarks in today's Guardian -but still manages to draw the wrong conclusions. Quite rightly, she argues th...
Labour has selected its candidates for Margate and Cliftonville who will fight the next county council elections next May. Party members voted unanimously to select c...
Turned up this morning for my appointment at the hospital today to have a look at my somewhat mangled finger. On arriving at the "hand clinic" (with plenty of time t...
I’ve attached as pdf file a Weekly planning list, being all the applications received by West Lancashire District Council over the last week.
There is one appli...
Good news for the area as the Regent’s Place development received planning approval. The section 106 ‘planning gain’ for the area is really impressive, haing been neg...
The most important gathering yet this year of the Labour Left is on Saturday May 10 in London. Supporters of the LRC will join readers and supporters of Labour Briefin...
The funeral service for John Francis will take place on Monday, 12 May at 10.45 am at the Dinting Church, Dinting Vale, Glossop.
I am really disappointed that Ken Livingstone did not secure a third term as Mayor of London. I believe that he has really changed London, from the massive investment...
Dear God. We really are doomed if today's pronouncements by John Hutton are anything to go by. Nasty New Labour's answer to the crisis we're emvroiled in is pretty tra...
Is compulsary water metering on its way to Thanet? For many years water companies have produced plans that detail how they should manage water supplies to ensure cus...
The Daily (Maybe) on the third rate Third Reich. "They've taken one small goose step forwards but they're a long way from parking their panzers on the lawn of Buckingha..."
