Old Labour, New Joke

Great hilarity reading the "thank you" comments from the Labour candidate at the Henley by-election on his website :

"Not a great night for Labour, but no worse than the by-elections in Romsey and Winchester when Labour was 20 points in front in the polls. Another truly awful night, however, for the Liberal Democrats, who threw their full by-election machine at this one and didn't even come close. The mutterings against LibDem Leader Nick Clegg at Westminster will be a little louder today."

Reality check needed, I think.

The LibDem vote (9680) was UP on the general election by 1.3%.

The Labour vote (1066) was DOWN on the last general election by 11.6% and apart from being beaten by the LibDems and the Tories, Labour was humiliatingly beaten by the Greens and the BNP.

Labour now reminds me of the Callaghan government in 1979, limping to impending defeat. I doubt anyone will mourne the departure of Gordon Brown.

Sad news

Two leading LibDems have recently passed away and both made a huge contribution to our party:

RAY MICHIE

The former MP for Argyll and Bute, Ray Michie, has died at the age of 74.

The daughter of Lord and Lady Bannerman of Kildonan, she chaired the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 1991 until 1993.

She was elected to the Argyll seat in 1987 and remained MP until she stood down from parliament in 2001, becoming a member of the House of Lords.

Scottish LibDem Leader, Nicol Stephen MSP, paid tribute to her “tireless” work for her constituents and Scotland. Charles Kennedy MP said she had a "first-class political brain".

Click on headline above to view the BBC news item about Ray. She was greatly respected in the party and will be sadly missed.

RICHARD HOLME

Former Liberal Democrat Leaders Paddy Ashdown and Menzies Campbell have paid tribute to Liberal Democrat peer Richard Holme, who has died at the age of 71.

Lord Holme, who was the party’s Northern Ireland spokesman during the 1990s, and a member of the joint consultative committee with the Government on constitutional issues, died at home in West Sussex after a long battle with cancer.

Lord Ashdown described him as a “man of outstanding talent”.

Sir Menzies said the late peer was “one of the most perceptive analysts of politics in this country”.

Current leader Nick Clegg said Lord Holme had made a “huge contribution” to the party.

Paddy Ashdown said, "I do not believe there have been many British liberals, elected or unelected have enjoyed a wider range of respect, had a more varied life, or achieved a greater influence, not just on the course of liberalism, but also on the course of government and politics in Britain, than Richard Holme."

I remember helping at a council by-election in Cheltenham in 1981 along with Martin Horwood, both of us 18 or so at the time, and Martin is now Cheltenham's MP. Richard Holme did so much to build the LibDems in Cheltenham and he made a great contribution building to our party.

Recent comments about the LibDems in the press ...

The Liberal Democrat recovery has been sustained...
Guardian, 20 February 2008

[Liberal Democrats’] attractive ... model of balancing all new green taxes with simultaneous tax cuts is [the] party’s strongest suit.
Sunday Times, 16 March 2008

Even the [Labour] party's bedrock support is beginning to crack. … Voters may be turning away from Labour, but there is not much evidence yet of excitement [amongst voters] about the Tory alternative. … [There is a] strong [Liberal Democrat] party rating [in the polls]
Guardian, 18 March 2008

[Liberal Democrats’] opposition to the [Iraq] war has been totally vindicated.
Independent, 22 March 2008

LibDems on Facebook

The LibDems have just expanded our presence on Facebook with a new page where you can sign up as a fan of the Liberal Democrats - click on the headline above to do so.

You can see the latest news from Nick Clegg, view our latest photos from around the country, have discussions with other like minded people and much more.

Local Employment Partnership Launch

At lunchtime today, I represented the City Council at the Local Employment Partnership Launch at Dens Park, and signed up to the partnership on behalf of the Council, along with a number of other local employers.

Local Employment Partnerships are an excellent, innovative way of helping more people on welfare benefits into work and the City Council is pleased to be involved with the Partnership, to help improve employment opportunities in the City.

After an afternoon on "day job" activity, I've just watched the highlights of Nicol Stephen's excellent speech at the Scottish LibDem Conference - summed up by the BBC Scotland Political Editor, Brian Taylor, thus:

"Good showing by Nicol Stephen, I thought - the Scottish LibDems conference liked what they heard”

Click on the headline above to read more on Brian Taylor's blog.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Conference - Aviemore

I've not made it to Conference this weekend (I'm deputising for the City Council Leader at an event at Dundee FC tomorrow and haven't yet mastered the ability to be in two places at once!) but the BBC has good coverage on-line (including a Q&A with Nicol Stephen MSP - click on headline to view) and Conference highlights at :

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/scotland/2008/scottish_lib_dems_conference/default.stm

Political Diary ...

Any of us who actually live in the real world read with a certain amount of incredulity and a whole lot of laughter the article in “Political Diary” in the Courier yesterday which claimed Dundee LibDems “were certain of coming of coming second and had a decent chance of winning” the Lochee by-election.

This is simply not true. I think we can all work out Steve’s “source”, who undoubtedly deserves a tartan P45. If Steve's source seriously believes we thought that, from less than 7% of the poll back in May, we were going to win the seat, they are living in cloud cuckoo land.

Our aim all along was to increase our share of the poll (we increased by far more than any other party and indeed Labour and Tory fell back) and put ourselves in position to have a decent chance of picking up one of the 4 seats here in the next Council STV elections. Mission more than accomplished and all credit to Chris Hall, the LibDem candidate who ran a dynamic campaign. A great future lies ahead for Chris.

Steve says Nicol Stephen visited four, perhaps five times. Err, actually three times. It is not tremendously difficult to ask Nicol to visit Dundee as he drives through the city numerous times each month between his constituency in Aberdeen and the parliament in Edinburgh!

The SNP and Labour poured huge resource into the by-election. SNP candidate pictured with Alex Salmond, Kenny McAskill, Nicola Cheerful … you get the picture. Labour threw everything including the kitchen sink into the by-election – I came across two Labour MSPs delivering leaflets in Charleston the Saturday before polling day and bumped into Cathy Jamieson and large Labour Team on a very wet Monday before polling day sheltering from the rain at Tesco in Lochee. Despite all the Labour effort (they had an army out on polling day) Labour fell back, the LibDems moved forward. As an aside, you get a really good value breakfast in Tesco Lochee!

Some haven't done the maths - but the party feeding the inaccuracies to the Bargeton column has. A LibDem increase of 3.9% of the poll across each ward in the City next Council elections means 2 LibDem holds plus LibDem gains in at least two further seats. The Salmond honeymoon is ending, the SNP promises galore are broken and the Dundee Liberal Democrats have never been in better shape to move forward right across the City.

Back from Conference and latest updates ...

We've been away for the past few days running my Institute's Scottish Conference (day job) which seemed to go very well.

Was pleased to note on return that the "To Let" sign at the roundabout on Riverside Avenue (just west of the Marmalade Pot) has now been repaired by its owners, Ryden (see above right). I had contacted Ryden's Dundee office recently following complaints by residents that the sign was damaged and swaying in the wind.

Noted with some hilarity that the Norfolk Blogger (AKA - Nich Starling) has given me a mention in his "Top 50 LibDem blogs" (you can read more by clicking the headline above!) :

43) Ballots, Balls & Bikes http://ballotsballsandbikes.blogspot.com/

=) Fraser Macpherson http://frasermacpherson.blogspot.com/

=) Ian Eiloart http://www.eiloart.com/blog/

Way forward, Utility Box fly-posting

Yesterday saw our councillors from across Scotland meeting in Perth to discuss ways forward. Obviously different Councils have different priorities and will form differing administrations depending on local circumstances, but it was good to meet colleagues. Although some disappointments in a few councils, the picture is generally very good.

I was asked (along with Kate Dean, who has been the LibDem Council Leader in Aberdeen) to speak to a group of new councillors in authorities where we had not had representation in the past. It is brilliant to see the breakthroughs in places like Clackmannanshire, North Lanarkshire, Stirling, North Ayrshire, etc, and having originally been the sole LibDem on Dundee City Council (no longer the case!) I was able to explain the need to work with others.

There was an update on national negotiations and it is very clear that Nicol & team are simply not going to waver in making no independence referendum a precondition of any talks with the SNP Parliamentary Party. Totally agree with this. I made the point that there are equally concerns about the huge list of SNP spending commitments which are frankly not properly costed and I said this will make a national partnership agreement with the SNP exceptionally difficult to achieve. The SNP is simply not going to deliver what it promised. The audience burst into applause when I said that. Methinks an SNP minority administration is on the cards in Holyrood.

I also spoke on the Tay Talk In, pointing out why we do not support an independence referendum. People had the right to choose independence last Thursday by voting for parties that support separation (SNP, Greens, Solidarity and SSP) but far less than half the people of Scotland did. We are hardly going to support a costly referendum designed to deliver something we are diametrically opposed to! Talking on the Talk-In was a total challenge – on my mobile, in a covered car park in Perth, with poor mobile reception, not really able to hear what Ally the Talk-In presenter was asking me!!

I am trying to keep our LibDem members fully updated on any discussions involving myself & my colleague Helen with the other groups on the Council. The Courier this morning fairly summed up the current situation (click on headline above to read this). I am the only “surviving” group leader as Bruce Mackie and Jill Shimi (formerly Conservative and Labour Group Leaders) stood down from the City Council and Willie Sawers (formerly SNP Group Leader) chose not to stand for the SNP Group Leadership on the new City Council.

This morning I spoke with all three new group leaders and agreed to meet the SNP tomorrow morning, the Conservatives at lunchtime and Labour later in the evening (quite late on actually as I want to go to West End Community Council tomorrow night!) The basic principles Helen and I are working on is that policy comes before position, how “workable” an administration arrangement is matters greatly (decision making process, involving all in the administration) and that the arrangements are sufficiently robust to last the whole four years.

I am keen to read others’ manifestos (I am giving them all copies of ours) and if today’s calls to all three parties are to go by, I think a constructive exchange of views is probable.

If you go to http://www.dundee.prai.co.uk/news/000518.html you can read about my complaint about the Solidarity Party and the disgraceful fly-posting of utility boxes in the West End (and indeed right across the City). According to the Courier today, Solidarity’s response is that I am highlighting their irresponsible behaviour as a smokescreen to hide some apparent disastrous LibDem electoral performance. Sorry, Solidarity, the disastrous electoral performance was yours. What I was highlighting was the complaints from dozens of West End residents about the mess left by supporters of this party and I hope we’ll see them clean the posters off right away.

Day in Perth & Greenmarket issue

Janet & I along with Helen, Claire & Murray from Dundee Liberal Democrats spent today in Perth at a LibDem pre-election meeting. Very enjoyable day and the Scottish LibDems are in great spirits ... I have no doubt that the party will perform well next May.

Here's a couple of photos from today :

Claire, Helen, Murray & me at lunchtime!

And Janet's in this one because I took the photo!

There's an issue about how unswept the Greenmarket area is and the extent of litter in the area - I have raised the issue with the City Council's Waste Management Department.