Tory votes falls 50% in Farnley and Wortley (Leeds) by-election
September 19, 2008
The Tories have hit the magic 50% this week nationally, but in Leeds they’ve hit it for all the wrong reasons.
In the Farnley and Wortley by-election last night their vote halved, falling from the 800s to the 400s.
The Green vote also halved although they held on and took the seat. Labour’s vote did fall but marginally compared to the other two parties. The major gains were made by the Lib Dems, possibly because of their conference being in the news and people not wanting to vote Labour but also not wanting to vote Tory or Green.
Always nice to see places still doing anything to avoid voting Tory though, even if it means voting Lib Dem!
NHS Review - The Tories and Lib Dems vs Everybody Else
June 30, 2008
Quite funny looking through the list of responses to Dr. Darzi’s review of the NHS today.
The praise has been almost unanimous from the NGO’s, although some of them are tentative (i.e. ‘good, but it needs to be implemented before we celebrate), even the CGI supports it.
So it’s quite funny seeing the Lib Dems and the Tories trying their best to discredit it when everyone else has welcomed it.
The best quote is from Norman Lamb, the Lib Dem Health Spokesman, who claims it ’says nothing’ about the issues surrounding mental health, which is funny because it goes precisely against the views of Paul Farmer who is the Chief Executive of Mind, who says ‘Mental health has finally been given the priority it deserves in this review’.
Better luck next time, Norman!
Today it’s been announced the government are going to have to reveal the comings and goings of all visitors to Downing Street, specifically during June 2005 when Tony Blair was in charge.
Norman Lamb, a Liberal Democrat MP, said this would provide a breath of fresh air through the corridors of power. But would it?
Read it here. It’s genuinely funny and makes him sound very human, knowledgeable and likeable. Many of the things he didn’t come across as during the campaign to be Mayor of London. I geuinely feel sorry for him after reading that, and the Lib Dems certainly don’t come out of it well.
That said, it was still pointless for him to vote for Left List as his 2nd pref.
My favourite entry is the flirting between him and Will Self, very funny. And Will Self sounds like a right slag. Good on him.
My thoughts on the income tax allowance changes
May 13, 2008
Well, not that anyone cares but here goes anyway.
I woke up today expecting the government to engage in some messy, tinkering changes that would further complicate and already complicated system of tax credits and pensioner allowances. I didn’t believe nearly enough people losing out from the 10 tax abolition would gain and certainly didn’t think anyone else will.
That’s why today’s announcement, that income tax allowances were going to increase, taking 600,000 people out of paying income tax altogether and benefiting approximately 22 million workers to the tune of £120 a year was so welcome and brilliant.
Prime Minister’s Questions - 07/05/08
May 7, 2008
I didn’t bother writing a blog entry for last week, the PMQ’s was quite boring (relative to any large ‘incidents’) but I figured I’d better this week as I expected Cameron to give Brown a right battering.
As it happens I didn’t think it was too bad today. Read the rest of this entry »
PMQ’s 23/04/08 - Opportunism Knocks
April 26, 2008
Prime Minister’s Question Time is probably one of the few times when it can be good to be a Leader of the Opposition. You can stand up, crack a few jokes, have everyone laugh sycophantically with you, insult the Prime Minister (and who gets to do that, to his face, every week?) and pretend to care about issues you have absolutely no history of taking an interest in.
