Leicester Mercury Political correspondent
Archive for May, 2010
Party political bias? Not here.
May 19th
Mercury editor Keith Perch has blogged about the accusations of political bias – from all sides – that news organisations inevitably face during election time. It’s worth reading in full here.
The finest example of the party political paranoia that descends during an election campaign was some time last month.
A Labour tweeter was badgering me, calling me a Conservative supporter.
I was quick to point him in the direction of a letter in that day’s Mercury from a Conservative PPC. He was complaining that I had been biased towards Labour in a story the previous day.
The same day, a Lib Dem tweeter complained that their local candidate hadn’t been fairly portrayed in a story that day. I was a Labour stooge, they alleged. However, the candidate in question had already called me to say how pleased he was with the story. I put the pair in touch.
Needless to say, I never heard from either of them again.
A limp theory
May 19th
I walked past city council press chief Mark Bentley twice last week, and he didn’t look too happy.
I used Twitter to speculate as to what could have caused his disgruntlement, and a few direct messages were pinged my way with theories.
But word now reaches me that he has a tendon problem in his left foot. Suddenly the pained expression (and the limp) all makes sense.
Era of openness
May 17th
Whisper it, but it looks like the city council has done the right thing, and dropped plans to ban Twitter in council meetings.
When faced with a choice between open government and a culture of secrecy, they’ve gone for openness. Is Veejay’s ‘era of openness’ starting to emerge?
Well, no. You needn’t thank the politicians for this. As you’ve probably picked up from stories I’ve written on this subject already, the Labour group’s movers and shakers were in favour of a ban. Don’t forget, it was Veejay who refused to condemn the move.
Instead it needed a (very) senior council officer to intervene and turn the screw to get it dropped, and rightly so.
More of this, please.
Who will Liz Kendall back?
May 16th
Leicester West Labour MP Liz Kendall was tipped as a future cabinet minister to me before I’d even met her.
Which is why her coyness over who she’ll back as the next Labour leader is so interesting.
The other two city MPs – Sir Peter Soulsby and Keith Vaz – have already announced they’ll be voting for frontrunner David Miliband.
But as a rising young star in the Labour Party, Ms Kendall will know that her backing, along with 30 or so other future key players, is coveted. Face-time with the big players beckons.
As a former SpAd to Blairite Patricia Hewitt, it’s hard to see her plumping for a leftie candidate such as Jon Cruddas, or the Brown-tarnished Ed Balls. Although ’soft left’ Ed Miliband is popular and charismatic and it’s unlikely anyone has ruled him out yet. Meanwhile Andy Burnham could sweep up some of the Blairite votes that don’t go to the older Miliband brother.
Whoever she backs, a line has been drawn in the sand. She’s marked herself out as an independent thinker who isn’t one to jump on a passing bandwagon.
Will she back a winner in the end? With Labour’s AV voting system the contest could be blown wide open if the older Miliband brother doesn’t sew up the nomination on first preference votes alone.
Twitter speculation is spot-on
May 12th
At noon today I tweeted: Ed Garnier didn’t sound too happy on the telephone to me just now. Is he still in line for attorney general?
At 1pm today it was revealed that the former shadow attorney general had been pipped to the post by Dominic Grieve.
We’re on the brink of a Liberal/Tory coalition
May 11th
What could possibly go wrong?
Leicester Mercury – May 12, 2005:
The Liberal Democrats have joined forces with the Conservatives last night to bring an end to Labour’s rule in the city.
Before the pact was formed, Labour leader Ross Willmott had warned another change in the leadership would cause political instability that could jeopardise investment in the city.
Leicester Mercury – May 18 2006:
Seven Liberal Democrat city councillors have resigned from the party, which runs the city council in coalition with the Conservatives, after internal elections on Tuesday.
In a further blow to the ruling administration’s majority, an eighth Lib Dem last night joined the rebels’ new group, the Focus Team. The group of rebels was behind a failed election bid to oust Lib Dem leader Roger Blackmore last week, the Mercury understands.
Gordon Brown has given me a lie-in
May 11th
One obvious upside of the Prime Minister’s big announcement.
I was preparing to discuss Tory gains in Leicestershire with Nick Ferrari on LBC radio in London at the crack of dawn. I’d already set my alarm clock for 6am.
But when the biggest story of the week broke yesterday afternoon, the station’s news schedule rapidly had to change.
I managed to have a snooze until 8am after all…
Welcoming Fergus
May 10th
Almost forgot to tell you about the recent arrival of Fergus Sheppard, the county council’s media relations czar.
He seems like a pretty straight guy and he’s also web savvy, so get hold onto your hats for council 2.0.
He’s certainly got the credentials. He was ITN’s first new media correspondent in 2000. That’s way back when the most interesting thing on the internet was Hamster Dance.
Now – via BBC London, The Scotsman and Harrow Council – he’s arrived in Leicestershire.
I just hope the council’s media makeover is better than his effort at cultivating a Twitter presence.
It has two updates, one asks whether Stephen Fry cut out white wine to lose weight, and the other assures members of the public that Harrow Council hasn’t banned ice cream vans. That was almost a year ago.
C’mon. Use it or lose it, Fergus!
“Big beast Dorrell” helps out David Cameron
May 10th
Sounds like the Leicestershire MP has been drafted in to help settle party nerves over the latest Tory promises on electoral reform.
“Accounts of the reaction of this evening’s Parliamentary Party meeting to one of the most sensational about-turns in the Party’s history are starting to trickle out.
One might have expected the newly-elected Conservative MPs to rise up in revolt against Team Cameron’s astounding about-turn on the alternative vote.
However, it appears that those present didn’t want to do anything that would make it more difficult for David Cameron to cross the threshold of Number 10 – a possibility that seemed tantalisingly close earlier today.
I understand that “big beasts” were called earlier to back the leadership’s position, including ex-Cabinet Minister Stephen Dorrell and former Shadow Cabinet Minister Oliver Heald.
John Whittingdale, a key player on the right of the Party, was also broadly supportive. John Hayes agreed with Stephen Dorrell.”
Election observation…
May 9th
When a ripple of excitement washed over local Labour politicos at last week’s count, I assumed they’d just heard news of a party triumph elsewhere in the country.
In fact, they’d just heard that ex-city leader Ross Willmott had been resoundingly defeated by Tory candidate Andrew Bridgen in North West Leicestershire.
Barely able to contain their glee, senior members surrounded me to tell me their ‘good news’.
“You see, we were right to get rid of him weren’t we?” said one, “even the people of North West Leicestershire have told him where to go.”
I considered their point. “You haven’t got rid of him, he’s still a Labour councillor,” I replied.
Then it dawned on them that their celebrations were premature.
He’ll be taking his seat on front of the press bench at full council for the foreseeable future…
So what took them so long?
May 9th
Forget the meat of election night, I’ve got a bone to pick.
Why did the counts in the city take so long on Thursday?
While rural seats – some of them originally predicting 6am finishes – managed to announce the outcome of tight races as early as 1.30am, in the city we were left hanging around until 5am for official outcomes.
The original estimates were between 2.30am and 5am. But that still means they only just hit their most pessimistic target by a few minutes.
A pointless phased system of checking questionable ballot papers seemed to be at fault, but I’m not an expert in electoral procedure.
However, I admit that my anger is mainly down to the fact that I was affected by the delay more than most, and was left frantically filing copy with just minutes to spare until the paper went to print.
I was so tired that I managed to spell my own name wrong on the Leicester South results article.
