Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Archive for June, 2010
Whodunnit?
Jun 9th
Whenever you do a city story based on leaked information, the local political scene goes into overdrive speculating on who went to the press.
And when it’s clear that the information came from within their own group, things become even more feverish.
So when we published a story on page three of today’s Mercury, about an ongoing investigation into allegations against Andy Connelly, my mobile phone struggled to deal with the incoming calls.
“This could only have come from someone in the Labour party,” one irate member said, breathlessly.
“I know, it says that in the story,” I replied.
“Then who was it?”
“I’m sorry but I’m a journalist and I don’t reveal my sources. You’ve got a real-life episode of Cluedo on your hands now…”
Where’s the money from?
Jun 8th
Liz Kendall managed to distance herself from Patricia Hewitt during the Leicester West election campaign.
As the lobbying scandal exploded Liz emphasised that she’d worked with Patricia ‘in the past’ and that she wanted to focus on her own record.
On another occasion she said:
“I don’t think people closely associate me with Patricia Hewitt. I’m the new candidate. Judge me, on me.”
But figures from the Electoral Commission that the all-new candidate’s campaign was funded by the controversial old one – at least in part.
The most recent published figures show that Patricia Hewitt herself donated £3,100 to the Leicester West constituency Labour party on March 1 this year.
It was the only donation made to the constituency party in the first quarter of this year, and the first in at least a decade from Ms Hewitt to the local party.
£3,100 is, of course, slightly more than Ms Hewitt’s claimed daily rate…
Water way to behave
Jun 3rd
So I called one of the city’s many influentials today to talk about some major issues facing the area.
“Hold on a minute will you?” he said, having picked up the phone to my automatically withheld number, “I’m having a p***!”
I presumed I’d dialled a wrong number. Was this really the voice of one of the key players who fights for Leicester’s interests here and elsewhere? It sure was.
“There, can you hear it flushing?” he said, before launching into a professional conversation.
It’s lucky he’d picked up the phone to a humble hack from the Mercury. If it was someone with more clout it could have been far more embarrassing.
Totally bizarre behaviour.
