Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Archive for July, 2010
A short adjournment
Jul 30th
An email has just landed in my inbox via the servers of the Parliamentary Estate:
“I am an avid reader of your blog, as I am sure many others are also. You really do have plenty of people guessing at some of your sources…”
Flattering, but unfortunately things will be quiet around here for the next five days. I’m out of Leicester for a few days, and I’ll be back on Wednesday.
Mandelson’s phone farce
Jul 28th
Remember when city councillor Manish Sood stuck the knife into Gordon Brown back in April?
With just 45 hours to go until the polls opened, Sood slammed the leader of his own party. As every media outlet in the country picked up the story, Peter Mandelson picked up the phone – and gave Manish an ear-bashing.
The phonecall ended on bad terms, and one of them hung up. Mandelson then toured the TV channels, making some questionable slurs on Sood’s character.
We all thought that was the end of the matter.
However word reaches me that Lord Mandelson, in his rage, forgot to withhold his mobile telephone number when he made the call.
Suddenly, the hyperactive councillor had a personal hotline to the Labour Party’s chief strategist. And, predictably, he’s been using it.
Lord Mandelson will presumably dial 141 before calling off-message candidates in future.
Sarah’s got a blog
Jul 26th
City cabinet member Sarah Russell has started a blog.
In her first post she says that trying to fit blogging into her hectic day might prove tough, as a mother of two who juggles work and politics. I struggle to update this blog every day and all I do after work is eat Cherry Garcia ice-cream in bed while watching 30 Rock.
As a journalist I can say that of all the cabinet members I speak to on a regular basis, she’s got the best grasp of her portfolio, so her promise to explain issues to readers will be useful.
But as she’s a cabinet member she’s got to stick to the party line, so don’t expect too many juicy snippets from the inside.
If only she could encourage her rambunctious partner Andy to start blogging on local politics.
Now that would be a must-read…
Quote of the week
Jul 23rd
He’s never short of something to say, but this week John Thomas came out with a line with summed up the crisis facing the city if no new burial ground is created:
“If you want to be buried in Leicester, you’d better hurry up and die.”
Labour wins Castle by-election
Jul 16th
Rory Palmer’s a charmer isn’t he?
I turned up to last night’s Castle by-election count in my finest overcoat, a new shirt and pair of jeans, and took a seat. “Have you come straight from the boozer David?” he asked.
Presumably he was more flattering to Castle constituents when out on the doorstep, because Labour managed to claw back the seat from the Greens.
But while Labour managed to win by more than 100 votes, don’t think of this as an easy win. Twenty minutes before the result was announced Patrick Kitterick, hovevering around in his Barcelona shirt, said it was still too tight to call.
And although the turnout was tiny, the votes were counted and the results announced pretty sharpish, by about 11pm.
“Perry [Holmes] had to do a quick job this time, after the shambles at the General Election count back in May,” one councillor noted.
Countdown Conundrum
Jul 15th
A very naughty councillor, who is clearly a fan of Channel 4′s Countdown, got in touch last night.
He’d spotted that the name of the Lib Dem candidate in tonight’s Castle by-election is (almost) a coalition-themed anagram.
Troy Lavers becomes Tory Slave. Almost.
SKETCH: Distracted, the councillors jabbed their USB sticks
Jul 14th
- COUNTY HALL – Wednesday July 14 – 2pm
A few weeks ago I took my gran along to the Apple store in Leicester to show her an iPad.
My fingers danced across the shiny screen, I blitzed through folders full of photos to show her its capabilities, and urged her to hold it in her hands to feel how light it was.
“That’s all very well,” she said, “but why is it any better than my laptop?”
Skip forward a month or so and Prospect Leicestershire chairman Nick Carter sat before a panel of around 12 scrutinising councillors.
A jazzy promotional video was projected onto a screen.
A brochure was handed out which contained so many giant fonts it looked like it had been delivered direct from the large print section of the Pork Pie Library.
Even USB sticks were dished out to the assembled councillors. “What on earth is this?” muttered one elderly sage.
It was an Apple-style all singing, all dancing performance. But it wasn’t enough for Bill Boulter (Lib Dem, South Wigston).
“That’s all very well, but I think other organisations can do your job cheaper.”
Ouch. But to be honest, it was the closest we came to any real scrutiny during this hour or so.
Dr Kevin Feltham (Con, Gartree) basted Nick with compliments about how “nimble” the agency was. Then he kept repeating it. The word lost its meaning for a second. Nimble is a word you’d use to describe a sprightly safari animal, not a development agency.
As Nick talked about Prospect, Dr Feltham responded with kind of happy groans and syrupy smile you’d make on slipping into a hot bath after an exhausting day.
Hyperactive Peter Lewis, (Con, Loughborough South West) did a little better. He enthusiastically tackled the issue of Prospect’s brochure having too many city pictures in it, and not enough county snaps. He also roasted the promotional video as pointless.
But it would have taken a fair amount of ineptitude to flail in front of this committee, and Nick never swam near any trouble.
When awkward issues were raised (why do most districts get very little in return for the £18k they throw into the pot each year) he stroked his facial hair and nodded earnestly before responding in-depth.
Chief executive David Hughes – wearing a dark orange tie which almost matched his tanned exterior – was able to take a back seat as he watched the chairman deal with each of the questions capably.
In fact, David looked so bored with the entire thing that his files and papers were piled up ready to go before the final question had been answered.
“Come back soon,” members of committee chimed, as the pair got up to leave.
But by then a couple of older councillors were already distracted, jabbing their shiny new USB sticks with a sense of bafflement.
A Royal engagement
Jul 14th
A list of Lord Mayor Colin Hall’s weekly engagements has just arrived on my desk.
Thursday 22nd July:
10:00 - Lord Mayor & Guests - Buckingham Palace Garden Party
Stay away from Prince Philip, he’ll only be a bad influence.
A note of caution
Jul 14th
I’m off up to county hall from about 1pm onwards. There’s plenty of catching up to do with councillors and officers alike, and the scrutiny commission kicks off at 2pm.
Just one word of warning; if you’re a politician who’s likely to be knocking around in the maze of corridors it would be wise to remember what happened last time a politico thought they were out of sight of the Press.
The walls have ears.
Quote of the day
Jul 13th
A blogger from my old patch has passed comment on me:
“Whilst I admit that I am mystified as to why [David MacLean] continues to remain so close to what appear to be a rag-tag of hard left Labourites, millionaires and nutters, I do enjoy his writing and his ability to dig out a good story.”
A back-handed compliment is better than no compliment at all…
The day Patricia Hewitt tried to topple the PM
Jul 13th
Just bringing you a little something from over the paywall, about the day former Leicester West MP Patricia Hewitt tried to oust Gordon Brown.
According to Peter Mandelson’s diaries the person who informed him of the Blairite plot to topple Gordon Brown was, er, Tony Blair. Makes you wonder just how close he was to the move…
“I had the first hint that something was up shortly after 11am on Wednesday, the day of the first PMQs on our return to Westminster. I was told that Tony [Blair] had got wind of rumours of a move against Gordon. So I telephoned him.We both agreed that if anything happened I should not be involved in encouraging it, but nor could I go into overdrive as I did when James resigned. Minutes later, Sue Nye [Director of Government Relations] called and said there were reports of an initiative by Geoff Hoon and “others” against Gordon.Downing Street had decided not to tell him about it before his Dispatch Box bout with David Cameron, a sufficiently nerve-racking enterprise as it was.With the exception of a handful of ministers, principally Andy Burnham and Shaun Woodward, and, rather later, Ed Balls, the Cabinet was lying low, and backbenchers even lower. My office was being besieged with requests for comment.”
But such was the ‘clout’ of Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon, Mandy reveals, that key cabinet players didn’t even raise the issue in a meeting with the PM that day. Bit embarrassing.
Get Carter
Jul 12th
What have you done in the past year?
The former Mercury editor will sit alongside Prospect chief executive David Hughes to outline the publicly-funded organisation’s plans for the future.
At a time of savage cuts to public spending, the question of whether it will duplicate the work of the new Local Enterprise Partnerships will surely arise.
But one issue I’d really like to see brought up is the issue of openness.
Despite being bankrolled by taxpayer cash (with a staff budget of £1 million) Prospect is keen to point out on its website that it is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
But, the website assures us, Prospect Leicestershire:
“…wishes to operate in a spirit of openness, and will be pleased to respond to information requests under our own Publication Scheme.”
So I lodged a ‘Spirit of Openness’ request on January 31 this year, asking for copies of executive credit card statements for the most recently available 12 month period.
More than five months on, I’m still waiting…
6PM UPDATE: Nick has been in touch to say the request will be chased up.
