Nice Concept - Shame about one line

Sometimes the election can get a bit too serious. I'm grateful to anyone that tries to lighten that load as someone did by sending me this.

Reading the first couple of lines of this made me smile. Then you get to the line where you remember that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died in a bloody war, so it doesn't quite work from then on.

The concept was good. Maybe if Labour had hated something else it would have been really funny? Maybe if we hadn't invaded over alleged "Weapons of Mass Destruction" to back up the most extreme US President in modern history and Labour were not still asking for everyone to vote for them one last time...



PS - I don't hate Jeremy Clarkson, although he puts me on edge when he appears on Have I Got News For You, as I simply don't relax and enjoy it. I think he just can't be seen to lose face, ever, so no matter how much evidence is ever presented on Climate Change, his public persona just could not adapt to it.

Excellent Spread in the Independent

If you've not seen it yet, read it here.

Some notable celebrity backing for us on a national level in a way we've never seen before. Credit to the national comms team on a great campaign so far.

In Other News

I've been a bit wrapped up with campaigning, work and life to get much blogging done. A lot has been going on in Liverpool politics, not all of it particularly pleasant.

First of all there is the furore over the Liberal Democrats using Michael Shields in one of their leaflets. This is on the BBC website and has previously been covered locally.

Secondly the big news story today, splashed all over the Liverpool Daily Post front page, is the Facebook scandal that has led to the sacking of Colin Eldridge's web campaign manager.

Politics in Liverpool is not for the faint-hearted. The gloves come off early and the campaigning can get very negative. Our two Parliamentary candidates have pledged to run a clean campaign and invited others to do the same.

There are times when even in search of the facts but with an eye on political campaigning, that politicians from any party can overstep the mark. If we do that as Greens, we have to be ready to step up, accept responsibility and make a correction. I'd like to think that approach stands up to scrutiny.

Every individual ultimately has the route of legal redress. Sadly, in some cases, no matter how absurd the claim, this is the last resort that must be explored.



In this particular case from Feb 2009, (which is in my view obviously libellous), when asked for an apology, the Liberal Democrat agent (now a Parliamentary candidate) denied any wrong doing. Unfortunately this case will be going to Court.

In relation to two previous posts...

APOLOGY / RETRACTION

A previous edition of our newsletter in Greenbank ward contained an article pointing to discrepancies between mileage claimed and distances measured by internet travel guides such as Multimap and Transport Direct which also directed people to visit this blog.

A claim form by a former councillor was published on that leaflet and on this blog and may have been taken as an example of such a perceived discrepancy. I would like to make clear in this post that we have been provided with information that shows the journeys in question, made by a reasonable route to the city centre, which would indeed have matched the mileage claimed.

I have removed the two previous posts and I apologise to the former councillor concerned.

GUEST POST: Mick Ryan, Green candidate in Kensington and Fairfield ward

Trying to walk in Kenny

Kensington is boss place to live, luckily I live right on top of what was one of the best parks in the country. In spite of years of neglect and getting on for a fifty percent tree loss, this wonderful place still has majesty, and a beauty hard to find close to a major city center.

Anyone living in Kensington and Fairfield will know of the impact the car has on every aspect of daily life.

We are a drive through ward, bordered as we are by Edge Lane and West Derby Road, and for good measure split in two by Prescot Road. I have a car, but choose to walk and cycle wherever possible.

Walking in this area is a joke, well it would be if it were not so dangerous. I push a wheelchair, there are many times when, because of the obstruction on the pavement, I have to go onto the road. Cars park all over the pavement, it is common practice now on some roads to have cars with two wheels on the pavement on both sides, add to this the wheelie bins, dog muck, dropped kerbs, overgrown trees and bushes, street furniture and it it is not hard to imagine what a nightmare walking is.



I travel to school on a bike with my two young daughters, you would not believe the amount of bad driving we encounter, then there is the way that people park outside schools, selfish, dangerous and just plain wrong.



If elected these are the issues close to my heart, and would occupy my efforts, making our area safe and clean to walk, and having more trees and less cars in our area.

Nominations - Electoral "Arrangements" and A Monumental Foul Up

First of all, let me reassure you. The foul up isn't ours. I'll come onto that in a bit.

Here in Liverpool, the Greens, Labour and the Conservatives are all contesting the full 30 seats. The other "city wide" parties, the Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Party, are only contesting 25 and 24 respectively. That works out that in 11 out of 30 wards, they have chosen not to compete against each other.

The details are as follows:

- There are no Liberal Democrat candidates in Clubmoor, Everton, Kirkdale, Norris Green and Tuebrook & Stoneycroft

- There are no Liberal candidate in Allerton & Hunts Cross, Belle Vale, County, St Michaels, Warbreck and Woolton

I think this displays a worrying lack of confidence from the Lib Dems in Woolton, where it seems like the Conservatives may be on the verge of a political comeback in Liverpool. Has anyone encountered a precedent where a ruling group on the council only manages to field candidates in 5/6ths of the seats up for election?

Anyway...

The monumental screw up has happened in Halton, where the Labour mayor and longstanding councillor in a very safe Labour Ward has failed to get his nomination papers in. The Conservatives have regularly finished 2nd with a decent vote, with us in 3rd in every election since 2006, and the Lib Dems trailing in 4th. A lot will depend on whether we can run two campaigns in Halton, where Derek Mellor looks set to make the breakthrough in Halton View ward this time (no Lib Dem candidate for the first time since 2004).

There may be a few more stories like this from around the country.

Guardian Letter

With my thanks to John Nicholson (former Labour Deputy Leader on Manchester City Council) and the many others that have signed this, and with thanks to John for his recent contribution on our Liverpool leaflet.

This letter was printed today in the Guardian (as I've made clear, getting elected in Greenbank, Liverpool is my key priority in this election).

Bet the Greens are Going to Win Westminster Seats

Mike Smithson, whose Political Betting website is the most visited political site in the country, says betting on the Greens is very good value in this election.

The full article is here on the Guardian website as the "bet of the day", mentioning both Norwich South and Brighton Pavilion.

29 Days Later

So the campaign is off in earnest. A prediction I made in 2005, that we would see a five year term, has been proved right (although I even wobbled enough to believe Brown would call an October 2007 election). I could fire off a load of predictions now, but a lot can happen in an election campaign.

We've got a strong Parliamentary candidate in Liverpool Riverside, where I stood in 2005 gaining 5.5% of the vote. Tom Crone will undoubtedly improve on that, but the key thing is that we see him elected as the third Green councillor in St Michaels ward. Liverpool Riverside is the kind of constituency we should be targeting to win at the election after this one. It is one of Labour's safest seats, but voting Green will change that.

In Wavertree, Rebecca Lawson is our candidate, albeit it a late entry into the field. Given that Colin Eldridge and Luciana Berger are not exactly setting the world alight, I think there is a Green vote in Wavertree. Holding our deposit would be a strong first result this time given the amount of "squeezing" both Labour and the Lib Dems will attempt. A vote for the Greens here will force whoever wins to assidously cultivate Green issues if they expect re-election. No more support for Liverpool Airport expansion will be a start!

My priority this year is to become our first Greenbank councillor here in Liverpool. You'll see the majority of my posts will focus on that aim. But I too will be a Parliamentary candidate, in West Lancashire, where I work. Having taught a government module to many of my Public Services students, explaining how the voting system works, and how democracy should operate, it somehow seemed unacceptable for them not to have a Green candidate given that we polled more votes in West Lancs than the Liberal Democrats last year. A second key point was that we needed to get to that key number of over half of all the constituencies in Britain being contested. A target we are now going to hit.

The Greenbank campaign is off in earnest. We delivered a ward leaflet in 48 hours just before local election expenses kicked in. The Liberal Democrats are delivering their response now, with plenty of attacks on us (nice to know they can see the real opposition). More soon on Greenbank and the Audit Commission story - there is a long way to run on this one.

Shocking UKIP Posting on Community Care Website

The original story can be found here, but is reproduced below.

A senior UK Independence Party member has posted a racist comment on Community Care.

In response to a post by Community Care's Outside Left blogger on asylum, Paul Wiffen – who is chair of UKIP London and a parliamentary candidate, said:

"You left-wing scum are all the same, wanting to hand our birthright to Romanian gypsies who beat their wives and children into begging and stealing money they can gamble with, Muslim nutters who want to kill us and put us all under medieval Sharia law, the same Africans who sold their Afro-Caribbean brothers into a slavery that Britain was the first to abolish (but you still want to apologize for!)"

Wiffen, who is standing as an MP in Ilford South at the next election, continued: "Worry about where we are going to live and grow food, you wanker, not the UKIP policy that might just save your worthless skin!"

Wiffen, who stood as an MEP for Scotland in 2009, also said: ""Britain is full, you prat! Even your scummy, illiterate Grauniad admits it! In the circumstances, I think 'get lost' is positively polite. 'Go forth and multiply' elsewhere would be my wording."

Mike McNabb, Outside Left blogger, said: "This is a worrying development as UKIP has always claimed to be an anti-racist party. This post shows them in their true colours. Wiffen should do the honourable thing and stand down."

Mike Gapes, MP for Illford South, said:

"Ilford South and Redbridge as a whole is a model of co-operation between faiths and a successful diverse vibrant community where migrants from all over the world and Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs and people of no faith live side-by-side in harmony.

"There is an unpleasant whiff about Mr Wiffen. I suggest he goes back to West London. We do not want BNP-lite extremism and poison here."

Community Care is awaiting a response from UKIP.

The Conservative Party said it did not want to comment.