EXCLUSIVE: Burgess Hill, Cheating Monopoly Race!

UPDATE: Their vote generator has been busted! Shame on them. You can Vote for Manchester HERE once per day.

Quote from an indignant Facebooker:

"In an hour they went from:
#21 Burgess Hill 2529 (12:58 2/5/07)
to:
#11 Burgess Hill 3404 (01:59 02/5/07)
That's almost a thousand votes in an hour and up 10 places...bloody cheats!

And I also found this in their facebook group:
Topic: Officer Martyn Fagg - For God Like Status
Post #1Russ Campbell (East Bay, CA) wrote
6 hours ago
http://www.muphi.com/vote.html






OMG it kicks Ass! They are definitely cheating!

This is their campaign group link if you want to see for yourself:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2368707276"

Manchester, by the way is hardly in the game, yet.

EXCLUSIVE: Numpty John Leech MP in a TIFF with Stephen Ladyman?

Another fool question from John Leech MP:

John Leech (Manchester, Withington, Liberal Democrat)
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether bids to the Transport Innovation Fund will be assessed on their potential contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as their effectiveness in reducing congestion.

Received this answer from Stephen Ladyman MP:

Stephen Ladyman (Minister of State, Department for Transport)
The environmental impacts of Transport Innovation Fund proposals, including carbon dioxide emissions, will be considered as part of the assessment of TIF bids.

Sadly although the acronym TIF was given a link but this was not to the expected details of the Fund to rub Leech's face in his ignorance. Instead it links to the wiki definition of "Tagged Image Format File" or TIFF which is an old school graphics format:

[p pid="a.1673W.8/1"]The environmental impacts of Transport Innovation Fund proposals, including carbon dioxide emissions, will be considered as part of the assessment of [a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TIF"]TIF[/a] bids.[/p]

Tory bloggers will no doubt enjoy giving Ladyman childish names (again) and accusing his Department of deliberately conspiring to confuse the Lib Dem Mimicster for bicycle clips? Who probably hasn't noticed.

Local Elections 2007: Manchester Predictions

Previewed HERE. List of all candidates here.

In alphabetical order the key wards with predictions:

Ancoats and Clayton: Much increased majority for Labour. 250? Dodgy Danny routed.
Baguley: Lynn Worthington is an Independent Socialist Save Our Baby Unit, which is interesting. Not really.
Burnage: Close run thing, a real two horse race, with Labour's Frank Duffy a real stayer on the near side. Too close to call.
Cheetham: Former councillor and PPC for Gorton the news whore solicitor Mr Kassim Afzal was dropped for taxi man Sham Raja. Big increase in majority for Cllr Afzal Khan. 250?
Chorlton: Increased majority for Angela Gallagher. 250-300. Bloody nose for Leech and his "Bastards" lackey.
Chorlton Park: John Hacking (Labour) some progress but Shameless Lib Dems weigh in.
City Centre: Right Wing Independent Kin Cheng takes votes from Tories and Lib Dems. Kathy Crotty in with a chance for Labour. Whiney Rob Adlard may surprise for Tories. Absentee and almost de-selected Lib Dem Kenny Dobson defending. And Brigit Vollm for the Greens. This is one of just two three or four horse races in town. 1-2-3 could be in any order.
Didsbury East: "Chicken" Geoff Bridson (Labour) tackles Helen "D" Fisher (Lib Dem). Chance of an upset.
Gorton South: Home seat of the wobbling Lib Dem leader Simon Ashley with Julie Reid standing for no nonsense Labour. Another chance of an upset. Reduced majority is best Libs can hope for.
Gorton North: Labour Gain. 250 majority.
Higher Blackley: Joe Finnon, the BNP student rabble rouser and undercover infiltrator moves across from Fallowfield. This was for a time hot Fash country with a sadly departed Lamb and Flag PH a focus. Shirley Reeve of UKIP also pitches for the right wingers. Labour to scatter these pretenders. Increased turn out and majority.
Hulme: Former PPC Steve Durrant and anti-fash and anti-war activist (Green) stands again after being humbled into third last time in the Green's "stronghold". Labour hold with increased majority for Mary Murphy. 150-200.
Longsight: Another Labour gain. 500-600 majority.
Miles Platting and Newton Heath: Yes, we have Derek Adams for the BNP (he's bananas), Lisa Duffy competing with him in UKIP colours, June Hitchin for Labour and erstwhile Lab, Ind, UKIP now Lib Dem Damien O'Connor. June to win but a slightly dented majority.
Rusholme: Nahella Ashraf is Respect's candidate. Bit too keen on the Labour bashing even among friends - e.g. Tony Lloyd MP at Pakistan Earthquake appeal supper had to hear a silly tirade. But she's a good worker and will take votes mostly from Lib Dems as Labour recover. This is the other close 3-way. Possible Labour Gain with very outside chance of a Respect first.
Whalley Range: Labour gain for the experienced and hard-working Kath Fry over the inexperienced and you know irredeemably lazy Faroz Bhatti. 350 majority.

Justice for England Trolls: aka Blogsports, There Should be a Law Against Them

Instead of blogging or webbing their own March the English Parliament fringe are coming over to my post here and blogging rather rabid comments. It's all a question of priorities. And mine now are Burnage, Chorlton and Chorlton Park wards in Manchester as the orders come in. So bye until tea time.

EXCLUSIVE Blackburn, Lancashire: The Wards to Watch in Horrendous Lib-Fash Stitch Up

In Ewood where the Lib Dems are again not standing the BNP's John Joseph Raleigh who overtook the Tories for 2nd last time needs 111 new votes or a 56 vote swing from Labour to win.

In Meadowhead where there are two seats up the Lib Dems and BNP have each stood just one candidate. England First a direct off shoot of the BNP hold one seat in this ward.

In Shadsworth the Lib Dems ARE standing but with the BNP in a clear second again, closing the gap a little I'm going to be interested to see whether the Lib Dems really fight to hold onto their 343 votes for third.

Southampton Wheeze: Banner Plane "Vote Today" Designed to Disadvantage Tories?

Matt Dean's pathetic whinge about Southampton Council boosting turnout with marketing like banner planes and battle buses was picked up by Iain Dale who naturally decided this was a plot against Tory interests.

I think it's great and have obtained a series of sample images Lib Dem council leaders hope to see in their skies. Like this one:


And this one:


Not to mention this doubly whammy:


This seems like a perfectly fine idea. Far cheaper at say £10,000 the lot than giving every voter £10 off their Council Tax which might cost £1 to £2 million in Manchester.

Another Dale and Tory miscalculation?

UPDATE: Matt hasn't posted again on this matter and Iain hasn't either.

Manchester: A Tale of Two Leaflets

Eve of poll leaflets from Labour and Lib Dems. Still nothing from Tories - who are making a big deal of standing in more seats (standing in more seats?) - or the Greens who do better the less paper they get inky anyway.

The Labour one for Angela Gallagher is about:
A popular High School (nice pic with G Brown and council leader R Leese)
Refurbished local Library in the ward
Road and pavement resurfacing achieved
New street lighting - a great leap forward
Copious amounts of tree planting
And improved pedestrian facilities

A letter from Richard Leese yesterday rebutted the Lib Dems running rubbish story, bigged up recycling and mentioned in passing other Lib Dem lies - The Christie, Southern Cemetary, Post Offices, Police Numbers, you know the drill.

The Lib Dem one ... from the party that believes in LOCAL government, by and for LOCAL people ... was a set of low rent whinges about Tony Blair that wouldn't be out of place at a fair few Manchester Labour meetings. But have nothing whatsoever to do with running Manchester for the people's best interests.

This ward is fascinating. Our candidate Angela Gallagher has been serving the public all her life. As a Head Teacher at the very local school her rival went to. And subsequently as a community activist. She was a long time Labour supporter who was poached to be an accidental candidate and an even more accidental councillor for the Lib Dems.

But the people were right. She was the best of the three they put up. Angela went on to contribute her life savings to John Leech's successful parliamentary campaign. £23,000, with increasing misgivings about the fibs it was spreading. The pain continued with more and more dishonesty, more and more bad behaviour, and ultimately a plot to deselect her.

Wisely Angela switched to Labour and renounced the Lib Dems. Our main opponent is young and has not stinted with his Lib Dem tactics. Dishonesty piled upon dishonesty. But beyond that and the fact that he's back at the parental home and curses local people on his mobile 'phone I know nothing about him.

The ingrate John Leech has made it his priority to try to kick Angela off the Council. Take her savings, now take her living.

I saw his crumpled, wasp-chewing face up close when we took four seats off them last year (when they had expected to take five from us). I'd love to see that look again tomorrow night at Manchester Town Hall.

Iain Dale: Mickey Mouse Maths on Eurostar

Iain Dale has chosen the eve of the polls to bury another paddy, in this case apparently based on atrocious adding up. This was it:

New figures sneaked out by the Treasury today reveal that Gordon Brown’s staff have spent nearly half a million pounds on Eurostar trips in one year. The £463,455 bill for 2,750 tickets means return trips are costing the taxpayer around £337. Return tickets in standard class cost as little as £30.
The Treasury took five months to answer the question, and slipped it out this morning whilst attention is focused on the local elections.

There is a consensus emerging among commenters that there are some schoolboy errors from the word "means" onwards. The tickets are surely already returns? So the average price is around £168 NOT £337. Double counting. Iain has made the reverse error in the comparator price which is for a single, not for a return which is £60 or more.

This seems to add up to quadrupling the difference between a highly restricted and limited availability ticket at £60 and a more generally available and more flexible choice at £170. As railway pricing goes this difference is no great shakes. As one insider commented also civil servants do their best to be economical on travel.

As to the idea that this is being "buried" by elections and leadership successions? This Iain could be buried by a tedious routine statement from Ivan Lewis MP on who knows what. A non-story based on scandalously bad Tory maths.

Lib Dems: Frightsome Frolicking with Fascists

In Darlington it is rumoured that the other Lib Dems are slagging off their man who signed the BNP nomination papers and telling people not to vote for him or even that he has withdrawn. This is hotly denied by Lib Dems. They would say that though wouldn't they?

Meanwhile in Blackburn the same franchise of a shamelessly apolitical party is in cahoots with the BNP and their cousins in England First Party with some mutual back scratching.

These cases are on top of the famous "Bastards" quote in Manchester; the boosting BNP to committee in Burnley; the Settle Mayor and his "Coon Jokes"; the communalism in Oldham and Saddleworth over a Mosque; a "let's have a nice debate when they get elected" line again in Manchester; and of course that allegation of a Nazi Salute from a Lib Dem while Cllr Afzal Khan was addressing the Council.

The shameful collaboration-with-Nazis list gets longer by the day.

Lib Dem Troll: Family Pictures on Campaign Literature and Being Local Fetish

A Lib Dem Troll has come out to play on this post about Paul "Bastards" Ankers and his dishonest campaigning and posturing. Feel free to join in. Is it a good idea for candidates to use "family man" photographs? Is making a fetish over being "local" a good and sustainable tactic? In each example they have candidates elsewhere who are NOT these things.

UPDATE: Justice For England March is Pathetic

There were about 120 people on this much vaunted march. There is a picture of them looking pathetic at the link.

Meanwhile right wing bloggers took umbrage at the Speaker of the Commons (a Scot) "banning" the march. Which simply is not true. Perhaps saving their blushes with a re-route.

This is about 10% of turnout for a similar event in 2002. Did they really hand in a 20,000 name petition?

Down Tools: Out on Strike Duty

Two or three hours of eve of poll truthing to do. Letters outing the Lib Dems as rubbish liars. Leaflets to 500 homes in Cllr John Leech MP's "Fortress Chorlton Park" which he is still failing to list as a ward on his blob.

This afternoon it'll likely be off to the other end of the constituency, some last minute surprise! tree posters, and then more eve of polling. Not sure I can face the 5am "day of poll" duties reserved for the sleep lights.

But I am looking forward to a turn at the joystick of the Manchester Labour banner-plane tomorrow!

May Day 2007: Justice for England Women in Iraqi Trade Unions

Was hoping to carry a report about the Justice for England march on 1 May 2007. But sadly cannot find a trace of a report - not even on the organisation's own site. Their blog was last updated in August 2006. Iain Dale invited us to go to the party and then spent the day in Welsh Wales.
A fine way to carry on. No wonder Dave-id maintains the Bullingdon/Eton stance for his confidantes. A chap must know how to behave.

May Day as a whole was also on the quiet side with this Reuters report filed from London failing to mention workers' picnics, anarchist interventions in the city, or anything from the UK at all.

They did carry this positive picture of Iraqi women hold placards during a May Day rally in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, May 1, 2007.
(REUTERS/Atef Hassan)

Meanwhile there were of course traditional sun welcoming Morris Dance activities in good old England West Coast N America. It looks like Freddie Mercury was a former adherent. Not a lot of people know that.

UPDATE: There were about 120 people on the march. About 10% of turnout for a similar event in 2002.

Manchester and Northern Cities: Have the Tories Given Up Completely?

Something a bit blue through the letter box. Sadly not a Tory flier. It's insurance. Tragic Tories seem to be co-operating with Lib Dem fibbers by not campaigning AT ALL here. This is NOT how to exploit any Cameron bounce. The Lib Dems have nobbled all your votes with bar chart and other fibs these past 15 years. How will you EVER get back?

Meanwhile Iain Dale has linked to some soft-headed predictions. Seem to be way off the money. As one commentator said they'd not mind being this lot's bookmaker.

Among other things they are predicting swings to the Lib Dems in Oldham and in Sheffield. Both places possibly Lib-Dem-proofed by their fatally flawed two year incumbencies in recent memory.

Their erstwhile leader in Oldham said words to the effect that:

"It's easy in opposition - you can say anything and do nothing. But in power you have to make hard decisions.
We weren't up to it."

Lib Dems are actually on the run in Manchester and Liverpool and Sheffield with promising signs in Leeds and Newcastle also. Shame is that the Cuddly Nu Tories are not in any shape to take advantage.

Political Betting: The Polls, The Polls, The Polls

On Labour, Tories, and Fib Dems

Worcester: UKIP-Con Rosettes Grow On You

One of these fine parties has been conned. I'm thinking the members of the Tory group who each put in £60 to the pot to shift a Labour majority of 37 may be feeling particularly miffed after THIS. Confused student Melanie may be used to different arrangements between far right parties in her German Fatherland. She has resigned from UKIP who are also standing.

This does beg the question what supposed "socialist" and convict Damien O'Connor was doing going through the UKIP ranks before settling on the maverick Lib Dems. He's standing in Miles Platting and Newton Heath where UKIP, BNP, Tories and now alas O'Connor's Lib Dems make up the right wing choices. Kerron deserves a hat tip for the first para.

Wakefield Labour: Taking the Vote for Granted? Or is Iain Dale Completely Wrong, Again?

Iain Dale claims that no Labour leaflets whatsoever have been delivered in Yvette Cooper's "Wakefield" fiefdom. Can this be true? Or have Wakefield Labour simply identified 14 Tory activists and not delivered to these fine upstandings and their immediate neighbours? A reversible trick.

Mr Dale cites no source and also is yet to respond on the Smethwick poster colour-blindness scandal/shortage. Oh, and by the way Iain Mary Creagh (right) is the Labour MP for Wakefield and environs. Yvette is one of the out of town three. As stated earlier LOL has yet to see a Tory leaflet in any of three wards I'm working in and find that this same dearth of blue gibberish applies across most of Manchester. Sadly. We've shifty Lib Dem chimera scoundrels where once we had no-flies-on-me Tories.

Nu Cuddly Tories: Walking the Talk on Race

Sadly Tories in leafy parts of Smethwick (left) where the rich white folks live had to put up generic posters as their stock of named ones was only sufficient for the frontline (right). Much better that "white Tory bastards" only realise they must vote for a "black bastard" (copyright Col Mercer MP) when they get their ballot paper? Another hat tip to Bob Piper. Perhaps Mr Dale would get over here and explain that?

BNP: Not A Nazi Party? Just a Fancy Dress Party

Incredible really; and the Tories thought they had trouble with fancy dress.

This man is a BNP candidate in Redditch and a Nazi fetishist. Just because he wears the uniform doesn't make him a Nazi. But he's a member of the BNP and that does.

The third in line to the throne asked not to included in this photograph. He now has other fish to fry, uniform wise, and does not wish to be cup-tied. Hat tip: Bob Piper.

Hey Hey Mr Ankers: Have You Got a Letter For Me?

Tired of calling Chorlton people "Bastards" Mr Paul Ankers is now calling us "Dear Neighbour" in his traditional "blue ink" letter. This was printed by "WPS" which, and I'm guessing here, may well be Lib Dem MP John Leech's tax payer funded constituency office. This seems to be 90% used for political rather than constituency business.

Amongst other things the letter states that Greens and Tories are losing support, which simply is not true. At least of the Greens. Though it must be said I have yet to receive a Tory leaflet in this prime council seat. Have they been persuaded to stand down their campaign? In a Lib Con pact? Better than a Lib-BNP pact I suppose.

With the letter is yet another disreputable Focus - also printed by "WPS" - which leads on an alleged TORY CUT in neighbouring TRAFFORD. This is followed by the traditional police lies, the busted fortnightly bins lies, some Post Office lies, and a warning to beware Labour's "last minute nasties" supported by an out of context quote from the Torygraph.

The Post Office lies are priceless. Yes, Beech Road Post Office was closed. By cheating Post Office managers, responding to a Lib Dem backed EU competition initiative. But Clarendon Road Post Office was closed and sold on by one Mr Khan who even stopped Labour petitions being collected at his shop. It's a lie Paul Ankers. AND it's not in this ward anyway.

Chorlton Crown Post Office - also not in the ward - has of course been franchised, which Manchester Labour opposed for principled reasons of keeping public services public and protecting staff jobs. This included collecting user statistics over a ten-day period and monitoring the service for YEARS as well as collecting thousands of signatures.

Lib Dems opposed for opportunistic scaremongering reasons of cuts in service which have happily not materialised. In fact the service has been extended by eight hours a week. And they collected less than 50 signatures from TWO WARDS for the last of Adam Crozier's closures.

Lib Dems wrote the book when it comes to economic liberalism and privatisation. They claimed the credit for the independence of the Bank of England but not it seems for the same neo-Lib idea applied to the Post Office. They backed the EU competition legislation, and they have done next to nothing to stop any closure. In fact Ming Campbell's first "triumph" as leader was to push through a Lib Dem Post Office privatisation policy!

One Lib Dem councillor in neighbouring Whalley Range even jeered at local people who had fought the one succesful Post Office saving campaign in the area with his clottish predictions that it would be "closed within a year or two". He now owes us all a pint as his dire prediction was untrue!

The prize of dishonour goes to Paul Ankers' life story of living continuously in Chorlton. It simply is not true and misses out at least one address, never mind his fibs that he was "Local" in Fallowfield and Brooklands in previous campaigns.