Category Archives: general election

In praise of Gillian Duffy

Posted on August 12, 2010 | 2 Comments

My sincere admiration goes to Gillian Duffy, the lifelong Labour supporter from Rochdale, whose trip to the shops last April to buy a loaf of bread turned into the defining moment of the 2010 general election campaign.

Given her very public humiliation at the hands of the leader of her party, who churlishly denounced her as a “bigoted woman”, she might have felt tempted, were she a lesser person, to tell Labour where to stick it.

Mrs Duffy, however, is made of sterner stuff, and yesterday was guest of honour at the opening of the offices of Simon Danczuk, Rochdale’s new Member of Parliament.

Gillian Duffy is a trooper who is clearly devoted to her party and prepared to put the past behind her to advance its cause.

One might be inclined to contrast her conduct with that of Gordon Brown, of whom little has been seen since May.

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Posted in general election, Gordon Brown, Labour Party

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Easy mistake

Posted on May 21, 2010 | Leave a comment

Apologies for the light blogging of late, but life has been rather hectic over the past seven days.

Yesterday evening, after driving back from London, I attended the annual dinner of the North Wales CBI at the St David’s Park hotel, Ewloe.  There were a number of extremely good speeches, including one by my friend Jeremy Salisbury, the CBI’s current chairman, who gave a summary of what the organisation was looking to the new Government to do for business.  On the whole, he gave the coalition a reasonably warm welcome.

The principal speaker was the Welsh First Minister, Carwyn Jones, who delivered a good speech, including an entertaining account of his experiences canvassing in South Wales during the general election campaign.

I was particularly amused when he related a story of knocking on the door of a house in Bridgend to be greeted by a lady who said she was absolutely delighted to see him, because she watched him on television every night.

“Every night?” enquired Carwyn, perplexed.  “I’m on TV quite a bit, but not that often.”

“Oh, aren’t you the BBC Wales weatherman?” asked the lady, clearly very disappointed.

I was pleased to learn that I am not the only one to have noted the resemblance.

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Posted in Carwyn Jones, general election

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Pure speculation

Posted on May 11, 2010 | 1 Comment

“Febrile” doesn’t do justice to the atmosphere in the House right now.

This place, always a hotbed of rumour, is abuzz with spectulation about Gordon’s future, both immediate and long-term, and how many cabinet seats the Lib Dems may get.

The Parliamentary party has been put on standby for a meeting later tonight.   Until then, the rumours will continue.

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Posted in general election, Gordon Brown

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Better move on

Posted on May 8, 2010 | 2 Comments

The Sun’s front page this morning is a classic typical of that newspaper.

Next to a picture of Gordon Brown emerging from the famous black front door, it screams:

SQUATTER HOLED UP IN No 10

Man, 59, refuses to leave house in Downing Street.

The point is well made.  I know that, constitutionally, Brown is still Prime Minister.  I know, too, that he still harbours a legitimate, if rather desperate-looking, ambition to try to stay on and do a deal with the Lib Dems.

However, the fact remains that the Labour Party emphatically lost the general election.  For Brown to stay on in Downing Street and continue to enjoy the trappings of Prime Ministerial office is simply to rub the electorate’s nose in it.

Best for him to move out and await the outcome of negotiations.

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Posted in general election, Gordon Brown, Labour Party

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Thank you, Clwyd West

Posted on May 7, 2010 | 5 Comments

A long, but very gratifying night. 

At 3.00 a.m. I was informed that my slender majority of 133 had been transformed, courtesy of the electors of Clwyd West, into one of 6,419.  My gratitude to the people of my constituency for their renewed confidence is unbounded.

Today, after four unremittingly hard weeks of pavement bashing, door knocking and flesh pressing, I decided to sneak a few hours off.  But the phone has rung constantly, the BlackBerry has continued to buzz and I have spoken to innumerable friends, colleagues and acquaintances, all offering their good wishes.  I am so grateful to them all.

The campaign has been hard, but rewarding.  I have had the support of a tremendous team of volunteers from all parts of the country, all of whom have given cheerfully and unstintingly of their time, patience and money.  I have spoken to literally thousands of constituents, most of whom were surprisingly pleased to find a politician on their doorstep.  I have enjoyed being out and about in the towns, villages and countryside of this exceptionally lovely constituency.  I have laughed a lot.  I have developed a good tan.

And now, at the end of it all, I sit here, glued to the TV, awaiting events at Westminster, to which I am pleased to say I shall be returning next week.

It has been a great month.  Thank you, Clwyd West.

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Posted in Clwyd West, general election

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Thirteen years of Labour

Posted on May 6, 2010 | Leave a comment

In case you should need a reminder on polling day, this is the record of thirteen years of Labour:

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Posted in general election, Labour Party

Labour candidate tries honesty

Posted on May 5, 2010 | 5 Comments

Having spent the last four weeks fighting against the most dishonest Labour campaign I can remember (the Clwyd West Labour party brought out yet another disgracefully untruthful leaflet yesterday), I am encouraged to see that at least one Labour candidate has decided to try honesty this election.

This is what Manish Sood, candidate for Norfolk North West, has to say about the state of our country after thirteen years of Labour government:

“The loss of social values is the basic problem and this is not what the Labour party is about.

“I believe Gordon Brown has been the worst prime minister we have had in this country. It is a disgrace and he owes an apology to the people and the Queen…

“We really have to come down hard on the Labour party … and the prime minister really does have to wake up…

“We have to get back to basics where people can leave their money outside for the milkman without it being stolen.”

Douglas Alexander, Labour’s election coordinator, told the BBC that he understood Mr Sood’s constituency party “had been considering deselecting him for some time”.  A wee bit too late for that now, Dougie. 

I have no doubt that my friend Henry Bellingham, who is defending the seat for the Conservatives, will romp home tomorrow with a huge and increased majority.  But Mr Sood may retain the loyalty of a few diehard Labour voters relieved to have a local candidate who is possessed of sufficient backbone to stick two fingers up at his party’s rotten and deceitful election campaign machine. 

Labour will need more Manish Soods in the months and years to come.

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Posted in general election, Labour Party

Every little helps

Posted on May 3, 2010 | 2 Comments

Travelled over to Delyn, the prospective seat of our excellent candidate Antoinette Sandbach, yesterday, where David Cameron was visiting Holywell’s Tesco store.  I was astonished to be greeted by Tesco’s chief executive, Sir Terry Leahy, who was, as might be expected, a most impressive, switched-on individual, but also a thoroughly nice guy.

David’s plane from Newquay had been delayed, so I spent a lot of time speaking to the Tesco staff who had stayed behind after the store’s closing time to meet him.  I also enjoyed the incongruous sight of a major press operation in the fruit and veg department, with cameramen jostling for the best position.

David finally arrived, accompanied by Samantha, and went off for a fifteen minute conversation with Sir Terry.  He then returned to fruit and veg and fielded half a dozen or so unprepared questions from staff members on issues as diverse as education maintenance allowance and the conditions experienced by our troops in Afghanistan.

It was an interesting experience, not least because it gave me the opportunity to observe the press pack at close quarters.  Most of them looked as harassed as the politicians.

I understand that Gordon Brown visited a Tesco yesterday, too – the store in Hammersmith, where he was accompanied by Prunella Scales, who used to appear in the company’s TV ads.

This close to polling day, in politics, as in grocery, every little helps.

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Posted in David Cameron, general election, Gordon Brown

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Blast from the past

Posted on May 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Yesterday, I attended the last hustings of the campaign, this time an all-North Wales event hosted by the CBI at Bethesda.

The Liberal Democrats were represented by Bill Brereton, the former deputy chief constable of North Wales.   My friend and fellow Welsh select committee member, Hywel Williams, appeared for Plaid Cymru.

Labour were represented by Alun Pugh, the former Welsh Assembly member, who is, like Hywel, attempting to win the new Arfon seat.  I had not seen Mr Pugh since he lost his Assembly seat three years ago.  I was struck by how little he had changed, notwithstanding the changes that had taken place all about him.  Asked a question about whether we had too much government and too big a public sector in the UK, he replied that it was not possible to say what the optimum size of government was and that, all in all, there was a lot to be said for nationalisation. 

Furthermore, he didn’t seem to think that the scale of public sector pension liabilities was something to be over-worried about.  Needless to say, this went down like a lead balloon with the businesspeople present.

Mr Pugh seemed very out of sync with the Blairite, freeish-market third way vision and very much old, not to say prehistoric, Labour.  I have no doubt that if and when in-fighting breaks out within the Labour party after the election, Mr Pugh will be manning the barricades alongside the likes of Jon Cruddas.  A Miliband type he isn’t.

At the end of the meeting I sped off back to Clwyd West, bidding farewell to Hywel and assuring him that I would be delighted if he came second to the excellent Arfon Conservative candidate, Robin Millar.  A true gentleman, Hywel responded in similar terms.

Friendship is friendship; politics is politics.

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Posted in general election, Hywel Williams, Labour Party

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Theft and criminal damage

Posted on April 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

The Conservatives’ poster displays have outshone all other parties’ throughout North Wales this general election.  However, activists have become increasingly concerned at the prevalence of vandalism and theft of posters on a scale never previously experienced.

This evening, I was contacted by one of our team from Ruthin, who told me that three prominent posters have been stolen today.  They will, of course, be replaced.

And the culprits?  Well, I’m not pointing the finger at anyone, but it was noticeable that a nearby green and yellow poster was untouched. 

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Posted in Clwyd West, general election

No leg to stand on

Posted on April 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

 

 Caption suggestions welcomed.

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Posted in David Cameron, general election, Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg

Clegg clears it up

Posted on April 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

The last Prime Ministerial debate was by far the liveliest and best.  The debates have generally been an excellent innovation.  They have generated huge public interest and will, I feel sure, form a permanent feature of general election campaigns.

Nick Clegg, to his credit, answered the question I posited in my last blog post.  He informed the audience in unequivocal terms that he is “not advocating entry into the Euro”.

So how much else of the Lib Dem manifesto should we ignore?

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Posted in general election, Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg

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Uphill struggle

Posted on April 29, 2010 | 1 Comment

Final Prime Ministerial debate tonight, this time on the economy.

The crisis in Greece and its knock-on effect throughout the Eurozone will inevitably overshadow the event.

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto has this to say on the Euro:

We believe that it is in Britain’s long-term interest to be part of the euro.  But Britain should only join when the economic conditions are right, and in the present economic situation, they are not.

It will be fascinating to hear Mr Clegg explaining precisely why he considers it to be in our national interest to join the single currency and when he anticipates the time will be right to do so.

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Posted in economy, general election, Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg

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Hung Parliament Party

Posted on April 29, 2010 | 2 Comments

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Posted in general election, Gordon Brown, Parliament

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Rural ride

Posted on April 28, 2010 | 1 Comment

As I have previously blogged, this election campaign’s weather has been almost unbelievably pleasant, making it a joy for us to journey through the notably beautiful Clwyd West landscape.

Yesterday was probably the finest we have had so far, with the Land Rover’s thermometer hovering just below 20°C.  We campaigned in Ruthin, followed by the villages of Llanbedr, Llanfihangel Glyn Myfyr, Cerrigydrudion, Glasfryn and Pentrefoelas.  We then tracked back to Colwyn Bay across the Denbigh moors, stopping in Gwytherin en route.  It was a grand tour of matchless beauty.

There was, however, a touch of bleakness beneath the surface.  In Cerrigydrudion, the butcher’s shop had closed.  Petrol was retailing at 129.9p per litre.  There was a sign on the facade of the famous White Lion announcing that its tenancy was available.  The pub – the only one left in the village – had briefly closed, but was now apparently operated by a manager.

A man came up to me and asked if I could help revive the daily bus service, which had not operated for several months.  He couldn’t afford to run a car and was unable to find work because he was  now unable to travel out of the village.  He was, he said, very demoralised.

The rural areas of this country have been arguably even more severely affected than our towns and cities during this long, deep and bitter recession.  For many, life in the countryside is becoming progressively more difficult.  This has to change; but change is unlikely under a Labour government whose history, outlook and mindset are firmly and immutably urban.

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Posted in Clwyd West, economy, general election, Labour Party

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