How to vote – and what to do once you’ve voted

By Mark Pack | 3rd May 2012 - 6:50 am

Got an election in your area today? Here are a few key pieces of information for you.

Voting in person

  • Polling stations are open between 7am and 10pm today. No votes can be cast after 10pm; it’s not like the shops where being in the queue at closing time is enough.
  • You don’t need your polling card to vote.
  • You have to vote at your local polling station, which is indicated on the card. If you’ve lost your card and aren’t sure where to vote, you can contact your local council.
  • In some parts of the country

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Police investigate Labour in Leeds over fake poll card allegations

By Mark Pack | 2nd May 2012 - 10:04 pm

The Leeds Labour Party is being investigated by the police for over claims it has broken the law against issuing imitation poll cards. Parties and candidates are not allowed to issue leaflets which look like official poll cards, but this is what Labour has been distributing in the Otley and Yeadon ward:

After the legality of the leaflets was raised with them, the Labour Party has said they stopped delivering the leaflets.

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Posted in Election law, News and Opposition watch | Tagged , and | 7 Comments

UKIP burn picture of Brian Paddick in Soho

By Caron Lindsay | 2nd May 2012 - 7:48 pm

Pink News reports that UKIP supporters burnt a picture of Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate Brian Paddick in Soho this afternoon.

How did they find out? Because UKIP press officer Gawain Towler tweeted the picture.

If you look at his Twitter feed, Towler’s attitude undergoes a significant shift.

From justifiying the photo at 3:46 pm

to saying it was all a big mistake and he hadn’t seen the lighter just 43 minutes later.

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Posted in News and Opposition watch | Tagged , , and | 1 Comment

LibLink: Stephen Tall – The Coalition’s mid-term blues: a problem shared (is still a problem)

By NewsHound | 2nd May 2012 - 6:45 pm

Over at the Politics.co.uk website, LibDemVoice Co-Editor Stephen Tall looks at the party’s prospects in Thursday’s elections. Here’s an excerpt:

With the Lib Dems’ national poll ratings flat-lining at around 10-12%, the party faces the uncomfortable prospect of a classic pincer-movement: losing to Labour our hard-won gains in the urban north, and losing to the Tories the no-less-hard-won gains in the suburban south. How the party fares against Labour in Sheffield, Manchester and Cambridge – where there are sitting Lib Dem MPs, including Nick Clegg – and against the Tories in Eastleigh, Three Rivers and Cheltenham will be a crucial test

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Michael Moore MP’s Westminster Notes

By Michael Moore MP | 2nd May 2012 - 4:55 pm

Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland writes a regular column for newspapers in his constituency. Here’s this week’s edition.

Scotland Bill

 Last week the Scotland Bill completed its passage through the House of Commons and received Royal Assent today (1st May). As a Liberal Democrat I have always supported devolution and Home Rule and as Secretary of State for Scotland I am proud to have piloted this Bill through Westminster to deepen devolution even further. Despite their initial opposition, I am pleased that the SNP have also come round to supporting the Bill which will bring about the biggest ever transfer …

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Tales from the Campaign Trail: Danny Alexander to the rescue

By Caron Lindsay | 2nd May 2012 - 2:55 pm

As we settle down for our afternoon cup of tea, I thought it would be good to share an uplifting tale from the campaign trail.

The other day, Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury was canvassing in the Wimbledon Park by-election for candidate Dave Busby.

While he was there, he came across a woman who found herself locked in her flat. She was able to escape after she passed the keys to Danny through the letterbox so he could unlock the door for her.

I hope she’s voting for Dave tomorrow.

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Something you can do to win Lib Dem votes today

By Mark Pack | 2nd May 2012 - 1:55 pm

The best message to win Liberal Democrat votes varies from contest to contest tomorrow as the issues at the top of voters’ minds in one place are not all the same as in another, especially when it comes to local council elections.

But with the Liberal Democrats in government, national issues cannot be ignored and there are many good messages to get over about what we’re achieving in government, from fairer taxes to banking reform, and from green investment to civil liberties improvements.

You can help get that …

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Posted in Local government and News | Tagged | 4 Comments

Local elections in Scotland: the key battlegrounds

By Caron Lindsay | 2nd May 2012 - 1:54 pm

Every Council seat in Scotland is up for grabs tomorrow.  There are currently 152 Liberal Democrat councillors in 23 of the 32 local authorities, from the Highlands to Dumfries and Galloway. Liberal Democrats are participants in 13 coalition administrations.

Five years ago, there was some trepidation about how these coalitions would work. It was predicted that they would fall apart in months, but most have lasted the course. The naysayers were mainly from the Labour party, who had lost many of their traditional fiefdoms thanks to the introduction of STV, brought in at the insistence of the Liberal Democrats following the …

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Annette Brooke MP writes: Progresss at last for park home owners?

By Annette Brooke MP | 2nd May 2012 - 12:27 pm

Many of you will know that I have been campaigning on park home issues for many years. Working with Sonia McColl, a constituent and founder of the Park Home Owners Justice Campaign, I have been trying to raise awareness and press the Government to take action over the issue of unscrupulous park owners.

The campaign to end injustices for park home owners and close loopholes in the 1983 Mobile Homes Act has been long running. These loopholes allow some park owners to interfere with the selling of homes and abuse their position by using interviews to put off and intimidate prospective …

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Vote for change in London – Ashdown, Steel and Williams

By Paddy Ashdown David Steel and Shirley Williams | 2nd May 2012 - 11:20 am

Tomorrow those of you in London have the chance to make your voice heard by voting in the mayoral and assembly elections. It is vital that you do. We have an opportunity to do something to bring real change to London.

Throughout the campaign it has been clear that huge numbers of Londoners are undecided and unenthusiastic about voting for either Boris Johnson or Ken Livingstone. And the more they have seen and heard Brian Paddick the more they like him and believe he will bring real change. It is only now that election day is upon us that most of …

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Posted in London and Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 3 Comments

Nick Clegg trashes Liam Fox’s economic policy demands

By Mark Pack | 2nd May 2012 - 9:55 am

During yesterday’s Radio 4 interview with Nick Clegg there was a feisty exchange over why so much time in the interview was being taken up with the details of when and to who Jeremy Hunt should next answer questions to about his conduct, rather than issues such as the state of the economy.

Certainly the media loves investigatory process stories. Not only the Clegg interview but the subsequent coverage of it neglected the economy, even though Clegg had some choice words to say about former minister Liam Fox:

Martha Kearney: Liam Fox recently accused the Liberal Democrats of being a brake on

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LDVideo: What are your memories of 15 years ago today, 1st May 1997?

By Stephen Tall | 1st May 2012 - 8:50 pm

It’s exactly 15 years ago today that Tony Blair led New Labour to a landslide general election victory over John Major’s Tories, and Paddy Ashdown saw the Lib Dems secure the largest third party representation in the House of Commons since 1929. Here are three videos to remind you of a quite extraordinary night…

The exit poll predicts Labour’s landslide

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Posted in YouTube | Tagged , , , and | 30 Comments

Police arrest BNP candidate for Mayor of Liverpool

By Mark Pack | 1st May 2012 - 5:43 pm

The BBC reports:

The BNP candidate standing for elected mayor of Liverpool has been arrested by Merseyside Police.

Mike Whitby has been detained following an allegation that nomination forms for the mayoral elections had been fraudulently filled in…

The complaint was made to Merseyside Police following an investigation by the Liverpool Echo.

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Tom Brake MP writes… A landmark achievement in fight for our civil liberties

By Tom Brake MP | 1st May 2012 - 4:13 pm

Today the Protection of Freedoms Bill became an Act: a landmark for the campaign to roll back Labour’s surveillance state. Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for this piece of legislation, proposing a “Freedom Bill” more than five years ago when Nick Clegg was the party’s Home Affairs Spokesman.

The Act will protect millions of people from unwarranted state intrusion in their private lives, building on some of the things we’ve already achieved like the ending of ID cards and the destruction of the National Identity Register.

I just want to highlight a couple of things that will now happen. …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , , , , , , , , and | 6 Comments

Yesterday in the Lords: Labour prepare the ground for rejection of Lords Reform

By Mark Valladares | 1st May 2012 - 3:21 pm

We pick up from where we left off earlier…

Onwards into the night, the Lords raged in their own, uniquely genteel, way.

Whilst with his usual radical enthusiasm, Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, put his finger on the problem with the current composition of the House of Lords;

We are the creatures of patronage. There are only two ways to get into this place. One is because you are a friend of the Prime Minister, or at least he does not object to you, and the other is because your great-grandmother slept

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