A feeble attempt at one of those tory posters

Don't expect satire here!

courtesy of http://www.andybarefoot.com/

Tories breach electoral law?

I first saw this piece of news last night Politicial Penguin . The papers are reporting today that the Tories are in trouble over the leak of the postal ballot result of today’s Ealing Southall by-election.

Telegraph diarist Jonathan Isaby posted details of the postal ballot on his blog last night. He wrote: "[A] source inside the Tory campaign [in Ealing] reports that it was looking incredibly close, with them calculating the main parties' tallies as follows: ..." The post was taken down soon after. By law, political parties are allowed representatives to oversee the validation process, however any release of an indication of how the vote is going is strictly prohibited on the grounds that it could influence subsequent votes. The offence is punishable by up to six months in prison. The Conservative party was unavailable for comment last night.

The news is just another turn in the Ealing Southall campaign. We have seen Labour councillors defect to the Tories (including an unsuccessful prospective candidate) and the news that the Tory candidate donated money to Labour just before he was adopted as a candidate.

The modest poll bounce recorded in the Sunday Times has been replicated in by a Times poll which shows Labour up at 33%, and the Tories down slightly at 37%. The poll shows that the electorate see Brown as a better and stronger leader than Cameron. Early days I know but it is heartening to see a positivie reaction to Brown.

In the meantime Michael Meacher has dropped out of the leadership race leving John McDonnell as the sole opponent to Brown. It still remains to be seen wheter he will get the backing required to force a challenge

Today's the day

College Green has been a lot busier over the last couple of days.. quite a few gazebo type things have been set up to keep the rain off the political commentators who regularly report from there. There's even a small stand. When I finally pass the Green on the way to work today, I would imagine it will be quite a busy place since today is the day we have all been expecting for over a year:

It looks like it will be today that Tony Blair finally announces that he is standing down as party leader. If the press is to be believed he will inform the cabinet this morning then travel to his Sedgefield constituency to announce his decision among the party workers who first selected him as their parliamentary candidate on 24 years ago.

Blair will remain in post pending the outcome of a leadership election which Gordon Brown looks set to win handsomely. His only declared opponents are Micheal Meacher and John McDonnell; the chance of either beating Brown is risible. Unless there is a late and highly credible entrant in the leadership race, Brown will be Prime Minister in early June. Blair will return to the back benches and probably stand down as an MP at the next election.

A lot of words will be spent mulling over Blair’s leadership and there will be a lot of speculation over the direction of a Brown government. As a party member since just after the 1984 European elections I will be compelled to add my own views but not right now

News organisations from all over the world are in Belfast today to see the formal installation at the Stormont of an administration headed by Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness (First Minister and Deputy First Minister, respectively). Both men had been working together since a ground breaking agreement in March.

DUP ministers will head the departments of finance, the economy, the environment, and culture and leisure. Sinn Fein will have education, agriculture and regional development while smaller parties will handle employment, health and social development. An intricate array of checks and balances has been built into the new system. In addition, the work of each department will be scrutinised by a committee headed by Assembly members from parties different to that of the ministers. Powers over policing have yet to be transferred to Belfast, but may follow in the next few years.

Mr Paisley attempted to step up pressure on Gordon Brown to supply more money. He said in an interview: "There's no use having a nice vehicle sitting in your driveway if you haven't the fuel to put into it. It will not move an inch. It might be nicely polished. It might be beautiful looking but it is not going to do anything."

But using a notably constructive tone, he declared: "I would like to see a good hard-working parliament here, with good speeches and people dedicated to do what they have been sent here to do. There is talent in the Assembly and I want to see the talent of everybody used to the maximum for the good of Northern Ireland and all of its people."

Gerry Adams said: "There is huge goodwill for the return of the power sharing institutions in the North and growing support for our proposals to build an Ireland of equals."

A grand coalition of democracy activists, pro-reform clerics, parties loyal to former president Khatami and the so-called pragmatic conservatives of Ayatollah Rafsanjani. Is planning to use the ballot box to deny Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second presidential term.... Unless the move is vetoed by the hardline Guardian Council which is a definite possibility

The alliance is mining to exploit the president's unpopularity, arising from high unemployment, rising inflation and an expected rise in petrol prices, to win control of the Majlis in general elections which are due within 10 months.

"The past two years have been a very bitter time for Iran," said Mohammad Atrianfar, a leading opposition figure "Ahmadinejad has done everything upside down. He has done a lot of damage at home and abroad." Mr Atrianfar said that a majority in the Majlis was now critical of the president and would certainly impeach him but for the support he enjoyed from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The president has faced mounting over high unemployment, especially among younger people, rising inflation and escalating housing costs. Significantly, for a major oil producer, heavily subsidised petrol prices are due to rise next month, hitting poorer people hardest in a country with poor or non-existent public transport.

In an unusual intervention, Grand Ayatollah Yusef Sa'anei, one of Iran's most respected Islamic scholars, has attacked Mr Ahmadinejad's government for failing to tackle social ills such as youth unemployment, drug addiction, and gender inequality. In a rare interview with a western newspaper at his office in the holy city of Qom, Mr Sa'anei said:

"The government should be at the service of the people. But it is putting too much pressure on the people. It bans newspapers, sends people to jail, segregates boys and the girls at the universities, makes noise about hijab."

On the other hand the President of Iran doesn’t exactly have a huge amount of power –more than, say, Mary McAleese but nothing like the power wielded by George W Bush. The real reins of power are most certainly held elsewhere. It also remains to be seen whether the opposition’s efforts will be stifled by the Guardian Council. If the coalition is allowed to stand and if it wins then perhaps it will be the first stage towards a better Iran.

UKIP in a little trouble?

I suppose there is a bit of relief to be had from reading about a British political party in a sport of bother and realising it isn’t the Labour Party!

It seems that the UK Independence Party is in trouble on two fronts: firstly there are claims that it has told a man that he cannot be a candidate in for a target council seat because he is disabled; secondly it is possible that three of its ten MEPs are on the verge of walking out of the party.

The party seems to have told Jack Biggs that he could not be a full Ukip council candidate because he was disabled. The story began when the chair of the South Dorset Constituency Association, wrote to him saying: "Unfortunately, I have to tell you that, in view of your being registered disabled you will not be able to stand as a full candidate for Ukip. We would however like you to be a paper (ie a makeweight with no real chance of winning) candidate"

Mr Biggs took the letter to his local paper saying he was furious at the "disgusting" decision. "Ukip withdrew its support when they found out I was registered disabled following a double knee replacement. I'm very angry at this discrimination so I'll be standing as an independent."

The party claimed has hit back by accusing Mr Biggs of a "crude attempt to blackmail" Ukip into withdrawing a candidate running against his daughter, who is standing for re-election as an independent councillor. Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, said Mr Biggs knew he could not canvass the ward thoroughly. "He was trying to get us to say that he couldn't be a target candidate and to use that, and to try and blackmail the party into not standing against his daughter, who was a current serving councillor. I don't think he has behaved very honourably."

Meanwhile, the possible split has been prompted by the decision to suspend an MEP after the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) said it was investigating his use of European parliament money. MEP Tom Wise is under investigation for failure to provide information regarding alleged financial irregularities.

Roger Knapman, a former leader the party, said: "A number of Ukip MEPs are appalled at the prejudicial decision to suspend Tom Wise and will be meeting within the next few days to discuss the future of the group." A third MEP, Mike Nattrass, is also said to be be considering quitting.

If there is any substance to this story I hope they don’t feel tempted to join the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty group in the European Parliament as their erstwhile colleague Ashley Mote did.