Vince Cable Clarification

Vince Cable has apparently now offered a "clarification" on child benefit according to the Times, claiming that it was all a slip of the tongue. Given that both Nick Clegg and Vince Cable were putting it forward as a policy option last year, I suspect it is something they would like to consider but they are scared of the electoral consequences.

Potholes and Broken Pavements

As I pointed out before, Brent Liberal Democrats didn't vote to spend more on repairing broken pavements and roads when Labour proposed Brent Council should divert the money from consultants to this rather more worthwhile objective. Unsurprisingly, they have not welcomed the extra funding announced by Alastair Darling for pothole repairs. Barry Gardiner and two of the Labour candidates in Alperton can be seen here surveying the results in Alperton of Liberal Democrat policy below:



One of the councillors in Alperton is the delightful Cllr Daniel Brown. He collects a special responsibility allowance for taking a lead on Highways and Transportation. You know, things like ... broken pavements.

Vince Cable Means Testing Child Benefit

Iain Dale has an excellent post on the Liberal Democrats' policy of means testing child benefit. As he says, neither Darling nor Osborne would have been allowed to get away with this sort of inconsistency. Much of Cable's reputation is built on nor having to withstand proper scrutiny.

Chancellor Debate

I see the Conservatives are already deploying the George W Bush defence for George Osborne's unimpressive performance in the Chancellor debate last night. This goes along the lines of "Our guy is so incredibly useless, he wins just by not getting slaughtered". This doesn't seem like a very good argument to me, but it helped George Bush win the Presidency twice, and look how well that turned out. What George Bush did to the world, George Osborne can do to the British economy.

Dawn Butler and the Sickle Cell Society

Here is Dawn Butler at a Sickle Cell Society event. the Sickle Cell Society is based on Station Road, NW10 (just outside the ward boundary of Kensal Green ward).

Tory Posters Get Instant Rebuttal

It seems that the Tories' latest poster campaign has faced an instant rebuttal campaign. Very old fashioned of David Cameron to resort to negative campaigning as his poll lead slips away.

UPDATE: Btw, I should have given the orgiinal source of the poster here.

Another Bertha Joseph Complaint

Adam Bienkov at Tory Troll relates that another complaint has been made against Bertha Joseph.

Dawn Butler and the NUS

Here is a picture of Dawn Butler at her first engagement as the newly elected MP for Brent South, a NUS Conference for black students.

Lib Dems and Homeopathy

Professor David Colquhoun has highlighted a recent EDM defending homeopathy. Liberal Democrat MPs are the group with the second highest proportion of MPs signing. Curiously, Sarah Teather has not signed this one, although the Liberal Democrats seem open to supporting homeopathy services, judging by this posting on Liberal Democrat Voice. The original policy called for NICE research its efficacy. It was withdrawn within five hours, and so we remain in ignorance of the Liberal Democrats' beliefs on this as on so many other things.

Dawn Butler and the Not Another Drop March

Here is a photo of Dawn Butler laying a wreath at the Harlesden Jubilee Clock during the 2006 Not Another Drop March. She is accompanied by Cllr Ann John and Cllr Colum Moloney.

Ernest Trobridge Exhibition

The Brent Musuem is holding a major exhibition on Ernest Trobridge between Febraury and September. Trobridge was a remarkable suburban architect and Swedenborgian, who produced many of the most distinctive properties in the Fryent / Queensbury area. Well worth a look. It is at the Willesden Library Centre.

Dawn Butler on Walkabout in Harlesden

The final pre-election photo of Dawn I intend to post is this one during one of her first walkabouts as a candidate. This took place in Harlesden High Street, near the Jubilee Clock. Next to Dawn is Paul Boateng, her immediate predecessor as MP for Brent South.

John Healey on Housing

John Healey has made an announcement on public sector housing that I am still trying to get my head round. The most important part from Brent's point of view is an apparent promise that Council Housing here will no longer have to send money either to other areas or to central government.

Dawn Butler Before Election

This is a picture of Dawn Butler with the then Bermudan Prime Minister which she gave me before she had been selected as Labour's candidate. Unfortunately, we never found any plausible way to use it despite it being such a nice picture.

London Mayors Association

A quick note on Bertha Joseph. She apparently remains as a member of the Executive of the London Mayors Association, as you can see from the list here. That is despite the First Tier Tribunal's decision that “She surely cannot expect again to serve as Mayor given the disrepute that she has caused to the office.”

Dawn Butler: The Photo Album

I thought that in the run up to the General Election, I would post some images of Dawn Butler, the Labour choice to be Brent Central's next MP, from the past five years.

This is Dawn during the 2005 election campaign (You can just recognise the picture of Yasmin Qureshi in the bus window behind her).

Maple Walk School

Now that Bertha Joseph has finally been removed from the Fire Authority as unfit, it made me wonder about her other posts. For example, she managed to get herself made a governor of Maple Walk School on Crownhill Road. I wonder if the governors of that school still think it a good idea given that she has been found to have solicited donations for charity and then spent the money on herself.

Bertha Joseph's Resignation Letter

Just caught up with the remarkably self serving letter that Bertha Joseph wrote to Boris Johnson immediately prior to her ditching from LFEPA. Ross Lydall has posted it on his blog. If she actually believes the content of the letter, she has an extraordinary capacity for self deception. More likely, she is still trying to fool others into thinking that the Appeals Tribunal, Brent's Standards Committee and the local government officers who investigated her are somehow involve in a giant plot together.

It is amazing that such people persist in defiance of any plausibility to their claims.

Mike Romanov

Wikipedia provides more on the colourful Mike Romanov (or is it Romanoff?) here.

Cllr Bob Blackman Standing Down

The Wembley Observer reports that Cllr Bob Blackman is standing down. The report quotes his Conservative colleague John Detre as saying:

"Bob is a Parliamentary candidate and he is expecting to get elected. Out of respect for the people of Preston, he doesn't want to stand and make promises he can't keep. The leadership is something the group will decide after the election, there are only two people who will be candidates and frankly I will be one of them.”

I find that quote fascinating. What does it imply about the Tories' Brent North candidate, Harshi Patel? Harshi is currently also a Brent councillor for Preston, and has not announced that he is standing down as a councilloor. Is John Detre saying that Harshi does not expect to get elected as a MP? Or is he saying that Harshi might get elected and doesn't mind that he will "make promises he can't keep?"

Alternatively, does John Detre view Harshi as a potential rival for whatever is left of the Conservative Group after the election, and is attempting to pressure him to stand down in order to remove a possible rival?