Archive for April 2010

The other election in Luton South

There is a second election taking place in Luton South on 6th May. A by-election for the local council is taking place at the same time as the general election.

Confusingly the by-election is in the South ward of Luton Borough Council which is in the parliamentary constituency of Luton South. It is all happening down south!

The by-election is happening because Labour councillor Michelle Kiansumba was thrown off the Council because she has failed to turn up to meetings. She hadn’t attended a meeting for more than six months. Although she did continue to claim expenses from the Council. Does that remind you of anyone?

The Liberal Democrats have chosen local campaigner Richard Hayward as our candidate. Rich is a great bloke and would make an excellent councillor.

15th April 2010 10:27 1 Luton, Politics

Lib Dems debate the issues while Labour reads the menu

Compare and contrast these election campaign launches:

Liberal Democrat candidate Qurban Hussain launched his campaign for Luton South by speaking about local and international issues at a packed public meeting at the Dallow Community Centre;

“Over 400 people from all walks of life in our community attended the open meeting to show their support for the Liberal Democrats and my campaign to proudly represent our home in Westminster. During the meeting local residents themselves made speeches about the change our town and country needs and why they are supporting the Liberal Democrats.”

Labour candidate Gavin Shuker launches his campaign by … er … having dinner with Lord Kinnock;

“Gavin formally launched his campaign last night at the Empress of India restaurant in York Street, High Town……Gavin is pictured below with his campaign team, talking with Lord Kinnock and enjoying dinner with his wife Lucie….”

15th April 2010 08:05 0 Luton, Politics

Number of candidates in Luton South reaches 11

Somehow I forgot to blog about this, but the number of candidates declared to be standing in Luton South has now reached 11 with the addition of Frank Sweeney from the Workers Revolutionary Party.

Full list of Luton South candidates

14th April 2010 19:46 0 Luton, Politics

Luton Today’s video report on Nick Clegg’s visit

The Luton Today website has a video report on Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg’s visit to Luton South yesterday. You can watch the video in the original report here; ‘VIDEO: ‘We’re the party to trust’ claims Lib Dem leader‘.

In it Nick says;

“The only party who can clean up Westminster politics from top to toe is the Liberal Democrats.

“I think there’s now a very strong chance that Qurban Hussain will be the MP for Luton South. He’s established an incredibly strong reputation on the doorstep. I’ve visited Luton many times, Vince Cable visited too. He’s the one who told me about this company which I was very keen to visit, and it’s been a very dramatic turn around in the fortunes of the Liberal Democrats.

“We’ve grown from strength to strength to strength. People feel so let down by the outgoing Labour MP, so betrayed, they know they are not going to get any real different politics from David Cameron’s Conservatives and they don’t trust David Cameron’s Conservatives.

Esther Rantzen is a colourful sideshow to this contest.”

14th April 2010 17:53 0 Luton, Politics

Lib Dem Voice on Luton South

Last night co-editor of Lib Dem Voice, the “independent website for Lib Dems”, Mark Pack wrote a post about Luton South in which he made some rather good points;

“If a party’s leader visits a constituency it doesn’t hold three times…

… in the space of a few months, it’s a pretty big clue that the party believes it has a strong chance of winning – and almost certainly has polling or canvass data analysis to back it up.”

14th April 2010 16:57 0 Luton, Politics

Liberal Democrat campaign for Mid Bedfordshire uses US-style fundraising ads

Linda Jack, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Mid Bedfordshire constituency, who faces controversial Tory MP Nadine Dorries, is using a US-style online advert to raise funds for her campaign.

This kind of thing is new to UK politics and I am unsure whether it will work. But credit must go to Linda for trying such a bold new approach. Have a look and see what you think.

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14th April 2010 14:56 0 Politics

Qurban Hussain’s record of action against Margaret Moran

One of the things raised in Michael Crick’s Newsnight story on Luton South was a criticism that the Liberal Democrats in Luton weren’t attacking enough on the issue of disgraced Labour MP Margaret Moran’s expenses. This was an unfair criticism. Luton South candidate Qurban Hussain and the Luton Liberal Democrats have been at the forefront of the campaign against Moran’s abuse of the expenses system.

The evidence can be found online. For example;

As far back as last May, as the scandal broke, Qurban Hussain was condemning Margaret Moran over her excessive expense claims; ‘Lib Dem challenger condemns Luton South MP Moran for expense claims’. He was saying;

“This is not the first time that Ms Moran has been in trouble over her expenses. It is time she stopped trying to defend her indefensible and immoral lining of her own pocket at the taxpayers expense”

In October 2009 Qurban was one of the first people to sign up to a local paper’s anti Moran campaign; ‘Qurban Hussain supports Luton and Dunstable Express’ Margaret Moran Campaign’. He then proposed a motion to Luton Borough Council that condemned Moran and called on her to resign, a motion that the Labour Councillors rejected and amended.

In November Qurban wrote to Gordon Brown demanding that Moran have her resettlement grant cut; ‘I write to Gordon Brown over the Margaret Moran affair’. And then in December Qurban was demanding that the newly selected Labour candidate come clean about his attitude to the Moran expense scandal; ‘Where Does the Labour Candidate Stand On Moran?’

Finally, you can find the statements made by Qurban in response to the recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme and her expulsion from the Labour party here. Including;

“So, after not working for her constituents for ten months the Labour Party has suspended Margaret Moran.

Far too little and far too late.

This will not stop her getting her payout in six weeks time and this certainly does not make up for for their total lack of concern for Luton South residents for the last ten months. Once again she has caused national outrage and the Labour Party should apologise to every single resident in Luton South.

We have been neglected while the Labour Party protected their own.

If she had done the last honourable thing she could have done for her constituents once the expenses scandal broke then she would have not been in a position to neglect us while trying to make money for herself. The Luton Labour Party should have stood up in support of local residents and called for her to resign, but they never did.”

14th April 2010 12:52 1 Luton, Politics

Nick Clegg vists 2K Manufacturing in Luton

As part of his general election tour around the country Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg visited Luton yesterday.

He met with Liberal Democrat candidate for Luton South, Qurban Hussain, and together they looked around the factory of 2K Manufacturing, a luton based company that makes products from recycled plastic.

Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg speaks to workers at 2K Manufacturing in Luton with Luton South candidate Qurban Hussain. Credit Alex Folkes

You can see more photos from this visit here.

14th April 2010 10:50 0 Luton, Politics

Times article on Luton South ignores the Lib Dems

Another example of poor journalism in the reporting of the election in Luton South is the latest article from The Times; ‘Make this general election Independents’ Day, says Esther Rantzen‘.

The article is essentially a puff piece for Esther Rantzen without any realistic discussion of her chances in the seat. It mentions the Labour and Tory candidates and even Stephen Rhodes, but doesn’t talk about the Liberal Democrats at all.

I don’t expect The Times to back the Liberal Democrats or declare we are set to win. I wouldn’t mind if they said our chances were unlikely. But not to mention the Liberal Democrats at all gives a completely unrealistic picture of the reality of the constituency. It is just bad journalism and clearly demonstates bias.

13th April 2010 16:07 0 Luton, Politics

ITV News at Ten in Luton South

Last night’s ITV News had a story about the election in Luton South. It concentrated a lot on Esther and the expenses scandal, but I think it gave the Liberal Democrats and our candidate Qurban Hussain a decent go.

You can see the report on the ITV News website.

13th April 2010 14:28 4 Luton, Politics

The Norfolk Blogger on Luton South

Nich Starling, know as the Norfolk Blogger, has written a post previewing the election battleground in the Eastern Region. Initially he missed out the two Bedfordshire seats of most interest, Bedford and Luton South, but he has since updated the post with descriptions of both. He is reasonably accurate on Luton South, although over harsh on Esther Rantzen and misses out the fact that the Liberal Democrat vote doubled at the last election. What he isn’t aware of will be how the campaign is playing out on the ground, particularly the strength of the Liberal Democrat challenge, and, aside from Esther, the strengths and weaknesses of the various candidates.

“Luton South is at a council level a Lib Dem target and with the scandal involving Margaret Moran’s second home claims, the Labour Party will do well to hold the seat. The major problem for the Lib Dems is that they start in third place having failed to overcome the Tories last time who remain in second place. Given that until 1997 Luton South was a Tory seat, the Tories might expect to be the main challengers here this time. Again though, the Tories are not in the shape they might expect to be with a shaky local organisation and little in the way of local council success on which to hang any claims of being the main alternatives. Given the plethora of independents seeking to muddy the waters including the dreadful Esther Rantzen, whose stated reasons for standing appear to me to have all gone, except seemingly the number one reason (her ego), it seems that this seat will provide some interest to the press.”

13th April 2010 12:37 0 Luton, Politics

Esther and the naked men

Esther Rantzen, the independent candidate for Luton South, writes a regular diary article for the Daily Mail. Her latest one recounts her encounters with naked men on Luton’s doorsteps;

“And there are moments of embarrassment. I had no idea how many men open the front door stark naked. ‘Congratulations,’ I said to the first one. ‘You’re my first nude.’ The bits I could see above the letter box blushed prettily.

The second male nude was pierced so unexpectedly that I was rendered completely speechless.

I just grabbed my leaflets and ran away.”

You can read more here; ‘Naked men on the doorstep: Esther Rantzen’s Diary of an Independent‘

Comedy anecdotes aside, I find it difficult to disagree with the conclusions she comes to after discussing politics with Luton residents;

“The truth I have learned from them in Luton is that voters have been so badly injured that they have lost all faith in our democratic system. And putting that right is more important than Punch and Judy politics.

If we lose the desire to vote, this will be an Election when everybody loses.”

12th April 2010 11:37 0 Luton, Politics

Luton South on Twitter

I’ve set up a list of the Twitter accounts of candidates and others involved in the general election campaign in the Luton South constituency.

http://twitter.com/andymstrange/luton-south

If you spot any I’ve missed you can suggest them by commenting to this post.

The Twitter hashtag for Luton South is #LutonS (taken from this list http://bit.ly/GE2010).

12th April 2010 08:50 1 Geek Stuff, Luton, Politics

Shock as the News of the World gets facts wrong

I’ve come across another example of appalling journalism in the reporting of the election in Luton South. This time from the ‘News of the World’ so I shouldn’t be that surprised, but is it too much to ask that they get the basic facts right?

The article in question is here: ‘Battleground UK: Paul McNamara in Luton South’

I am only guessing here, but from the looks of it Mr McNamara, who is their ‘defence correspondent’, did a quick Google search for some background, jumped on the train to Luton, spent an hour or so interviewing Esther and a couple of local residents, jumped back on the train to return to London, and then wrote up his article without bothering to check his facts.

I will ignore that no mention at all is made of the Liberal Democrats, a ridiculous thing to do given the political situation in Luton, and take a look at what the article does mention.

It starts with Esther Rantzen and Margaret Moran, which is fair enough. But then;

“Thanks to a TV career spanning 45 years most of the national attention regarding Luton has focused on Esther.”

No, most of the media attention has focused on Esther.

“But her win is far from in the bag.”

You don’t say.

The article then goes over the Moran scandal and contrasts that with Esther;

“Champion fundraiser Esther is saintly by comparison.”

Esther’s plans to bring a theme park to Luton then get a mention. This is a somewhat ridiculous proposal, although it is not the first time that Esther has mentioned it, yet in the article it isn’t really questioned.

Finally, someone else gets a mention;

“Both the prospective Labour and Conservative candidates believe the city’s future is more dependent on Vauxhall – the town’s biggest employer – rather than the next EuroDisney.”

I very much doubt that they do believe that. I certainly hope not. Because of course, as anyone with a passing acquaintance with the economy of Luton would know, Vauxhall is not the town’s biggest employer and hasn’t been for a long time.

The decline of manufacturing in Luton, the decline of Vauxhall, the fact that we no longer make cars in a town built on the motor industry and the politics associated with that is not something I will get into now. Let me just say that the biggest single employer is now Luton Borough Council and the key provider of employment in the town is London Luton Airport and its associated industries. Facts which, for anyone unfamiliar with the town, are easily obtained with the briefest of research.

This annoying example of lazy journalism is bad enough, but then you have to despair when the article gets the name of the Conservative candidate wrong. It is Huddleston not Hoddleston.

12th April 2010 00:31 0 Luton, Politics

Luton South constituency profiles

I’ve listed below those constituency profiles for Luton South provided on the web by the main news organisations.

They all provide the basic information and each has a different set of features. Sky News has a very useful feed of news from a wide range of online sources. But I think the BBC has the best description of the constituency;

“As in neighbouring Luton North, the Labour majority was considerably reduced in 2005. Margaret Moran’s vote fell by 12.5% but as across much of the country, it was the Liberal Democrats who benefited most.”

Luton South profiles:

11th April 2010 18:45 0 Luton, Politics