Monthly Archives: April 2010
Why Kerry McCarthy Must Stand Down
Bristol24-7 has this story on McCarthy’s breach of electoral law yesterday:
Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy, Gordon Brown’s “Twitter Tsar”, has apologised for revealing a sample of postal votes on the social networking website.
Ms McCarthy breached electoral law by giving details of a constituency postal vote count to her 5,700 followers on Twitter.
Last night the matter was referred by Bristol City Council to Avon and Somerset police, who will decide whether or not to charge the government whip and former solicitor.
The candidate, who has been charged by the Labour party with managing and encouraging on-message tweets, deleted the message within minutes, and apologised.
“On hearing the results of a random and unscientific sample of postal votes, I posted them on Twitter,” she said.
“It was a thoughtless thing to do, and I very quickly realised that it was not appropriate to put such information in the public domain.
“Because this was not official information, and no votes had been counted, I thought of it as being akin to canvass returns, ie telling people how well we were doing with Labour promises on the doorstep, but I appreciate now it was wrong to do so.”
Section 66 of the 1983 Representation of the People Act forbids “any statement relating to the way in which voters have voted at the election” before polls close.
Cameron Catches Brown And Clegg On The Hop
Polls published immediately after the debate finished show David Cameron as the clear winner according to Sky News:
YouGov puts the Tory leader on 41%, followed by Nick Clegg on 32% and Gordon Brown on 25%.
ComRes had Mr Cameron two points ahead of Mr Clegg on 35% with Mr Brown trailing in third on 26%.
And Angus Reid put the Tory leader on 37%, eight points ahead of Mr Clegg on 29% and 14 points ahead of Mr Brown on 23%.
Aardvark is not entirely sure that Gordon Brown’s creepy gurning grin at the end did much to further Labour’s cause, but if the polls are to be believed then Labour is now the third party in British politics which should keep them from having another go at wrecking this country for a least a generation, and hopefully for all time.
Labour Twitter Czar Kerry McCarthy Breaks The Law On Postal Voting
Postal voting is a farce open to all sorts of fraud and multiple voting, but, it is supposed to be secure from a Labour PPC for Bristol East tweeting the number of postal votes cast for each party.
But with their usual contempt for bigoted voters Kerry McCarthy the Labout Twitter Czar has done just that.
Unable to blame Sue when cornered McCarthy, following the example of chief bigot spotter Gordon Brown, then tried to share the blame with other Tweeters who reacted incredulously at her behaviour and re Tweeted her tweets along with calls to inform the Police.
Kerry4MP then turned the tables back on @Parlez_me_nTory by tweeting @Parlez_me_nTory @ianvisits I think you two perhaps shouldn’t compound the error? My mistake – hands up! But you can’t do it either’. Hat tip to Bracknell Blog
It remains to be seen if the police and the electoral commission get involved
* * * Update * * *
The Telegraph now have the story as well.
Electoral Commission confirm that McCarthy’s tweet is illegal
16:22 Right now Bristol council are receiving complaints about that pesky 1983 Act, Section 66 (1) and 66 (2) from @ToryBear
16:36 @torybear RT @michaelsavage: BREAKING: Spoken to Bristol council: “It is a criminal matter”. Local police awaiting a complaint to investigate.
18:00 Story on most MSM outlets now, why has no one called it Twiitergate yet?
18:50 ITN News report that Bristol City Council have reported McCarthy to the Police
David Cameron’s 3 Goals For The Last Leaders Debate
When the Leaders Debate ends tonight David Cameron must leave viewers with 3 key thoughts:
1. The European economies are in trouble and it is not the time for a weak coaltion government
2. Mrs Duffy was right about immigration and that only the Conservatives have a viable solution to the problem
3. No Conservative MP’s will keep Brown and Labour in power, while Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems wont tell you what they will do
The final leaders debate takes place tonight at Birmingham University hosted on this occasion by the BBC.
It is likely to be the most charged of the debates with Gordon Browns silent and terrible ghost in the room being Bigotgate, so dont expect any election anecdotes from Brown about a woman in Rochdale. Read the rest of this entry
Vince Cable The Best Hyped Up Chancellor We Have Never Had
Vince Cable was obviously expecting an easy ride, the look on his face is priceless as Andrew Neil reads out the list of things that Cable has flip flopped on.
“I genuinely changed my mind on HBOS” stammers Vince uncertainly, so call Aardvark cynical, but were the other mind changes non genuine, In other words a flip flop.
If the disaster of a hung Parliament were to happen, then would, in the event of another disastrous Lib/Lab pact, Darling stand aside and let Cable become Chancellor after Clegg had decided who was to be Labour Party leader? Words like snowflake and furnace spring to mind.
The Lib Dems and Clegg especially are starting to believe their own publicity, the arrogance of Clegg to presume that as self appointed king maker he can choose the leader of another political party is astounding.
Cable his reputation battered has dropped off the radar since being mauled by Brillo so how Clegg will perform tomorrow against a village idiot grinning Gordon Brown and a very well briefed David Cameron with the best economic policies remains to be seen.
Brownfall The UK Election Gaffe To End Them All
Hat tip BrownandBust for the poster.
The curse of Jonah Brown struck again today, this time on Jonah himself.
Totally forgetting that he has a radio mic on Brown gets into the car muttering “What a disaster” and “that woman is bigoted”, and quickly commited the political equivalent of farting in front of the Queen at an Investiture.
Google now has 430,000+ entries for the biggest political gaffe in living memory.
Gillian Duffy had dared to mention immigration to Brown, just a few months ago anyone who dared mention immigration was branded a racist.
Labour claim to have sorted immigration, how can this be when the Labour leader’s, in private and thus real reaction is to call someone a “bigot”? Read the rest of this entry
Majority Of Voters Think A Hung Parliament Is A Bad Idea
The much punted Hung Parliament is not popular with voters according to today’s Sun/YouGov poll.
47% of voters think that a hung parliament will be bad because it “produces weak government, unable to take the tough decisions Britain needs“
So where does this leave wanna be King maker Nick Clegg?