Labour MPs preparing the ground for a "putch" after the Norwich North by-election

The news today that female Labour MPs are complaining about the "laddish" culture in Number 10 Downing Street should be seen as preparing the way for the Labour Party to kick Gordon Brown out after the Norwich North by-election.

On the ground here in Norwich, it is clear Labour are having problems getting literature out, getting posters up and getting local activists to want to help after the way Gordon Brown's henchmen kicked Ian Gibson out of the parliamentary Labour Party.

Further evidence of the lack of enthusiasm for Gordon Brown can be seen from the lack of Labour MPs visiting Norwich, and why would they want to come when they know Labour may well end up in 3rd place (I have been told that one online betting company have now opened a book on Labour coming third) and many Labour MPs want Gordon Brown out anyway.

So expect more stories over the coming days from Labour MPs, upset ex minsters and various insiders who will start providing the ammunition for a challenge to Gordon Brown after 23rd July.

How to waste money by the bucket load

Craig Murray, in another of his "the whole world is against me" statements, is apparently having 80,000 DVDs made for his election address.

He states that the reason why the Post Office had refused was, in part, because nobody had ever issued a DVD as their election address before. He refers to paper and ink as a 14th century thing and seems to think that the DVD is the way forward. Perhaps I should point him to a few campaign realities.

1) The six second rule - This rule states that on average, you have six seconds from the typical front door to the nearest bin. You have, therefore, six second in order to get part of your message across.

2) DVDs have been used before - Brent East saw Labour using a DVD and video combination whilst Iain Dale distributed tens of thousands of DVDs in North Norfolk at the last general election. The Lib Dems too used them in Harborough. Guess what ? They didn't work and in each case the party that used them lost.

The reality is that most people do not have the time to sit down and watch a DVD, but more than this, they don't want to be tricked in to wasting their time to watch a DVD by a politician.

Perhaps he will prove us all wrong, but in my own experience of peoples reactions in North Norfolk to Iain Dale's DVD, I suspect not.

P.S. I should add, I spoke to Iain Dale about his DVDs after the election and he stated that he felt they did not work.

How to get your roads repaired - Have a parliamentary by-election

Withing hours of the by-election being called in Norwich North, something strange started happening in Norwich North. All over the constituency County Council vans and lorries started appearing with high visibility vested men carrying spades, driving various types of digger, rollers and other contractors vehicles, and suddenly long waited for road repairs started happening.

In Taverham the road is up, in Drayton action is being taken to reduce speeds, in Hellesdon pathways are being redone (again) and in Mile Cross all the holes in the road that have been there for months have been filled in.

Now I expect that it would take weeks, if not months, to do all this scheduled work, but it does seem odd that all over the constituency the Tory run County Council are doing the things that should have been done a long time ago.

It certainly stops the opposition from running petitions and doing leaflets about the road problems.

I know, I'm being cynical, but I've had other people ask me, with my political knowledge, if there is any link between the by-election and the sudden flood of roadworks being done.

Two Tory leaflets (one posted) and one Lib Dem

If I get the chance I will post up the leaflets I received today. The Tories, who seemed keen to slag of April Pond and the Lib Dems for delivering a magazine style leaflet responded with an almost exact copy today and I also got a freepost leaflet from them.

The Lib Dems sent me a hand written style leaflet aimed at my postal vote. I This wasn't their freepost. This put the leaflet count (for me as a postal voter) as 8 Lib Dem, 8 Tory (including one freepost), 3 Labour (inc 1 freepost), UKIP 2 (inc 1 Freepost), 2 indies, and that is it.

Iain Dale boosts Lib Dem hopes in Norwich North

Lib Dems in Norwich North were given a welcome boost today after hearing that former North Norfolk Tory candidate and political blogger Iain Dale was back campaigning in Norfolk after his humiliating defeat in North Norfolk in 2005.

Iain said "I hope to bring to Norwich North everything that I brought to North Norfolk." Lib Dem commentator and former North Norfolk Councillor Nich Starling said "Iain contacted me to say he was in my area of Norwich North canvassing this morning. Last time Iain campaigned in the area I live in he managed to increased the number of Lib Dem vote by several thousand so I am hopeful he will be able to repeat again".

(Note - Iain and the Tory team were canvassing in Taverham today - I was going to meet up with Iain to say hello but family commitments come first. I am sure Iain will see the joke, especially after his anti Lib Dem rant in his EDP column today, which further shows how Tory biased the EDP has become that they should allow this sort of thing during an election campaign).

Unreliable Tory data in Norwich North ?

A Lib Dem poster team out yesterday in Norwich North were surprised to see a lady with a bundle of Tory leaflets under her arm walking up the driveway of the house they were putting the poster up in ask them what they were doing.

"Putting up a Lib Dem poster", they replied

"But I have her down as a Tory pledge", said the Tory

"Well one of us is wrong", replied the Lib Dem team, adding "The owner of the house is a Lib Dem member and deliverer and asked for the sign."

"Well one of us is wrong" replied the Tory lady, and she retreated quickly.

Does the Tory Chloe Smith know that Cromer is not in Norwich ?

According to the Conservative Party canvassing leaflet in Norwich North, Tory candidate Chloe Smith seems to think that Cromer is in Norwich North.

Looking at the quotes from the leaflet she says she is pushing the council to address road problems across the Cromer area. Cromer, that is, in North Norfolk. Presumably too the council she is pushing (note they are not doing it voluntarily as they should) would be Tory run Norfolk County Council. Spot the headline "Tory candidate says local Tory Council won't do it's job and have to be pushed to do it."
The reason for highlighting the second quote is simple. The recent housing scandal in Norwich was indeed something that people deserve answers over. But when the Lib Dems proposed and independent enquiry in to what happened the Conservatives voted with Labour to prevent this. Yes, the Tories voted for secrecy and no justice. Where was Chloe when this was happening ? I don't remember anything from her on the issue.

So how does this fit with the campaign pledge Chloe signed ?

Independent Leaflet in Norwich North

I received this leaflet yesterday. Sorry about the print quality but the original is very difficult to read in the first place. It looks like it was printed on an old photocopier.

I also received the Craig Murray leaflet today but this had been widely posted elsewhere so I won't publish it here.

The score ?

Lib Dem 7, Tory 6, Labour 3 (including one freepost), UKIP 3 (including one freepost), Green 0 Still not seen in large parts of Norwich North (friends in Mile Cross, Sprowston, Drayton and Taverham have all not got it), Holden 1, Murray 1.

Labour Freepost in Norwich North

Here is the Labour Freepost from the Norwich North by-election.

Interesting fact is that the "ordinary voter" in Mile Cross is someone I know and a person I know to be a long term friend of the Labour candidate.

UKIP Freepost in Norwich North

We received out UKIP Freepost leaflet for the Norwich North by-election yesterday. I've been busy (working) and travelling to Fakenham (my old council ward) to get my computer fixed so have been rather busy. So the person (brave soul, posts anonymously) who keeps implying I am holding back in UKIP leaflets ought to perhaps get a job, a family and a busy life before criticising my lack of time to post every leaflet up to this site immediately.

Both my wife and I received the same leaflet so it must be assumed that UKIP will have only one Freepost. An opportunity wasted.

Craig Murray - Honest campaigner ?

A couple of days ago Craig Murray posters mysteriously started appearing on lamp posts and road signs around Norwich. As anyone with knowledge of politics in Norfolk would know, this is not acceptable as a legitimate means of campaigning. It might work in Scotland (somewhere Mr Murray has more experience of), but in Norfolk, indeed throughout most of the country, it is fly posting.

After some protests I gather Broadland District Council and Norwich City Council had to go around and remove Mr Murray's posters.

Now as someone who claims to be an "honest" man, will he reimburse the council tax payers in these areas for the costs of clearing his street litter ?

Mr Murray likes to attack political parties with a very broad brush approach intimating that all people in political parties are the same, but it ought to be noted that none of the political parties go out fly posting causing unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.

If campaigning and fly posting rules can be so easily flouted by Mr Murray it does make you wonder.

Iain Dale's selective reading

I was fascinated to see Iain Dale had linked to THIS story on my blog yesterday with a rather poor attempt to link April Pond (Lib Dem candidate for Norwich North) with the greed and cynical Tory grandees who claimed excessive expenses whilst ignoring my story that directly related to him and his time in North Norfolk.

It seems odd that coastal defences and flood protection, something Iain was always keen to claim the Tories would help the residents of North Norfolk with, seemed unwilling to comment or link to that story.

Come on Iain. What is your opinion about the Tory cuts for flood sirens and the way the Tories cynically campaigned on this issue in the County and Euro elections just five weeks ago only to break their pledges now.

Or what about the big story of the week Iain, the Andy Coulson story ?

Oh, let's close our eyes and sling a bit of mud at the Lib Dems. I have no problem with Iain's Tory bias and despite previous political clashes in Norfolk, I rather like the man and his blog. It's just that his inability to hide his blue rosette even when it is the big news story of the week that he is ignoring.

This really does throw up a lot of questions about what will happen to Tory leaning blogs under a Tory government when Tory good news stories will be harder to find.

Norfolk Tories manifesto pledge on flood sirens broken in just five weeks !

Five weeks ago the Tories were campaigning across Norfolk promising to "fight Environment Agency plans to shut down the flood sirens", yet just a few short weeks later the Tories have broken their manifesto pledge and are unilaterally going to remove flood sirens along the Norfolk coast. Whilst no decision has been made yet, the proposals to do so have been put before the committee and it seems highly unlikely that the Tories would throw out their own proposal.

What is more. as can be seen from this extract from one of the Tory Euro election leaflets, they cynically used the threat of flooding in North Norfolk in order to attract votes in Norfolk whilst seeking to blame cuts on the EU. As we now know, it is Norfolk County Council, run by the Tories, that will actually be to blame for the cuts.


These Tory plans will hit the coastal areas of North Norfolk hard, particularly those in the Walcott area who were so badly affected by flooding in recent years. More than this though it will prove to be a disaster for North Norfolk Tories who now know that their own party's promises on flood defences can be so quickly broken. Norman Lamb has been seen for years as the most consistent advocate of those coastal communities affected by potential flooding and one wonders what Iain Dale must think about this too. Iain tried very hard to find out a great deal about coastal erosion and coastal flood defence issues in his tiome as Tory PPC in North Norfolk. One suspects that he would have felt extremely hacked off by what the Tory County Council has done if he had been PPC at the time and he probable shares my frustration at their attitude towards the people of North Norfolk.

One wonders if this might also have an effect on the truthfulness of the Tories campaigns in Norwich North. If the Lib Dems, and others (not the Greens as they appear to be working hand in glove with the Tories) point out that the Tories can break a promise in five weeks it might make people wonder if the Tories can be trusted in Norwich to keep their word.

EXCLUSIVE - New Lib Dem "Magazine" Style Leaflet to hit the streets tomorrow

I've been sent (by the Lib Dem team) the newest Lib Dem magazine style leaflet that is to hit the streets tomorrow.

This leaflet would put the Lib Dems one ahead of the Tories with seven leaflets to the Tories six. Still, this is some way ahead of Labour (two) and UKIP (two - of which one arrived in the post today - more on this later). Still no Green leaflet delivered although I have seen it on the internet.

Note - For the idiot who keeps sending me messages complaining that I favour the Lib Dems. Firstly, I am a Lib Dem. If you want a Tory bias read Iain Dale's Diary. And secondly, if other parties want to give me the digital versions of their leaflets I am willing to post these up to this site too. At the moment they are not taking up this option.

Shock Horror - Second Labour leaflet in Norwich North !

Don't fall off your seat but Labour have started delievering a seond leaflet. This is the Mile Cross variant of it.