Campaign Diary: The Leader, The Press and The Poster

Today was one of those days that will be easier once the Bathgate to Airdrie extension in completed later this year. The word had gone from Andrew Reeves for us all to available at 9:30 this morning for the launch of the Scottish campaign for the general election. For me that means either going into Edinburgh and out or hoping on the X14 bus at 7:20 to head into Buchanan Street. I took the first option, it is quicker, even the time for mishap is smaller. So I planned on the bus hoping the M8 wasn't too congested this morning.

Last night while many of us were out campaigning we got the details sent to us. We were to turn up at Pacific Quay, Glasgow. For those of you who don't know that is the location of the new headquarters for both BBC Scotland and Scotland Television; in other words the hub of the Scottish television world. We were to be joined by Tavish Scott, Charles Kennedy and the leader Nick Clegg himself. The event was to unfurl the new poster campaign.

And what a campaign it is. Yeah a little bit retro but hoisting the Tories by a petard of their own previous making.



The Tories are actually going to increase your tax burden by £389 in VAT. Because of course George Osborne’s great idea, possibly while in the bathroom, on the eve of the chancellors debate was to half Labour’s future increase in National Insurance. He's going to have to pay for it somehow. No doubt in another of his trips to the bathroom he came up with that eureka moments.This is against the Liberal Democrat promise to rise the personal allowance for income tax to £10,000, lifting 3.5 million of the poorest paid out of tax altogether and giving people £700 back.

The Liberal Democrats tax cut is paid for by closing many of the loopholes that allow the richest to pay proportionately less than the cleaner in their offices on minimum wage, green taxes on polluters. The other thing about National Insurance and VAT is that they are regressive taxes which affect the poorest far more than the richest. Income tax being a progressive system an be made fairer to the poorest by differential tax rates or raising the limit at which they start paying it. Currently you get taxed on the £6746th pound you earn. Something that Alistair Darling didn't increase in his budget last month. Something that the Conservatives didn't notice until long after Nick Clegg had mentioned it in the debate; if only they’d been bothered to stay in the chamber to listen.

However, back to the event, before his arrival the press core that was travelling with Nick turned up, including that other Nick, Mr Robinson. Then from around the corner Nick and Charles headed towards Tavish who greeted him. Then with a parting of the press core the trio strode towards where we candidates were waiting next to the billboard. Nick said a few words and there were press questions to him often as one on ones at various locations around the area. The first journalist to actually come up to the hoard of Scottish candidates for Nick Robinson, his opening words were you’re just standing here getting ignored. He then went to grab his overcoat, while he joked about him being a soft southerner. Of course Nick Robinson is from the north, just the north that is south of Scotland.

There were a few press pictures as Nick came back to us to wish us luck and say his goodbyes, for now, then by the time our commitment was over, I’d missed one X14 back to Bathgate but had time to do a delivery for Katy Gordon in Glasgow North before catching the next bus. See even when your transport arrangements get messed up there is still a time, a place, a fellow candidate who is more than willing to use your services.

So home for a quick lunch before heading out unto the streets of Linlithgow.

Scottish Lib Dem Campaign is Lauched

Speaking before today's official launch of the Scottish Liberal Democrat election campaign, UK Party Leader Nick Clegg said that the Liberal Democrats are offering real change for Scotland on the 6th May.

Nick Clegg said:

"In this election, the choice for Scots is clear.

"Vote for Liberal Democrats who will bring about real change and build a fairer Scotland.

"Or stick by a failing Labour Party that long since abandoned you.

"The SNP cannot make a difference at Westminster, and in Scotland the Tories aren't in the game.

"But the Liberal Democrats are set to make gains across Scotland.

"We start this election second only to Labour and we have them in our sights.

"Fairer taxes, political reform, a sustainable economy. This is the change we offer Scotland."

As for me I'll be through at the launch now (Yes this blog post has been post dated) look out for me on the news coverage.

Campaign Diary: Suddenly It's Real

So yesterday finally yesterday morning we had the starting pistol in sight and the finish line also. The news has leaked out, through the media and the Internet, the night before that Gordon was going to visit the Queen, as Mark Pack says not like days of yore. We didn't realise that Her Majesty was going to have to helicopter in specially to Buckingham Palace though. And where was I?

Well the necessities of work meant that I had to finish off the job I had started on the first and get the quarterly reports completed and out to the managers of of various business supports around the globe. But things did not all run smoothly at work yesterday and more and more questions were being bounced back to me about things that meant I think I may well have done an extra 3 hours work, but it was all crammed into the 45 minutes longer I stayed at my desk than I intended.

However, I may well mark down the first hustings of the campaign as taking place at my desk at about 8:30 yesterday morning. Yeah people were starting to talk politics this election was no longer an abstract it was real.

The net result was that I was like a caged thoroughbred straining at the bit waiting to be released unto the course. Yeah even reading the announcement that there is to be a general election online still gets the adrenaline pumping in us political animals.

As it was once released out unto the world it was time to be out and about getting the voters attention. Before getting home in the dark to finally sit down to an evening meal at 10PM. Then opening my emails and seeing a massive increase in the number received. My first course of action was read the important ones then reply to the constituent ones. It did take some time, thankfully I'd done some of that during the day.

Then it was off to bed for less than four hours sleep to be up again at five. My mother used to moan about the fact that even as a child I needed very little sleep. In the heat of campaign it usually turns out to be a very useful trait. Another day has dawned and we need to keep getting the message out about the Lib Dem change that works for the voters. But for now fetch me an Earl Grey. Hot. Let's make it so.

First Time Voter? Not Sure What to Do?

The BBC has got a really easy to follow guide of the basics of how to vote. If in any doubt visit your local council website for further advise that may be specific for you.

Gentlemen and Ladies Start You Engines

Gordon Brown has now been to the palace to visit the Queen to ask for the dissolution of Parliament. There will now be an election on 6 May and election where the voters really can have a bigger say than ever before.

 

If you truly want to vote for change look not at what either Labour or the Conservatives are saying they would like to do, look at what the Liberal Democrats have been trying to do over recent only to come up against the roadblock that is the Labservatives. We've tried to make things more open, we've tried to make the expenses system more like the private sector but we've been knocked back at every attempt to reform.

The way Britain's run means the Government doesn't have to listen to you. One party can get control over Parliament even if only a quarter of people vote for them. So individual people and families don't seem to have a voice to influence what happens. The old parties are comfortable because they know they'll get into government every few years - so they never change things and they never will. But people are fed up of being ignored. It's time to make a real change. We need to have an open political system that's designed to listen to people and deliver what they need. Everyone should have an equal voice - not just people who can pay for big donations.

The Liberal Democrats will throw open the doors of government, reinvigorate Britain's democracy and give power back to people. We will modernise government so that it serves the interests of all people, not just the vested interests of politicians, corporations or rich donors. Liberal Democrats plan to reform government so there will be no more privileged patronage, no more dodgy dossiers, no more excessive secrecy. Government should uphold the law, as well as our liberties, not seek ways to undermine them. We will create a British democracy for the 21st century that people can be proud of.

We've also seen Labour erode our civil liberties. This Government has given up on ordinary people’s rights – like freedom of speech and privacy. They have created more than 4,300 new crimes – one for every day in office.

The Government has over a million innocent people’s DNA on file. Thousands of schools monitor children’s fingerprints, and parents aren’t allowed to stop them. An Identity Card scheme is planned that is more complex and intrusive than anywhere else in the world. And worst of all they keep losing all the information they hold instead of keeping it safe.

Liberal Democrats are the only party committed to defending our most important rights. The threat of terrorist attacks must be taken seriously but it does not mean that we should sacrifice our liberty in the name of security. Previous generations died to protect our freedom, and politicians shouldn’t try to take it from us. That doesn’t just mean warm words about British tradition: it means action. The Conservatives aren’t serious about freedom – they want to scrap the laws that protect our human rights and personal privacy.

Liberal Democrats will introduce a Freedom Bill to restore and protect our most important liberties. We will scrap expensive and unnecessary ID Cards; remove innocent people from the criminal DNA database; restore the right to protest and freedom of speech; and restore other vital freedoms. We will protect people’s privacy by strengthening data protection laws and stopping unnecessary state intervention in our lives.

If you want a change that restores your liberties and restores Parliament to a place where you the vote have sway vote Liberal Democrat on the 6th may.

The Wikio MacBlogopshere Rankings April 2010

I'm doing to just give you the list of Scottish blogs in the top 100 political blogs this month. No padding as I'm busy. Though I will apologise in advance that next months will be late, the 5h May will be the eve of poll it appears.

1. 8 (7) And Another Thing....Tom Harris
2. 16 (21) Cute Greek Baby
3. 30 (29) Subrosa
4. 33 (27) Alex Massie
5. 43 (32) SNP Tactical Voting
6. 49 (48) Stephen's Linlithgow Journal
7. 58 (49) Bishop Hill
8. 61 (79) Rantin Rab
9. 62 (62) Caron's Musings
10. 77 (65) Andrew's Running Blog
11. 89 (68) Scottish Roundup
12. 90 (86) Two Doctors
13. 91 (74) Andrew Neill's Blog
14. 97 (NE) Underdog Bites Upwards
15. 98 (88) Yapping Yousuf

Double Standards of the Tories Over Gay B&B Comments

Example 1: A Conservative shadow Home Secretary says just the other week that it should be acceptable for a gay couple to be turned away from a B&B should the proprietors say they want to on no other grounds than their sexuality.

Example 2: An Ulster Unionist B&B owner from Antrim is prevented from going forward
to the UUP v Conservative decision to stand as the MP for Antrim South for saying in 2006 he felt 'uncomfortable' having same sex couple stay in his B&B, before the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007.

Quite rightly Antrim Mayor Adrian Watson who had the backing of 90% of the local Ulster Unionist party is pointing out that Chris Grayling has gone further than him. Yet he is being barred from standing possibly on the same grounds that Grayling has yet to even be censured by his own leader. He says:

"Are they going to veto their shadow home secretary now? Is Owen Paterson [Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary] going to go back to London and say we have set a precedent in Northern Ireland? If there is no disciplinary action against him then it is serious discrimination, David Cameron talks about equality, where is my equality?"

Shouldn't the same standards be set for Epsom and Ewell as for Antrim South?