Tuesday, April 05, 2005
At the starting line
So, it is today that the Prime Minister is expected to go to the Palace and get the General Election campaign underway. Thank goodness for that. We appear to be in the middle of an overlong phoney war and I think that all of us will welcome the opportunity to get out there for real and to work towards an official date.
The latest opinion poll shows the Labour lead to have been cut by 5%, with the Liberal Democrats up one to 21%. This must be the highest base for a third party to go into a General Election on since the 1920s. Nobody is expecting Labour to lose this election but the polls are reflecting a great deal of volatility amongst the electorate and it may all come down to turnout at the end of the day. A low turnout could be enough to deprive Labour of a majority especially if it causes them to lose key marginals. This could well be the most interesting General Election for years.
Update: As if to underline the fact that the phoney war is over there has aleady been a defection, and one that leaves Labour scrabbling around for a new candidate in Ribble Valley. The Labour parliamentary candidate there has defected to the Liberal Democrats. Stephen Wilkinson said he was disillusioned with Tony Blair's "increasingly authoritarian" party.
The latest opinion poll shows the Labour lead to have been cut by 5%, with the Liberal Democrats up one to 21%. This must be the highest base for a third party to go into a General Election on since the 1920s. Nobody is expecting Labour to lose this election but the polls are reflecting a great deal of volatility amongst the electorate and it may all come down to turnout at the end of the day. A low turnout could be enough to deprive Labour of a majority especially if it causes them to lose key marginals. This could well be the most interesting General Election for years.
Update: As if to underline the fact that the phoney war is over there has aleady been a defection, and one that leaves Labour scrabbling around for a new candidate in Ribble Valley. The Labour parliamentary candidate there has defected to the Liberal Democrats. Stephen Wilkinson said he was disillusioned with Tony Blair's "increasingly authoritarian" party.
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Not sure what your comment has to do with this post but nevertheless I will respond. I have apologised. I sent this letter to the South Wales Echo on Sunday:
Sir, I refer to your article "Cardiff is a dump" (Echo 2 April 2005). I do not want to provoke unnecessary rivalries between Wales' two main Cities, nor do I want people to get the wrong impression of my views on Cardiff.
The comments that were attributed to me were made on the spur of the moment in a very brief telephone conversation with a South Wales Evening Post reporter. I was speaking in response to a report that a Cardiff Councillor had criticised Swansea, the City that I represent and which has been my home for 27 years.
Although, I have yet to find any City in the UK that can match Swansea in terms of its beauty, the quality of life that it offers and its general ambience, I have got to know Cardiff reasonably well in the last six years. It has many qualities which I respect and appreciate. Accordingly, I am happy to unreservedly apologise to the people of Cardiff for my remarks, which were made in anger and do not represent my true views of their City.
Yours
Peter Black AM
Sir, I refer to your article "Cardiff is a dump" (Echo 2 April 2005). I do not want to provoke unnecessary rivalries between Wales' two main Cities, nor do I want people to get the wrong impression of my views on Cardiff.
The comments that were attributed to me were made on the spur of the moment in a very brief telephone conversation with a South Wales Evening Post reporter. I was speaking in response to a report that a Cardiff Councillor had criticised Swansea, the City that I represent and which has been my home for 27 years.
Although, I have yet to find any City in the UK that can match Swansea in terms of its beauty, the quality of life that it offers and its general ambience, I have got to know Cardiff reasonably well in the last six years. It has many qualities which I respect and appreciate. Accordingly, I am happy to unreservedly apologise to the people of Cardiff for my remarks, which were made in anger and do not represent my true views of their City.
Yours
Peter Black AM
I live in Monmouthshire, and would love the Lib Dems to get in, but due to the small gap between Labour and the Tories last election, do you think it's acceptable to vote Labour to try to stop David Davies getting in? It would be my first time voting (so I'm young and idealistic!) and in almost any other circumstance vote Lib Dem, but Labour are the lesser of two evils.
I am sorry Anthropax I cannot help you. You need to make your own mind up on the basis of the case put to you by the various parties.
With regards to my apology, this has now been published by the South Wales Echo.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=15376581%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26headline=am%2dsays%2dsorry%2dfor%2d%2ddump%2d%2dslur-name_page.html
Jon Owen Jones, who is a complete neanderthal in these matters, seems to believe that I was forced to apologise. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I realised that I had gone too far when I read my words in black and white in the Evening Post and was happy to offer the apology off my own back and without any pressure from anybody, least of all my own party or Liberal Democrat Councillors in Cardiff. If Jon Owen Jones thinks that the Labour Party is capable of forcing such an apology out of me then he is living with the fairies.
I make this point not to have a go at the soon-to-be-ex MP but to emphasise that my apology was a genuine and sincere one and not one born out of any political expediency whatsoever.
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With regards to my apology, this has now been published by the South Wales Echo.
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=15376581%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26headline=am%2dsays%2dsorry%2dfor%2d%2ddump%2d%2dslur-name_page.html
Jon Owen Jones, who is a complete neanderthal in these matters, seems to believe that I was forced to apologise. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I realised that I had gone too far when I read my words in black and white in the Evening Post and was happy to offer the apology off my own back and without any pressure from anybody, least of all my own party or Liberal Democrat Councillors in Cardiff. If Jon Owen Jones thinks that the Labour Party is capable of forcing such an apology out of me then he is living with the fairies.
I make this point not to have a go at the soon-to-be-ex MP but to emphasise that my apology was a genuine and sincere one and not one born out of any political expediency whatsoever.
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