back to normal!

Mr Salter reassures us by returning to his normal routine after, shock horror, posing in Reading West with Nasty Naz (who has updated his website after having some idiocies on it pointed out by bloggers, who are all working against democracy, as Mr S informs us). Yes, here he is back in Reading East. What do readers think about Unite Against Fascism, which backed the Reading East gig?

Oh and Cllr Tony Jones is giving us the clearest hints yet that he may stand as an independent in Reading West. He is portraying this as an anti-Tory move, but it would be the Reading Labour boys who would want to stop him standing. They want a Tory MP in Reading West, as they did in Reading East where they worked hard to make that happen. Cllr Jones should check his car brakes and look behind him on dark nights.

Denise Headley has defected to the Conservatives, no doubt as a result of this spate of deselections.http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2009/08/cllr-denise-headley-labour-edmonton-green-is-defecting-to-the-conservatives-today.html
ConservativeHome's Local Government Blog: Cllr Denise Headley (Labour, Edmonton Green) is defecting
Source: conservativehome.blo...

Cllr Headley's statement: "This has not been an easy decision for me to take. I have been a member of the Labour Party for many..."

etc

Surprised boys?

Never mind, it's coming soon, years and years of WHITE BOY OPPOSITION! Huzzah!

not in my name

I am not Scottish, but still - Tom Harris MP, who is (Scottish I mean) has written an excellent post condemning the release of the Lockerbie bomber al-Megrahi, who has returned to a hero's welcome in Libya, predictably. This was a shabby deal to ensure that he dropped his appeal against his conviction for the terrorist murder of 270 people - many of the Lockerbie victims' families believe that there was more to come out about the perpetrators of that terrorist outrage in 1988. Be that as it may, as Tom Harris and others have said, this decision was wrong for justice and wrong for compassion. If al-Megrahi cannot be treated for his prostate cancer in prison in Scotland then that is an indictment of the health care available in Scottish prisons, and the Scottish health minister, whose name temporarily escapes me, should resign. Some have speculated on what this piece of crassness by the Scottish Justice Minister, who I believe is called Kenny McAskill (I've never been able to take seriously anyone called Kenny - Kenneth Williams was Kenneth and never Kenny) might do to UK-US relations. I don't think they need to worry. I watched President Obama on the subject on TV this morning (his voice penetrates the French voice-over better than anyone else's) and he was very clear that it was the government of Scotland which was responsible for that decision. Perhaps there will be US boycotts of shortbread and tartan. Perhaps.

the election will not be televised

or, it's campaigning, Jim, but not as we know it

Steve Richards, writing his monthly column in the New Statesman (a mag I subscribed to for over 20 years until I had to sue them for defamatory comments, but that is another story), gets it spectacularly right it seems to me, have a read here. But I was aghast to read there that Gordon Brown starts his working day by reading the newspapers! What world are the helmsmen of the nation living in? No wonder he seems so bonkers. It's not there you look for political intelligence Gordo. YouTube will have a story all around the world before the Guardian has got its (filthy) boots on.

have they all gone mad?

according to this story the East Midlands Labour Party has suspended a member who, according to him, went to a hotel with another member not his wife or partner and did not have sex with her, according to her they did have sex, no suggestion from either party that there was anything non-consensual about it, his wife took a dim view when she found out, as well she might, and he has been booted out of the party? Idiots. Oh, but read on in the story and you find a mention of "long-standing divisions". In the Labour Party? Shurely shome mishtake. So just when it gets interesting the story ends. Hmmm. Of course in Reading nothing like this would ever happen. No councillor would be publicly condemned by the then Labour leader of the council, local librarian Dave "moronic members of the public" Sutton, for misdemeanours the public was never told about, and booted out of the Labour Group for crimes no-one would talk about, in a disgraceful failure of leadership if the "story" was true, and in an even more disgraceful probably racist piece of bullying if it was not.

In the name of God, go.

listen, why don't you

Hat-tip Mike Smithson (Political Betting) for this picture of Alan Johnson and Gordon Brown, which, well, speaks, as they say, volumes. Tea at the European Parliament (travel expenses not included) for the best caption.

Kim Dae-jung

has died. The BBC obituary is quite fair really. Kim was a hero to me in the 1980s because of his fight for Korean democracy - South Korea only came out of military dictatorship in 1987. I was once attacked and robbed at a rally for him, in Inchon, South Korea, in 1987 (there were presidential elections in December that year) because people in the crowd thought I was American. Foolhardy to go there, with hindsight. But that didn't put me off Kim. Anyway, for those who don't remember, he eventually became president of his country, supported democracy and reunification with the North, and stepped down of his own accord, as all the best leaders of their countries do (Wilson, Blair). Oh yes.