bribebribebribebribe

bribebribebribebribecorruptionbribebribebribe

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2090324_bribe_blog_post_must_be_removed

and this one is true, she did say that - she is hoping to be elected to the council and she said she had "no problem" with taxpayers' money being used to fund Labour election campaigns, except she said it was for trade union officials, but that is not what it is for

http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2090326_labour_councillors_refer_lib_dem_smear_to_dpp

red-handed?

I reproduce without comment

http://waswasere.blogspot.com/2011/03/reading-labour-guilty-of-breaking-law.html

sound familiar?

this is the take of former Australian federal treasurer Peter Costello (who admittedly has an axe to grind, though the report is mostly factual) on the trashing of Labor in the New South Wales election at the weekend.  Plenty I recognised there, and there is someone who probably feels right at home in those circles.

hahaha april fish

"poisson d'avril" as the French call April Fool's Day, or rather as they call jokes etc played on that day.  A typically hilarious thing to do is to cut a fish shape out of paper and stick it on the back of some unwitting person's jacket.  I mention it today because I have the dubious privilege of assisting in the production of my workplace's in-house newsletter, and this week there is to be an "alternative version" to appear on Friday morning.  Imagine how we have been roaring in the editorial office.  My workplace has employees from 47 countries.  I can SO promise you that there is not much that nationals of 47 different countries all find funny, though I suspect there is more than there used to be in these days of the cyberweb thingy.  And it seems that only the Brits think 1st April is about spoofs rather than funnies.  I made the mistake of trying to explain the spaghetti harvest in several languages (not including Italian).  It didn't work.  This picture though made everyone laugh, Matt in the Telegraph.

    

think she's really called Laura

not Laurie Penny as she styles herself.  I won't bore you with a link to her outpourings, suffice to say she may well be the most annoying creature in the anglophone cybersphere just at present.  While it is great fun being rude to her on Twitter, there may be a serious point here.  She affects to despise the trade unionists who marched in London last weekend. What does she have against trade unions?  What does she have against hummus? (She referred to those taking part in the trade union rally in Hyde Park as "hummus munchers").

Oh.

Update:  Ms Red has just Tweeted that she is being subjected to "nasty sexual bullying".  Is that what this is?  You can dish it out, Pens, but you can't take it, can you?

turning left

is what has been happening in elections over the weekend.  The left in Alsace, in the "cantonales" (equivalent approximately to county council elections, and in which I do not have a vote chiz) got a toe-hold outside the city of Strasbourg for the first time, and held on to the four districts it had in the city, although in the one I live in, Strasbourg 2 Gare, it looks like a Green rather than a socialist.   Which I am not thrilled about.  The Front National, always strong in this part of France, perhaps because this region has spent a lot of its history being German but never had the de-Nazification they got across the Rhine, stayed strong but did not advance much, both it and the left gaining from Sarko's UMP, whose condition is now tragic and may be terminal.  Across the  Rhine in Baden-Wurttemberg Angie got a severe kicking, and the Land looks Green, the first time in 58 years it has not been CDU.  Angie has lost her mojo, the commentators say, and I suspect they are right.  And watching the coverage of the demo in London on Saturday, I am toe-curlingly embarrassed for Silly Milly E.  What on earth was he doing there?  TB would never have gone near it.  But then he was Prime Minister.  Remember, Ed?  There used to be a Labour government.  Oh but you don't like those, do you?  Enjoy opposition.  Enjoy the Guardian editorials.  Bye boys.  What a waste.

Warren Swaine 2

As I suspected, and indeed hoped, a number of people connected in various ways to politics in Reading have been in touch with me about the Strange History on which I posted yesterday.  I reproduce some gleanings below.  As before, please do correct (I have checked facts wherever I can) or express views. Some were kind enough to say that I have got the "Swaine affair" "substantially correct", which is gratifying.  Some have also commented on what induced Mr Swaine to tweet as he did, but as I believe there was no-one else there at the time and Mr Swaine himself has not provided intelligence, I shall draw a veil.  However, here is a comment from a former constituent: 

The Labour Party ran at it like a rat up a drain. I don’t blame them – Reading politics is a contact sport, and they thought that they could see a weakness, and they chose to exploit it. However, for what it is worth, Warren is no racist. He is half Sri Lankan this is not a guarantee of not being racist, Ed., and has been very friendly with the local Nepali community, long before it became fashionable. I don't recall him seeking pointless photo-opps with members of that community either, Ed.
I am also told, which seems plausible, that the local LibDems thought it was a non-story and would die down, and so did the Tories.
A correspondent's understanding is that the Labour Party (they do not say whether this was the local or the national, or indeed the regional, Labour Party), took it to Cowley Street and asked for action to be taken, and the “decision” was made by a junior staffer in the Press Office that Swaine Must Go. A correspondent apparently well placed to know about this exchange comments: when the opposition asks for you to do something, particularly if that opposition party is Reading Labour Party, the best thing to do is to tell them to go and boil their heads. It is also sensible to get the other side of the story as well! If only someone had told the former Government Chief Whips Ann Loaf-Head Taylor and Horrible Hilary Armstrong that. But Loaf-Head had Roy Hattersley's baby so must be deranged, or at the very least seriously lacking in judgment, and Hills the Horrible - Government Chief Whip, remember - actually told me that she was "cross" with Mr Salter for voting against the government on Iraq, when, er, he hadn't.  And she hadn't checked.  Doh.

Certainly Swaine is more dangerous to the Labour Party now than he was before – he has nothing to restrain him (certainly not his judgement) and he is going to go for them big time. Now it’s personal. says another.

Sources close to a couple of chaps who are now senior Tory councillors in Reading say that the most able and  focused LibDem councillors (this was fed to me some time ago) are, in alphabetical order, Bayes, Benson and Swaine.

Hmmm and double hmmm.