New poll from Derby shows 13 point CON>LAB swing At the general election in May 2010 the East Midlands was one of the most crucial CON-LAB battle-grounds. Of the 46 seats at stake more than a quarter were gained by the Tories – It went from a pre-election notional split of CON 19: LAB 26: LD 1 to CON 31 and LAB 15. However the boundary changes work out it’s clear that this will be a keenly contested region once…
Twitter Has the Guardian been getting police leaks? The hacking saga has taken a new turn within the past hour with news that a 51 year old policeman has been arrested. A Sky News Tweet suggests that the man was passing on information to the Guardian. There is not yet a story on the Sky site which amplifies further on what is given in the Tweet. The police officer in charge of the investigation, Deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers, said…
Is the time ripe for such changes? Next May, if things go to plan, there’ll be a whole new set of elections all over England with the exception of London. These are for the directly-elected police commissioners of which there will be 41. They take over the functions of the existing police authorities and will be very much the public faces of policing in their areas. The electorates for the new jobs will be all those on the electoral roll…
Hunchman & Augustus Carp David Herdson & James Burdett Sunil & Sean Fear Peter the Punter & Paul Maggs Scarpia & Nick Palmer Greg Callus (Morus) There are many more pictures which I will feature tomorrow.
Can she win the Ames Straw poll? In a few hours time thousands of Republican party activists will be arriving at the Iowa state university campus in Ames for what has become the traditional kick off in the party’s race to find it’s candidate for the White House. Early next year the state should be the first to hold a primary – in its case through the caucus system – and a good performance today is critical for several of…
Will extra cops be enough? The Cameron statement had just two concrete measures – an increase from 6,000 to 16,000 in the number of police on the streets of London tonight and the recall of parliament on Thursday. But should he have gone further? Should other measures be considered? We’ll see what happens tonight. @MikeSmithsonPB
My wife and I have just got back from London where we have had a special dinner with our three children. We’ve been dead worried. Our elder daughter lives in Croydon – the other lives on the Clapham-Brixton border and, like tens of thousands of people tonight, no doubt, we’ve been worried sick about our loved ones. Thankfully I’ve just had a text and both the girls are now safely back home. Quite where this is all leading it’s hard…