Electrification of the Midland Mainline is paused yet again

Yesterday the news was full of stories about government investment in the railways: today we heard a familiar story in this part of the world. As BBC News reports:

East Midlands council leaders have said they are dismayed at the government's decision to indefinitely pause the northwards electrification of the Midland Mainline.

The London to Sheffield railway line has been upgraded to take electric trains as far as South Wigston in Leicestershire, but the Department for Transport (DfT) confirmed on Tuesday the further extension of the project was on hold.

The story goes on to quote the Grand Poobah of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby:

"Each pause damages confidence, makes delivery more expensive and pushes back the benefits for passengers, freight and the environment."

and Elaine Clark, chief executive of the rail industry body Rail Forum:

"Stopping Midland Mainline electrification makes no sense.

"It is a shovel-ready project that could deliver tangible benefits this parliament.

"It's a bad decision for the UK taxpayer and it's a bad decision for users of the Midland Mainline, with several of our larger cities now condemned to using diesel traction for the foreseeable future."

And for a rail project that would bring great benefits to the East Midlands but is probably even further away than full electrification of the Midland Mainline, see the proposal for a dive-under at Nuneaton, allowing a direct service from Nottingham and Leicester to Coventry again.

Peter Soulsby fears Labour could lose Leicester East to Keith Vaz

Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester's elected Labour mayor, is not happy, reports the Guardian:

Keith Vaz could be re-elected as an MP because Labour is failing to highlight that he was disgraced in office amid drug and sex allegations, the Labour mayor of Leicester has said.

Peter Soulsby said he was “disappointed and frustrated” by his party’s complacency, which could allow the former Europe minister to win back his former seat of Leicester East.

Vaz, 67, is running a well-publicised and slick campaign as a One Leicester candidate to retake his old seat on 4 July in a multicultural area which is still reeling from Hindu-Muslim riots in 2022.

This weekend, Shilpa Shetty, a former Celebrity Big Brother winner and Bollywood actor, attracted a small crowd when she accompanied Vaz in an open-top Mercedes on a tour of local shops selling south Asian products.

If you want to know why the return of Keith Vaz would be unwelcome to many, I recommend the Controversies section of his Wikipedia entry.

Labour names short list of two London politicians for troubled Leicester East seat

Leicester East has not been lucky in its choice of Labour MPs, as the disgraced Keith Vaz gave way to the disgraced Claudia Webbe.

Now, reports the Leicester Mercury, the party has named a short list of two from which its candidate at the next election.

The two are Rajesh Agrawal, who is is the deputy mayor of London for business under Sadiq Khan, and Rishi Madlani, a Camden councillor who claims strong links to Leicester.

The Conservatives have been gaining ground in local elections in this part of the city, which means that the seat is less safe for Labour than it looks on paper. And that means the question of whether Vaz, Webbe or both of them will stand as an Independent at the next election really matters.

Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester's elected mayor, was quoted in the Guardian the other day as saying he expected both to stand against the official Labour candidate:

"We could well have two disgraced former Labour party candidates standing in the seat. People are saying that this is a real possibility and it might split the vote and let the Tories in. We as a party need to have a good and credible candidate in place as soon as possible,” he said.

"Keith has been a cancer in the political body of Leicester for decades and like many others in the Labour party in the city I am relieved that the party has realised and has had the courage to cut him out.

"It has been obvious for months that he is planning to put himself up as an independent candidate at the next general election. Although he lives in Stanmore, he has had himself installed as the so-called honorary president [of the CLP] and has continued to exercise absolute control over the party in that part of the city."

Questioned by the Mercury, Vaz talked about standing as mayor of Leicester after Soulsby retires, but made it sound like a dig at him.

And Webbe left the door to standing as an Independent so wide open - "I will never abandon my home community and constituency of Leicester East" - that it makes you shiver in the draught.

Sir Peter Soulsby criticises Keir Starmer over his stance on Israel's campaign in Gaza

Middle East Eye reports that Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester Labour elected mayor, has criticised Keir Starmer for his uncritical backing of Israel's military campaign in Gaza.

The website quotes a letter from Soulsby to the Labour leader:

"The impression that has been given is that this condemnation of recent events extends to approving uncritically the Israeli government's response and of ignoring the decades of injustice and the oppression of Palestinians and the violations of their human rights," Soulsby wrote.

The mayor also said that he had visited the occupied Palestinian territories and believed that Israeli settlement activity, as well as Israel's treatment of Palestinians, had created a "breeding ground for despair and terrorism".

Soulsby said that he had spoken to Labour councillors and members who shared his concerns about Starmer's comments on the conflict.

This evening Taj Ali, the industrial correspondent of Tribune magazine, has tweeted that seven Leicester Labour councillors have

"unequivocally" distanced themselves from remarks made by @Keir_Starmer, endorsing the collective punishment of Palestinians. They have called on the Labour Party leader to apologise for his remarks.

He lists the seven as Hanif Aqbany, Misbah Batool, Mohammed Dawood, Mustafa Malik, Raffiq Mohammed, Yasmin Surti and Syed Zaman,

And Darshna Soni, communities editor of Channel 4 News, has tweeted that:

Labour councillors in Leicester warning that the Party is in danger of losing control of the city for the first time in 16 years, such is the strength of feeling over #IsraelGazaConflict. Keir Starmer’s HoC speech about need for humanitarian access seen as too late for some.

Leicester has a new political party: One Leicester

The former senior Leicester Labour Rita Patel has announced the formation of a new political party: One Leicester.

Patel was one of the Labour elected mayor Sir Peter Soulsby's assistant mayors until March of this year, but left Labour after being suspended by the party for questioning whether the city should continue with the mayoral system.

She then stood against Soulsby on a platform of abolishing the post of elected mayor in May's election for that role, but failed to prevent his winning a fourth term.

Patel told BBC News:

"Our politics, not just in Leicester, but in the rest of the country is broken. Recently one of Westminster's youngest MPs quit politics because she said parliament was toxic.

"I can tell you, this isn't just unique to parliament. Coming from different political strands we believe that it is important that we should have a new approach to politics in the city, one that is not party political based or structured in class-based ideology, and not opposing everything that the others do.

"But one that is based on local issues designed to help local people. I believe very passionately that this is the way forward for our city." 

Though Labour still runs the city council as well as having the elected mayor, the party in Leicester has been demoralised by the control freakery of first Soulsby and then Keir Starmer. Before this May's council election 19 sitting Labour councillors were barred from standing again by the national party.

And the Conservatives are making a comeback in the city by targeting the Hindu vote - some claim even at the cost of widening religious divisions. Commentators even see the Tories as favourites to win Keith Vaz's old seat of Leicester East at the next election.

Add in a modest revival for the Liberal Democrats, and a new party that may attract its voters is the last thing Labour needs.

I welcome more organised opposition to the city having an elected mayor. The best traditions of local government are collegiate, and the wish for a single leader who will bang heads together to get things done goes against them.

Former MP is Lib Dem candidate in Leicester's mayoral election

Embed from Getty Images

Parmjit Singh Gill, who won the Leicester South by-election for the Liberal Democrats in 2004, is our candidate in next month's mayoral election in Leicester.

He overturned a Labour majority of 13,243 to win the 2004 contest, but lost the seat back to them at the following year's general election.

Parmjit's Labour opponent in Leicester South both times was Sir Peter Soulsby, who is seeking a fourth term as mayor next month.

Meanwhile, all Conservative candidates in the city, including the party's mayoral candidate, are standing as Local Conservatives. Presumably this is an attempt to distance themselves from the government.

And the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is putting up a mayoral candidate and fighting nine city council wards. 

Among its candidates is the Humberstone and Hamilton councillor Ruma Ali. She told the Leicester Mercury that she resigned from the Labour Party because 19 councillors, including her, were deselected by its national executive committee five weeks before these elections without any reason being given.

Now 19 Leicester Labour councillors are told they can't stand again in May by the national party

We now go over live to the Leicester Labour Party.

From the Leicester Mercury:

Labour members have responded with fury after 19 sitting councillors were told they will not be able to defend their seats in May’s elections. The decision has been slammed as undemocratic, an attempt to silence members, and a demonstration of "utter contempt" by those not selected.

The choice of who can and cannot stand in May’s election was taken out of the hands of local party members after national Labour figures decided to take control. They announced the decision to overrule any local decision making in February, saying "power struggles and organisational issues" could damage Labour candidates' prospects in both the local council and city mayoral elections.

That decision was widely condemned by local members at the time as undemocratic. The national party has now made its decision – and 19 Labour councillors, some of whom have served their wards for decades, will be deselected and not be able to stand for Labour.

Already Patrick Kitterick has said he will stand for the Greens in May, while Rita Patel will challenge Sir Peter Soulsby as an independent in the mayoral election.

Now the Mercury says more of the 19 councillors have

declared they will be standing as independent members for their wards, while others are considering joining with other political groups.

What with the influence of the mayor on a council with a huge Labour majority, and the national party taking control of selections, there doesn't seem much room for democracy in the party in Leicester any more.

Suspended Labour councillor to challenge Sir Peter Soulsby in Leicester mayoral election

Rita Patel, one of the four Labour councillors suspended by the party for supporting the abolition of Leicester's mayoral system, is to stand against Sir Peter Soulsby for the post in May.

You can watch her video here and read more further down the Twitter thread.

Today, I resigned from the Labour Party and officially announce my campaign to be Leicester’s next City Mayor.

This city needs a fresh start and one that puts people first.#Leicester #LocalElections2023 pic.twitter.com/AxzlNeG39z

— Rita Patel (@ritapatel4mayor) March 18, 2023

I am encouraged by her intention to abolish the city's elected mayoral system. As Sir Peter has so ably demonstrated, it concentrates too much power in the hands on one person.

Meanwhile, Patrick Kitterick, who has left Labour and joined the Greens, for whom he will stand as a council candidate in May, has been talking to the Leicester Mercury:

"I believe the Labour Party has changed for the worse, and, being on the inside, I realise just how bad it’s got in terms of the crushing of any dissent or opinion,” he said.

"Debate has been curtailed. It’s becoming apparent that anyone who stands has to sign a loyalty oath to the city mayor, and the reality is my loyalties are to the people who elect me, not to one man.

"It seems the party is going down a route where you either unquestioningly agree with the city mayor or you leave. So I’m leaving."

He also criticised the decision to bring in national party members to select candidates for the May elections, saying local members were being cut out of the decision.

"I’m just disillusioned with what’s going on in the Labour Party both nationally and locally,” he said. “It’s been setting in for a few years now, but the case of local members being cut out and us being vetted by an outside panel for the elections was a tipping point."

Senior Leicester Labour councillor to stand for the Greens in May

One of the four Labour councillors suspended by the party in Leicester has announced that he will be standing for the Green Party in the city council elections in May.

In a tweet sent at lunchtime today, Patrick Kitterick said:

Ever since being elected as a councillor for Castle Ward, I have always sought to do the right thing. I have now taken the decision to leave the Labour Party and will stand as a Green Party candidate for Castle Ward in the upcoming City Elections.

Kitterick was suspended, along with his fellow councillors Rita Patel, Ross Willmott and Jacky Nangreave, for moving or seconding council motion that would have ended Leicester's mayoral system of local government.

The suspension means they will not be able to stand for Labour in May's all-out elections.

Patel and Willmott have spoken to the Leicester Mercury about their suspension, with Cllr Patel saying:

"I think the suspension [feels] illegal because it breaches our human rights in terms of having the freedom to speak. 

"Councillors are elected to speak up for their residents, and if we can’t do that it begs the question of what are we doing? You can talk all you like about timing, but actually it's a really important debate.

"It’s about real democracy in this city. We’re a democracy; if people feel differently to others they should be able to voice that.

"We’ve had the mayoral system for the last 12 years. We’ve given it a go. I really feel we need a debate [on whether it should be kept]. It’s not working in terms of the concentration of power in one position.

"It’s making councillors almost redundant. They become glorified case workers more than people who are really involved in decision making and being able to feed in the concerns people have and then go back out and let people know how things are changing in response to those concerns.

"We’re being gagged on the city council from speaking up and saying what needs to be said on behalf of the people who vote for us. I’m elected to represent the people in my ward and make sure their voices are heard."

There has been disquiet at the dominance of Sir Peter Soulsby, who has been the elected mayor for 12 years and will be Labour's candidate in May's mayoral elections, among party members in Leicester for years.

It's clear that it exists among Labour councillors too, and these heavy-handed sanctions will do nothing to reduce it.

This is very much a Leicester problem for Labour, but it will be interesting to see if other councillors from the city or beyond follow Patrick Kitterick into the Greens.

Keir Starmer's strategy is based on the belief that he is free to concentrate on wooing swing voters because his internal critics have nowhere else to go. That belief may turn out not to be wholly true.

Three Leicester Labour councillors to be disciplined for opposing mayoral system

Last week Leicester City Council debated a motion to abolish its current elected mayoral and return to a traditional committee system. It was defeated by 32 votes to 20 - an alternative replacement model (a leader and a cabinet) was rejected by a larger majority.

This week, as sure as night follows day, comes news that three Labour councillors are to be disciplined for voting against the mayoral system.

The Leicester Mercury reports:

Three Leicester councillors have been suspended by the Labour Party for rebelling against the city mayor’s office at a meeting last week. The meeting was held so elected members of all parties represented on the council could vote on whether to scrap the post, currently held by Labour’s Sir Peter Soulsby.

Patrick Kitterick, who represents Castle ward, Rita Patel and Ross Willmott, both Rushey Mead, have all had the whip withdrawn.

Kitterick has talked to the Mercury:

"For 20 years, I’ve abided by the group whip, but that’s always been on the basis we’ve had a democratic discussion within the group and we’ve come to a collective decision. There was no such discussion on this occasion.

"There wasn’t any meeting of the Labour group over this. There was no internal discussion and there was no democratic debate.

"There was just an order that went out, and that’s not the basis on which we take decisions within the Labour group. I’m not taking orders from people who haven’t consulted any of my colleagues."

So has Soulsby, but he didn't have much to say beyond "Nothing to do with me, guv":

He refused to offer an opinion, saying: "That’s very much a matter for the Labour Group whip, and the party more generally, rather than me. They take the decision on those things and whether they feel someone has stepped beyond what is acceptable."

Leicester Labour's internal politics are pretty impenetrable, so I don't know if Soulsby's truth train is stopping at every station here. But even if he does not ultimately wield the party whip, he has significant powers of patronage - notably his power to make councillors assistant and deputy mayors.

If you're a Labour councillor who wants a flourishing career in the city, you have to stay on the right side of him.

I'm not a fan of elected mayors, but if you are going to have one then you must have a body of robustly independent councillors to scrutinise their decisions.

And where you have a council that is dominated by the same party that the mayor comes from, as is the case in Leicester, you are unlikely to get one. Liverpool's experience has been the same.

The conclusion is that if you want an elected mayor, then the council that oversees them must be elected by proportional representation.

Meanwhile, the size of the vote for change last week suggests the feeling that Sir Peter Soulsby is in danger of outstaying his welcome is growing in the Labour Party as well as the city.

Later. The Leicester Mercury is now reporting that a fourth Labour councillor, Jacky Nangreave, has been deprived of the whip and that none of the four will be able to stand for the party in May's city council elections.

Ructions in Leicester Labour Party over Sir Peter Soulsby's reselection as mayoral candidate

Three councillors have accused the Labour party of excluding women, Muslims and whole branches from the process to choose its next Leicester mayoral candidate so the incumbent, Sir Peter Soulsby, did not face a challenge.

The Skwakbox has obtained a letter from the three Labour councillors (Rita Patel, Sharmen Rahman and Patrick Kitterick) to Keir Starmer in which they allege local Labour employees:

• excluded Muslims from selection votes by holding the votes during Ramadan, in a city with a high proportion of Asian residents in the UK, including in wards with some of the largest Muslim populations in the city
• disadvantaged women in the selection process
• cancelled or suspended meetings of branches likely to vote in favour of a selection contest, including one only an hour before the meeting was due to start
• declared a meeting of the party’s local government committee ‘null and void’ to prevent the party’s preferred committee chair being defeated, yet allowed the ‘procedures secretary’ - a former employee of the mayor and until recently an employee of right-wing Labour MP Jon Ashworth - selected at the void meeting to exercise the role
• ignored and dismissing complaints about the abuses of democracy and procedure
• withheld details of vote tallies from members

You can read the full letter on The Skwakbox.

Sir Peter, who has been Labour's elected mayor since the system's inauguration in 2011, was duly chosen as Labour's candidate for the 2023.

But as the Leicester Mercury reports:

Recent months have seen calls from within the party for an open candidacy. Rushey Mead ward councillor Rita Patel told Leicestershire Live that the city would ‘live to regret it’ if a debate on the future leadership of the city was not had, while Patrick Kitterick had also stated his intention to challenge for the candidacy.

I picked up on similar tensions before Labour's 2019 candidate selection:

My sources tell me that Soulsby's people turn up at ... branch meetings and inform members that an open contest would be "divisive," "unhelpful" or "destabilising".

"We don't want the Mercury reporting that Soulsby has been deselected," they are told.

I wish the three councillors joy, but I doubt Keir Starmer will provide it.

Calls for Sir Peter Soulsby to resign as Leicester's mayor

From the Leicester Mercury:

There have been calls for Sir Peter Soulsby to resign as Leicester's mayor after he apparently breached coronavirus rules by making visits to his partner’s house during lockdown.

The Leicester Mayor has been photographed visiting his partner’s house in the evenings by her neighbours.

Sir Peter and his partner live separately - him in the city, and her in the village of Groby some five miles away.

A neighbour told the Mercury:

"He’s been coming three or four nights a week throughout lockdown.

"He wears a baseball cap pulled down and tries to keep a low profile but people know who he is and that he is our neighbour’s partner.

"We have all seen him telling everyone about the importance of sticking to the lockdown rules and he’s not been doing it himself."

It does seem a bit Dominic Cummings.

There now follows a joke that requires knowledge of Leicestershire pronunciation and pop history:

The Mindbenders comment: "Wouldn't you agree, baby you and me got a Groby kind of love?"

A reminder of Leicester's absurd one-party state

Well done to Leicester's Liberal Democrat councillor Nigel Porter. The Leicester Mercury reports that has secured a donation of 2000 facial masks that will be distributed through shops in his Aylestone ward.

His achievement gives me that chance to mention again how absurd the city's politics have become.

For not only is Nigel Leicester's only Lib Dem councillor: he is its only opposition councillor. Labour holds 53 of the 54 seats on the city council.

I'm not a fan of the mayoral system, but where it does operate the council that holds the mayor to account must be elected by a proportional system. That will ensure a reasonable representation of opposition parties, even at a time when the mayor's party is dominant.

At last year's all-out city elections Labour secured an impressive 65 per cent of the vote, but that shouldn't have won them 98 per cent of the councillors.

And ultimately those councillors are whipped by the city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, whose performance they are meant to be scrutinising.

I made this point on Twitter after the 2015 elections, where the Conservatives and Lib Dems each returned a single councillor. Rory Palmer, then the city's deputy mayor, tweeted in reply that it was "absurd to question [the] system".

He later overcame his objection to proportional systems sufficiently to allow him to serve in the European parliament.

Former boss of Bradgate Park complains to Charity Commission over councils' takeover

Not all is well at Bradgate Park.

This 850-acre chunk of Charnwood Forest is one of the wonders of Leicestershire. In 1928 it was given to the people of the county in perpetuity.

It is run by the The Bradgate Park Trust, but on Wednesday a story appeared in the Leicester Mercury announcing that Sir Peter Soulsby, Leicester's elected mayor, and Nick Rushton, leader of the county council, had taken control of the park.

The basis on which they had done so was not made clear by the Mercury, and now it has printed a second article in which the trust's former chief executive Peter Tyldesley has his say.

It quotes him as saying:

"I read Nick Rushton’s comments about how he felt the trust was being run with a mixture of amusement and concern. 

"The same goes for the staff. 

"I do not think the trust is now being run in the best interests the people of Leicester and Leicestershire. 

"It is being run in the interests of the councillors. 

"There’s a real conflict of interest now because the separation between the charity and the councils is reduced.”

Mr Tyldesley also told the paper::

"I resigned my post in June and the next day commenced the whistleblowing process with the Charity Commission, 

"It’s now in their hands."

Government confirms electrification will reach Market Harborough

A Leicester Mercury story begins:

The electrification on the Midland Mainline will be extended into Leicestershire, the Government has confirmed. 

Transport ministers have said Network Rail has been instructed to draw up plans upgrade the rail route as far as Market Harborough.

Searching this blog, I find that I reported this news in June of last year.

My source was a comment to the Nottingham Post by Sir Peter Soulsby, the mayor of Leicester, after the publication of the invitation to tender to provide the service on this line.

So the campaign by Harborough's MP Neil O'Brien to have the wires reach the town may have been pushing at an open door all along.

Even when electrification was planned to stop at Kettering, there was to be a substation at Braybrooke, a couple of miles from here, where power lines cross the railway.

It's not clear if the we shall gain much from this decision, but the further north the wires go the better.

The Tories fought the last election promising to electrify the line all the way to Sheffield, even though a decision had already been taken to stop 100 miles south of there.

Power grab: Tory county council leader wants to abolish every district council in Leicestershire

Unused quote from unnamed MP: “No f*cking way this is happening. I’m not having a committee in f*cking Glenfield decide planning applications in my area”
The reception for this idea isn’t great https://t.co/NsqQ0xw1jQ

— Dan Martin (@Danjamesmartin) June 29, 2018

The Leicester Mercury reports an extraordinary attempt to grab power by Nick Rushton, the Conservative leader of Leicestershire County Council.

He wants to see every district council in the county abolished and their powers passed to the county council.

His arguments for this move, at least as reported in the Mercury, are pretty incoherent.

Behind it, I suggest, lie modern Conservatism's dislike of truly local government and personal envy of the powers enjoyed elected by the elected mayor of Leicester.

Given the county council's diminished role in education, there is a stronger argument (if you are determined to see unitary councils) for abolishing the county and giving its residual powers to the districts.

The Mercury quotes the views of my old friend Simon Galton, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the county:

"I’m astonished Nick Rushton did not mention this at the council meeting on Wednesday. 

"It can only be because he knows he doesn’t have the support of all the district council leaders. 

"I know at least two Conservative district council leaders are not on board. 

"This is just a distraction from the deep cuts the Tories are making to services."

Judging by the tweet above (and I have pretty shrewd idea who that comment came from) the county's Tory MPs aren't on board either.

Meanwhile, the people of Leicestershire continue to ask: when will the person who hacked Nick Rushton's Twitter account be arrested?

Leicester Tories promise a tram to Market Harborough

Forget Daventry Conservatives and their canal. Leicester Tories are promising a tram to Market Harborough.

The Leicester Mercury quotes their chairman Jack Hickey:

“I discussed our ambitious plan with Transport Secretary Chris Grayling in Parliament recently, and he was enthusiastic about the benefits of light rail in Leicester and keen to listen to the business case for the project.”

Mind you, Mr Grayling doesn't look very enthusiastic in the accompanying photograph.

And you can understand it. Hickey was the man who complained that activists coming to Leicester West to campaign for his Labour opponent in last year's general election were trying to "skew the vote".

I would love to see trams return to Leicester just as I would love to see the Grand Union reach Daventry. But there would be many problems with the idea, even if the city could raise the capital to build a system.

Nottingham's trams - "I’m furious Nottingham has a tram and we do not" says Hickey - have been reported as losing almost £1m a week.

This at a time when the county Conservatives tell us they cannot afford a modest town bus service in Market Harborough.

Then there are the practicalities.

As the city's Labour mayor told the Mercury:

"We have done studies before and all parties have agreed the geography of the city – which is very different to Nottingham’s, is not suitable for a tram. 

"Weaving them out in and out of the city would be very, very difficult."

Still, full marks to the Tories for coming up with a startling idea to get some headlines.

They have to do that when, like the Liberal Democrats, they have only one councillor in Leicester.

Sir Peter Soulsby fights for Labour's Leicester mayoral candidacy

Embed from Getty Images

I suspect I have more sympathy for the Mayor of Leicester's flagship policies on heritage and reducing the motor car's stranglehold on the city than many Labour members do.

Anyway, Sir Peter Soulsby is now well into his second term and wants to be the Labour candidate at the mayoral election in May of  next year.

As the Leicester Mercury explains:

Each one of the city’s 22 Labour branches, reflecting the council wards, and around 25 affiliate organisations such as trade unions and the Co-op Society will each vote to decide whether there will be open selection or to put forward Sir Peter automatically.

My sources tell me that Soulsby's people turn up at these branch meetings and inform members that an open contest would be "divisive," "unhelpful" or "destabilising".

"We don't want the Mercury reporting that Soulsby has been deselected," they are told.

And it seems to be working. When that Mercury report I quote above was published on 26 January, four branches had met and all had voted for an open selection.

At the meetings held since then, however, most have opted to put Soulsby forward unopposed.

I am also told that, for all the stories about Labour attracting new young members, those attending these meeting tend to be at the other end of the age spectrum.

Trouble ahead on the Midland main line

The delay in the electrification of the Midland main line from St Pancras is going to cause problems.

In the summer of 2015 the government announced a pause in the project. It was soon restarted, but that good news was accompanied by the news that it will take four years longer than originally planned.

The electrification will reach now Kettering and Corby by 2019, and be extended to Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield (and, indeed, Market Harborough) by 2023.

This will cause problems. East Midlands Trains, which runs the service on this line, is due to phase out its High Speed Trains by 2020.

A press release from Leicestershire County Council calls on the government to order new 125mph bi-mode trains that can use diesel or electric power, so they can still be used when the line is electrified.

In a spirit of bipartisanship, it also quotes Sir Peter Soulsby, the elected Mayor of Leicester:

“Replacing high speed trains with slower, second-hand stock is simply unacceptable. The government needs to offer an assurance that that the high speed trains due to be withdrawn in 2020 will be replaced with stock of equivalent or better specification."

But I doubt we will see those new trains. With money being poured into HS2, corners will have to be cut elsewhere.

If you add to that the fact that the opening of HS2 will lead to fewer trains on the Midland main line, there is clearly trouble ahead.

Scrutiny process "ripped up" on Leicestershire's fire authority

Mike Charlesworth, the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Leicestershire's fire authority, has written a letter of complaint about the way the authority is being run to its monitoring officer.

The complaint, reports the Leicester Mercury, follows the departure of the county's chief fire officer after just over a year in the job with an £84,000 pay off.

This move was not discussed with the Lib Dem group, which holds the balance of power with the authority. It would probably have remained secret if the Mercury had not revealed it.

There is a widespread perception that the fire authority has been carved up between Sir Peter Soulsby, the Labour mayor of Leicester, and Nick Rushton, the Conservative leader of the county council.

As Mike Charlesworth told the Mercury:

Rushton and Soulsby are running what ought to be a democratic body as a two man show. 

"We appreciate there will be employment issues involved with Richard Chandler leaving, but as a courtesy at the very least we should have been told about this so we could raise any concerns. 

"There are so many questions about this that need answering. 

"We don't know what settlement package has been agreed with the chief fire officer, whether it is justified. 

"They've just ripped up the scrutiny process. 

"They are making major decisions effecting public services as if it was some private club."

The paper also quotes Rushton's reply, which does not seem overconcerned with democratic oversight of the authority's decisions..

Meanwhile the people of Leicestershire wait avidly for news of the police investigation into the hacking of Nick Rushton's Twitter account.