Miranda Grell: The appeal verdict

From the Waltham Forest Guardian:

The court heard from prosecutor Gareth Branston that Grell had told one prospective voter: "Don't vote for Barry because he's a paedophile. Have you heard about him sleeping with Thai boys? His boyfriend is 16. He's dirty."

Subsequently, Mr Smith, who is gay and shared a home with 39-year-old Ching Thian Chubh, with who he had contracted a civil partnership, was verbally abused in the street. It was clear from what was said that his abusers believed him to be a paedophile.

Judge Birt and his colleagues took just 20 minutes to dismiss the appeal today.

The judge said : "We find no substance whatsoever in the appellant's allegations of collusion. We find the appellant's own evidence to have been contrived and not honest.

"In these circumstances the appeal is dismissed on both charges.

This verdict has not yet made the hubristically named Justice for Leyton Ward site that was set up to proclaim that Grell was innocent and the victim of a wicked plot.

But you will find there an article which Andrew Lock wrote for Tribune. It concludes as follows:

The implications of Miranda Grell’s conviction and appeal outcome are serious and should interest us all. If her conviction is upheld, serious questions must be asked.

Will all candidates be forced to take a witness out with them everywhere they canvass for fear of a ‘he-said she-said’ prosecution being brought against them?

Will any person in their right mind think it’s worth standing for their local council and risk being put through the ordeal Miranda is enduring?

Will the wider electorate - already disillusioned with party politics in general - bother voting in local elections if the worrying trend of an increasing number of campaigns ending up in court continues?

The answers to Lock's questions are No, Yes and There is only one case in court. The way to avoid trouble of this sort is to refrain from slandering your political opponents.

House Points: The alternative Lib Dem short-list

My House Points column from this week's Liberal Democrat News.

Alumni alternatives

The air over Westminster is black with chickens coming home to roost. According to the Civil Aviation Authority they are stacked six deep as far away as Kettering. The Labour Party made such play of ‘sleaze’ in the 1990s that it was bound to come back to bite them in the bum one day. Now it has.

If you can hear an unfamiliar sound, it is probably John Major laughing his socks off.

As events are moving so quickly this week, let’s cross the road from the Palace of Westminster and visit Westminster School. The old pile is particularly relevant to Lib Dems at the moment because our leadership election is being conducted by two of its former pupils.

I suspect this tells us something unpalatable about the composition of our party and also about the success of state education in fostering social mobility. But those debates are for another day.

So if we have to be led by someone from Westminster School, let’s look at some other former pupils and see who else we could have.

Ruth Kelly and Tony Benn are obviously out, and Nigella Lawson’s family connections make her an unlikely leader too. But, as Asquith’s great granddaughter, Helena Bonham Carter has an impeccable Liberal pedigree.

Shane McGowan - lead singer of The Pogues and one of the less obvious former public school boys - would appeal to a certain sort of voter. But perhaps we would do better with the smoother approach of Flanders and Swann?

Lovers of the arts might want us to go for Martin Amis, John Gielgud or the great 17th-century composer Henry Purcell. And everybody has a soft spot for A. A. Milne. He would certainly be a safer bet than Kim Philby.

If we want to play safe and choose an established Liberal politician then we can choose between Lord John Russell, who was twice prime minister in the mid-nineteenth century, and Sir Charles Dilke. Dilke was the great hope of the radicals towards the end of that century, but his career foundered after a scandalous divorce case.

So, as a short-list, how about Helena Bonham Carter, A. A. Milne and Lord John Russell? I know which way I would vote.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Meadowcroft joins the Liberal Democrats

Friday
I am surprised this evening to find Meadowcroft at our weekly meeting of the Bonkers Hall Ward Branch of the Liberal Democrats. Ever since the Liberal Party merged with the "SDP Party" he has spent Friday evenings in his potting shed with the Quivering Brethren, amongst whom he is a leading light There his fellow members read from the works of L.T. Hobhouse, sing "The Land" and scourge themselves, before he entertains them with his clarinet.

"I be ajoining the Liberal Democrats," Meadowcroft beams this evening, "and - look! - I’ve brought my sackbut." I give what I believe is known as a wry smile - I may even have attempted a hollow laugh - and turn my ear trumpet down a couple of notches.

You may also enjoy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Lawrence Bailey and his computer

Laurence Bailey, former Labour Lord Mayor of Swansea, has been banned for two and a half years by something called the Adjudication Panel for Wales. It seems thousands of pornographic pictures were found on the hard drive of his council-issued laptop.

Why don't we make councillors buy their own computers like everyone else does? Then they could look at as much pornography as they wanted.

More seriously, the BBC reports that the police:

also found it contained 253 documents, mostly letters to the Swansea Evening Post.

"Although the police examination showed Mr Bailey as being the author, the documents purported to have originated from various residents of Swansea," stated the report.

"In some cases the addresses did not exist or the postcodes did not match them, or the true residents had no knowledge of the letters."

In his own submission to the panel, Mr Bailey claimed that writing letters to the press under pseudonyms "was widespread practice in political life in Wales".

As Peter Black asks:

Really? I wonder how the South Wales Evening Post will feel about being taken for a ride in this way.

CCTV conference in Market Harborough

The Harborough Mail reports:

Counter-terrorism police were among the guests in Harborough yesterday (Wednesday) as part of a conference on Closed-Circuit Television.

Experts on CCTV including counter-terrorist police, Home Office officials and a fact-finding team from Australia were invited by Harborough District Council to the town’s Angel Hotel.

I was mystified by the comment of the Tory Cllr Paul Dann, the council’s "lead for community safety and CCTV":

We are perceived as a low-crime district, but it is important not to be complacent.

Harborough is not "perceived" as a low-crime district: Harborough is a low-crime district.

Charles Kennedy to be EU Commissioner?

Jon Worth points out that Peter Mandelson's term as Britain's EU Commissioner runs out in 2009 and he has said that he does not wish to be reappointed.

So who will take his place?

Worth names four principal candidates:

• Patricia Hewitt
• Charles Clarke
• Geoff Hoon
  
• Charles Kennedy
  

Charles Kennedy to Brussels is an intriguing thought, though I am mystified by Jon Worth's claim that his appointment would "divide the Lib Dems".

I am sure we would all be pleased to see Charles get the job. If anything, it would solve the problem of what the party should do with him in the UK - a problem the new leader will soon have to face.

Though perhaps the demand that he return to the front bench comes more from the media than from the Lib Dem membership?

Thanks to Devil's Kitchen (not that I read it, you understand).

Greg Stone: Our friend in the North

The BBC has an extended, thoughtful piece on the politcal background of David Abrahams and the nature of poltics in the North East. It quotes our own Greg Stone extensively:

Of the North-East's 30 MPs, 28 belong to the Labour Party and many current and former Cabinet ministers - including Tony Blair, David Miliband, Alan Milburn, Stephen Byers and Hilary Armstrong - represent seats in the North East.

In a few former mining areas political opposition has disappeared to the extent that Labour councillors are elected unopposed.

Much of the employment in the region is also in the public sector - or dependent on public subsidies - leading, according to Greg Stone, to "quite a lot of leakage between local authorities and the private sector".

"There is certainly a political oligarchy in the North-East.

"I wouldn't say it is necessarily the same as it was 25 years ago, when it was very much a product of Labour Party domination of the town halls and Parliamentary seats, and the domination of the trade unions.

"There are still remnants of that, but their power is not as great as it used to be. But there is certainly a Labour extended family."

The Economist on the Lib Dem leadership contest

It is a balanced piece, as you would expect, and the conclusion is cheering:

All in all, however, the Lib Dems are lucky in their candidates; and partly as a result, the party is picking up in the polls. They are luckier still in their acting leader. Mr Cable—who coined the single best line of Gordon Brown's premiership this week when he pointed out that the prime minister had metamorphosed from being Stalin to Mr Bean—is having a very good war.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: The run on Rutland Rock

We've had Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. So...

Thursday
Arriving in Oakham to visit the cattle market, I notice a long queue that winds around several street corners before doubling back upon itself. Upon enquiring the reason for such a lengthy crocodile, I am informed that it consists of investors in my own Rutland Rock Building Society.

I take command of the situation by mounting a soapbox and addressing the throng through the collapsible megaphone that I always carry with me. I inform them that their savings are perfectly safe with the Society and that they should go home at once. To emphasise my point, I fire a couple of barrels of buckshot over their heads and inform them that I shall be calling out the local Militia forthwith.

After they have dispersed, I visit the Society myself and insist on entering the vault to satisfy myself that all is well. Whilst down there, I take the opportunity to collect a few valuables before paying an unannounced visit to my accountant to discuss a rebalancing of my finances.

Radio Liberal England

The Wardman Wire has a recording of my interview about BritBlog Roundup 145 on BBC Five Live the other night.

The three postings we discuss are:

• Jeffrey Archer's theatre review
• The Islington Lib Dem ashes
• Charles Dickens' XI

Lord Bonkers' Diary: The Cowley Street War Room

Wednesday
That Brown fellow certainly kept us on our toes, didn’t he? All that speculation about an autumn poll had everyone rushing around. The last time I visited Cowley Street I found Rennard ensconced in his War Room, together with a cardboard cut-out of the late Jack Hawkins and a bevy of WAAFS pushing little model canvassers backwards and forwards across a tabletop map of Great Britain.

Brown made work for me here in Rutland too. Every candidate wants to be pictured with a wife and a couple of pretty children, but not all have them to hand. For that reason my own Home for Well-Behaved Orphans does a good trade by hiring the little mites out to be photographed (fair-haired children always command a premium).

I have to record, however, that there were some unfortunate occurrences during the 1974 October election campaign. The same little girl was pictured with the Conservative candidates in three neighbouring Lancashire marginals and one boy appeared on the election address of both the Labour and the Tory standard-bearer in a certain South Walian constituency. Ever since then I have kept a close eye on this side of the business.

Now read Monday and Tuesday.

You know when you've been Blincoed

The Comment is Free profile of Nicholas Blincoe - author the other day of a distasteful attack on Chris Huhne - now reads:

Nicholas Blincoe is an author, critic and screenwriter. He is a former advisor to Nick Clegg MP.

I am pleased to hear it.

Labour withdraws funding for Miranda Grell's appeal

You may recall the case of Miranda Grell. As the BBC reported at the time:

A Labour councillor has been found guilty of falsely branding a Liberal Democrat rival a paedophile and telling electors he had sex with teenage boys.

Miranda Grell slurred gay Lib Dem candidate Barry Smith while campaigning for the Leyton ward in Waltham Forest Council, east London, in 2006.

Grell, 29, was convicted by magistrates of two counts of making false statements about another candidate.

She was handed a £1,000 fine and will be forced to vacate her seat.

Grells was subsequently defended by Labour bloggers and it was announced that the Labour Party would fund her appeal.

Today Harry's Place points us to the Independent's Pandora column:

Having taken flak for bankrolling the legal appeal of Miranda Grell, the "rising star" black Labour councillor convicted of making false paedophilia slurs against a gay rival, party chiefs have abruptly washed their hands at the 11th hour.

With the appeal by Grell, 29, due to be heard in court today, Labour told Pandora yesterday that the party was backing her case to the tune of £30,000 – only to perform an embarrassing volte-face 41 minutes later.

"Following legal advice in the last few days, the Labour Party today withdrew its support for Miranda Grell's appeal," said a flustered spokeswoman, admitting that Grell had benefited from party dosh "up until this point".

Nicholas Blincoe

There's been no reliable word from Team Clegg about the status of the article on Comment is Free by Nicholas Blincoe. But Richard Allan did write to James Graham as follows:

A little earlier this afternoon, my attention was drawn to an article by Nicholas Blincoe on the Comment is Free website. I have not met Nicholas before and he is not a part of the Nick Clegg Campaign Team. I understand that he has been one of a number of people to advise Nick on speeches previously, hence his self-description.

The contents of the article are a personal viewpoint and in no way associated with this campaign. I have therefore contacted Nicholas to request that he makes this clear in a posting on the Guardian site. He has agreed to do this and I hope that a clarification will appear in short order.

And Blincoe has added the following comment to his own article:

I should point out that I am wholly detached from his campaign team: pressure of work, finishing a book, has meant that I have been unable to participate in his stirring leadership campaign. I have been wishing him well from the sidelines. And occasionally, firing off acerbic missives as a commentator.

On that basis my occasional contributions to leaders' speeches entitle me to style myself a "former volunteer adviser to Paddy Ashdown and Charles Kennedy". I might find it easier to get commissioned by the Guardian if I did.

As we are all meant to be on the same side, let's play nicely and make no more fuss about this article.

But Blincoe is an interesting figure. As an Independent profile explains, he contributed to All Hail the New Puritans. This was a collection of short stories "written to a series of rules that banned authorial asides, poetic sentences, flashbacks and ornate punctuation".

That is a style he could have adopted with profit in his Guardian piece.

And it is hard to disagree with Blincoe when he says:

novelists are very, very bad at being involved in politics, because they always want to do and say their own thing. I very much admire Edward Said, but he was absolutely useless as a politician because he just wouldn't work with other people.

But it's hard to be too critical of someone who has written for Waking the Dead.

Lord Bonkers' Diary: Nick Clegg in the garden

After Monday there generally comes...

Tuesday
The pride and joy of my gardener Meadowcroft is his collection of rare hairy cacti. He gathers them from the arid south of Rutland and tends them in the way that a particularly attentive she wolf looks after her whelps.

I well remember his fury when a young whipper-snapper from Westminster School burnt down the glasshouse where he keeps them. My first reaction was to hand the lad over to the Proper Authorities, but learning that he was some sort of nephew of my (how shall I put it?) old friend Moura Budberg, I relented and dealt with the matter myself. I informed the errant youth that he would work for Meadowcroft until he had made full and proper restitution for the loss of the aforementioned prickly crop.

Over the years Nick Clegg (for it was he) has had himself elected to the European Parliament and the Commons, but he still comes to the Hall regularly to do odd jobs. (What with compound interest and the strength of the Rutland pound, debts can take a long time to pay off.)

This afternoon Meadowcroft and I find Clegg perched on a garden seat writing a speech. “Never mind being a scholard,” says my favourite horticulturalist, belabouring him with a broom, “get out and sweep up they leaves.” “I think Clegg has just left his comfort zone,” I observe as he rushes out to work in the garden.

Rita Tushingham

There is a terrific website dedicated to the career of this iconic British actress.

Hug a Hoodie at the Oxford Union

Jonny Wright has a long and remarkably sensible posting on last night's events. I reproduce his conclusions below, but do read the whole thing:

Firstly, it's ridiculous to claim to be anti-fascist when you're blocking a public right of way, and stopping people from getting to a legal meeting, however much you disagree with that meeting.

Secondly, the argument we heard time and time again about the threat from BNP activists being so great that it trumped the right to free debate. I didn't see any BNP people at all (although I'm willing to admit I wasn't in a position to see everything that happened, and they may well have been there). What I did see was a large group of so-called anti-fascists prepared to use physical force to stop people getting to a debate, use large amounts of amplified noise to try and drown the debate out, shout abuse and intimidation at students going about their lawful business, and call for the death of a 20-year-old young man with pretty mainstream political views.

Thirdly, I felt sickened by Irving's constant references to the Holocaust, coupled with his constant efforts to underplay the scale and meaning of it, and his noxious suggestion that Britain should have done a deal with the Nazis in 1940, and pulled out of the war - it would have meant the subjugation of the entire continent and the eradication of European Jewry, but Irving maintains it would have been in the best interests of Britain. As an internationalist and as a believer in universal human rights, that sickens me.

Fourthly, I'm immensely glad that I was able to hear Irving speak. I don't think it endangered me or put me at risk of corruption. It broadened my horizons and let me find out something about a man who up till now had only ever been a sort of bogeyman - and some of the things that I found out were genuinely surprising. I don't see why I should have been barred from going to this talk because of somebody else's arbitrary judgement. I'm also quite glad that Irving's views were shown up and challenged very strongly by students in the audience.

Fifthly, I'm physically and mentally shattered, it's quarter to two in the morning, I'm not sure I can stomach any more of this whole saga which has dominated Oxford life for the past two months, so I'm going to bed!

David Abrahams and the Labour Party

Three postings to read:

• Liberal Democrat Voice has a memo from the Electoral Commission to Peter Watt;
• Guido Fawkes looks at Abrahams' controversial development alongside the A1;
• Guido again (cometh the hour, cometh the man) on the funding of Harriet Harman's deputy leadership campaign.
  

The Stiperstones: 25 years as a national nature reserve

Photo by Sabine J Hutchinson
http://www.virtual-shropshire.co.uk/

Another excuse for printing a picture of the Stiperstones...

The BBC reports:

Locals have been celebrating the 25th anniversary of a park becoming a national nature reserve.

The Stiperstones in Shropshire was officially opened by naturalist, Dr David Bellamy and children from the Stiperstones Primary School in 1982.

Some of the youngsters, now in their 30's, were special guests at the celebrations.

Contactpoint petition

The ARCH Blog points us to this petition:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to abandon plans to create the Information Sharing Index, a national database of all children aged between birth and eighteen.

The Information Sharing Index is the original name for Contactpoint.