LibDem PPC defects to Labour (but just make sure you get his age right)

There is a, frankly, hilarious debate going on at LDV at the moment (see here) regarding the news that a 2010 PPC (somebody who failed to become an MP but who was a flag bearer for the party) has quit to join Labour. He did this because of the way he feels about the coalition.

However the LibDems have fought back - taking the Independent newspaper, who carried the story, to task for ... erm, getting his age wrong. Talk about missing the point; this kind of diversionary tactic may work in LibDem Blog World but they'd do better talking about the politics and the motives of the defection rather than the minute details of the newspaper story.

Anyhow, as regular readers will know I am not a big fan of defections; I think anyone who jumps straight from party-to-other-party will find it difficult in their new home and impossible to settle back in their old one. And usually there is some back story to them. Individual defections tend to be meaningless, and as I never tire of saying - you need to look at the pattern and flow of defections. If this was one of a string of PPCs, councillors, activists etc defecting then you have a problem ...

Third LibDem PPC delivers blow to Clegg

In addition to the news that LibDem candidate for Chelsea has defected to the Conservatives the party faces yet more trouble elsewhere as it seems determined to implode. The LibDem PPC for New Forest East faces calls to quit after being "named and shamed" in parliament for attempting (but failing) to smear his Conservative opponent. And if that wasn't enough, their PPC in Carlisle has quit after it was revealed he was behind a negative attack-site aimed at the sitting Labour MP.

It seems that it isn't only Gordon Brown having a bad week ...

Councillors go back to school

On Wednesday night I was visiting the excellent Spinney Youth Centre, based out of Earlham High School, for an event as part of Local Democracy Week. Both myself and my colleague - Cllr Lllewellyn of the Green Party - were very impressed with what we saw and heard. This centre is an inclusion suite by day, but at night the pool cues come out and kids from Costessey to Earlham come to relax. As part of our work on the night the kids had to come up with an idea of what they would do if the council offered them £5000; far from coming up with an idea they came up with dozens! And the tricky bit was narrowing it down - from recycling to road safety and safety in parks, it is clear that these youngsters had strong and passionate views. And they put them across very well and stood up strongly to our questioning! In the end this proved that our young people really do care about their communities and they have a great idea about what they would like to see changed. It was a refreshing change from the normal view of kids. Now we're going to take their ideas back to City Hall to put their views to council bosses. So thank you to the Spinney for inviting us and also to those who helped organise it - but mostly the the youngsters for a great evening.

Should a Tory candidate have to do his own gardening?

The lack of posts this week says something about the pace at which the parliamentary campaign has taken off. Between ward work, the media and canvassing there hasn't bene much time for blogging. However this week is Half-Term and Louise has forced me to address the total disaster zone that is the garden.

Hence, this morning I could be found in old jeans and scruffy top lugging whole sections of my garage and garden into a skip. As I was pulling one of my least attractive faces, pushing the last of what once passed as a buddleia into a tiny crack between a brick and a plank of wood with nails sticking out, a friends who lives at the end of the road passed by.

"Ey, what have we here?" he proclaimed, as if it wasn't blatantly obvious enough. "Our local Tory candidate doing his own garden? Can't see Mr Clarke digging his own plot!" - no, I thought, launching a plot or whispering one, but never digging it. I then took a few moments of abuse before he finished with, "at least I can vote for somebody who knows how to get their hands dirty!".

I didn't know what to be more shocked about; that he was voting for me after admitting previously to being a LibDem, or the fact that he was genuinely amazed I did my own DIY and gardening.

Do other candidates get away with this? I also wash clothes, clean baths, put out the bin and even go to work. Is the land stalked with other PPCs who don't do this sort of stuff anymore? Or has the public's perception of politicans now moved so far from the truth that we are all tarnished with the nose-in-trough stereotype of the worth excesses of the Westminster MP?

LibDem trio defect to Cameron's Conservatives

LibDems has better reach for that sherry bottle again as news breaks that three more LibDem candidates quit their party and join the Conservatives. Most pleasingly - for Cameron and the Conservatives that is - is that the three make up a union steward, a doctor and the man who wrote the LibDem LGBT manifesto. In a statement that must stick in the throats of all LibDem activists, one of them calls Sir Ming a "has been" and warns that the party is in "reverse gear". Furthermore, another says that only the Conservatives can help the NHS.

This makes seven LibDem candidates to join the Conservatives this year, in which some LibDem blogs have been calling their "annus horriblis". However, I have yet to find a single LibDem blogger who has commented yet - as Iain Dale points out, if this was a spate of Tory defections the gloating would be deafening.

I said that the polls didn't matter for the LibDems but the trend does. This latest news certainly adds to that trend. Sir Ming might yet be in trouble.