Labour's Department of Government Waste gets an April spring clean

April Fools!


Or is it?


How are your taxes being wasted??


The Conservatives have launched a parody website entitled the Department of Government Waste highlighting Labour's fiscal inefficiencies. 


No matter your own political leanings it is a brilliant little piece of political satire along the same sort of lines as mydavidcameron was used to undermine the Conservative message.

A General or a Specific election??

What about 'none of the above'?

I am putting my money on 6th May 2010 for the wonderful General Election.

I know there are lots rumours doing the rounds.  Indeed today Gordon is supposed to be announcing that the General Election will be taking place on 25th March.  All I would say is, if you are as sad as I am, have a wee gander over to General Election Timetables.

There you will see an illustrative timetable of potential election dates and when the 'Proclamation of Dissolution' has to happen.  The 'Proclamation of Dissolution' is basically when the Prime Minster goes to the Queen and asks her to dissolve her Parliament, and she  agrees.

You will see from the timetable that today (Monday 1 March 2010) is the day for the 'Proclamation of Dissolution' for the 25th Match to be the election day, when you and I get to once again drudge down to the local polling stations to vote for people we are not quite sure off.

The rumours for 25th March are now fading big time.  And as you can see below, we will have a few more rumour filled weekends to go through.  Right up to the timings for a June 3 election.

So why do I still stick to 6th May?

1. Its been the longest persisting rumour.
2. A number of Labour Grandees have let it slip now and again.
3. It is the date of the Local Elections in England
4. Its a nice time of the year to have it.
5. Its not the holiday season, so more people will be at home.
6. And, from the Northern Ireland perspective, the date for the 'Proclamation of Dissolution' is 12 April.

Hold on, I have heard that date before, I hear you say (for the pedants, I do not mean this literally! Unless people who read this actually do track me down and do actually speak to me.)

Yes, you have heard this before.  In the Hillsborough Agreement. On page 4.  First Section.

It is the date that Policing and Justice powers will be devolved from Westminster to Northern Ireland.

So what? Its not going to win anyone an election to Westminster.  Well, no it isn't.  But the powers can not be devolved by a dissolved Westminster.  It still has to be in session for the legislation for devolving the powers to be enacted.

A dissolved Westminster does not have any MPs, nor does it debate, nor does it pass legislation.

Ergo, (using latin makes me feel so superior) the Prime Minister will not be announcing dissolution before the 12th April 2010, as he agreed to the timings for devolution at the Hillsborough negotiations.

Now all I need is for Gordon Brown to read this and then call  a snap election, just to spite me.

How do you solve a problem like Sylvia

Well, one half of the UCUNF team have been assembled with the UUP releasing their list of 17 nominees seeking to become UCUNF candidates for the forthcoming election.

But don't we have 18 constituencies? Ah, yes. North Down. With the incumbent Lady Sylvia refusing to take the Conservative whip and refusing to put her name forward for the project that has left a vacancy for the UNCUNF candidacy. Cue Ian Parsley stepping in to birdie that 18th hole. (I promise I will not refer to golf any further)

Lady Sylvia has been a conundrum for the UUP for a while. Voting more with New Labour, a party that was even more ambiguous on the whole NI in the UK thing than the Tories and of course has quite few 'Brits out' supporters such as 'Red' Ken Livingstone, and has always had a warm place by the fire for what had been physical force republicanism. Lady Sylvia, while a great constituency worker, seems to have been less than friendly to the UUP cause. Indeed, she dropped the clanger in the middle of the European election putting Jim Nicholson in an awkward position.

I suspect she intends to run as an independent, which kind of puts her in the position of not standing as an Ulster Unionist Party representative. Recently, she spoke at an SDLP dinner in North Down attacking the Conservative Party and the UUP link up.

It will be a very interesting election in North Down. I would guess that Ian Parsley will be the candidate to take on Sylvia. However, with Sylvia being the incumbent and having a good reputation as a constituency MP, Ian will have his work cut out for him. North Down also has a reputation for backing mavericks. But it is also a constituency that would be a conservative stronghold were it in England. I think it will be a politico's nightmare to properly predict.

The other UUP nominees (to be a candidate, the two parties of the UUP and Conservative Party have to ratify who is standing where) are:

• North Antrim Robin Swann;
• South Antrim Adrian Watson;
• East Antrim Rodney McCune;
• North Belfast Fred Cobain;
• West Belfast Bill Manwaring;
• South Belfast Paula Bradshaw;
• East Belfast Trevor Ringland;
• Strangford Mike Nesbitt;
• South Down John McAllister;
• Lagan Valley Daphne Trimble;
• Upper Bann Harry Hamilton;
• Newry and Armagh Danny Kennedy;
• Fermanagh and South Tyrone Tom Elliot;
• Mid Ulster Sandra Overend;
• West Tyrone Ross Hussey;
• Foyle David Harding;
• East Londonderry Lesley McAuley.

Owen Polley, in his 3000 Versts of Loneliness blog post 'Better late than never. Or 17 out of 18 ain't (too) bad!', gives an excellent run down of the UUP nominees and I think a fairly accurate rating of the chances.  He is unkind to a few, but that would be a discussion for another day!


The DUP are in diffs at the moment, but I think they will keep a large number of their MPs seats.  I think the UCUNF project could potentially pick up 3 seats.  The SDLP have a good chance of retaining their 3 seats, though what happens in South Belfast will be a deciding factor in the retention of the third seat.  Sinn Fein will hold on to their seats, but their performance will be closely watched.  

Official: Third of Britons believe Family Guy is BNP front

According to an article in The Telegraph the voucher website MyVoucherCodes did a survey of over a 1,000 people to see how recognisable politicians actually were.

The result should make UK politicians sit up a wee bit.

The very non-politician Alex Ried, the cross dressing cage fighter of Big Brother and Katie Price fame beat the best known politican in the recognition stakes.  Alex had a recognition rate of 84%, while Gordon Brown (Labour Party) came in at 81%.

David Cameron (Conservative Party) had a 73% recognition rate while Nick Clegg (Liberal Democratic Party) had a recognition rate of 41% - but as Peter Jones (Dragons' Den).


The funniest bit to the whole piece?  A third of people surveyed thought that Peter Griffen (the hilariously idiotic dad from 'Family Guy') was the leader of the BNP, instead of Nick Griffin. (see picture above)

Sometimes, my estimation of people goes up.

I wonder how a similar poll would wok out for our politicians and local celebs on this side of the pond?