Let the train take the strain?

Reports this morning that the Labour UK Government has been rumbled in it's plans to axe the Glasgow to London train.

If the Glasgow to London train is axed...how will Wille Bain be able to commute to his work at South Bank University...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Postal Problems?

Voting is already underway in Glasgow North East through postal votes. According to reports there has been a substanial increase in voter registration - including a massive increase in the number of postal ballots that have been requested.

There are over 6000 postal voters in GNE (including 600 delivered by Labour just hours before the deadline). There is no indication yet of the turnout of postal voters that is expected but word from Springburn is that at least 13% of the postal ballots received so far have been rejected.

13% strikes me as being a huge number of rejected ballots. Even during the chaos of the Scottish Parliament's electronic count the total rejected ballot was (from memory) a bit over 4% nationwide.

I suppose the question is why are so many postal ballots being rejected? For a postal ballot to be accepted it must arrive in the supplied envelope accompanied by a signed declaration which is within a second envelope. These steps are in place to try and make the vote more secure.

No declaration included - rejected ballot.
No signature - rejected ballot.
Signed declaration not in separate envelope - rejected ballot.
False signature - rejected ballot.

The signature is checked against the signature that was given in the postal vote application.

So why is over 1/8th of postal ballots getting rejected in Glasgow North East. At that level can it just be misunderstandings from the voters or is there more to it?

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

When Chris is more likely than David

So I said that Milliband was not even the most likely Enlgishman to get the post of High Rep of the EU; Milliband's cards have already been marked by Poland over a stramash which centres on his comments about a Polish MEP in the same Euro grouping of Conservative MEPs.

If the High Rep was to come from England then there is another who would have a better chance – Chris Patten. Go on cast you mind back. You remember Chris Patten, tory chap who manned the last post in the empire.

Patten is a past EU commissioner for external affairs and was pipped by Barrosso in getting the post and President of the Commission as he lacked support from Germany and the French lobby were dead against him.

But times have changed and Patten offers a very interesting proposition. The Poles are now a diplomatic force to be reckoned with in the EU and Patten is talking their language in advocating being tough of Gazprom. Couple that with Sarkozy and Merkel needs to get the UK more onside with the EU. They can read the signs as well as anyone and know that Brown is finished as Prime Minister and the liklihood is that they will have to deal with Cameron as UK PM...and he has moved the Conservatives to a more and more antagonistic position towards the EU.

In Patten they would have a figure who is himself a Tory but is clearly pro-Europe. As well as offering a face to the world it would be a signal to PM Cameron to play nice with the boys and girls on the continent.

Some may think that Brown would seek to block a Tory getting the post, but consider the knots that Cameron may be tied in if one of his own was advocating the pro-EU line on the world stage. Brown would get to play the role of being Prime Ministerial an above party politics by endorsing the apparent appointment of an 'enemy'.

Does Patten stand a chance? Only if the UK negotiators play offended at the knock-back of Blair for President and will instead settle for Patten as High Rep. Only then would that appointment even start to become feasible.

Who are the runners for the post of High Rep? Well that'll have to be a post for another day...

No Tone in Europe

So Tony Blair, like the old firm has been so often, is out of Europe before Christmas. You may recall that I have posted at some (painful) length that he stood no chance and so his people are backtracking and insisting that he was never really after the gig.

Which in a manner of speaking is true. The job that Blair was being touted for, that of President of Europe, simply did not (and does not) exist.

Who will get the job of President of the European Council? Again, I've blethered on at some length about the various runners and riders contending for the position (have a read if you've got the stamina). Jan Peter Balkenende, the current PM of Holland, is the front-running 'compromise' candidate.

There is a second position on the go, 'High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy', which the press crudely refer to as the 'EU Foreign Minister'.

Rumour would have it that the Blair bid may have all be a sideshow to try and get Milliband into the position of High Rep. But I think he's snookered; I don't even think he's the most likley Englishman to stand a chance at the job...

Who was that nice young doctor?

The wee story from Glasgow North East that Labour delivered some 600 postal vote applications at the last minute has attracted a few more comments on blogs carrying the tale.


Over at the blog of the dapper Dundonian Calum Cashely a chappie using the moniker of ‘redcliffe62’ left a comment saying:
“we need to know who the 600 added are and if they have been incentivised to vote labour or this has been done on the last day of their own volition. 600 in one day? it is a rort. but who arranged it. PERHAPS it is linked to 2 old folks homes visited, and the ballots are PERHAPS filled out for them? by those nice labour chappies who promised i can get a bigger pension and they were not cutting disability pensions, it must be the nasty SNP who are doing that.....”


So a fresh accusation (from another anonymous source, hmmm) that Labour bods in Glasgow North East have been working the nursing homes. I`m sure there is no suggestion that these residents won`t actually ever seen these ballots.


If there is any truth in these various anon comments that Labour are trying to play fast and loose with the postal voting system...wouldn`t it be just typical of Labour’s lack of competence recently that they would try to do this with postal votes in the midst of a postal strike.


The trouble with all of this, though, is that the comments are anonymous and could come from anywhere. Hopefully a solid source will be in a position to confirm or deny these figures and end the specualtion. What is the truth in this? Answers on a postcard please.