Brent East Campaigning

new home for this blog

2006-04-08T23:16:00.000+01:00

could this be strong indication of more C&A posting to this blog? The BECblog is moving from the fine upstanding home of blogger to some space on the webserver of the main (only!) poster. From now on the blog is available and updated over at bec.robdyke.com.

Keep up with the 2006 local council elections.

election 06 + new home...

2006-04-08T23:09:00.000+01:00

Local Democracy: Election for Councillors in Preston and Fryent wards.

2005-05-24T15:52:00.000+01:00

While technically in Brent North the elections for local councillors for the Preston and Fryent wards of Brent still need reporting - and where better then here?

Brent Councils Local Democracy pages have lots of information on the elections which will take place on the 16th June 2005.

Shahrar Ali will be standing in the Preston Ward as the Green Party Candidate. The Greens didn't have a candidate in Brent North at the last election so it will be interesting to see how Shahrar and the Greens do in Preston - a gague of Green support in Brent North if you will. The ward has had Conservative councillors in the past... Let's see if we can get some Green on this map.

Catch your MP...

2005-05-13T10:20:00.000+01:00

The film of the Brent East STW hustings is one of a number of films documenting the views of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates on the aggressive action taken against Iraq. The Catch Your MP project aims to hold to account the 412 Members of the 2001-2005 Parliament that voted in support of military action.

Candidates for Brent East: Shahrar, Sarah, Yasmin, Kwasi and George along with Rocky (Wasn't that a Rainbow cast?) who was standing in Brent South all spoke and responded to questions from the floor.

After stressing the pacifist credentials of the Green Party, Shahrar gives an articulate response to the question 'Do you support an end to the Anglo-US occupation of Iraq and a speedy withdrawal of troops?' His view is that troops would be 'better of not there' but adds the important qualification that there is a need, following the aggressive military intervention and the destruction caused, for support and that troops should remain 'subject to the will of the Iraqi people'.

Yasmin used the platform to distance herself once again from the party that took Britain into an pre-emptive war and to stress that she's more 'anti-war' than anyone else. Kwasi picks up on this distance and points out that Yasmin is not standing for the Yasmin Qureshi party but is standing as the PPC for the Labour Party. With supporting calls of 'shame' from the audience, Kwasi reminds us all that being the Labour PPC means that she is representing the Labour Government.

Yasmin rolled up her sleeves and revealed her 'Old Labour Till I Die' tattoo while explaining her interpretation of the 'choices' (A new Labour word) available to the electorate in Brent East. 'The Labour Party is the party of the organised working class by the trade union movement' she said. 'It contains many thousands of people who are part of the anti-war movement who are socialist and internationalist as well' and had the 'largest parliamentary group who opposed the war'. 'The working class traditions of these MPs meant that they did not flinch in their opposition to the war, once it had began'. She then goes on to name check Ken Livingstone and Tony Benn the anti-war and anti-imperialist Labour party stalwarts who have given her support.

Sarah reminds everyone of the Lib Dem opposition to military action and highlights the damage that has been done to public confidence in politics and the loss of trust in government due to the secrecy and constant redefinition of reasons and evidence given by in support of this conflict.

The highlight of the film was Shahrar Ali, dressed in a orange boiler suit, logically destroying the argument for detention without trail - another Labour policy innovation from the last parliament.

Download. Link propagate.

Catch Your Own MP.

I wish I'd seen this earlier...

2005-05-12T07:52:00.000+01:00

Trawling through the list of refering links to this site I came across a search engine, A9.com, that I hadn't heard of. I followed the link to discover where this blog was ranked on the list that refered the reader to the blog. Just below the link to this blog was a link to Film Makers Against War.

I wish I'd seen the film made of the Brent East Stop The War Hustings earlier.

Here's a link to the movie. I've mirrored it here to save their bandwidth.

More on this to come after I've had my European Politics Exam.
Prizes to whoever watches the film and then posts here with the best guess to the comment I've going to make.

Election Expenses

2005-05-10T13:01:00.000+01:00

I've been digging around into the rules around election expenses. I'm trying to calculate the maximum permitted expenses a candidate or agent may incur in Brent East. Thankfully the Electoral Commission website is a wealth of information on electoral law and regulations.

Election expenses are those ‘expenses incurred whether before, during or after the election, on account of or in respect of the conduct or management of the election’. They may only be incurred by the candidate, his election agent or persons authorised in writing by that agent.

The calculation for permitted expenses for a Borough/Burgh/District Constituency is £5483 plus 4.6p per elector. So how many electors are there in Brent East? According to Brent Council Electoral Services there are 56227 persons on the Electoral Roll for Brent East.

Here's my 'back of a fag packet' calculation. 56227 electors * 4.6 pence = £2586.44 + £5483 = £8069.44 Additionally a candidate may incur £600 of personal expenses without providing individual recipts to their election agent.

I calculate the maximum permitted expenditure at £8669.44

As candidates have to submit their expenses to the Returning Officer within 35 days of the result being announced we'll see who spent what soon enough.

Brent East Campaigning - A review

2005-05-09T10:54:00.000+01:00

Over 6 weeks & 53 postings the Brent East Campaign has been blogged. My keyboard is wornout and revision for my exams in backlog. This has been a prolonged high - which explains my recent apearance. I thought I'd review my efforts and share my experiences of the last six of weeks.

Brent East Campaigning: The campaign
In the tense 10 minutes that the candidates stood with the returning officer and inspected the doubtful ballot papers I was sharing my impressions of the campaign with Paul Keilthy from Archant Media Group. I was impressed with the technical quality of the campaign run by Lib Dems and Labour; each party had created and distributed localised materials, and each had been able to rapidly turn around 'news' of events (e.g. names visiting) into publicity materials. Paul thanked me for publicising the campaign materials (the original stated goal of Brent East Campaigning blog) as the parties don't distribute their campaign materials directly to the press. That's twice I've been taked for doing somebodys job for them this last week.

The Lib Dems appear to have had greater resources at their disposal that Labour. Team:Yasmin may have been able to pull in the 'names' of old Labour but Team:Sarah was superior in people power. The Lib Dems were able to distribute a far greater quantity of campaign materials due to the number of voulenteers at their disposal. I've yet to discover if the LDYS were mobilised to support the Brent East Campaign in the same way that the Young Fabians were.

From a technology perspective, Team:Sarah already had an established web presense which provided a source of information on her candidacy. Team:Yasmin were severly lacking in this area. Not having a website must have been detrimental to her campaign. Anyone using a search engine to uncover information about Yasmin would have been presented with a series of news articles - some more favorable than others - as well as a link to this site, whereas the search results for the Blue Team and the Orange Team yeilded links to official information sites.

I have been monitoring the 'refering links' statistics (see Note 1) for my website. The blog has been viewed by people refered to it after using the names of candidates in search engines (see Note 2). Another popular search term is Brent East. Searching for Brent East in Google gives the results of my blog, the websites of the Lib Dems and the Conservatives but not Labour. Even Rainbow George manages to make the first page of links (see Note 3).

Brent East Campaigning: Misrepresentation
My Brent East Campaigning blog did not cover the whole constituency. A more accurate title would have been 'Mapesbury, Queen's Park and Kilburn Campaigning' as these are the areas I have gathered most of my information from. Perhaps I should have done a little ward walking. In hindsight that would have been valuable as my favorite 'finds' of materials have been picked off the street. Additionally, the two main contenders in the recent campaign, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, produced campaign materials that targeting specific communities in the constituency. I would have liked to have been able to post materials from other areas in Brent East. The opportunity to compare and contrast materials from other areas of the constituency would have been interesting: were the candidates/parties emphasing different aspects of their manifesto in different area?

Brent East Campaigning: Participation
My active contribution to this blog over the last 6 weeks totalled 53 postings. I don't even know how many hours total was spent meeting candidates, scanning campaign materials and researching details. This blog has been viewed by 816 unique visitors (measured by IP address) and I've recevied 5 emails from readers contributing information and one comment on a posting. I would have liked to have seen greater contributions from Brent East residents, but I feel that given that the blog was only running for 8 weeks total without link propagation (other than Richard Kimbers Election resources page) the level of readership and contribution was high.

Brent East Campaigning: Pretty Pictures
Here are some images grabbed from StatCounter.com
This graphic shows the daily 'hits' to the blog since my first post up to the day of the election.

This graphic shows period from 9th April to 9th May.

This graphic shows the period 3rd May to 9th of May in detail...

Note 1: A refering link is the link that directed a viewer to a website. This information was collected by StatCounter.com as part of their basic counter service.
Note 2: Google has been the search engine responsible for around 95% of my refering links.
Note 3: I would link to it but that 'breaks' my listing in Google, so just visit google.com and search for Brent East...

Any Answers?

2005-05-08T10:23:00.000+01:00

Germaine Greer has some advice for newly elected politicians - don't wear little red suits. You'll have to listen to the Radio 4 Any Answers stream of the show to hear it...

A news round-up

2005-05-06T19:15:00.000+01:00

Not awake at 415am? Shame as you missed Sarah's victory speech! If you want to watch it you can thanks to the BBC.

Paul Palmer of the Evening Standard, who was having terrible trouble with his laptop when trying to submit his story, writes about the Brent East result. He focuses on Yasmin loosing rather than Sarah winning.

More later, when google news advises me of it!

Sarah Teather Is STILL My MP

2005-05-06T13:17:00.000+01:00

I've woken up and eaten - needed to do that before posting anything. NK and I left the count after Sarah Teather had been returned as the MP for Brent East, but not before posting to sarah teather is my MP. I've still got the 'wild eyes' I had yesterday, although that's now from lack of sleep. This politics junkie had quite an Election Day.

As I posted yesterday, I'd been out and about in Mapesbury and Willesden with June Thomas from Slate Magazine. You can hear a dispatch from June made before the eletion on NPR. After giving June a whistle-stop tour of Willesden, I had an afternoon of revision to do before going to the count in the evening.

And what a night. I want to thank Shahrar Ali and Rowan Langley from the Green Party for inviting me to join their party at count. That was probably one of the best 'lock ins' I've ever been too. It was a night of tension and drama with the Brent East result called last after stacking and restacking of bundles of ballots. And at the end of it all, Sarah Teather is STILL my MP.

Tally marks... .. .

2005-05-06T00:04:00.000+01:00

I'm reminded of the Banksy piece in Barcelona Zoo. Tally mark after tally mark after tally mark. From what I'm seeing as I tally out the ballots as they come out of the box for the collate before the count, it really is neck and neck.

For every one vote the Greens receive, the Conservatives are getting seven, the Liberal Democrats 45 and Labour 47 = 100 votes.

Thats my personal tally count taken from a few different wards and averaged.

Close. Real Close. But the Greens could still take it!

From the count....

2005-05-05T22:34:00.000+01:00

Well, I didn't expect that I'd be at the count for the Brent constituencies General Election ballot. But strange things happen in blogsphere...

I'm joined by NK a friend from Goldsmiths. We're surounded by more rosets than a horse show. It is a three legged...sorry...horse race (sorry Kwasi) after all!

Some of the ballot boxes have arrived already but the count isn't fully underway.

Results as and when I get them!

/rob

Brent East 05/05/05

2005-05-05T10:29:00.000+01:00

Out and about in Brent East this morning and all is quiet at Brent East Conservative HQ.

My first stop was Sarah Teather HQ at 1 High Road to give my support before going off to meet Sarah at her polling station.

Team:Yasmin are at Willesden Green tube, handing out leaflets that look like an inducement to shop at a furniture store (to be scanned later) before going off to vote.

I met with June Thomas - Hi June! - Foreign Editor for Slate magazine at Willesden Green. We walked and talked Brent East and the local campaign.

Spotted a vandalised Labour Party poster...

And the biggest Liberal Democrat 'Winning Here!' garden poster I've ever seen!

Campaign Materials: Michele Weininger

2005-05-05T08:19:00.000+01:00

The independent candidate for Brent East fighting for Justice for Motorists from the 'totalitarian power machine'.

Here as a JPG

Campaign Materials: Conservative

2005-05-05T08:16:00.000+01:00

The Blue team managed to get a photocopied A5 flyer delivered yesterday...they must have had a few quid spare after buying all those billboards.

It's a three legged race - Front / Back as JPGs

Campaign Materials: Labour

2005-05-05T08:13:00.000+01:00

Recevied a letter from Ken Livingstone yesterday.

"If you thought I was right as the local MP to take an independent-minded approach then you will find that Yasmin stands firmly in that tradition"

Front page JPG - Back page JPG

Voting intentions

2005-05-04T22:35:00.000+01:00

I thought that the time had come to talk about my personal voting intentions for tomorrow, in case you havn't guessed them already.

I was talking to E over supper this evening about voting for what you believe in. This reminded me of C of the Olive Tree on Willesden Lane and his view that the only vote that matters is vote of principle. And I agree with him, although if I lived in Lewisham Deptford, the constituency where my university is located, I'd be voting Green - tatical voting combining with principles. Lewisham Deptford looks like it might even return the UKs first Green MP; my vote having helped carry them to Westminster.

On the Conservative flyer that arrived this afternoon Kwasi had borrowed Sarahs idea of a 'three horse race' - 'Kwasi Kwarteng is CHARGING through the middle'. That sums up this election for me: a race for second place.

I'm resigned to a Labour win nationally. But like the talking heads from the Today program this morning, I also think that the 'landslides' of 150+ seat majorites of the past are gone. A 70+ majority? 1997 gave everybody the change they wanted - the Tories out. Getting them out of government was, in hindsight, easy. Getting them out of opposition is the hard part. They are still here, one general election later. The Lib Dems are the only hope that the Conservatives will be relegated to third place. And as what I want to see is a change in the opposition as well as a change in Government I'll be voting Liberal Democrat.

I won't be the 1-in-10 that let the Conservatives back in Tony. It's not happening and you know it. But I will be the 1-in-10 who votes to get the Liberal Democrats elected with a majority sufficient to form Her Majesty's Opposition.

Campaign Materials: Many!

2005-05-04T18:32:00.000+01:00

More from Kwasi Kwarteng!
More from Sarah Teather!
More from Team:Yasmin!
First piece of campaign materials from Michele Weininger!

And Archant Media Group, publishers of the Times series of local papers, lead with the headline 'Appeal to Vote'. Although WTF Archant are doing partnering with Beacon Bingo and Paddy Power Bookmakers I do not know...

All coming tomorrow...

Indecision in Queen's Park

2005-05-04T10:21:00.000+01:00

Campaign Materials: Liberal Democrats

2005-05-03T22:36:00.000+01:00

Received a letter from Charles Kennedy this morning urging me to vote because 'in certain places, the election is effectively a straight choice between having a Liberal Democrat or a Labour MP'.

The real alternative has been distilled to four key points:

end student tuition and top-up fees
prevent older people having to selltheir homes to pay for long term personal care
provide 10,000 more police and cut their paperwork
scrap the unfair council tax

A little something for everyone.

Download PDF or view JPG

Campaign Materials: Labour

2005-05-03T22:06:00.000+01:00

Yasmin used her what will probably be the final electoral communication delivered by Royal Mail before the election to remind us that 'it's the economy, stupid!' Short of saying "if you value it, vote for it", Yasmin talked about the low mortgage rates under Gorden Brown and the fall in unemployment from New Labour's New Deal. The National Minimum Wage and other 'redistributive' policies are mentioned. A few figures... A dig at the Lib Dems...

As I should be revising for my economics exam next week and not posting to this blog, I'm going to combine both interests... I will be using this letter as a starting point for the mock questions I'll be setting myself. 'Labour has brought economic stability, Discuss'

Download PDF or Download JPG

Campaign Materials: Greens

2005-05-03T12:04:00.000+01:00

I was speaking to Shahrar Ali last night about the Green campaign in Brent East and Brent South.

Something about a solar powered public address system playing a campaign song being cycled by tandem around the constituency. Anyone got any snaps?

I hope to be able to post an MP3 of the song here soon.

After speaking with Costas who owns the Olive Tree organic food store on Willesden Lane I'm becoming more convinced of the Green proposition. For Costas, if you put aside party politik and vote from your heart, the only vote is a Green vote. A Green landslide in Brent East? You only have to look around and you'll see thousands of trees waving in support.

Counting down... .. .

2005-05-03T12:00:00.000+01:00

Today is May 3rd. It is 12:00. There are 47 hours of campaigning remaining until the polls open at 7am.

If you see any more campaign materials or meet any of the candidates out and about please let me know - blogger@robdyke.com.

Campaign Materials: Liberal Democrats

2005-05-03T11:37:00.000+01:00

A departure from the tabloid red top of Brent News, the latest campaign freesheet from the Lib Dems, Brent News, leads with the headline of 'Sarah Set To Win' - naturally...

It features a photo of the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy with Sarah Teather on Kilburn High Road. Good to see that when top 'names' (to borrow the description Yasmin gave to the 'top labour' people who have given her support) from the Lib Dems come to support their candidate it is their Leader and prospective Prime Minister that visits.

Any sign of Tony Blair or Michael Howard in Brent East other than on advertising hoardings or standing next to George Bush on Sarah Teathers campaign materials?

Here's the front page - PDF file.

Campaign Materials: Labour

2005-05-03T11:35:00.000+01:00

Here's a scan of the Brent East Labour News '"I'm Backing Yasmin"' I picked up at Kilburn Station last week.

Front page - PDF file
Back page - PDF file

Campaign Materials: Rainbow George

2005-05-03T10:23:00.000+01:00

So, did you get your Preferendum from George 'Rainbow' Weiss last week? You can't have missed it: it was an A3 sheet of paper folded to A4 and covered with text. What was curious about the materials was the lack of photographs - no pic of Rainbow George, no pic of Tony Bush and George Blair.

A preferendum is an experiment in participatory democracy. The Vote for Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket party is encouraging the electorate to vote not only for their candidate but also for the policies of the party should it be elected to form a government. The preferendum distills the policies of Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and UKIP onto a single sheet of paper (a feat in itself!) and invites the electorate to indicate by a YES ONLY option the issues important to them.

We are all invited to join the 'futuristic, mystically directed Rainbow Connection Movement and the Vote For Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket for a five minute wonder online on 5th May - visit www.050505.tv

For further information on the V4YRDT visit www.deadsexy.tv/555

For further information on Hydatum The Publishers, visit www.hydatum.com

And if I can work out how to get the Preferendum sheet scaned to present it online I will do so.

Campaign Materials: Labour - Quoting Andrew Gilligan!

2005-04-30T18:16:00.000+01:00

The man who claimed that New Labour had 'sexed up' the dossier on the threat possed to the United Kingdom by Sadam Hussain's Iraq is being quoted by Yasmin Qureshi on her most recent campaign material.

Andrew Gilligan was writing in Friday 29th Evening Standard. I picked up the most recent flyer - literally, there were some floating around the platform at Kilburn, Jubilee Line - in the early evening on Friday. I must congratulate Team:Yasmin on the quick turnaround of producing materials using this story.

The story in the Lack Of Standards describes the campaign in Brent East as an "ideological purity contest about who can reject Labour party policy most effectively."

He continues... "Ms Qureshi has enlisted the help of a Labour politician called Tony. Tony Benn, that is, not Tony Blair. The first Tony was the star of a campaign event in Queen's Park. The second Tony appears only on Lib-Dem leaflets, standing next to George Bush and looking shifty."

When I spoke with someone who was at the Team:Yasmin 'meet 'n' greet' in Queen's Park on Wednesday the soundbite they relayed to me was the same quoted by Andrew: Yasmin promises to be a "thorn in the side" of the government. On the campaign flyer 'Brent East Labour News' Yasmin states that she will ensure that the Labour Party carries on its investment in public services in Brent East. She goes as far as so say that only a Labour MP for Brent East is best placed, assuming a Labour Government, to do this. I'm not sure that these two positions can be taken simultanously: being a 'thorn in the side' as well as securing 'even more money from a Labour government'. Will being a gadfly help Yasmin secure the investment she reports to be able of securing?

Will her 'Queen's Park Pledge' come back to haunt her if elected? We can all monitor the official record of correspondance, comment and critism thanks to the people at TheyWorkForYou Dot Com. If she is elected we will all have access to the public record of the business of the Houses of Parliament. In the same way that Yasmin promises to hold the government to account, we shall be able to hold her to account.

Campaign Materials: Labour

2005-04-29T10:33:00.000+01:00

I commented that there would be more on the Labour Party Brent East News 'Delivering For You'.

One thing I noticed was that Tony (Blair not Benn) doesn't feature on the campaign material. There are three photos of Ken 'Red' Livingstone - Labours prodigal son - and a photo of Tony Benn (Old 'Old Labour' - sorry Tony) in that upright but slightly reclined pose that he does so well. Another Old Labour party member, Diane Abbot, is quoted in support of Yasmin.

When you couple this with Yasmins anti-war, anti-terror legislation, pro-human rights stances, you get the picture of a Labour candidate in complete and full disagreement with the leadership of the party she is standing for. Is this a sign of Labour 2.0 (its like saying 'New') running out of steam when candidates are distancing themselves from the leadership of their party?

I mentioned a rumour that Team:Yasmin were to be in Queen's Park cafe on Wednesday afternoon. Anyone have their lunchtime interputed by the campaign train pulling into the park? I hear Tony Benn was there supporting Labours candidate for Brent East. From the reports that I received it was a great 'Audience with...' with Tony and his anecdotes being well received by a cross-demographic audience.

Campaign materials: Many!

2005-04-27T11:46:00.000+01:00

More campaign materials from Sarah Teather.

And George 'Rainbow' Weiss's Vote For Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket Preferendum.

More photo analysis of Brent East News.

And a rumor of Team:Yasmin in Queen's Park Café this lunch time...

later...

Campaign Materials: Labour

2005-04-27T11:16:00.000+01:00

What else is there to notice about Brent East News 'Delivering for YOU'...

I read the whole of the Ken Livingstone interview on the London Labour Party website. Campaigning in Brent East with Yasmin Qureshi Ken said:"I am delighted that my first election visit is in my old seat of Brent East, where human rights campaigner Yasmin Qureshi is in pole position to become Britain's first ever Asian woman."

The 'round robin' makes four mentions of Yasmin's ethnicity and gender. Today the Independent reports on analysis by the Fawcett Society of the proportion of women selected as candidates by the political parties. Looks like there is going to be an appeal to traditionally political inactive minorities in the final days of the campaign. Is this a competition between the Lib Dems and Labour? But pointing out gender and ethnicity and campaigning on it is a bit crass, no? I mean, I've got eyes...

Not scanned yet.... post later

Fifty extra police officers in Brent

2005-04-27T10:37:00.000+01:00

I picked up a copy of Brent East News published by Yasmin and the BE Labour Party when in Queen's Park on Monday. Under the headline 'Delivering for You' there is a photo of three police officers with a caption 'Brent now has more than fifty extra police officers'.

Fifty extra police officers! Shame that three of the fifty extra police officers in Brent East are on walkabout in Shepherds Bush. The photo of the three police officers clearly shows the Walkabout pub in Shepherds Bush in the background.

Hustings TONIGHT

2005-04-26T19:00:00.000+01:00

Brent Stop The War are holding a General Election Candidate Hustings...

'...to answer your questions about where they stand on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the withdrawal of troops and associated issues of Palestine, the “war on terror” and the attack on civil liberties.'

Here is the flyer.

It'll be held at Dudden Hill Community Centre, TONIGHT 7.00 pm

Postal Voting Application Deadline Today

2005-04-26T10:11:00.000+01:00

From Brent Council's email alert service:

Postal Vote Application Deadline:

The deadline to apply for a new postal vote is Tuesday 26th April at 5pm.
Please make sure all applications have arrived at the Town Hall by that time.
You can deliver them in person should you wish.

Telephone 020 8937 1372 or e-mail using the link below if you need any assitance.
E-mail Electoral Services mailto:electoral.services@brent.gov.uk
Brent's General Election Pages http://www.brent.gov.uk/generalelection

Brondesbury Residents & Tennants Association Meeting

2005-04-26T10:05:00.000+01:00

Chris, a reader of this blog, writes:

Hi Rob,
Maybe you were there tonight. If so, I'm wasting your time. If not, highlights included: Kwasi (who, incidentally, and I appreciate this is always the luck of the draw, is the only candidate I have seen campaigning in the streets) being compared to Boris Johnson; a nice Irish chap pointing out that some Candidate for Kilburn's Beleaguered Motorists (really? I have not been canvassed, but I am willing to believe) might cull the vital few hundred votes in a very tight campaign; Yasmin saying she's one of those people who constantly gets parking tickets and forgets to pay and has to pay the extra (she must be made of money); and Yasmin saying she was all for the replanting of Brondesbury's lost trees because the environment is vital, and oxygen is important (I do not think the questioner was envisaging a rainforest).

There was the the usual knickers in twists over tactical voting (Conservatives had 10% last time; Lib Dems had 10% the time before; we want PR anyway; you're not voting for a local MP, so vote New Labour to keep the Tories out, because the margin's really small, actually, promise it is). Got the usual feeling that many constituents are labour voters faced with extremely articulate and personable LibDem and Conservative candidates.

The Candidate for Kilburn's Beleaguered Motorists... is that Michele Weininger? I've still not hearded anything about this candidate - any info readers?

Crime

2005-04-24T19:04:00.000+01:00

The candidates from Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are all highlighting crime in their campaigns.

But do we need 'more police on patrol to make our area safer for all'? (Sarah Teather - Standing Up For You)
Has the fear of crime 'increased' in Brent? (Kwasi Kwarteng - In Touch)
Is 'crime and the fear of crime and issue for every neighbourhood in London'? (Yasmin Qureshi - Mapesbury Labour News)

If you'd like to see the crime statistics for Brent, the Met have great interactive map, but data looks better as text only.

But do the stats tell the whole story? You'd kind of expect 'incident count' crime statistics to increase; I'm not saying that crime is impossible to reduce, just that there could be externalities to the data: a population increase in a borough for example. I'm looking for a crime rate per capita index and other data sets, and if I find any I'll share them. We can find stastics for just about anything but I'm having trouble finding a dataset on 'fear of crime'...

Campaign Materials: Where do they all come from?

2005-04-24T18:41:00.000+01:00

I've been reading up on the entitlement of a prospective parliamentary candidate to the use of Royal Mail delivery services.

In Brent East, a candidate is entitled to use Royal Mail to deliver 40907 items of campaign literature. What I'm not sure about is if that is in total (i.e. to all the households) or per 'drop'.

There is further information on the Roayl Mail service to candidiate here. Or you could check out the Department of Consitiutional Affairs 'guidance for electoral administrators and information on electoral legislation'.

If you have the knowledge perhaps you will share it here?

Campaign Materials: Liberal Democrats

2005-04-24T18:07:00.000+01:00

After yesterdays mammouth posting session I went out for a while. I hadn't had chance to even leave the building before my mind was drawn back to this blog. More campaign materials from Sarah Teather, local Liberal Democrat. This one an official 'Election Communication' delivered by Royal Mail.

'Standing Up For You' highlights Sarah's work during her term as MP for Brent East on local 'quality of life' issues and links the Lib Dem policies to local 'real people' through a varity of in-action photos.

I've not had chance to scan all of it. Here is the front and the back for now.

Campaign Materials: Liberal Democrats

2005-04-23T13:43:00.000+01:00

Many postings to this blog today. It's all I've done this morning!

I've received a letter from Sarah Teather for her campaign to be re-elected by the people of Brent East to serve a second term.

Her message: 'I believe that people in Brent East deserve a local MP who will stand up to Tony Blair. I am proud to fight this election on my record of local action from fighting for fairer funding for our local schools to welcoming more police for Dudden Hill, Kilburn and Willesden Green.'

Here's the full letter as a JPG.

Campaign Materials: Conservatives

2005-04-23T13:11:00.000+01:00

When I met Kwasi on Thursday at the MapRA AGM I mentioned to him that I hadn't seen any campaign materials from him over the last couple of weeks. Yesterday an Election Communiation from Brent East Conservatives was delivered by Royal Mail.

His message: 'The Conservatives are the alternative. I promise to give you, the electorate, my boss, more for your money. This isn't some form of magic. Our policies are based on common sense. We will allow all people to get on with their lives and contribute to the constituency in their own distinctive way. We will not allow our diverse and vibrant communities to be shackled by bureaucracy or political correctness.'

The full text of the letter as an image. The back page.

Lack of campaign materials - Labour

2005-04-23T12:27:00.000+01:00

On the back of the Mapesbury Labour News distributed by Yasmin at the MapRA Annual General Meeting there is a list of ways to contact Yasmin: By phone: 020 8969 4550, By email: info@yasminqureshi.co.uk, By writting to: 102 Liddell Gardens, Kensal Rise, NW10 3QE.

I checked out the domain www.yasminqureshi.co.uk to see if there was a website. I had hoped that there would be a vibrant source of information about Yasmin and the Labour Party but alas there was nothing but a holding page - " This website is currently under construction and will be available soon"

There are only 13 days to go till the election!

For £200 Yasmin could have used the Labour Party 'Web in a box v2.0', the 'easy to maintain website building tool for the Labour Party family (the 2.0 bit is instead of saying 'New Web in a box').

Campaign Materials: Labour

2005-04-23T11:08:00.000+01:00

At the Mapesbury Residents Association Annnual General Meeting on Thursday night I was hoping to speak to the assembled residents about the Community Wireless Network I am involved in running in Queen's Park. Having been very impressed by the collective action that MapRA have motived in their community around the Mapesbury Dell project and the purchase of old-fashioned, sorry, 'heritage' street lights for some of the streets, I thought that a Community Wireless Broadband Network would have been something that the residents of Mapesbury may have been interested in working to acheive. However, due to time constraints I was unable to speak but I did distribute some leaflets to each seat in the room in the hope that people would pick it up and read it.

I was not the only person who had that idea.

Yasmin had also distributed her some campaign materials at the AGM, placing an A4 piece of paper, 'Mapesbury Labour News', on each seat on top of the MapRA AGM materials. I was distributing my materials and Yasmin asked me to not put my leaflet on top of hers. Well, I, like Yasmin, was only adding the existing pile.... And when further information leafets were distributed about the financial standing of MapRA to the top of the now quite high pile, Yasmin had a quick nip round the seats to restack the papers to ensure her 'newsletter' (or rather a seasonal round-robin), was outer most.

At the end of the AGM while people where visiting the stalls from various departments of the Council and other local agencies, an announcement was made by the Chair of MapRA...

Ladies and Gentleman. We have realised that we have been leafleted by the Labour Party this evening this evening without our permission. We apologies for that - we try to keep this event apolitical.

The leaflet drew attention to a 'gaff' made by Sarah Teather during an interview and gave Yasmin a 'gaff' of her own. Oh well.

You can download a copy of Mapesbury Labour News (front page / back page) from here.

Campaign Materials: Greens

2005-04-23T10:35:00.000+01:00

I received the Green Party Election Communication for Brent East earlier this week. I've scanned the 100% RECYCLED PAPER leaflet for you to download from here (front cover, inside, back cover).

If you have not received the Green Party Election Communication, please let me know and I will pass it on to Shahrar. I spoke to him yesterday and apparently there has been a problem with the delivery of the leaflets by Royal Mail.

Mapesbury Residents Association AGM

2005-04-23T10:13:00.000+01:00

Those active in local civil society and engaged in their neighbourhood were out at St. Gabriel's Church on Walm Lane on Thursday night for the Mapesbury Residents Association Annual General Meeting. MapRA is a large and active group of neighbours all commited to woking for the benefit of the Mapesbury community. Attendance from the membership of MapRA is good and the nave of church was full.

I had expected to see Sarah Teather there: She was there last year, speaking on some of the activities that she, as the local MP, had beeen working on with MapRA and other people from the neighbouorhood. And while I expected to see other candidates, I had not expected a full house!

I was seated was on the second row of seats and I could see Yasmin on the opposite side of the asile on the front row. Sarah Teather was on the row behind her. Shahrar Ali was further along the front row, few seats away from Yasmin. I had a quick look around me.

Reds? Check.
Orange? Check.
Greens? Check.
Blue? Blue?

"Where is Kwasi?" I said to E "I can't see Kwasi Kwarteng".

The gentleman in front of me turned round, extended his hand and said "I'm Kwasi Kwarteng, Hello". Shaking his hand I said "Hello, I'm Rob Dyke". He spluttered out "Oh, your Rob Dy... I've read your.....Oh.....Ho ho......" and then turned to E and introduced himself to her before turning back in his seat.

So we've answered the little question I posed earlier this week.

C4.com on Brent East

2005-04-21T11:58:00.000+01:00

From Channel 4.com Election 2005 site.

'Labour has placed its hopes on lawyer Yasmin Qureishi, who is openly anti-war in her selection process. But like many Labour candidates in what was Labour's urban core support she is going even further to regain disgruntled voters by opposing the policies of the prime minister.

She told Channel 4 news: “I’m one of those people who has their own mind, their own independent mind, and I make my own decisions.” In fact, Qureishi has written to Brent East's Muslim voters distancing herself from the war, from the government's approach to Guantanamo Bay and opposing the recent moves on house arrest of terror suspects.

It puts her well at odds with the person she wants to put back in Downing Street.' From C4.com

The C4 story raises an interesting question. Is Yasmin, with her beliefs so at odds with the leadership of the party that she supports, going to be able to win votes at this election? Can one be pro-Labour AND anti-War/bring the troops home/pro-human rights/anti-detention without trail as Yasmin appears? Riding two horses at the same time is impossible.

Linkup for George 'Rainbow' Weiss

2005-04-21T09:17:00.000+01:00

Thanks to a reader, here are some links for the Vote For Yourself Dream Ticket Party and George 'Rainbox' Weiss.

This website details the background to the V4YDTP.

While this page has DTP info.

Links from a reader collecting campaign leaflets from this election. Send them some of the paper the Brent East Candidates send you.

The Guardian website also lists George 'Rainbow' Weiss, but not as a candidate in this election (they need to get that page of their site updated). They list some additional info for George, including a link to www.xat.org - The Peaceful Revolution Network.

Candidate List Announced

2005-04-20T08:53:00.000+01:00

The candidates in the Brent East constituency have been announced. They are:

ALI, Shahrar - Green Party
KWARTENG, Kwasi Alfred Addo - The Conservative Party Candidate
QURESHI, Yasmin - The Labour Party Candidate
TEATHER, Sarah Louise - Liberal Democrats
WEININGER, Michele Anna - Independent
WEISS, 'Rainbow' George - Vote for Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket

I'm going to try and get hold of web links for George 'Rainbow' Weiss and Michele Anna Weininger today. If you've got weblinks already post them to me.

Hustings this evening.

2005-04-19T15:26:00.000+01:00

Sarah Teather - and others? who knows? - will be at a hustings event this evening at Willesden Library organised by BRAVA - Brent Association for Voluntary Action.

If anyone who reads this blog goes to the hustings this evening, please write-up about it here.

Where are the Conservatives?

2005-04-19T11:29:00.000+01:00

Since starting this blog I have met the candidiates from Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats 'out and about' in Brent East. I'm still waiting to see Kwasi out and about... Strange not to have seen the Conservatives. During the by-election of '03 they were very visible in this constituency - I remember vividly meeting three party workers on Exeter Road who, after I had asked them for some of their campaign materials, cornered me to drill in their message. I made a lucky escape by distracting them - 'look! someone has dropped a penny!'.

Yasmin, Sarah and Shahrar are all out on the beat - where is Kwasi? Or has Conservative central office decided that, with such a low-level of support in this area, this seat is not worth investing resources in fighting.

(Perhaps the reader of this blog from Conservative Central Office would care to email me or press the comments button?)

Fellow Brent East residents! If you see Kwasi Kwarteng around in the constituency please let me know! If you have received any election campaign materials from the Conservatives in your letterbox, please get in touch and let me have a copy.

While on the subject of voting records....

2005-04-18T15:00:00.000+01:00

You can view the voting record of Sarah Teather as complied by The Guardian and Public Whip.

Postal voting in Brent East

2005-04-18T14:52:00.000+01:00

Applications for postal voting in Brent East are up 511% on the 2001 General Election. Around 2500 votes in Brent East will be made by post this year.

You can read more on postal voting in London in this story from thisislondon.co.uk

Don't mention the war?

2005-04-18T14:36:00.000+01:00

The Guardian comment on the 'sssshhhh' today. You know, that little exercise in Middle East. They say that 'Many in Tony Blair's party who opposed the US-led invasion are keeping quiet about the issue now'.

'However, candidates are mentioning their anti-war positions in constituencies where there has been strong opposition to the conflict, for example, in constituencies with large Muslim communities or student populations.

Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour candidate for Brent East, has not hidden her opposition. In her attempt to beat the Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather, she has written in a campaign leaflet: "The Lib Dems told voters who were unhappy with the Iraq war to vote for them. Less than a week after they won, they backed sending more troops." ' - from the Guardian

Yasmin has got a drum and she'll beat it. When I met her in Queen's Park her key message to me was that the Liberal Democrats voted to support the Labour government in additional troop deployments in Iraq. But as I commented then, the Liberal Democrats DID NOT vote FOR conflict in the first place - they were against war. Or perhaps Yasmin Qureshi and the then Labour government didn't want cross-party support for continuing to work at resolving the mess Tony Blair et al made Iraq. There is a difference between invading a country on false pretenses - something that the Labour government did - and being commited to sorting out the mess when made.

I also hear that Yasmin has been, perhaps only in her enthusiasim, miss-representing the voting record of Charles Kennedy. I hear that when meeting people from faith groups at their places of worship in the constituency, Yasmin has stated that Charles Kennedy voted FOR the Iraq war. To ensure clarity of information, here is a link here you can check for yourself the voting record of Charles Kennedy.

What are the policies of the three main parties?

2005-04-17T12:52:00.000+01:00

Found quite a useful page on the Politics website this morning. They have grouped the policies of each of the three main parties on specific areas together for your comparison. Nifty.

It beats downloading and reading each of the manifesto documents. But if you really wanted to, here you go

Liberal Democrats, PDF file, 20 pages, 1.1mb
Labour, PDF file, 56 pages, 916kb
Conservatives, PDF file, 32 pages, 712kb
Greens, PDF file, 32 pages, 376.6kb

Calling all candidates

2005-04-17T12:30:00.000+01:00

An open letter, to be emailed to each of the candidates standing in Brent East at the forthcoming general election.

Dear Candidate,

I am writing to all the candidates standing in Brent East at the general election with a question. Each party has unveiled their manifesto. National commitments have been made for the program of the next government, which ever colour it ends up being.

Assume you and your party are elected at the next election and you are able to carry out your commitments to the nation.

What do you see as the three main areas of life in Brent East which your parties policies are going to have the most immediate and lasting effect on and how will we see the results in our daily lives?

I will be sharing your responses on a weblog monitoring and reporting on the Brent East election campaign - http://becampaign.blogspot.com - and I will be also using your responses as a guide in making my own decisions come polling day.

I look forward to reading your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Rob Dyke

Meeting Shahrar Ali

2005-04-13T10:35:00.000+01:00

... coming soon...

Strategic Voter - Info for London

2005-04-13T10:31:00.000+01:00

Strategic Voter has a PDF detailing their recommendations for voting accross London. For Brent East their recommendation is Vote Lib Dem.

Campaign Materials: Greens

2005-04-11T22:17:00.000+01:00

Brent East Green News - A4 newsletter - Front Page - JPG

Brent East Green News - A4 newsletter - Back Page - JPG

Campaign materials: Labour

2005-04-11T10:33:00.000+01:00

Here are some campaign materials from the Labour Party for their candidate Yasmin Qureshi. I won't display them all here, but you can click on the links to see full size scans of the unsolicited mail that has popped through my letter box in support of their candidate.

Elect Yasmin Qureshi - A5 flyer - front - JPG

Elect Yasmin Qureshi - A5 flyer - back - JPG

Brent East News - Labour Party - front page - JPG

Meeting Yasmin Qureshi

2005-04-09T17:19:00.000+01:00

On Thursday I bumped into Yasmin Qureshi, the Labour candidate for Brent East, on Salusbury Road just outside the friendly and well stocked Queen's Park Books (yes, I do work there, how did you guess?). She was out on the campaign trail, meeting and greeting, probably kissing babies, seeking places to display her posters. Yasmin was accompanied by the Queen's Park ward local Councillor Neil Nerva.

I've met Neil Nerva before. He contacted me about Comwifinet and the Queen's Park Wireless Club. We talked about the community project and about encouraging participation in the democratic process. I told him about the Sarah Teather Blog, and we talked about 'Why Politicians Need Weblogs.' I've emailed him a couple of times via his @brent.gov.uk email address. I've even called him and left messages on his answer machine. But since that first telephone conversation, all efforts as contacting him have resulted in no response. When I pushed him on this, he said something about 'having a job and working hard' and then he was interrupted by Yasmin how wanted to point out that they are working harder than Sarah Teather. It is no longer a mystery why Sarah is not getting prompt responses from the Labour government - the whole party, from the cabinet and ministers down to local councillors are poor communicators who fail to return calls or emails.

But I digress.

Meeting Yasmin Qureshi was squally, pressured and damp. It was windy and we were just about to be showered by hail. Neil was blustered about by the weather. Yasmin, ever smiling, was pleased to talk to me - a young voter, unlikely to vote at all but most likely to vote LibDem. I talked about the 'political web log movement' and about the blog I run about Sarah Teather. Yasmin was keen to know if I was 'engaged' by Sarah to write the blog and wanted to know if I was critical of her. I told her she could read it and leave comments on the blog - for that is the purpose of the comments button!

Brent East was taken from Labour by Sarah and the Lib Dems in '03. For Yasmin, this means that the electorate deserted Labour due to the illegal and immoral war waged by the UK and US in Iraq. Well, I paraphrase. Yasmin sees Sarah as a hypocrite. She, Yasmin that is, hammers on about how the LibDems were 'anti-war' yet "Sarah voted for further troop deployments in Iraq". For Yasmin, the Lib Dems should not have support the government in their efforts rebuild and repair what had been broken into a million tiny pieces by war. From what I can make out, Yasmin thinks it is more important to stand firm to ones principles (being anti-war) rather than be pragmatic and flexible and prepared to support secondary measures (i.e. troop deployments).

I pointed out the EDM signed by Sarah and other MPs that would remove the royal perogative of military engagement from the cabinet and place the decision in the hands of parliament. I couldn't get chance to ask Yasmin if she would support this EDM if she was elected - Neil was herding her away.

As a parting shot, Yasmin asked me if I had googled her name. I hadn't, but I have now. Well well well. From the first link it seems that the illegal activities in Birmingham were not the only dubious votes to have affected the Labour party in recent times...

...From Black Information Link 'Labour faithful brawl as vote-rigging stitch-up denies Qureshi'

Furious Labour members accused their party of a vote-rigging stitch-up after Robert Evans beat his nearest challenger, Yasmin Qureshi, by two votes after party officials disallowed two postal votes cast in favor of Qureshi

Fear and Loathing on the Brent East Campaign Trail

2005-04-08T10:11:00.000+01:00

05.05.05 said the Indy.
General erection said The Sun.

and they are off.

I've already met the candidates for the Greens and for Labour out on the streets of Queen's Park. I'll share these two encounters with you over this weekend.

Campaign materials from the Lib Dems and Labour to come - just as soon as i've got my image hosting problem sorted.

Brent East by-election, 2003

2005-03-24T13:57:00.000Z

The by-election of 2003 was caused by the death of the member of Parliament for Brent East, Paul Daisley of the Labour Party. The by-election to fill his seat was held on September 13, and was won by the Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Teather.

The turnout by electors at this election was 36.42%

More information on the 2003 Brent East by-election from wikipedia.

Showing the paper trail...

2005-03-24T13:18:00.000Z

Election 2005. You know its coming. I know its coming. It has been trailed more heavily than a Lord of the Rings movie. You probably think its all happened already given the amount of comment and analysis in the media. Slow news year?

Because of my own interest in seeing increased participation from citizens in the upcoming election, I'm running another blog between now and 'the day' focusing on the Brent East campaign. I see information as crucial in the making of informed choice by the electorate so I'm going to be propagating what comes from the candidates standing in this constituency.

During the by-election in 2003 I couldn’t get through my door some evenings late in the campaign due to the leaflets delivered. I had to swerve to hit, erm, miss several of the candidates while cycling around the area that September. For this general election I’ll be scanning and posting all the materials that come through the door. I’ll also try and post news articles and other materials as they arise to this blog. And if I hit any candidates while cycling I’ll post here about that too.

I’m welcoming contributors from my fellow Brent East constituents. Write, email or fax the candidates. Ask them the questions you want answers to on the issues that you feel strongly about. Share those conversations here in this blog.