Another by-election success in the region

Following on the succesful by-election defence of the Liberal Democrats’ seat in Hull a couple of weeks ago, news reaches me of further success, this time from across the Humber estuary. In a by-election on Haxey parish council, which lies in the Axholme South ward of North Lincolnshire District Council, Liberal Democrat Don Lange ‘romped home’ (to use the words of the agent) 569 to 444 in a straight fight with an Independent. For those of you know the area this was a pretty sensational result and is further evidence of the great strides the local party is making there.

Iceland edges a little closer to the EU as the Liberal Democrats’ sister party says yes to membership

The Liberal Democrats’ sister party in Iceland, the Progressive Party, (or Framsóknarflokkurinn if you prefer it in the vernacular) at a special conference yesterday voted strongly in favour of supporting Iceland’s entry into membership talks with the European Union.

Largely representative of the agrarian community and fishermen it has traditionally opposed Iceland’s entry to the EU. But after a four hour debate the Progressives become the second party in Iceland, after the Social Democrats, to publicly support EU membership. The ruling Independence Party (for which read ‘Conservative’) intends to hold a similar vote at its conference beginning on the 29th January.

In a statement, the Progressive Party explained that it would support Icelandic entry into the European Union if personal and business rights were protected, especially in regard to fishing and agriculture; and if the accession talks were open and democratic. Icelandic would also have to become one of the EU’s official languages.

If the Independence Party votes to change their policy too (which in some ways woukd be even more likely than the Progressive Party given the latter’s voting base) then Icelandic application to the EU is a done deal I would think. Olli Rehn, the Commissioner responsible for EU Enlargement, says membership for Iceland could be achieved in months rather than years (after all they sign up to most EU legislation already given their membership of the EEA Agreement). It is even conceivable that Icelanders could be voting with the other 27 EU countries in the European Parliament elections in June this year.

Of course, the shift in opinion amongst Iceland’s political parties is a reflection on just how bad the economy is there. After all many have been agitating for Euro membership already, but the Commission quite rightly said this is not feasible without full membership. What is interesting of course now is what will happen to Norway. Don’t be surprised if the Norwegians themselves start to look at membership again. After all, without Iceland the EEA and EFTA are effectively dead and besides, the last thing the Norwegians would want down the track in any membership negotiations is to be faced across the table by an Icelandic Commissioner for Fisheries!

By way of a note, currently, the Progressive Party has slipped in support but is traditionally one of Iceland’s bigger political parties holding the post of Prime Minister as recently as 2006.

Liberal Democrats gain Conservative seat in Hull

As I anticipated, the Conservatives were heavily beaten in yesteday’s by-election in Drypool in Hull. In fact in a seat they held they were beaten into 4th place behind the National Front candidate as Linda Chambers for the Liberal Democrats stormed to victory. It shows two things to me: one, that the people of Hull are comfortable with the changes that the Liberal Democrats are bringing to the city and, two, that the Conservatives remain a long way from mounting any sort of recovery to their fortunes in the North. As I’ve said in  the blog before ,this was a difficult seat for the Conservatives to hold but nevertheless to put in such a poor result was surely a humiliation.

This is what the Hull Daily Mail is saying in its online version:

The Liberal Democrats have won the city council by-election in Drypool.

Lib Dem candidate Linda Chambers polled 1,306 votes to secure the seat vacated by Conservative Andy Sloan who resigned before Christmas because of work commitments.

Labour’s Gary Wareing finished second with 891 votes while the National Front’s Mike Cooper came third on 184 votes. Conservative Andrew Allison polled 117 votes. The turnout was 26.7 per cent.

The result increases the overall Lib Dem majority at the Guildhall to 15.

Lid Dem leader Carl Minns said: “I am very pleased because it shows the public are still backing the way we are trying to reform the council.”

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Lib-Dems-win-Drypool-election/article-598866-detail/article.html

The crime rate in Brussels might make people rethink the single site of the European Parliament

There is a considerable majority of MEPs and staff who support the idea of a single site for the European Parliament. Doing away with the monthly trek between Brussels and Strasbourg would be eminently sensible at various levels, not least economic and environmental. There has always been the assumption that the single site for the parliament would be Brussels, after all that is where the majority of the other institutions are already. However, whilst Brussels, against most measures. is a pleasant place to live, the thing that drags it down is the low-level street crime which can make living there unpleasant.

 

News reached me that a Brussels based journalist who I had been speaking to just earlier in the afternoon had pepper spray squirted in her face and her bag snatched in a park near to the European Parliament building. Once people started to talk about this incident then others come forward with similar stories about walking through the poorly lit Parc Leopold which it seems has been the scene of many similar crimes.

 

But not just there because we also learnt that one Lib Dem MEP had his briefcase stolen while he was waiting for a train and another MEP had her suitcase snatched from the luggage racks at the end of the carriage as the train was stopped at a station

between Brussels and Antwerp.

 

I’ve had my wallet lifted in Brussels (the only city this has ever happened to me). One of my colleagues had a bag snatched from her car as she waited at traffic lights. The passenger door was locked and the thief smashed the window. This in broad daylight and is not an unusual occurrence as theft from vehicles, both moving and parked in Brussels, is common. And so it goes on.

 

As I say Brussels is otherwise a pretty decent place to live but this low-level crime is actually rather off-putting. I am not sure what the answer is, after all Belgian police are fairly efficient and CCTV is in place after all cameras were used to convict a Polish guy who had stabbed a teenager to death in Brussels Central station when he refused to hand over his MP3 player. However, unless there is a real attempt to reduce this low-level crime I think people will start to think that the single site for the European Parliament will would be better placed in Strasbourg.

Conservatives losing here albeit in somewhat unusual circumstances

I am reasonably confident that come Friday Drypool will appear as a Conservative loss in the  previous night’s local by-elections. The by-election in Hull comes about because of the resignation of a former Liberal Democrat councillor who switched to the Tories and was found to be living and working in Guernsey yet still claiming his Councillor’s allowance. (See previous blog on the subject: Hull Tory councillor who works in Guernsey forced to resign)

 

Delivering in the ward today and chatting to people as I went round, I found little evidence that the Conservatives would hold this seat. Interestingly the outgoing Tory councillor doesn’t even get a mention on their leaflet such, I guess, is the complete lack of impact he made in the ward. So the fight, as is usually the case in Hull, will be between the Liberal Democrats and Labour (the Tories got less than 9% in Drypool in 2008). Probably too close to call but if Linda Chambers does win for the Liberal Democrats it will be the party’s first gain from the Conservatives in Hull since the early 1970s. So Thursday could be quite historic in that sense albeit in somewhat unusual circumstances.