CentreRight

Jonathan Isaby: Is Bob Crow a closet toff?

I'm pretty sure the answer to my above question is "no".

But as the odious RMT boss reviewed the papers on Sky News just now, I couldn't help noticing that the motif on his top was a silhouette of someone on a horse playing polo - a sport which I wasn't aware had a huge following among Britain's trade union barons.

Doubtless someone will recognise the branding and tell me that he is making some kind of fashion statement, but it made me raise an eyebrow, at any rate...

Lord Ashcroft's TV series telling the stories of some of the most courageous human beings starts tonight

Set your Sky+/video for Discovery History at 10pm tonight if you want to catch the first in a new four-part series telling the stories of some of our most courageous fellow human beings.

To coincide with the opening of the new Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum and the peer's new book George Cross Heroes (of which all royalties are going to the VC and GC Association), each episode of the TV series of the same name will see Lord Ashcroft tell the stories of some of the individuals awarded the highest medal awarded for courage outside military action.
 
We are promised "eyewitness testimony, gritty reconstruction and compelling storytelling, taking you on a rollercoater of suspense and jeopardy, right to the heart of each courageous story."

For a sneak preview of George Cross Heroes, click here.

Jonathan Isaby: Rupert Murdoch's unfortunately dismissive attitude to the blogosphere

By Jonathan Isaby

Earlier in the month, Andrew Marr took a pop at bloggers, as I noted here.

Last night it was the turn of Rupert Murdoch.

Paul summarised his Centre for Policy Studies Margaret Thatcher lecture here, but I thought I should explicitly quote his words about blogging:

"Our journalism is hard-driving and questioning of authority. And so are our journalists. Often, I have cause to celebrate editorial endeavour. Occasionally, I have had cause for regret. Let me be clear: We will vigorously pursue the truth – and we will not tolerate wrongdoing.

"Now, it would certainly serve the interests of the powerful if professional journalists were muted – or replaced as navigators in our society by bloggers and bloviators. Bloggers can have a social role – but that role is very different to that of the professional seeking to uncover facts, however uncomfortable."

For someone who has been such a pioneer in the media world, it's a shame to hear him being so dismissive of blogging - not least because we bloggers are regularly questioning authority and uncovering facts, as he was claiming to favour last night.

Moreover, I would wager that his news outlets are running stories which originated on blogs with increasing regularity (and probably failing to credit them as the source more often than not).

N.B. Declaration of interest/resentment: I did try to get an invitation to last night's lecture, but was told that the guest list was "strictly controlled by News Corp"...

Jonathan Isaby: What was Nigel Farage doing during George Osborne's statement on the CSR?

By Jonathan Isaby

The answer to the question I pose above is that the former UKIP leader was evidently updating the list of those he follows on Twitter, as the email I received (reproduced below) demonstrates:

I know many ConHome readers follow me (@isaby) already but certainly suggest that Farage, who is most likely about to be re-elected UKIP leader, is worth following on Twitter too @Nigel_Farage.

Incidentally, if you didn't catch his autobiography, Fighting Bull, which came out at the beginning of the year, it's well worth a read if you want to get a feel for the man and what motivates him, as well as a potted history of UKIP and the variety of characters which populate it...

Jonathan Isaby: Andrew Marr smears we bloggers

The Guardian reports BBC presenter Andrew Marr's comments at the Cheltenham Literary festival:

"A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting in their mother's basements and ranting. They are very angry people. OK – the country is full of very angry people. Many of us are angry people at times. Some of us are angry and drunk... But the so-called citizen journalism is the spewings and rantings of very drunk people late at night."

Not exactly the best way of going about wining friends in the blogosphere...

If my identity has been stolen to buy goods, surely the onus should not be on me to prove that I didn't do so?

I was somewhat shocked yesterday to find a letter on the doormat from a debt collection agency.

Informing me that my total debt was now £164.32, the letter stated:

"Your debt has been passed to us because you have ignored previous requests to sort this debt out with our client... Pay or call us immediately to get this sorted out".

Utterly nonplussed, I called the number to see what on earth it was supposed to refer to, not least as it was the first communication I had received from anyone demanding payment of a debt.

The voice at the other end informed me that I had apparently bought items from "Jacamo" and not paid for them.

"Who or what is Jacamo?," I enquired.

"A catalogue," I was told, before explaining that I had never even heard of the company.

The debt collector proceeded to inform me that the items I had ordered had been sent to an address in Newcastle-upon-Tyne - somewhere I have only visited once in my life, let alone lived in.

I explained that there was clearly some kind of mix-up: I had never heard of Jacamo or lived in Newcastle, and therefore certainly could not have ordered anything from the catalogue from an address in the city.

But this was not good enough for the debt collector. He said that he wanted me to send them proof of address through a bank statement or council tax bill to show that I was not living in Newcastle last summer in order to close the matter.

I ended the call there, initially with the intention of trying to seek out an old bill to copy and send them.

But then I gave it just a moment's thought:

• Who are this debt collection company and how do I know that they are legitimate?
• Why should I give them further information about myself (as far as I know they currently only have an address for me) through sending them a copy of an old bill?
• If someone has falsely used my identity to buy something (although as far as I can tell, no money has been taken out of my bank account) surely the onus should not be on me to prove that I didn't do something, but rather on someone else to prove that I did do something?

Perhaps any lawyers reading might be able to give me some informal advice as to what, if anything, they think I ought to do next...

Not the Today Programme's finest hour (or three)

In the middle of August we started a new feature on ConHome called Tories on Today, to record the appearances by Conservative politicians on Radio 4's Today programme.

Yet this week's schedule shows that the scorers have barely been troubled, with the only Conservatives interviewed on the programme over the last five days being Bob Neill MP, Graham Stuart MP and Murdo Fraser MSP - and all in discussions with others.

Today's edition of the programme has already attracted particular opprobrium (see Tweets from Fraser Nelson and Tim Montgomerie of this parish) for giving generous amounts of airtime to senior Labour figures, with Ed Balls and John Prescott both getting one-on-one opportunities to address the nation. 

But probably most questionable today was the decision to invite Sally Bercow to talk about William and Ffion Hague's dealings with the press this week, in the context of her being a politician's wife.

Whilst she is married to an MP, the fact is that she is a politician in her own right, having stood as a Labour council candidate at the local elections this year and indicated her desire to fight a parliamentary seat in the future. I believe she has every right to do that and, furthermore, don't blame her for one moment for taking any opportunity she is offered to promote herself in the media (and credit to her for the fact that she - not the presenter - raised her own foray into electoral politics this morning).

But surely it is wrong for the Today Programme to parade as a politician's wife, someone who has a very partisan agenda of her own?

The Indian High Commission gives Exchange and Mart a run for its money

A little tale totally unrelated to politics that made me chuckle.

The Indian High Commission in London has its own website, full of information for those with an interest in the country.

Not only are there links to details of David Cameron's recent visit to the sub-continent, but also facts and figures about the country and details for Indian nationals requiring the High Commission's services.

But completely randomly at the bottom of the menu on the front page of the site is the option "Van for sale", which links to an advert for the VW transporter van being sold by one Satya Prakash c/o the Head of Chancery at the High Commission.

Very enterprising!

Some holiday reading for the avid politico

Whilst some of you will want to take some trashy fiction to the beach as you get away for some sun this month, I don't doubt that some ConHome readers will want to take the time to catch up on some political reading while they're away.

And one book which fits into the latter category is Nicholas Jones' Campaign 2010: The Making of the Prime Minister.

Unlike some of Jones' previous campaign reviews, it does not just cover the frenetic period in the run-up to polling day itself; rather, as its subtitle, "The Making of the Prime Minister' correctly summarises, the book recounts David Cameron's long journey from staffer at Tory HQ to Downing Street.

Jones pays particular attention to Cameron's years working for Norman Lamont and Michael Howard in the 1990s (when he was covering those politicians' activities for the BBC on a daily basis) and later in the book - after dealing with the 2005 Tory leadership election, Brown replacing Blair, the political attitudes of the Murdoch press and Expenses-gate - he devotes whole chapters to both the TV debates and the role of the leaders' wives in a modern British election campaign. It is an excellent read for anyone who wants a reliable one-stop shop covering an historic few years in British politics.

Jones is as engaging as ever in his telling of the story and the book - unusually for a tome produced so soon after the event - is also furnished with an index, making it an all the more invaluable record for future reference.

The book is published by Biteback and available to buy from Amazon. Nicholas Jones blogs here.

The 2010 Times Guide to the House of Commons is out - and this year it's mischievous

I love books, especially of the political variety, and the Times Guide to the House of Commons is an essential reference book that any self-professed politico needs to purchase after every general election.

I have now bought my copy of the 2010 edition, which will sit on my bookshelf alongside well-thumbed copies going back to 1979, and I am delighted to report that it is as comprehensive as ever.

Basic biographical details for defeated candidates (dropped in 2005) have returned and the extended pieces at the front by Times columnists and others (including Paul Goodman of this parish) cover more ground than ever before. Tim noted yesterday the finding of the paper's Sam Coates about how much each vote cost the Conservative Party.

There are a selection of colour photographs from the campaign as well as bar charts alongside each constituency profile showing how the parties performed against each other - which are to scale, unlike those often seen on political leaflets...

But the most striking innovation is that the biographies of each MP begin with several sentences summarising their politics, personality and interests. In a way not dissimilar to the old Roth's Parliamentary Profiles, Greg Hurst and his colleagues at the Times have created soundbites for which some MPs I fear will never forgive them.

Here's just a taster of how some of the parliamentarians have been branded:

• Nigel Adams (Con) - "Professional Yorkshireman"
• Adrian Bailey (Lab) - "Dull, even by the standards of librarians"
• Ben Bradshaw (Lab) - "Deft lightweight"
• Andy Burnham (Lab) - "Trying unsuccessfully to shed lightweight image"
• Nadine Dorries (Con) - "Feisty, unpredictable, publicity-hungry, populist blogger"
• Richard Harrington (Con) - "Larger than life; a less fogey Nick Soames"
• John Mann (Lab) - "Rarely misses passing bandwagon"
• David Miliband (Lab) - "Erudite on policy, but questions exist over his people skills"
• Andy Slaughter (Lab) - "Manner reminiscent of an allotments committee chairman"
• Mike Wood (Lab) - "Unimpressive"

Are ticket touts entrepeneurs or criminals?

Of the MPs to win one of the twenty places in the Private Member's Bill ballot, most coverage has been secured so far by Tory MP Phillip Hollobone for his bid to ban the burqa.

But today - with the Wimbledon ladies' final taking place - Labour MP Sharon Hodgson has got some coverage for her Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill, which seeks to outlaw the practice of ticket touting.

She won second place in the ballot and her bill is scheduled to get its Second Reading next January.

She explains her reasoning for introducing the bill thus:

"What I want is legislation that makes it a criminal offence to buy up large numbers of tickets, with a view to selling them at a profit. If that wasn't allowed, people wouldn't do it."

I vividly remember when this issue came up in the early 1990s hearing the outspoken libertarian-minded Tory MP Teresa Gorman exclaiming that tickets touts should be praised for their enterprise - and my instinct is to agree with that point of view.

As long as a ticket - or any other item for that matter - is not sold on the basis of it being for the exclusive use of a named individual, why shouldn't the owner be able to sell it on? And if they bought it at a price which is effectively below the market rate and are able to make a profit when they sell it on, should they not be congratulated on making a wise investment? 

Mrs Hodgson appears to have a basic objection to an individual buying items and selling them on at a profit. Last time I checked, this was the basic tenet of the capitalist system in which we live (and the system which created the glorious £999 TV which she claimed on the taxpayer, according to the Telegraph).

It is not entirely surprising that a Labour MP should view profit as a dirty word. But if this is the beginning of her quest towards a socialist utopia, where will it end?

The Times won't even let me pay to view its website

Today is the day when The Times' paywall finally comes into being and anyone wanting to read the paper's content on its website has to pay in order to do so.

I registered last month to view the site as part of the free trial and this morning got the message that anyone will now get logging on to their website - ie that it is now "available exclusively by subscription".

They are expected to lose vast swathes of online readers as a result - and they've certainly lost one here this morning - as they won't even accept my money to allow me access to the site, as the error message I got below demonstrates:

(Needless to say my bank details were correct, and I have merely obscured them in the above image).

Then, I emailed the helpdesk to get the somewhat unhelpful autoreply:

"Thank you for your email.  This has been passed onto the Customer Services team for their attention.  Should your enquiry require a response you will be contacted within two working days."

Not an auspicious start...

9am update:

Another email arrives in my inbox from the helpdesk:

"Dear Times Online User,

Thank you for your email.  Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond our control, the World Pay payment site is unavailable at the moment. This means you can still register but we are unable to process any payments for our pay for view sites. This should be rectified shortly and we thank you for your patience."

10.30am update:

It has finally managed to accept my payment - I'm in!

Jonathan Isaby

David Cameron flew into the G20 Summit with Virgin Atlantic, not BA

Reuters reports this afternoon that British Airways and the Unite union are "willing to hold talks as early as today to avert the threat of further strike action by cabin crew in a dispute over pay and conditions."

But it would appear that Downing Street have not been taking any chances on Unite disrupting the Prime Minister's movements.

As the picture shows, David Cameron flew into Toronto for the G20 on a Virgin Atlantic jet...

You can watch his arrival in all its glory in the below video clip courtesy of the G20 summit Youtube Channel.

Happy 287th Birthday to Adam Smith!

I have just returned from the Great Smith Street HQ of the Adam Smith Institute, where celebrations were underway to celebrate the 287th anniversary of the great man's birth.

My picture above shows ASI Director Eamonn Butler cutting the birthday cake alongside an array of strawberries, which were, apparently, his favourite food.

Jonathan Isaby

Guerilla cheese-rollers flout the Health and Safety ban on their centuries-old traditional bank holiday pastime

In March I lamented here that the Health and Safety brigade were putting a stop to this year's spring bank holiday Cheese Rolling at Cooper's Hill in Gloucestershire.  

Yesterday was the appointed day for the event, which was indeed officially cancelled. However, I'm delighted to learn that a group of guerilla cheese-rollers held a kind of Continuity Cheese Rolling at the traditional location.

Sky News were there to capture the fun and frolics...

Is now really the time for the Queen to be asking for more public cash?

There have been several reports over the last couple of days that the Queen is seeking an increase in the annual £7.9 million civil list payments.

These payments have, according to the BBC, been frozen since 2000 "to compensate for 10 years of over-generous payments", but have not been sufficient to run the Royal household for several years, meaning that reserves have been dipped into to plug the shortfall.

Given the spending cuts on which the Government is embarking, it is unfortunate that the request for more funds from the Queen's Treasurer is coming now.

However, it should be pointed out that the timing is out of the Royal Family's hands - it is simply a fact that the ten-yearly civil list review is due by the first week of July.

I am an ardent monarchist and would not want the institution to be harmed, and trust that the Royal household too are mindful of the need to be reasonable in making a case for an increase in funding.

However, I also trust that Conservative MP Edward Leigh, the outgoing chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, knows more than me about the facts and figures on this matter. He says:

"The Queen, without any shadow of a doubt, needs substantially more money to carry out her duties and responsibilities. There is a lot of catching up to do. The Queen and the Royal Family do a fantastic job considering their very small resources.

"The boost to tourism, to tradition and to the country is enormous. They should be given a lot more money so they can do their job properly. The Queen's [financial] operations and the royal palaces are - compared with the rest of the public sector - exceptionally well run."

Whose idea was it to scrap the ministerial cars?

Tuesday am update:

I am reliably informed that the Conservative with an even longer-standing interest in this whole issue is Justine Greening. During her time as a shadow Treasury and then Communities minister, she established how much the ministerial cars cost through a series of parliamentary questions.

She spoke out about ministers abusing the privilege certainly as long ago as March 2008 and was continuing to criticise the waste of taxpayers' money on ministerial cars in late 2009.

Like Ed Vaizey, she too is now a minister.

---

Of the various cuts announced this morning by George Osborne and David Laws, one will have a very direct impact on ministers (who have already taken a 5% pay cut):

As Laws explained:

"In the future, no Minister should have a dedicated car or driver other than in exceptional circumstances. Ministers will be expected to walk or take public transport where possible, or use a pooled car. The pooling of cars will allow big savings to be made."

The saving is estimated at £5 million and follow through on a promise David Cameron made last September, but whose idea was it?

Nick Watt at the Guardian suggests that David Cameron was inspired by ex-Labour minister Chris Mullin to make the promise.

But in my column in GQ magazine in December, I suggested that the Tory leader had been lobbied by one of his own front bench about the idea:

Back in the summer, David Cameron announced that a Tory Government would reduce the number of chauffeur-driven cars available to ministers – not a move that went down especially well with those eyeing up jobs after the election. But if budding Conservative ministers want someone to blame, they need look no further than their colleague, Ed Vaizey, who was heard to complain after the announcement that he was not getting any credit for coming up with the idea. So now we know.

ConHome noted Ed Vaizey's view on the issue here back in February 2009.

Now a minister, Ed Vaizey is regularly to be spotted dashing by foot between the Commons and the two departments to which he is attached...

Spot the £80,000 difference

The Foreign Office has hardly shrouded itself in glory today.

The front pages of both the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Telegraph carry details of the offensive FCO memo preparing for September's Papal visit, suggesting that the Pope might like to find time to open an abortion clinic, officiate at a civil ceremony for a gay couple and launch his own brand of condoms while he is in Britain.

Elsewhere in the Mail on Sunday is news of a rebranding of the FCO logo, as the two images below show:

All that appears to have happened is a change in the font - to one called Frutiger.

As the Mail explains:

"A glossy brochure which accompanies the rebrand claims that the new identity – featuring the Royal Crest and a new typeface for the words ‘Foreign & Commonwealth Office’ – will ‘subtly represent the ‘‘Power to influence”’. The new FCO brand came into effect last month with all embassies and other posts around the world issued with a ‘brand tool kit’ including a lists of do’s and don’ts on how to use the new logo... According to the FCO, its new brand represents six words: ‘Empowering, Insightful, Principled, Persuasive, Strategic and Intelligent’."

And the cost to the taxpayer? A mere £80,000. Truly unbelievable.

Methinks a change of management is more important than a rebrand...

Hundreds of parents write to The Guardian in support of Tory education plans

Last week around fifty headteachers wrote this letter to the Guardian attacking Conservative plans to allow parents, charities and others to set up new state-funded schools.

By way of response, nearly 650 parents from around the country have written to today's Guardian criticising those teachers, in a letter organised by the New Schools Network.

They write:

"We were disappointed to see that some head teachers do not wish our plans for new, excellent schools in our communities to succeed. Many of us cannot afford to move into the right catchment area to get to the best schools, or pay school fees - and as a result we are denied a good local school. Many of us live in areas where there is no local school at all - or where population growth means there shortly won't be enough places. We have support across our communities and are working with education organisations and teachers to create an inspiring school with the class sizes, the discipline, the curriculum and the ethos that our children deserve.

"We call on politicians of all parties to support our plans and change a school system that supports the wealthy and ignores the wishes and energy of parents."

The full list of signatories is online here.

Are the DUP confused about their policy on the European Union - or just misleading us?

The Better Off Out campaign, which favours British withdrawal from the European Union, counted 15 MPs of the last parliament as supporters, according to its website.

And no fewer than eight of those 15 were MPs from the Democratic Unionist Party - meaning that only one of the DUP MPs in the last parliament was not signed up to BOO.

BOO members include their leader, Peter Robinson; deputy leader, Nigel Dodds; and their founder and former leader, Ian Paisley.

So I was slightly confused when I had a look at the DUP's manifesto for the general election yesterday.

In the section about international affairs, it merely states that:

"too many powers have been ceded by our national Government to the European Union"

and cites opposition to the UK entering the Euro zone, whilst stating the British Government:

"must do much more to oppose the continual power-grab exercised by the European Commission."

Meanwhile, in the section on agriculture, it states:

"The Common Agricultural Policy underpins primary production within Northern Ireland. Without a continuation of funding coming into Northern Ireland through the CAP, farmers could not afford to produce the raw material for the food processing sector or maintain and protect our rural landscape."

Shouldn't a party whose entire leadership team is signed up to Better Off Out state unequivocally that it favours withdrawal from the European Union, plain and simple?

Or are the DUP and all its senior ranks confused and/or misleading the people of Northern Ireland?

Another of Brown's business council loses faith with Labour's economic strategy

Due to various volcano and Cleggmania-related news, something that escaped my notice this morning was this letter in the FT from Sir John Rose, the CEO of Rolls Royce.

He is a member of Gordon Brown's business council, yet he seems very much at odds with Labour's economic approach - the latest of many leading businessmen to speak out in this way. Not only is he critical of the Government’s claim that cutting waste this year will endanger the recovery or threaten frontline services, but his view that the country must get wealth creation right echoes Conservative concerns at Labour's planned national insurance rise.

Here's what he had to say:  

Sir,

Articles last week by Martin Wolf, Max Hastings and Luke Johnson had a common theme. That we must be realistic about the state of the UK economy, that a rebalancing is necessary and that there will be no quick fix to restoring public finances to some sort of sustainable balance. I agree.

To draw an analogy, if the UK was a business, the shareholders would be asking serious questions. The current model appears to be that we can grow our business by growing overhead, by applying better terms and conditions to support functions than to wealth creators, and by paying dividends out of borrowings not all of which are recognised on the balance sheet.

We are also asked to believe that service levels will inevitably suffer if the costs of delivery are reduced. This need not be the case. As any business will confirm, service levels will reflect prioritisation, proper definition of desired outcomes, concentration on reducing waste and investment in productivity.

In the UK, the debate now needs to focus on how to make the pie bigger, rather than how it is sliced. We must concentrate on creating an environment where the enablers of wealth creation, which government can influence, are world class. In defining the right policies, there are many examples against which we can assess ourselves, but we must measure honestly and then take the necessary actions to be competitive. Importantly, there must be the will to apply policy consistently and over the long term.

If we get wealth creation right, distribution and consumption will follow. It cannot be done in the reverse order.

An outrageous breach of BBC guidelines on political reporting

I rarely get into the realms of attacking the BBC for its political coverage.

But there is a story running on its website today which beggars belief.

Bear in mind the BBC's editorial guidelines are especially strict during election time and state:

"News judgements at election time are made within a framework of democratic debate which ensures that due weight is given to hearing the views and examining and challenging the policies of all parties."

And then read this story on the BBC News website written by Sarah Bell, who conducts a straw poll of six voters in one constituency - all of whom are voting Lib Dem. Outrageous.

Have the England rugby team made a unwitting donation to the Labour Party?

I am alerted to an auction currently taking place on eBay for a signed England Rugby shirt.

The blurb reads as follows:

"We have a signed England International Rugby Shirt (size M) kindly donated by England International Ugo Monye. The shirt has been signed by ALL of his England 6 Nations teammates. This is a truly unique item that is a must for all rugby fans!"

To which charity have the England lads given their support in this way?

The answer is: the campaign to re-elect Fiona Mactaggart as Labour MP for Slough.

I'm sure that sports teams sign shirts like this for charity auctions all the time, and doubtless they do so without wanting chapter and verse about every charity they are supporting when they do so.

But I would venture that they would not expect such items to be used as a way of raising money for a political party. Did Ugo Monye ask all his team mates if they were happy to help the Labour Party in this way? I suspect not - not least because if the rugby squad were representative of the population as whole, less than a third could be expected to be Labour Party supporters (and in my limited experience, very few rugby clubs are hotbeds of socialism).

It would be one thing for a random individual who owns such an item to donate it second-hand to a political fundraiser; but for an individual player to be giving such an item to a party weeks before a general election, effectively associating his whole team with a political cause, is not on.

Lebedev buys The Independent - will he make Greg Dyke editor?

It has been confirmed this afternoon that Russian billionnaire Alexander Lebedev has bought The Independent and Independent on Sunday to add to the Evening Standard, which he purchased last year.

It was rumoured several weeks ago and I am hearing the suggestion as loudly this afternoon as then from Fleet Street sources, that the new owner wants to install Greg Dyke as editor of the paper, which would raise potentially interesting questions over the paper's editorial line.

Dyke did of course publicly join the Lib Dems in the afternath of the Iraq war, having been a Labour GLC candidate in the 1970s and donor to Labour in the 1990s, before he joined the BBC as director-general.

However, his anti-Conservative feeling should not be under-estimated: he lives in Vince Cable's constituency of Twickenham in south west London and told me before he joined the Lib Dems that he had been voting for them for years as he was voting tactically against the Conservatives in a seat where Labour had no chance of winning...

> Earlier in the month Tim wondered whether The Indepenski would give the Tories a fairer deal

The Electoral Commission tells Returning Officers that failing to take reasonable steps to count votes on General Election Nights could see them prosecuted

Last week, Eric Pickles called for the Electoral Commission to give Returning Officers an "unambiguous steer" that General Election counts must take place on the Thursday night.

Yesterday, the Electoral Commission published a draft of its guidance (it won't be definitive until the Constitutional  Reform and Governance Bill becomes law) which is by all accounts quite encouraging.

It instructs Returning Officers who were thinking of counting on the Friday morning that they

"will now need actively to re-consider what steps it is reasonable to take in order to be able to commence counting the votes before 2am"

before reminding them that

"if they do not take reasonable steps, a court may find them to be in breach of their official duty under Section 63 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (as amended)."

The draft guidance goes through some of the factors which Returning Officers will need to bear in mind when making their decision (eg venue availability, staffing, geography etc) and reminds the that anyone who does decide on a Friday count will by law have to be able to "provide an audit trail demonstrating their decision making process".

Read the draft guidance in its entirety here.

Mr Pickles responded to the publication of the draft guidance by reiterating his call for Returning Officers to do as Parliament has bid and prepare for a General Election Night count:

"Parliament has made a clear change to the law, creating a presumption in favour of overnight counts in the forthcoming general election. With the exception of the most geographically remote parts of the United Kingdom, town hall Returning Officers should now be actively planning to count their Parliamentary election on election night. Those who announced Friday counts should be making the necessary arrangements to revert back to Thursday evening counts. If unelected Returning Officers intend to defy the will of Parliament, they should come clean and say so now. There is still time for the Bill to be amended to make it more robust so that Parliament’s democratically expressed wishes can be duly implemented."