A fair, free and open society

Just thought I'd share the opening words to the Lib-Dem's preamble to the federal constitution:

"The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society"

Mary Di Mauro wins by 25 votes!!!

After a two year campaign of working hard for Northenden, Northern Moor and Benchill, Mary Di Mauro wins the Northenden Ward election of 2010.

CONGRATUALTIONS MARY!!

Final scores:

BNP: 233 (booo!)

UKIP: 166

Lab: 2478

Lib-Dem: 2503

Con: 546

Lib-Dem flash mob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDnNMnNrEPA

Upside down

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaruPtx-eFM

Well worth watching.

MEN poll says LDs overtaken Lab in Manchester

MEN on-line poll shows 41% of Lab support has switched to the Lib-Dems.

With 3 days of campaigning to go, it looks like we should make some considerable gains here in Greater Manchester!

Guardian defects to Lib-Dems

Surge in Mcr voter registration

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8643934.stm

Almost 7000 registered in the last month - according to Sir Howard this is "unprecedented".

If evenly spread across all 32 wards, this would mean an extra 213 voters in each.

Some are speculating that the surge is a result of the debates, and many people are registering to vote for the Lib-Dems.

The British Electoral System

COMRES polling data analysis

COMRES polling data analysis

April 14th (before 1st debate) --> April 24th (post 2nd debate)

I've compiled and analysed the data tables of ComRes' latest poll, and compared them with 10 days ago, before the 1st debate.

The movements are both stark and encouraging for the Lib-Dem.

Age groups

The biggest surge has been in the under 45s, where we are now well ahead of Labour, and ahead of the Conservatives amongst the under 35s. All other age groups have seen significant rises also.

Interestingly we are now ahead of Labour in the pensioner age group, whereas we were almost 1:2 behind before the 1st debate:

Regional voting intention

The best news for us in Manchester is how we're doing in the North compared to 10 days ago.

We've almost trebled our support in our region, surpassing both parties.

Crucially we're ahead of the Tories in the South West were we are defending a great number of our seats:

Regional Leads

Just to really ram how much support we now have in the North - here's our regional leads:

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO FOR NORTHERN LIB-DEMS!

Latest COMRES shows LDs ahead of Lab in North, under 45s, and AB&C1s

Have the Lib-Dems replaced Labour as the natural party of power in Manchester?

In Manchester the Tories are nowhere - they haven't won a Council election in 18 years, so I've ignored their polling results over the last 10 days and I've just looked at Labour vs Lib-Dems.

What would these polls mean for Manchester if they were replicated on the final poll on 6th May?

....Lev

Government response to Aviation Growth petition

http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22515

"The UK committed to binding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets under the Climate Change Act 2008. Under the Act, GHGs must be 80% below 1990 levels by 2050. We are the first country in the world to have such a framework and under the Act the Government sets binding five year budgets. In 2009, we set out the carbon budgets for the first three five year periods from 2008-22.

Domestic aviation emissions are included in budgets. International aviation emissions are outside of the UK’s carbon budgeting framework under the Climate Change Act. This is mainly due to the global nature of the sector, which makes it difficult to allocate emissions on a national basis.

Government must either include international aviation and shipping emissions in UK carbon budgets by the end of 2012, or report to Parliament on why they are being kept outside. However, we believe that a global, sectoral approach is more appropriate for aviation. This would, in effect, make aircraft operators responsible for their emissions, rather than countries.

Even though international aviation is not included in the Climate Change Act, the UK still has one of the toughest aviation climate change regimes in the world. In 2009 we set a long-term target for UK aviation CO2 emissions that they should be lower in 2050 than in 2005 (equivalent to 37.5 million tonnes of CO2). The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) provided advice to us on this target in December 2009.

The CCC report makes clear that, even in the least optimistic case (the ‘likely’ case), the target can still be achieved while allowing significant growth in air travel (CCC describe this as a 60% growth in passenger numbers or a 54% growth in air traffic movements). The report also states that ‘there are no implications for specific airports e.g. Heathrow’ and advises instead that any future growth should consider the environmental implications, and ensure consistency with climate change goals.

The Government remains committed to its policy framework for aviation set out in the 2003 White Paper, The Future of Air Transport. We have also committed to producing a National Policy Statement on Airports in 2011 which will take account of all relevant developments since 2003, including of course this recently published advice from the CCC."

I've never voted Labour before....

Waiting for Gordo...

It's been over a week since the petition below reached it's target of 500 signatures, and I'm hoping that the PM's office is about to respond.

I just hope that the answer isn't evasive and lacking in clarity, and solves the contradiction definitively.

Dear Prime Minister...

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/aviation-growth/