Charlotte Vere: An Apology

Following an earlier post today, now removed, I accept that I was mistaken in suggesting that an error had been made regarding election expenses by the campaign team of the Conservative candidate in Brighton Pavilion, Charlotte Vere. When this was pointed out to me by a friend, I took the post down until I could [...]

Waiting and watching in Brighton Pavilion

Unlike the weather, the race in Brighton Pavilion is hotting up.  I have been deliberately quiet for the last couple of weeks, trying to see how ordinary people, not anoraks like me, might be experiencing the campaigns of Nancy, Caroline and Charlotte.  I wondered if the campaigns would be visible, and if so which ones [...]

Today’s demonstration in Brighton abused the memory of those who died in Gaza

Returning to Brighton this afternoon after a few days abroad, I encountered the anti-EDO, ‘remember Gaza’ demonstration, but the youths on the street seemed more intent on provoking the police than paying respect to the victims of the Israeli assault on Palestinians.  I saw a poster promoting the demo – it had a picture of Gaza and [...]

When candidates are desparate, their campaign goes dirty ….. just look at the Vere campaign

Most political campaigns start off with the noble  intention of keeping their campaign clean and honourable, but there can come a point when a candidate begins attacking their opponent because their campaign is going nowhere. What is unusual about the Vere campign is that it is hardly eight weeks since she was selected, and her campaign has turned dirty.  The Conservatives [...]

Could the Greens deliver the impossible by winning Brighton Kemptown?

It is probably not achievable in 2010, but why not aim to make Brighton the first Green city, with the first Green MP elected in Brighton Pavilion, followed by a Green MP in Brighton Kemptown and a Green Council in 2011? With Caroline Lucas’ campaign going from strength to strength in Brighton Pavilion, is it possible [...]

Cameron’s inability to articulate clear policies is eroding confidence in his ability to be Prime Minister

Am I alone in cringing every time David Cameron avoids giving clear and direct responses to clear and direct questions?  He says he opposes various Labour proposals and then, when pressed, will not say what a Tory government will do?  On the Andrew Marr programme this morning, for example, he said the Tories opposed Labour’s plans for [...]

Caroline Lucas has the Big Mo

In the West Wing they call it the Big Mo.  Bartlett had it. Santos had it.  Now Lucas has it.  Momentum!  The real difference is that in the case of Caroline Lucas it is real.  It may be the start of a snow blizzard out there, with freezing pavements and fresh snow everywhere.  But all you can [...]

Come on, Charlotte. It is quite simple, take off the “Vote Green – Go Blackshirt” link.

Charlotte Vere is not doing herself any favours by keeping the link on her blog to the website that likens the policies of the Green Party to that of the extreme right “Vote Green – Go Blackshirt”.  The longer she leaves the link, and thereby undermining her ‘apology’, the longer she will cause offence, the [...]

Charlotte Vere’s continuing promotion of the “Vote Green – Go Blackshirt” website is the politics of the gutter

In a letter in today’s Argus, Charlotte Vere has again repeated the ‘nudging someone on a train’ / ‘snowstorm in a teacup’ lines about her re-Tweeting a link to a website that says “Vote Green – Go Blackshirt”.  She says “If I have caused offence, I apologise – it was certainly not intended”. But what [...]

Was Charlotte Vere’s apology empty words? It appears so.

Charlotte Vere has made a point of apologising for the “snowstorm in a teacup” yesterday for re-Tweeting a link to a blog that likened the policies of the Greens to those of the BNP.   The blog she thought worthy of promoting was headed “Vote Green – Go Blackshirt”.  Disgusting and outrageous.  Yesterday she has said [...]