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It seems that I have been slightly harsh on @janeinlondon / East Hampshire. I shouldn’t have singled out my local @LambethLabour candidate for having parliamentary political ambitions over in East Hampshire, or failing that, looking after the Little People in Lambeth.

A bit of digging around, and it now appears that Jane Edbrooke is not alone within @LambethLabour in looking towards Westminster first, and then the Rotten Borough second.

Blimey.

Forget the previous parlour game of Political Musical Chairs - it now seems that a number of @LambethLabour local Councillors are playing Pin the Tail on the Political Constituency / Ward.

First up we have Councillor Morgan, the democratically elected representative for my nearby Prince’s ward. You may remember how the ward was forced into a by-election, when Councillor Townsend decided to bugger off to Bristol with his £10k allowance.

Whoops.

The good voters of Prince’s ward would do well to remember this when they head to the ballot box on May 6th. So would the good voters over in Orpington, where Councillor Morgan is ‘doing an Edbrooke,’ as it is now known in local political circles.

Yep - that’s right. If at first you don’t succeed, double yer money (and your electable chances) by having the option of either a Westminster seat, or a local Council seat.

Priorities, priorities. It’s a complete sham of democracy, both for constituency and wards alike. The electorate want firm commitments, not a politician that is going to flip loyalties, depending on the size of their majority.

But wait - there’s more…

Looking over the boundaries of my Oval ward, and I note that Neeraj Patil, the current @LambethLabour councillor for Larkhall, is putting himself up once again to represent the fine folk of SW8.

Looking out further still, and I note that the flipping (as in flipping loyalties, natch) Councillor is also putting himself up to become the next MP for the not so nearby Surrey Heath.

Cripes.

Completing the hat trick of current @LambethLabour Councillors who are getting a little too big for their local authority boots is Councillor Sabharwal. The current Ferndale representative has a lively local ward to represent. One can only wonder then how he will find the time to also represent the good folk of North Herefordshire as their next MP.

A recent Freedom of Informaton request revealed that Stephen Morgan attended only 50% of full council meetings in the past political year. I am awaiting details of a further FOI request, asking what level of allowance each Lambeth Councillor has claimed this year.

Given his attendance record, it would be most disappointing to find that Councillor Morgan has troused his full £10,000 annual allowance; a fee of £5,000 would seem more appropriate.

Councillor Patil fares slightly better, having attended six out of the ten full council meetings. Credit where it is due - Councillor Sabharwal has the full set of ten out of ten.

Someone give that man PPC status…

But we’re not finished yet. Not quite ‘doing an Edbrooke,’ but what about the mysterious case of Kingsley Abrams, the current @LambethLabour Councillor for Vassall ward? Kingsley is standing once again under the Nu Labour banner in an attempt to become a local Lambeth politician.

I’m still not sure about the Wimbledon constituency though. It seems neither is Kingsley…

His own personal site was a campaigning shop front, boasting of how Kingsley is the best candidate for the good people of Wimbledon to elect as their next MP. A screenshot of the Vassall Councillor campaigning over in SW19 is published below.

How very strange then to find that the website has now been pulled, and Councillor Abrams is no longer listed as the Labour PPC for Wimbledon.

Maybe it is simply that Councillor Abrams has more sense than Neil Sabharwal, Neeraj Patil, Stephen Morgan and yes, Jane Edbrooke, in realising that local voters in Lambeth don’t take too kindly to this dual candidacy betrayal.

Political ambition - yes please. Doing an Edbrooke and keeping it quiet to the Little People of Lambeth about how you want to bugger off to Westminster - no thanks.

@LambethLabour has some very fine candidates. The Town Hall is a better place for being represented by these folk.

But once again, @LambethLabour - clarification on all of the above local / national candidates would be appreciated. Any more career politicians to add to my tally chart please?

Hurrah! Finally some local election literature from @LambethLabour and @janeinlondon / East Hampshire. Hand delivered, and specifically addressed to me as well.

Blimey

@AnnaJCowen has expressed some disgust that the PPC for East Hampshire hasn’t taken the care and concern to hand deliver an election manifesto to her personally.

Contained within, is the pledge from Jane Edbrooke to: “support local business.”

I’m unsure if our local council candidate is talking about local business in South London, or down in her East Hampshire prospective parliamentary constituency.

But anyway - the @LambethLabour manifesto is all well and good. The printed copy hasn’t changed from the PDF’s I was sent last month. It still contains the libellous kerb crawling allegations made against @LambethLibDems on p5.

It also still contains the exact same pledge of:

“Free swimming for every resident.”

This *really* is worth repeating - @LambethLabour is promising:

Free swimming for every resident, should the party retain control of Lambeth Council.

Cripes.

Having already snaffled the copy of my personal @LambethLabour manifesto, the eyes of @AnnaJCowen lit up as she read the free swimming pledge. It was with a heavy heart that I led the girl to the comments on m’blog from Labour leader @cllrstevereed, helpfully explaining that “free swimming for every resident” is actually pre-election talk of a taster session.

The girl isn’t happy. Having uploaded the letter from @janeinlondon / East Hampshire to @democlub, @AnnaJCowen has requested that the Labour letter now remains firmly by the front door.

Not exactly the most political of animals, but *should* @janeinlondon / East Hampshire come door knocking around here, I think @AnnaJCowen would like that “free swimming for every resident” pledge explained personally.

Despite the helpful intervention of the @cllrstevereed, it still remains something of a complete lie in the @LambethLabour manifesto. Should the party be returned to power next month, then come May 7th, *every* resident in Lambeth is within their right to turn up at Brixton Rec and demand “free swimming” for the following fours years.

Assuming the pool is still open, that is.

Only in La La Lambeth Land.

But yeah, @janeinlondon / East Hampshire, cheers for the personal letter.

Here is a picture of the @LambethLabour candidate standing in The Oval ward for the forthcoming local elections. I am publishing the photograph of Jane Edbrooke, because local people in my ward have seen very little of the Labour team.

I’m not sure if the situation is any different down in East Hampshire, which is where Jane is also standing as the PPC for the Westminster seat.

Cripes.

I’m all for ambition, but spreading yourself between South London and East Hampshire is stretching it slightly.

This maybe explains the lack of #labourdoorstep activity around SW8, not to mention the nowhere to be seen “opportunity to feed into the consultation process” for the proposed cooperative council, as Jane posted up on her blog (South London version.)

Let us not forget that our friends @LambethLabour have past form in holding political ambitions in different parts of the country. Councillor Sam Townsend was eventually forced to resign his Prince’s ward seat, after he moved to Bristol, yet still continued to claim his £10,000 annual local authority allowance.

It is not surprising that many questions remain over the political ambitions of Jane Edbrooke ahead of May 6th, both locally and nationally.

What is going to happen to Jane, should the ambitious career politician be elected as both a Lambeth Councillor, as well as a Westminster MP? Will she base herself at The Oval, or over in her East Hampshire constituency? Or maybe even right on the other side of the Lambeth borough in Herne Hill, which is where Jane currently lives?

Like most career politicians, Jane is thankfully on twitter (@janeinlondon - @janeineasthampshire is not yet taken.) Like most career politicians, Jane isn’t that great at answering questions put to her via twitter.

She was decent enough though to send me an email, confirming her candidature in both South London and East Hampshire:

I live in Lambeth and am fully committed to campaigning for a Labour council and a Labour Oval ward.

If Jane is committed to The Oval, then why has she got greater political ambitions down in East Hampshire? And is she telling the good people of East Hampshire that she is equally “committed” to their patch? If not, why not?

Or could it simply be that Jane is standing in East Hampshire as a *shhh* paper candidate, happy to make up the numbers, safe in the knowledge the Tory 5,509 majority is out of her reach?

If so - shame on her. This is a mockery of democracy. In it to win it.

The good people of East Hampshire deserve a stronger PPC, someone with genuine ambitions to win the seat, and hold the local Conservative party to account. A General Election isn’t a work experience opportunity for an aspirational career politician.

It was only through a lack of information about my local @LambethLabour candidates that led me to make the connection between The Oval and East Hampshire. In the absence of any information coming my way from @LambethLabour, I had to Google the candidate names being put forward.

I wonder if Jane was going to publicly declare her dual interest, had I not asked her directly? And what of the good folk in East Hampshire? Has Jane declared her Lambeth interests down on the South coast?

To be fair to Jane, she has been out doing the politician’s meet ‘n greet thing around my little patch of South London.

She has also been out doing the politician’s meet ‘n greet thing around East Hampshire, although probably not at the same time as her South London electioneering.

It all must seem rather exciting, flipping wards and constituencies each weekend. I wonder which seat Jane secretly would like to win the most? And where will she base herself on election night?

Or what about if Jane wins The Oval seat, but not East Hampshire, and then the Labour party offers her a more winnable Parliamentary seat, midway through her Lambeth political career?

It’s the ultimate double your money political gamble. Some you win, some you don’t.

Local politics in my little patch of South London has just become incredibly exciting.

X marks the spot.

If this doesn’t brighten up your Bank Holiday blues, then nothing will - it’s only some election literature through the letterbox from @LambethLibDems.

Blimey.

All information is welcome as we approach the local elections on May 6th. In the absence of anything from @LambethLabour and @janeinlondon East Hampshire (more of which to follow…) here’s what the Love Me I’m a Liberal lot have to say.

First of all, about that publication name: South London News.

Urgh.

You would have thought that @LambethLibDems would want to try and put as much distance as possible between itself and @SthLondonPress. The sex ad funded local newspaper is a key election issue in Lambeth.

More specifically, @LambethLibDems have yet to come up with any answer as to where they would place statutory local authority adverts, should they win the election and carry out their pledge to stop publishing Lambeth Life.

But anyway, moving on…

Tories are Third - Again and Again!

…screams the headline to accompany the hastily knocked up bar chart in the right hand corner of the South London News.

Hurrah! I think.

But wait, what’s this?

With @LambethLabour polling 44% of the votes back in the 2006 local election, and @LambethLibDems only managing 30%, which party d’ya reckon managed a rather respectable 17% for a traditional Tory hating inner city borough?

Blimey - it was only the blue rinse mob from the leafy Lambeth suburbs of West Norwood and West Dulwich. It doesn’t take a mathematical genius (or even a local LibDem politician) to calculate that 30% + 17% = 47%, a figure that would put a LibDem / Tory marriage of inconvenience in power at Lambeth Town Hall.

Tories are Third - Again and Again! (…but @LambethLibDems may just need their support on the morning of May 7th.)

The lead in South London News is on the economy; hardly a micro local level issue. Vince Cable’s proposed tax free allowance is also hardly a local credible alternative to @LambethLabour’s proposed John Lewis Petri dish experimentation with the Lambeth budget. I remain to be convinced how the LibDems in Lambeth plan to manage the cuts, something that all local politicians agree need to be carried out.

p2 of South London News has a piece on Tube Closures Anger, with a by-line from the Transport Correspondent, Andrew Sawdon.

Ah, that would be the good Councillor Andrew Sawdon, who although has been a very decent local LibDem Councillor for my Oval ward, he should perhaps take care with giving himself a fancy journo title, in what is essentially a piece of party propaganda. That’s what Lambeth Life is for, isn’t it?

The picture to accompany the copy has the caption of:

CLOSED: Stockwell passengers are hard hit by the tube closures.

Pictured are ‘Stockwell passengers’ Anthony Bottrall, a prominent LibDem campaigner around Sunny Stockwell, as well as LibDem Vauxhall spokesperson, Caroline Pidgeon. How hard can it be to find some genuine Stockwell passengers who are sympathetic to the LibDem campaign to stop closures on the Victoria Line?

Um…

p3 picks up on the complete failure of @LambethLabour’s housing policy, as well as some crime stats, stating:

Burglary up 21% and gun crime up a 73%.

No mention of the very fine work of the Neighbourhood Safety Panels that have been introduced so successfully under the current Labour administration.

And that’s about yer lot from the Love Me I’m a Liberal Lot. A mixture of national and local policies, plenty of smiling Councillors and not a pothole picture in site.

In the absence of anything from @LambethLabour and @janeinlondon East Hampshire : come in Oval Conservatives. We (and @LambethLibDems) need you now, more than ever.

Cripes.