Liberal Democrat candidate Ed Fordham needs just 474 votes to win the seat from Glenda Jackson. Driving through QP this afternoon I saw lots of Labour posters and flags with only a few Lib Dem orange diamonds. Looks like there is mroe work for the Lib Dem team to do there. The Torys had just a single board - just like the solitary piece of literature I found from them today....
WBTimes report that “Floella Benjamin ditched the teddy bear props” when she joined Lib Dem candidate for Brent Central, Sarah Teather this week. Floella joined Sarah on Harlesden High Street to collect signatures in Harlesden, to sign up residents to a petition urging the government to reform air passenger duty. Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom airport....
Brent councillor James Powney laments the threat and use of legal writ to silence debate, tending towards an environment where ‘legitimate freedom of speech could be restricted by self censorship.’ Legal writ has its strength though. When Brent Labour distributed a leaflet with false claims about Sarah Teather, the Brent Leb Dems took appropriate legal measures. In the face of the legal action, Labour have now admitted their story was false and agreed to pay the Lib Dems legal costs....
More on Atiq Malik, independent candidate in Brent Central, on this weeks WBTimes front page. They don’t disclose the nature of the allegations against him for ‘legal reasons’ and the internet isn’t throwing up rumours for me to link to, not even on Labour Cllr James Powney’s blog - although there is a great archive of items on Atiq Malik’s views on women and optioning aspects of Sharia Law for UK Muslims....
The Willesden and Brent Times spoke to local candidates standing as independents or for the smaller parties, including Shahrar Ali for the Green Party and Atiq Malik. Atiq Malik is Brents' own ‘controversial’ candidate. An ex-conservative councillor in Queensbury ward, jumped/pushed from the party in 2008, he has previously been referred to the Standards Board for England, the standards watchdog for Councillors and other officials. He was subsequently cleared of misconduct....