Election Diary
Published: 22 April 2010
by RICHARD OSLEY
• NICK Clegg’s missus, Miriam González Durantez, doesn’t miss a trick. Snapped reading the Camden New Journal on Sunday, she turned our front page over with her thumb so that the picture of Samantha Cameron on last week’s page 1 would not be seen.
• LONG-SERVING Labour councillor Brian Woodrow – he’s done a 20-year stretch – bids farewell with a drinks do tomorrow night. The former planning chairman was deselected by his own party in Holborn and Covent Garden. Interesting then to see that in the same ward, Robert McCracken QC is standing for the Green Party. McCracken was the lawyer who successfully defended Woodrow in a Standards Board investigation into his handling of the King’s Cross railway lands development. Still living in Holborn, that’s a test of loyalty on polling day for Brian.
• LIB Dem Ed Fordham irritates all his opponents by claiming he is only 474 votes off victory in Hampstead and Kilburn. Dodgy figures from very old polls is the claim from Tory opponent Chris Philp. But whatever you make of the figure, isn’t it spooky that the only Labour MP to represent Hampstead other than Glenda Jackson lost his seat by that exact margin? The history books show Ben Whitaker was beaten by Tory Geoffrey Finsberg in 1970 by bang on 474 votes.
• THERE was oh-my-gosh surprise in the Lib Dem office this week, when the CNJ did the unthinkable: We turned down a piece to be “written” by the man of the hour himself, Nick Clegg. Striking while the iron is hot, his team has been punting opinion pieces to local newspapers all across key seats, tweaked here and there depending on the nature of the constituency. Remember: They are definitely written by Mr Clegg. Not by his aides. He writes them. On his battle bus. By himself. They are not, absolutely no way, no chance, written by his helpers.
• QUESTION on every candidate’s lips: does Haverstock School – the location for the May 6 counts – have the right licence for a makeshift bar to serve alcohol? Anaesthetic may be needed.