Coalition 'faces test in Oldham'

UK's coalition govt faces first ballot test
LONDON - It's the first Ballot Box test of Britain's unlikely Coalition Government — a Special Election that pits Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party against his Liberal Democrat partners and gives voters a chance to vent over plans to dramatically slash public spending. Thursday's vote in the northern England district of Oldham East and Saddleworth follows a bitter local battle during Britain's election in May that resulted in the first Legal Challenge since 1911 to a ...

UK's unlikely coalition faces first electoral test
It's the first Ballot Box test of Britain's unlikely Coalition Government — a Special Election that pits Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party against his Liberal Democrat partners and gives voters a chance to vent over plans to dramatically slash public spending. Thursday's vote in the northern England district of Oldham East and Saddleworth follows a bitter local battle during Britain's election in May that resulted in the first Legal Challenge since 1911 to a vote due to ill...

UKs unlikely coalition faces first electoral test
LONDON (AP) — It’s the first Ballot Box test of Britain’s unlikely Coalition Government — a Special Election that pits Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party against his Liberal Democrat partners and gives voters a chance to vent over plans to dramatically slash public spending. Thursday’s vote in the northern England district of Oldham East and Saddleworth follows a bitter local battle during Britain’s election in May that resulted in the fir...

British PM says trusts deputy, but not friends
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he trusted his deputy Nick Clegg but would not go so far as to say they were friends, in an interview out Saturday. Cameron told the Daily Mail newspaper that both his Conservatives and Clegg's Liberal Democrats had taken a risk in governing together. Asked if he would describe himself and Clegg as friends yet, Cameron replied: "Hmm. Well, we wouldn't go to the cinema together, quite, but we've had him and (his wife) Miriam round for supper." Cameron has...

Clegg vows to restore civil liberties in Britain
Reporting from London — Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg pledged Friday to restore "our great British freedoms," saying that too many basic liberties had been eroded in the name of keeping Britain safe from Terrorism. Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats who last year teamed with Conservatives to form a new Coalition Government, accused previous Labor Party governments of a relentless assault on Civil Liberties, pledging to reverse it. "The British people have become accustomed to...

British PM says trusts deputy, but not yet friends
British Prime Minister David Cameron said he trusted his deputy Nick Clegg but would not go so far as to say they were friends, in an interview out Saturday. Cameron told the Daily Mail newspaper that both his Conservatives and Clegg's Liberal Democrats had taken a risk in governing together. Asked if he would describe himself and Clegg as friends yet, Cameron replied: "Hmm. Well, we wouldn't go to the cinema together, quite, but we've had him and (his wife) Miriam round for supper." Cameron has...

David Cameron denies Oldham byelection pact claims
David Cameron visited Oldham East and Saddleworth today to dispel claims of a byelection pact with the Lib Dems. The prime minster urged voters to back the Conservative Candidate, barrister Kashif Ali. Photograph: WPA Pool/Getty Images David Cameron paid a flying visit to Oldham East and Saddleworth today to dispel suspicions that the Tories are pulling punches in the byelection campaign to help their Lib Dem coalition partners defeat Labour next Thursday - or at least to spare them a ...

David Miliband eyes up a fresh role in television
The former Foreign Secretary David Miliband at his home in Primrose Hill, London, where he is considering his career options. Photograph: Richard Saker for the Observer David Miliband is considering a role in television, in a surprise move that appears to dash his brother Ed's hopes that he can be persuaded to join the shadow cabinet. The Labour leadership Candidate, who lost out to his brother by the narrowest of margins last September, after a bitterly fought contest in which he started as...

Britain vows to change 'embarrassing' libel law...
Britain's plaintiff-friendly Libel laws have become an international embarrassment, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Friday, vowing to change rules that have made the country a "libel Tourism" destination for angry corporations and foreign celebrities. In a Speech on Civil Liberties, Clegg said the existing laws, which place the burden of proof on defendants, have a chilling effect on journalism and scientific debate. It is "simply not right when academics and Journalists are effectively bu...

Nick Clegg: Coalition will replace control order regime
guardian.co.uk, Friday 7 January 2011 12.07 GMT Nick Clegg said more account needed to be taken of Civil Liberties while countering Terrorism. Photograph: Getty Images The deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, today confirmed that the control order regime will be replaced by the Coalition Government, ending the "virtual house arrest" of Terror Suspects. In a keynote London Speech on civil liberties, Clegg said no final agreement had been reached by ministers on a replacement of the controversi...

The LWOT: Obama considers ignoring Congressional Gitmo ban; UK to modify but continue control orders - by Andrew Lebovich
Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation bring you a twice weekly brief on the legal War on Terror. You can read it on foreignpolicy.com or get it delivered directly to your inbox -- just sign up here. The Investigative Journalism website ProPublica reported Jan. 3 that President Barack Obama was considering issuing a "signing statement" declaring his intention not to abide by provisions of a new defense spending bill limiting his authority to transfer Guantánamo Bay detaine...

Clegg Admits Defeat: UK Control Orders to Remain in All But Name
With his political star already clearly fading, British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg saw another defeat today when his much publicized effort to end the practice of “control orders,” the British term for House Arrest without charges, has been a failure. This comes less than a week after his party was touting the secret “Compromise” deal as a big win, but now reports say that the program will remain essentially unchanged, except that they will stop calling them ̶...

Culture War: The Battle for Australia's Soul
SYDNEY - A cultural battle pitting Christians against Australia's first atheist Prime Minister and her party may be looming in the land down under. Just three months after a new minority government assumed power, Social Issues are now topping the legislative agenda. Prime Minister Julia Gillard is having trouble keeping radical members of her Labor-Green Party Coalition Government in line. The Green Party's sole representative in parliament is pushing to garner support for Gay Marriage. He a...

Empty homes rules tightened 'to protect civil liberties'
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 6 January 2011 23.00 GMT The government is to tighten up the rules that allow councils to seize empty homes, claiming the current system, introduced under Labour, infringes Civil Liberties. Eric Pickles, the communities secretary, said he was protecting the "fundamental human right" to property, citing cases where people have had their homes seized when visiting sick relatives abroad for extended periods. But charities claimed the move would deter councils from reclaimi...

Ex-MP gets 18 months for expenses fraud
LONDON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- A former member of the British Parliament was sentenced to 18 months Friday for submitting false claims for expenses for houses he or his family owned. David Chaytor was immediately taken into Custody, The Daily Telegraph reported, citing a police source. A spokesman for the Labor Party said he will be barred from membership. Chaytor, 61, born in Bury in the Manchester area, was elected to Parliament from Bury North in 1997. He was suspended by the Labor Party in 2009 aft...

Ireland: Defence minister Fianna Failexodus ahead of election
Ireland's defence minister has said he will not stand in an upcoming parliamentary election, joining an exodus from the governing Fianna Fail party ahead of an expected record drubbing. Tony Killeen is the third senior minister in as many months to decide not to run in the General Election, expected to be held in late March, in which Fianna Fail's presence in the lower house could be halved, according to Opinion Polls. The party, ADVERTISEMENT which has dominated the republic's politics for mo...

Cameron says banks must curb bonuses
David Cameron was accused of “standing idly by” over Controversial bank payments after the Prime Minister said he did not want to micromanage the Financial Sector ahead of the annual Bonus season. Mr Cameron told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that banks should pay out a lower total figure to staff than they did a year ago. The part-nationalised banks, RBS and Lloyds Banking Group, had a particular responsibility to restrain their pay-outs, he said. EDITOR’S CHOICE Westminste

The West Still Wants In #ableg #cdnpoli
There has never been a western Prime Minister. (Harper is from Toronto, by the way. He doesn’t count, even though he has been transplanted to Calgary.) Just recently with the Edmonton Expo going up in smoke, the long term terrible-non-existent really-oil and Natural Gas policies, regulatory undersight, substantially less support from the stimulus in relation to other, most electorally ripe, areas of the country and many other things are facets of an undercurrent in Canadian Soc...

Britain Vows To Change 'Embarrassing' Libel Law
Britain's plaintiff-friendly Libel laws have become an international embarrassment, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Friday, vowing to change rules that have made the country a "libel Tourism" destination for angry corporations and foreign celebrities. In a Speech on Civil Liberties, Clegg said the existing laws, which place the burden of proof on defendants, have a chilling effect on journalism and scientific debate. It is "simply not right when academics and Journalists are effectively bu...

Secretary of State wants earlier primary election
Secretary of State Sam Reed wants the Washington Legislature to move the state's Primary Election two weeks earlier to the first Tuesday in August. The change would ensure that those serving in the Military and living overseas, about 45,000 voters, would get their November ballots early enough to vote and returned by General Election day. The primary now is the third Tuesday in August. A new federal law requires Military ballots be mailed 45 days before Election Day. David Ammons, spokesman fo...

Was David Cameron's quip a way of distancing himself from Andy Coulson? | Michael White
Was David Cameron's quip a way of distancing himself from Andy Coulson? David Cameron campaigns with the Conservative Candidate Kashif Ali in Oldham. Photograph: Andrew Yates/PA I must admit that I find David Cameron a likeable public figure, both in the way he usually conducts himself in the day job and in occasional brief exchanges when we meet. But he has a dangerous streak of flippancy that makes me wince and wonder what it says about him. Or is it what it says about Andy Coulson? Here's...

Why are the Tories rebelling against the Coalition?
David Cameron's backbenchers are proving surprisingly willing to vote against the Government, reports Tim Montgomerie. ...

The man who could make or break Sarah Palin in New Hampshire
As the publisher of the Union Leader, the biggest newspaper in New Hampshire, and the most conservative, Joe McQuaid will play a crucial role in the 2012 Republican presidential primary. I spoke with McQuaid last week about the history of the primary, how he sees the 2012 field shaping up, and how he approaches the Endorsement process. In an era when the influence of newspaper editorial pages is on the decline, the Union Leader's Endorsement remains coveted and influential. John McCain got a muc...

Pines to choose commissioner Tuesday after contentious race
With Property Tax rolls at rock bottom and municipal leaders struggling to control costs and rescue failed Real Estate investments, there's a lot at stake in Tuesday's Special Election for Pembroke Pines city commissioner. But those issues are not what Candidates Angelo Castillo and Michell ``Mike'' Rubinstein are arguing about in the final stretch of the campaign. Instead, they're engaged in old-fashioned mudslinging. The election was forced by Castillo's Resignation from the Pines Commission...

Singing, dancing and a day like no other for Sudanese voters
Determining whether to split ... a blind woman votes on the first day of polling in the town of Wunrok. Photo: Kate Geraghty WUNROK, Sudan: Some were afraid and yet they came to vote. Despite unsettling reports of violence in the disputed border region of Abyei, voters in the nearby town of Wunrok turned out for Sudan's historic poll yesterday. ''I am scared, but I must vote for freedom,'' said one voter, standing in the orderly if subdued voting queue. Millions of southern Sudanese headed to th...