• Syrian regime tries to prevent ‘day of defiance’ protests • Nato pledges to up the military pressure against Libya 9.21am: A Red Cross delegation has reached Deraa to bring medical supplies to the town and carry out an assessment of the need for more aid, a spokesman told the Guardian. ICRC spokesman Saleh Dabbakeh said: “They have gone to assess the situation and the need and they have taken with them some first aid equipment. They went yesterday after being granted access. The head of our mission, Marianne Gasser, is leading the team. I know they have entered Deraa.” The ICRC demanded “urgent” access to Deraa yesterday . 8.54am: Human Rights Watch has likened Syria’s treatment of the southern town of Deraa to Israel’s blockade of Gaza . In a strongly-worded statement the group’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said: “Even if the Syrian army is truly ‘hunting terrorists’, that is no reason to prevent the town’s residents from leaving and to deny old women their medication. Syria has protested repeatedly about Israel’s closure of Gaza, but it’s doing the same to Deraa’s residents.” She also highlighted a report in the Guardian this week about the detention of a 22-year-old relative of the political activist Ayman al-Aswad . Whitson said: “Syria’s security services apparently know no bounds. In holding someone’s brother or son as hostage, they are acting more like a criminal gang than a legitimate state force.” Human Rights Watch also questioned state media reports that the army is withdrawing from Deraa. Eyewitnesses in the town told it that the military was still restricting movement, including the import of essential food and medicine items. Whitson said: “The Syrian government is collectively punishing the residents of Daraa because some demonstrators from the town dared protest against it. It would appear that the government has a lot to hide, because it’s refusing to let Daraa residents out or independent observers in.” 8.45am: Welcome to our live coverage of the unrest in the Middle East on a key day for the protest movement in Syria. The opposition is planning to take to the streets after Friday prayers in a “day of defiance” against the regime. The government has been arresting hundreds of people in and around Damascus to try to head off demonstrations in the capital. Leading Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid writes: The inhabitants of the Damascene suburb of Saqba tell of security forces conducting house-to-house raids over the last three days leading to hundreds of arrest. The campaign is taking place under the supervision of units affiliated with Maher Al-Assad’s the 4th Division, according to eyewitness reports. Observers described today as a “trial of strength” between the two sides. Wissam Tarif, of the human rights group Isan, said the regime is desperate to prevent the protesters taking control of a central square in Damascus . They are also keen to avoid significant demonstrations in the northern city of Aleppo. Amateur video from the city suggest there was a heavy security presence on the streets of Aleppo last night . The ministry of interior has urged people to abstain “from holding any rallies, demonstrations or sit-ins under any title without getting an official license.” Elsewhere, Nato has pledged to step-up the military pressure against Libya, after an international meeting of the Libya contact group in Rome. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “Our mission will continue until the mission goals are fulfilled. We all share the desire to see this sooner rather than later. A sustained coordinated international effort, comprising both political and military means , will help bring an end to this crisis and the suffering of the Libyan people.” Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Syria Libya Bahrain Yemen Protest Bashar Al-Assad Muammar Gaddafi Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Syrian regime tries to prevent ‘day of defiance’ protests • Nato pledges to up the military pressure against Libya 9.21am: A Red Cross delegation has reached Deraa to bring medical supplies to the town and carry out an assessment of the need for more aid, a spokesman told the Guardian. ICRC spokesman Saleh Dabbakeh said: “They have gone to assess the situation and the need and they have taken with them some first aid equipment. They went yesterday after being granted access. The head of our mission, Marianne Gasser, is leading the team. I know they have entered Deraa.” The ICRC demanded “urgent” access to Deraa yesterday . 8.54am: Human Rights Watch has likened Syria’s treatment of the southern town of Deraa to Israel’s blockade of Gaza . In a strongly-worded statement the group’s Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said: “Even if the Syrian army is truly ‘hunting terrorists’, that is no reason to prevent the town’s residents from leaving and to deny old women their medication. Syria has protested repeatedly about Israel’s closure of Gaza, but it’s doing the same to Deraa’s residents.” She also highlighted a report in the Guardian this week about the detention of a 22-year-old relative of the political activist Ayman al-Aswad . Whitson said: “Syria’s security services apparently know no bounds. In holding someone’s brother or son as hostage, they are acting more like a criminal gang than a legitimate state force.” Human Rights Watch also questioned state media reports that the army is withdrawing from Deraa. Eyewitnesses in the town told it that the military was still restricting movement, including the import of essential food and medicine items. Whitson said: “The Syrian government is collectively punishing the residents of Daraa because some demonstrators from the town dared protest against it. It would appear that the government has a lot to hide, because it’s refusing to let Daraa residents out or independent observers in.” 8.45am: Welcome to our live coverage of the unrest in the Middle East on a key day for the protest movement in Syria. The opposition is planning to take to the streets after Friday prayers in a “day of defiance” against the regime. The government has been arresting hundreds of people in and around Damascus to try to head off demonstrations in the capital. Leading Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid writes: The inhabitants of the Damascene suburb of Saqba tell of security forces conducting house-to-house raids over the last three days leading to hundreds of arrest. The campaign is taking place under the supervision of units affiliated with Maher Al-Assad’s the 4th Division, according to eyewitness reports. Observers described today as a “trial of strength” between the two sides. Wissam Tarif, of the human rights group Isan, said the regime is desperate to prevent the protesters taking control of a central square in Damascus . They are also keen to avoid significant demonstrations in the northern city of Aleppo. Amateur video from the city suggest there was a heavy security presence on the streets of Aleppo last night . The ministry of interior has urged people to abstain “from holding any rallies, demonstrations or sit-ins under any title without getting an official license.” Elsewhere, Nato has pledged to step-up the military pressure against Libya, after an international meeting of the Libya contact group in Rome. Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “Our mission will continue until the mission goals are fulfilled. We all share the desire to see this sooner rather than later. A sustained coordinated international effort, comprising both political and military means , will help bring an end to this crisis and the suffering of the Libyan people.” Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Syria Libya Bahrain Yemen Protest Bashar Al-Assad Muammar Gaddafi Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …The Washington Post has new details on the Osama bin Laden operation, from anonymous US officials: Last moments: Commandos first saw bin Laden in the doorway to his room. He was shot twice after retreating into the room, where US forces found an AK-47 and a pistol. His actions constitute…
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Conservationists warn blazes may have affected some of the UK’s most threatened ground-nesting birds such as the twite The spate of wildfires in parts of Britain is threatening ground-nesting birds, including the only English population of a species of finch called the twite , the RSPB has warned. It said many of the 100 pairs that nest in small colonies in the southern Pennines might be affected. The bird used to occur much more widely in England – there are greater numbers in western Scotland, The seed-eating bird – a relative of the linnet – has clung on in the area because of the relative abundance of seed-rich hay meadows. Fires have struck both its nesting and feeding sites, said the RSPB. Peter Robertson, its northern regional director and a member of the multi-agency England Twite Recovery Project , said: “Even before these fires, the twite was one of England’s most threatened birds. But blazes have possibly affected more than a third of the English population. “This could be a devastating setback for this bird. We have been working hard with farmers to help retain landscape features, like hay meadows, which are crucial to the bird. But inevitably England’s most threatened finch has been hit hard by these fires. We hope that the bird will have a future in England.” Heathland that is important for other threatened birds, including the nightjar, woodlark and Dartford warbler, has been damaged across southern England. And the fires in other parts of the UK will undoubtedly have affected ground-nesting birds, according to the RSPB. Nick Phillips, a policy officer, said: “Some of the most threatened birds in the UK nest on the ground. We are currently in the middle of the nesting season, with many birds incubating eggs or tending to chicks. Fire is a considerable risk to these birds, and other threatened wildlife, such as reptiles. “A break in the dry weather may bring a brief respite, but we are still urging people to guard against any risk of wildfire.” Birds Wildlife Conservation Animals Wildfires James Meikle guardian.co.uk
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Files seized in raid that killed Bin Laden reveal his role in planning potential terror attacks, including one on US rail system Osama bin Laden stayed in touch with his al-Qaida network from his Pakistan safe house and continued to plot potential terrorist attacks, including one against the US railway system, according to early analysis of files seized when he was killed. The special forces team who shot Bin Laden in the early hours of Monday took away a mass of digital information on computers, hard drives and storage discs, as well as paper documents. An initial trawl through the files indicate Bin Laden was not a mere figurehead for the militant group but remained closely involved in nuts-and-bolts planning, according to various US reports. As late as February last year he seemingly took part in drawing up a previously unknown plot to attack a US commuter rail network, possibly on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks or another landmark date such as Christmas or New Year, intelligence officials told US newspapers. While the plot, apparently involving an attempt to derail a train by tampering with tracks, appeared to be only speculative, the seized documents seem to show Bin Laden was in regular contact with al-Qaida operatives from his house close to Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad. Before the raid some analysts speculated that he had become an increasingly marginalised figure during his long presumed exile in remote tribal regions along the Afghan border. Details have also emerged about the painstaking surveillance operation which preceded the raid on Bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, in which a CIA team spied on the house for months from a property they rented nearby. The officers scanned the compound using telephoto lenses and infrared imaging equipment, and attempted to listen in on conversations inside, anonymous US officials told the New York Times. The surveillance team regularly spotted a tall man walking through the compound’s courtyard, although they never confirmed whether this was Bin Laden. Such was the cost of the operation that the CIA requested tens of millions of dollars in extra funding from Congress in December last year, officials told the Washington Post . Staff at an FBI lab at the marine corps base in Quantico, Virginia, have been poring over the trove of data as quickly as possible in case they describe any imminent attacks, but as yet there have been no specific alerts. “He (Bin Laden) wasn’t just a figurehead,” one unnamed US official told the New York Times . “He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets and to communicate those ideas to other senior al-Qaida leaders.” The department of homeland security has ordered additional security at airports and other transport hubs, and issued a precautionary note about the railway plot. “As of February 2010, al-Qaida was allegedly contemplating conducting an operation against trains at an unspecified location in the United States on the 10th anniversary of 11 September, 2001,” it said. “As one option, al-Qaida was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge.” A department spokesman told the Washington Post that the plot appeared speculative: “We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the US rail sector.” The documents might prove more fruitful in leading the US to other senior al-Qaida figures, including Ayman al-Zawariri, al-Qaida’s deputy leader. “We have lots of information on him,” Mike Rogers, the Republican congressman who chairs the House intelligence committee, told the Washington Post . “I can’t say it’s imminent, but I do believe we’re hot on the trail.” A day after laying a wreath to the victims of 11 September during a largely subdued visit to New York, Barack Obama is to meet the US Navy Seals who raided Bin Laden’s compound at their base at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Further reports have emerged confirming that the gun battle to secure the compound and kill Bin Laden was considerably more one-sided than initially presented by US officials. “We expected a great deal of resistance and were met with a great deal of resistance,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday, adding that there were “many other people who were armed” beyond Bin Laden. Now, further anonymous briefings to the US media have confirmed that only one of the five people killed in the operation was armed, and that the shots he fired came very early in the operation. According to NBC News, the fighting was relatively brief and the Seals spent most of their time in the compound gathering computers and other data sources. Osama bin Laden al-Qaida US national security United States US military Global terrorism Pakistan Peter Walker guardian.co.uk
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Angry shareholders demand explanation for $70m payday enjoyed by investment bank’s top five executives at annual meeting on Friday Goldman Sachs is bracing itself for what may be the most contentious annual meeting in the embattled investment bank’s 142-year history. On Friday, angry shareholders, including a coalition of religious groups, are planning to call on Goldman’s executives to justify the combined $69.6m (£42.4m) payday its top five executives received in 2010 and to answer questions about allegations that the bank misled clients and lied to Congress. Goldman’s most recent financial results comfortably beat expectations and its shares have rallied spectacularly since the lows of the credit crunch. But the bank has continued to be mired in controversy. Chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein faces shareholders amid speculation that he may be planning to step down. The bank has denied any such move. The meeting comes amid mounting pressure on the bank. Earlier this week Eric Holder, the US attorney-general, confirmed that the justice department was investigating Goldman’s role in the financial crisis following a withering report on the bank’s role led by senators Carl Levin and Tom Coburn. The 650-page report ” Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse ,” gave Goldman its own section titled “Failing to Manage Conflicts of Interest: A Case Study of Goldman Sachs.” In July the bank paid $500m to settle charges brought by financial regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it misled customers over complex sub-prime mortgage products it sold in 2007. While Goldman is unlikely to lose any shareholder vote, the spotlight on executive pay could not come at a more sensitive moment for the bank. Among those protesting Goldman’s payouts are the Nathan Cummings Foundation, a Jewish charity, and the Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). Among the proposals being put forward by shareholders is one calling for a formal annual review of Goldman’s pay deals every year that would compare the wages of top earners with those at the bottom of the Goldman pay scale. In an interview with the Guardian last month Sister Nora Nash, a member of the ICCR, said St Francis, founding saint of her order, would be “spinning in his grave” if he knew how much the Goldman elite were paying themselves. The bank’s top five executives received cash and stock last year that was 13 times greater than the year before. Goldman’s 2010 net revenues fell 13% and profits fell 37%. Goldman paid Blankfein close to $19m in compensation for 2010, almost double his award for the previous year. The bank increased Blankfein’s 2011 annual pay by $2m. Goldman has dismissed the shareholder’s actions as “a distraction” that “would entail an unjustified cost to our firm and would not provide shareholders with any meaningful information,” since it says shareholders can already get this information in its filings. William Cohan , author of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule The World, said AGMs tended to be “more about theatre than substance”. But he added: “I think the impact of the negative publicity on the top executives of the firm has been considerable. They don’t like it, don’t think it is fair and feel it is unwarranted. No surprise there. But there is not much they can do. They are the firm that came out of the crisis in the best shape financially, along with JP Morgan, so they are a natural target of legitimate public anger and frustration.” Goldman Sachs Executive pay and bonuses Banking United States Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk
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• Nick Clegg’s party battered in council elections • Scottish National party makes major gains • Labour wins key councils and advances in Wales • Conservative vote holds firm The Liberal Democrats have been left reeling after suffering their worst electoral drubbing in almost 30 years, sustaining heavy losses across northern England. The party was ejected from power in Sheffield – home to Nick Clegg’s constituency – as its national share of votes plummeted to 15%. With around two-thirds of local election results still to come in, the party had already lost around 200 seats. Labour was on course for major gains, but suffered heavily at the hands of the SNP in the devolved Scottish elections. The SNP made significant gains over Labour in Scotland, with one political expert suggesting the party could win an outright majority in Holyrood. While voters seemed intent on punishing the Liberal Democrats, their coalition partners, the Conservatives, fared much better, holding their own in terms of council seats. Thursday’s elections sparked a war of words between the coalition partners, with the former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown accusing the prime minister, David Cameron, of a “breach of faith” by allowing the largely Conservative-funded campaign against AV to turn its fire on Clegg in the referendum on electoral reform. The referendum result is due later today. “You cannot fund a deeply vicious campaign to destroy the personality of your partner, who has been unmoved in his brave support of the coalition, without there being consequences,” Ashdown said in an interview given before any votes were counted. “When it comes to the bonhomie of the Downing Street rose garden, it’s never again that glad confident morn.” There were no calls from prominent Lib Dems for Clegg to go, or to quit the coalition, but a number of senior figures urged the party to take a more independent stance within the government. The deputy leader, Simon Hughes, said Lib Dem “trust” in the Tories had been knocked by the referendum campaign, and indicated that the party would demand concessions on key issues such as NHS reform, where Conservative ministers have strayed beyond the terms of last year’s coalition agreement. As voters punished the Lib Dems for their performance after a year in government, the party blamed a “decapitation strategy” by Labour and the unions which saw it lose power in Hull and Stockport and suffer big losses in Manchester and Liverpool. Warren Bradley, the former Lib Dem leader of Liverpool council, had previously criticised Clegg’s “record and perception”. He stood down before the election. Lord Mike Storey, who led the city’s council from 1998 until 2005, lost his seat to an 18-year-old. The Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition running Birmingham City council just managed to retain its grip on power, but lost a combined total of 13 seats to Labour. The Lib Dem energy secretary, Chris Huhne, said he was not surprised by the results. He told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I think it’s inevitable that, if you have mid-term elections, governments do badly, and these are the first mid-term elections that the Liberal Democrats have had since 1945.” Hughes said Sheffield was where the “anti-Nick view will be exemplified most”, and admitted that the government’s controversial decision to cancel an £80m loan to Sheffield Forgemasters had been a factor. Labour’s successes included gaining control of Sheffield, Hull, Bolton, Stoke and Telford. But the more than 200 seats gained did not appear to be enough for Ed Miliband to claim a major breakthrough in his drive to steer the party back into power nationally. Labour suffered in Scotland, where its leader, Iain Gray – who was accused of running a lacklustre campaign – scraped back in by a wafer-thin majority of 151 as the SNP secured the bulk of the benefit of protest votes against the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government. The strong SNP performance was seized on by the Tories, who claimed it showed that Labour was struggling to position itself as the natural opposition to the Westminster coalition in what was once a natural heartland. Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, was on course for a second term as first minister in Scotland after his party wrested a number of seats from Labour. He said: “Scotland has now outgrown the Labour party. A positive campaign will always trump a negative one because, at the end of the day, even when times are tough people want something to go and vote for, something to believe in. “They aren’t going to be motivated by Labour’s ridiculous scaremongering against Scottish independence.” On the question of a referendum on independence, he said the immediate priority for the SNP would be to put “economic muscle” into the Scotland bill. “In due course, in due time, of course we’ll offer the Scottish people their chance to decide their own country’s constitutional future,” he said. Labour’s best results came in the Welsh assembly, where it took Llanelli from Plaid Cymru and Blaenau Gwent from an independent and increased its share of the vote by 10.5% in results declared so far. Labour must win 31 seats if it is to gain an outright majority on the assembly. It has won 21 of the 29 constituency seats declared so far, and the final outcome is likely to hinge on the number of regional “top-up” seats it is allocated under the separate party list system. Labour’s gains included the election of the first-ever black assembly member after Vaughan Gething resoundingly held the Cardiff South and Penarth seat, winning almost double the number of votes secured by the Conservative candidate. Plaid Cymru, which has governed in coalition with Labour over the last four years, also said it expected to lose seats. Final results will not be in until Friday afternoon because counting will not start in north Wales until later this morning. Peter Hain, the shadow Welsh secretary, said: “It is nip and tuck whether we will form a majority. I am sure we will get our best Labour percentage share of the vote in the assembly elections.” It was also reported that Neil Hamilton, a Liberal Democrat council candidate standing in Westerhope, Newcastle, has been found dead after spending the day campaigning. Police were called to his address after colleagues were unable to contact him, a party spokesman confirmed. The death is likely to invalidate the result in the ward and trigger a fresh election. Elections 2011 Local elections 2011 Local politics Local elections Local government Scottish elections 2011 Scottish politics Scotland Scottish National Party (SNP) Welsh Assembly Government Welsh elections 2011 Welsh politics Welsh elections 2007 Liberal Democrats Labour Plaid Cymru Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …After a day of conflicting reports and quotes, this now seems like a safe bet: The Republican plan to overhaul Medicare with a voucher system will be put off until after the 2012 election. Paul Ryan conceded as much even as John Boehner insisted “nothing is off the table.” But…
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Embarrassment in Scotland for Labour as Lib Dem and Conservative voters defect to Alex Salmond’s party Alex Salmond is on the brink of a landslide victory in the Holyrood elections after the first declarations and returns saw a significant swing to the Scottish National party across the country. The scale of the likely victory was underlined when the SNP won the prize seat of East Kilbride, toppling Labour’s finance spokesman Andy Kerr with a swing of 6.6%, increasing its share of the vote by 10%. The SNP also won Hamilton, defeating another senior Labour figure, Tom McCabe, with an 11% swing. McCabe had held the seat since 1999. Labour held the first seat to declare, Rutherglen. Liberal Democrats officials conceded their party could face a disastrous night, after voters deserted the party in large numbers. In the first seats to declare, their share of the vote fell 15%. With several hours before formal declarations, the Lib Dems predicted they would lose at least two of their three seats in Edinburgh after the SNP support across the city surged far more than expected. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP deputy leader, said that she was “cautiously optimistic” about holding Glasgow Southern against a strong Labour challenge. The new seat is the closest to her previous seat, Glasgow Govan, but after boundary changes was a notional Labour win. She said: “These are really truly stunning results … and they augur well for the SNP.” With Labour braced for other defeats in west Scotland, candidates and officials insisted their vote had been strong in many seats. However Iain Gray, Labour leader in Scotland, conceded that the SNP had been the greatest beneficiary of a collapse in the Lib Dem vote. His seat of East Lothian was “very tight”, adding: “I think the same thing is happening here as has happened in many parts of Scotland. What we’re seeing is a complete and utter collapse of the Lib Dem vote and a significant loss of the Tory vote as well, and that has coalesced with the SNP. That seems to be happening from the early evidence.” Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, conceded her party was also facing losing seats with the SNP surge. Tory officials admitted that the party’s campaign director David McLetchie was under severe pressure from the SNP in Edinburgh Pentlands. “It sounds like it will be a very challenging night,” she said. The final results for Holyrood’s 129 seats will only be known later on Friday, with 56 seats decided on the regional lists which are the last to be counted. Labour’s embarrassing defeats came despite an intensive effort to mobilise its supporters on polling day. Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah were out campaigning and meeting Labour voters in two seats in the former prime minister’s heartland of Fife, Dunfermline and Glenrothes, and also in a key Labour target seat held by the SNP justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, in Edinburgh Eastern. The Browns and other senior Labour figures, including the former Chancellor Alistair Darling, joined a “volunteer army” of about 10,000 Labour activists who ferried voters by car to polling stations, visited floating voters at home and manning street stalls in key seats. The last ditch effort was organised after several late opinion polls suggested that Labour was cutting the SNP’s significant lead which had emerged over the last month. The final YouGov poll of the campaign, released on Wednesday evening, suggested the SNP would win for a second successive time and take 54 seats compared to 46 for Labour. Salmond is bullish about his chances of holding a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 or 2015, with the support of the Greens and potentially the Lib Dems. In 2007, the SNP won by a one seat margin over Labour, taking 47 seats against 46 for Labour, in the closest contest in the devolved parliament’s short history. In Wales the picture was far more encouraging for Labour. The party won back its heartland seat of Blaenau Gwent with a handsome majority. It had been held by an independent member, Trish Law, widow of the late Peter Law, who left Labour in protest at the imposition of an all-women shortlists. But, as expected, it was taken back by Labour’s Alun Davies with 12,926 votes. Independent candidate Jayne Sullivan won 3,806 votes. The Liberal Democrats did badly, with only 367 votes, while the British National party took almost 1,000 votes. Party activists were expecting further gains and an improvement on the 26 seats it held at the last assembly, but insiders accepted they may not reach the crucial figure of 31 needed to claim an overall majority. The electoral system makes it difficult for anyone to get a majority. David Davies, chair of the Cardiff West constituency Labour party, said it would be a good result if Labour could get around 29 of the 60 seats. Plaid Cymru, Labour’s coalition partner over the last four years, was preparing itself for a tough set of results. Its director of elections, Ian Titherington said he expected his party to lose seats; and, even before the results began to come in, the Plaid leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, was facing questions about his leadership. The final make-up of the assembly will not be known until later on Friday because north Wales decided not to count until the morning. If Labour does not win an overall majority, the deal-making and horse trading will begin as the parties try to find partners to work with. Scottish politics Scotland Scottish National Party (SNP) Welsh politics Wales Plaid Cymru Local elections 2011 Local politics Elections 2011 Local elections Local government Labour Liberal Democrats Severin Carrell Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Embarrassment in Scotland for Labour as Lib Dem and Conservative voters defect to Alex Salmond’s party Alex Salmond is on the brink of a landslide victory in the Holyrood elections after the first declarations and returns saw a significant swing to the Scottish National party across the country. The scale of the likely victory was underlined when the SNP won the prize seat of East Kilbride, toppling Labour’s finance spokesman Andy Kerr with a swing of 6.6%, increasing its share of the vote by 10%. The SNP also won Hamilton, defeating another senior Labour figure, Tom McCabe, with an 11% swing. McCabe had held the seat since 1999. Labour held the first seat to declare, Rutherglen. Liberal Democrats officials conceded their party could face a disastrous night, after voters deserted the party in large numbers. In the first seats to declare, their share of the vote fell 15%. With several hours before formal declarations, the Lib Dems predicted they would lose at least two of their three seats in Edinburgh after the SNP support across the city surged far more than expected. Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP deputy leader, said that she was “cautiously optimistic” about holding Glasgow Southern against a strong Labour challenge. The new seat is the closest to her previous seat, Glasgow Govan, but after boundary changes was a notional Labour win. She said: “These are really truly stunning results … and they augur well for the SNP.” With Labour braced for other defeats in west Scotland, candidates and officials insisted their vote had been strong in many seats. However Iain Gray, Labour leader in Scotland, conceded that the SNP had been the greatest beneficiary of a collapse in the Lib Dem vote. His seat of East Lothian was “very tight”, adding: “I think the same thing is happening here as has happened in many parts of Scotland. What we’re seeing is a complete and utter collapse of the Lib Dem vote and a significant loss of the Tory vote as well, and that has coalesced with the SNP. That seems to be happening from the early evidence.” Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader, conceded her party was also facing losing seats with the SNP surge. Tory officials admitted that the party’s campaign director David McLetchie was under severe pressure from the SNP in Edinburgh Pentlands. “It sounds like it will be a very challenging night,” she said. The final results for Holyrood’s 129 seats will only be known later on Friday, with 56 seats decided on the regional lists which are the last to be counted. Labour’s embarrassing defeats came despite an intensive effort to mobilise its supporters on polling day. Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah were out campaigning and meeting Labour voters in two seats in the former prime minister’s heartland of Fife, Dunfermline and Glenrothes, and also in a key Labour target seat held by the SNP justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, in Edinburgh Eastern. The Browns and other senior Labour figures, including the former Chancellor Alistair Darling, joined a “volunteer army” of about 10,000 Labour activists who ferried voters by car to polling stations, visited floating voters at home and manning street stalls in key seats. The last ditch effort was organised after several late opinion polls suggested that Labour was cutting the SNP’s significant lead which had emerged over the last month. The final YouGov poll of the campaign, released on Wednesday evening, suggested the SNP would win for a second successive time and take 54 seats compared to 46 for Labour. Salmond is bullish about his chances of holding a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014 or 2015, with the support of the Greens and potentially the Lib Dems. In 2007, the SNP won by a one seat margin over Labour, taking 47 seats against 46 for Labour, in the closest contest in the devolved parliament’s short history. In Wales the picture was far more encouraging for Labour. The party won back its heartland seat of Blaenau Gwent with a handsome majority. It had been held by an independent member, Trish Law, widow of the late Peter Law, who left Labour in protest at the imposition of an all-women shortlists. But, as expected, it was taken back by Labour’s Alun Davies with 12,926 votes. Independent candidate Jayne Sullivan won 3,806 votes. The Liberal Democrats did badly, with only 367 votes, while the British National party took almost 1,000 votes. Party activists were expecting further gains and an improvement on the 26 seats it held at the last assembly, but insiders accepted they may not reach the crucial figure of 31 needed to claim an overall majority. The electoral system makes it difficult for anyone to get a majority. David Davies, chair of the Cardiff West constituency Labour party, said it would be a good result if Labour could get around 29 of the 60 seats. Plaid Cymru, Labour’s coalition partner over the last four years, was preparing itself for a tough set of results. Its director of elections, Ian Titherington said he expected his party to lose seats; and, even before the results began to come in, the Plaid leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones, was facing questions about his leadership. The final make-up of the assembly will not be known until later on Friday because north Wales decided not to count until the morning. If Labour does not win an overall majority, the deal-making and horse trading will begin as the parties try to find partners to work with. Scottish politics Scotland Scottish National Party (SNP) Welsh politics Wales Plaid Cymru Local elections 2011 Local politics Elections 2011 Local elections Local government Labour Liberal Democrats Severin Carrell Steven Morris guardian.co.uk
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