Just now recovering from a very long day yesterday which continued into the morning with little sleep and ended with a victory pint in the Retreat in town. And that, in a nutshell was election day 2010.

The good folk of Tilehurst turned out to vote yesterday in their thousands which was good to see and the total turnout was 67.5% in our ward. This is about double  the normal turnout for a local election and was due to the general election being held on the same day, always a big draw for voters.

The good news is that Tilehurst Lib Dems once again saw off the blue Tory tide that swept over most of the country. Thanks to the efforts of our committed team of helpers we beat the Tories by 1920 to 1663, a majority of 257, with Labour a distant third. Many thanks to all the electors of Tilehurst who turned out yesterday.

Over the last few weeks I have been struck by the warm reception on the doorsteps and streets of Tilehurst with many people wishing me and the Lib Dems well. This was partly due to the Clegg effect and partly due to the fantastic reputation that the Lib Dems have here in Tilehurst in working for local residents. Long may it continue !

We also had some more good news for the Lib Dems in Reading, where not only has our vote gone up in every ward but we also took a seat off Labour in Katesgrove. Well done to Rebecca Rye and her team. The council now has 19 Labour, 17 Conservatives, 9 Lib Dems and 1 Green councillor so it is still in no overall control and no party has a majority.

Thanks once again to all the helpers and deliverers who have worked so hard for the Lib Dems in Tilehurst and thanks to all the voters of Tilehurst who have re-elected me as their councillor.

Well as you can imagine I have ben a litle busy recently what with the odd election campaign going on. But the good news form the doorsteps of Reading West is that even before the Leaders Debate last Thursday we were getting contacts from lots of people volunteering to help us. Since last Thursday we have had even more. That debate has also created an even more positive response on the doorstep. The whole team in Reading West is now buzzing and determined to get our literature out to every nook and cranny in the constituency and to knock on as  many doors as we possible can. In Tilehurst we have been round more doorsteps and talked to more residents than in any year that I can remember and the responses are good.

Daisy’s tabloid has gone down a treat over the whole constituency and everyone now knows who Daisy is and that she is a really serious threat to both Labour and the Tories.

I often canvass with my Fulham hat on and lots of folk recognise the FFC badge (I am a seaon ticket holder at Craven Cottage for those of you that know much about football).

If you had told me 6 months ago that the Lib Dems would be winning an  election and that Fulham would be in a European Quarter Final I would never have believed that either of them were possible !

I have been rather busy lately and have not posted on the blog for some time but now I have the chance.

Well we have had the great budget debate at the beginning of the month here in Reading. We saw the Tories showing unbelievable incompetence but managing to absent themselves from the actual vote which Labour pushing though its budget against Lib Dem opposition. The result is now that Reading’s council tax will rise by an average of 2.2% and all because Captain Mainwaring-Cumpsty’s bungling party could not turn up on time. Reading’s Tories are a sick joke after this fiasco. And this is the team that want to run Reading – they could not organise a a p—- up in a brewery !

Then we had an interesting debate organised by GREN (Greater Reading Environmental Network) in Tilehurst last Thursday where I stood in for our Parliamentary candidate, Daisy Benson, and debated with Alok Sharma (Con), Naz Sarkar (Lab) and Adrian Windisch (Green). Daisy was chairing a meeting of the Housing and Health Scrutiny Panel in the Civic Centre that evening.

It turns out the Alok is a real smooth talker with all the sincerity of David Cameron. Naz is a bit sharper but clearly not at his best on environmental issues. Adrian was at least consistent and set out a green view of the issues with sincerity and plain talking. I am not sure that I am a brilliant debater (actually I know I am not) but I did manage to get some policies over.

The highlight of the evening for me was when I mentioned that we were not making enough use of food waste for energy and that given the fact that over a third of what we currently throw away into landfill, is actually food waste, we should be putting much more effort into making use of it. Alok picked up on this and re-iterated what a good idea using wast for energy was. I then pointed out to Alok (and to Naz) that their local Tory and Labour councillors took exactly the opposite line and when the subject came up at a recent Environment Scrutiny Panel which I chair, they pooh-poohed the idea of using food waste for energy even though other councils manage it successfully and even West Berkshire is moving otwards it. Alok, smoothie that he is took this in his stride and pointedly made a note to look into this. Tory Cllr Emma Warman (who also sits on the same Environment Scrutiny Panel) piped up from the audience that they had only voted against handling food waste as it cost too much. Emma, I think that is exactly the point, if you take officers words for everything (as the Tory and Labour councillors did) no new schemes will ever come about. Councils such as Ceredigion have already taken the food collection route and are supported by the Welsh Assembly, I read that Chipping Norton-based composting firm Agrivert has announced that it has signed a 15-year contract with Oxfordshire county council to process the county’s food and green waste. Apparently here in Reading we are stuck in the dark ages. We do not even compost it.

Wake up and smell the coffee ! Food waste is a huge source of green energy if we are prepared to take it seriously.

So, finally, after 10 years of obfuscation and mystery, Michael Ashcroft has admitted that he pays no UK tax on his overseas earnings (almost all his earnings come from overseas) despite sitting in the House of Lords and making UK law. And whilst in the Lords he has given £5,000,000 to Tory party funds, especially to key target constituencies where the Tories need to win to gain power.

Why did it happen today ?  Well finally the Information Commissioner has accused the Tory party of obfuscation and is demanding clarity on Ashcroft’s status.The Lib Dems have been prominent in building up the pressure.

Ashcroft gave an undertaking to reside in the UK when he was made a lord. It turns out that not paying tax in the UK and retaining non-dom status is no bar to making laws for the rest of us.

And if you question the power of his money, look around Reading West and see how many glossy Tory leaflets are raining down on the electors.

Further news on Tory party Deputy Chairman and main donor, Michael Ashcroft, can be found in today’s Observer newspaper. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/14/michael-ashcroft-tax-status .

So much for clean and open government from David Cameron, not that we ever expected anything such  from the Tory Party.

If anyone knows the tax status of this fraud lord, I would love to hear it. In the meantime I will assume that he is a cunning, fraudulent, tax-evader who is well suited to the Tory Party but whose inflence on this country’s politics is a disaster for democracy. He should be banned from participating in our democracy and the Tories should return all the millions he has donated over the last decade since he was appointed to the House of Lords.

I  was really saddened to see the newspaper headlines over the weekend, dominated as they were by two big stories.

Firstly, the  chrages being brought against three Labour MPs and one Tory peer for fiddling expenses. These must be really the worst of the offenders, given that the Tory MPs who claimed for duck houses and moats did not warrant any such criminal charges. There is little left to be said about this scandal, other than many more criminal acts have been perpetrated than just those that have led to cahrges against only four people. There are far too many who have got off lightly. Then there is the issue of the four facing charges claiming that they are covered by Parliamentary Privilege, a centuries old law that was designed to protect free speech in Parliament, not for use by miscreants to cover their backsides. Simply by raising the prospect of hiding behind ancient legislation shows how low the morals of thes folk has sunk.

Secondly the story of the largest donor to the Conservative Party and his tax status which has been running for a long time already. Michael Ashcroft is a prominent businessman who made his fortune in Belize where the tax climate for business is so free and easy.  Ashcroft promised to become domiciled in the UK before being made a Tory peer and entering the House of Lords. His tax status is also impoprtant as you cannot legally donate to a UK political party unless you are a tax payer in the EU. His donations to the Tories run into many millions of £s over several years, and he is currently funding Tory campaigns in their key marginal seats, including Reading  West. Recently the Information Commissioner has also criticised the secrecy around the deal that allowed him to enter the Lords as this has never yet been made public.

See Monday’s Guardian article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/feb/08/lord-ashcroft-tax-status-uk

Anyone who doubts the power of Ashcroft money should see the glossy leaflets raining down on Tilehurst. Two through my letterbox within last few days.

All in all a bad weekend for anyone who believes in democracy and equal rights.