If you were going to come up with a good working definition of a "bad news week", a diary from the Labour Party over the past few days would probable do it. A Labour Health Secretary being mauled by a nurses conference, the Home Secretary admitting to "losing track" of prisoners without considering them for deportation, and John Prescott. The less said about the latter, the better - it makes Season feel queasy.
People living in councils controlled by the Conservatives face the biggest rise in council tax, according to the latest figures.
Chesterfield resident Sharon Rogers was shocked to be detained at Manchester Airport on 27th February and grilled by Immigration Officers questioning her right to re-enter England. Sharon was returning with her husband and eldest daughter from a holiday visiting her stepson who is serving overseas as a helicopter pilot with the British Army.
Support for the Conservatives has dropped for the third month in a row. The news comes in an analysis of all the opinion polls on voting intention published during April. The monthly average is down on March's figure, which in turn was down on February's, which in turn was down on January's.
On 6 April 2006, the new Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 came into force. It gives local authorities more powers to tackle dirty neighbourhoods including graffiti, chewing gum, dog fouling, fly tipping, noise pollution and vandalism. The Act allows your local council and the Environment Agency to transfer the cost of removal of this pollution from the council taxpayer to the "polluters".
News that the Liberal Democrats are up 3.5% in the monthly 'poll of polls' (with both Labour and the Tories going down by around 4% each) has been welcomed by Dundee LibDem Convener Raymond Lawrie.
