Nick Clegg - an apology

A few weeks ago, in common with other media commentators, I might have inadvertantly given the impression that Mr Nick Clegg's performance on the first-ever televised debate between the three main party leaders revealed him as a towering political collosus whose easy chat-show style marked him out as one of the truly great statesmen of his generation. Phrases such as "I Agree With Nick, " "The New Obama" and "Cleggmania sweeps Britain," which dominated the headlines for several minutes, could possibly have been construed as a suggestion that Mr Clegg seemed like a nice young chap in a suit who was in no way tainted by the MPs' expenses scandal and whose polices deserved to escape proper scrutiny. I now accept that there was not a jot nor scintilla of truth in anything that I or other commentators might have thought at the time and that we all got it hopelessly wrong on this one.

Election scoreboard

The definitive Cornwall election scoreboard:

North Cornwall
Sian Flynn (Conservative) 19,531 - 41%
Janet Hulme (Labour) 1,971 - 4%
Joanie Willet (Mebyon Kernow) 530 -1%
Miriel O'Conner (UKIP) 2,300 - 4%
Dan Rogerson 22,512 - 48%

St Austell & Newquay
James Fitton (BNP) 1,022 - 2%
Caroline Righton (Conservative) 18,877 - 39%
Lee Jameson (Labour) 3,386 - 7%
Steve Gilbert (Liberal Democrat) 20,189 - 42%
Dick Cole (Mebyon Kernow) 2007 - 4%
Clive Medway (UKIP) 1,757 - 3%

Camborne & Redruth
George Eustice (Conservative) 15,969 - 37%
Julia Goldsworthy (Liberal Democrat) 15,903 - 37%
Euan McPhee (Green Party) 581 - 1%
Jude Robinson (Labour) 6,945 - 16%
Loveday Jenkin (Mebyon Kernow) 775 - 1%
Robert Hawkins (Socialist Labour Party) 168 - 0%
Derek Elliot (UKIP) 2,152 - 5%

Truro & Falmouth
Sarah Newton (Conservative) 20,349 - 41%
Ian Wright (Green) 858 - 1%
Terrye Teverson (Liberal Democrat) 19,914 - 40%
Loic Rich (Mebyon Kernow) 1,039 - 2%
Harry Blakely (UKIP) 1,911 - 3%

South East Cornwall
Sheryll Murray (Conservative) 22,390 - 45%
Roger Creagh-Osborne (Green) 826 - 1%
Michael Sparling (Labour) 3,507 - 7%
Karen Gillard (Liberal Democrat) 19,170 - 38%
Roger Holmes (Mebyon Kernow) 641 - 1%
Stephanie McWilliam (UKIP) 3,083 - 6%

St Ives
Andrew George (Liberal Democrat) 19,619 - 42%
Derek Thomas (Conservative) 17,900 - 38%
Jonathan Rogers (Cornish Democrats) 396 - 0%
Philippa Latimer (Labour) 3,751 - 8%
Tim Andrewes (Green) 1,308 - 2%
Mick Faulkner (UKIP) 2,560 - 5%
Simon Reed (Mebyon Kernow) 387 - 0%

Cameron 2, Clegg 1, Brown 0

Visits to Cornwall since the election was called on 6th April, according to the BBC's News Analysis & Research people.

David Cameron, South East Cornwall, 21st April and St Austell & Newquay, 2nd May.

Nick Clegg, Camborne & Redruth, 21st April.

Gordon Brown's adventures into the South West got as far as Bristol and South Dorset.

Flashman and the Angels

When Jim Flashman won a Caradon council by-election by the margin of just seven votes in 2002 he probably didn't envisage the sort of local government career which would result in him leading an official fact-finding tour to a lap-dancing club.

Now, as chairman of Cornwall Council's Miscellaneous Licensing Committee, he sits in judgement on where and when sex establishments can operate within the law. But dairy farmer Jim, 62, is the sort of man who likes to know what he's talking about and so he and his colleagues are off in pursuit of the facts.

"We haven't decided where we're going to go yet, or how many of us are going," Jim tells me. "It'll be some councillors and a few of the officers, I expect. I'm fairly broadminded, but we need to have a good look at one of these clubs and understand what goes on, how they're policed and what associated problems there might be. How can we make a recommendation to the council if we don't know what these places are really like?"

The visit is likely to be to a lap-dancing club in Plymouth or East Devon, and Jim insists the costs will be minimal. But how will he know if the girls on display are being on their best behaviour, simply for the purposes of the council visit? Or will the councillors visit incognito? No simple answer.

"We won't have the wool pulled over our eyes," says Jim, "and it won't cost the taxpayers very much at all. There are one or two members of the committee who do have some experience of these sorts of places but not enough for us to make a confident recommendation to the full council. And it would be wrong for us to visit a place in Cornwall as we might have to consider it at a later stage in respect of licensing."

Is Cleggmania dead?

Andrew Hawkins, chairman of the polling organisation Comres, has a fascinating commentary on some of the data detail. Nearly one in five say they changed their minds about who to vote for because of the party leaders' TV debates, "bigot-gate" may have cost Gordon Brown more than a tenth of his core support and this:

"Is Cleggmania dead? The percentage who think he should be included in the next government has slumped from a net agree of +41% to a net agree of just +5%"

Apparently 27% of 2005 Lib Dem voters think Nick Clegg should NOT figure in the next government.

Some rubbish statistics

Cornwall Council's waste development advisory panel will learn next Monday that they are 15th in a league table of 81 unitary authorities when it comes to recycling. Apparently the amount of "dry" waste recycled is 24.5%, which is pretty good; but the amount of "wet" waste recycled is only 11.7%. One reason for this is that for many years people in Cornwall have been encouraged to compost waste at home, so although it saves on transport costs and CO2 emissions, it doesn't show up in the statistics.

The statistics are produced acccording to EU "waste diversion targets" which quantify material by weight - and as Cornwall's waste department notes:

"The weight based system has resulted in many local authorities being primarily motivated to design services that increase the weight of materials received, above any other environmental consideration."

The waste department report also notes that most of those councils which perform better than Cornwall have fortnightly, rather than weekly, kerbside collections.

Sick note

Apologies to both my readers for the delay in updating this blog - a severe dose of Man Flu means this post comes via a sick-bay laptop.

Among the things I would be looking at more closely if I had the energy are today's Daily Mirror, urging Camborne & Redruth voters to back Labour as the most tactically effective anti-Tory vote; and news that the next Queen's Speech won't be until 25th May. This leaves more than two weeks after the election for the sort of horse-trading and backstairs deals which could prevent the largest Parliamentary party from forming a minority government.

All hypothetical, of course......normal service will be resumed tomorrow. I hope.