Karl McCartney Invites Prime Minister to see City's 'Excellent Progress'

Karl McCartney MP in a bright tie presented by local cadets

Karl McCartney MP, who represents the City of Lincoln, Bracebridge Heath and Waddingham West and Skellingthorpe, has invited Prime Minister David Cameron MP to visit the city.

The parliamentarian was speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions, whilst wearing a bright, stripped neck tie, understood to have been presented to him recently by the Lincolnshire Army Cadet Force.

Mr. McCartney asked the Prime Minister to visit Lincoln and see progress in the manufacturing and engineering sector. Karl said:

"Is my right honourable friend aware of recent, very good news in the manufacturing and engineering sectors in Lincoln? Hoval have seen an increase in turnover of over twenty percent to around £17.5 million, Italian firm Bifrangi have confirmed a £50 million investment in a new tooling press, one of the largest in the world, and Siemens are involved with the first new Engineering School in our country for twenty years, at the University of Lincoln. Would my right honourable friend accept my personal invitation to visit Lincoln and see for himself the excellent progress our city is enjoying under his Conservative-led Government?"

The Prime Minister responded:

"I am very grateful for my honourable friend’s invitation and I shall try and take it up.

"As I said earlier, [despite] the very disappointing [GDP figures] today, underneath there is a rebalancing that needs to take place and is taking place, in terms of manufacturing investment, in terms of exports and in terms of the government getting behind that with more investment in apprenticeships, more investment in technical hubs at our universities like the one at the University of Lincoln, and cutting business taxes so we get Britain working and making things again."

Edward Leigh Attacks Alternative Voting Reform as 'Extraordinarily Dangerous'

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Liberal Democrat (Sheffield Hallam), has defended the government's plans to hold a referendum on changing the Westminster voting system against claims that its proposed timing is 'extraordinarily dangerous'.

At question time on Tuesday, 27th July 2010, Mr. Clegg said holding the ballot on whether Members of Parliament should be elected by the alternative vote method on the same day as next May's elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, as well as local authorities in England, would boost turnout and save money.

Above: Edward Leigh MP quizzing
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.

But Conservative, former minister, Edward Leigh MP, Conservative (Gainsborough), asked the deputy prime minister:

"Notwithstanding the fact that my new and best Right Hon. Friend would, I am sure, now deprecate the fact that if we had had the alternative vote in 1997 the Conservative party would have been reduced to a pathetic rump of 65 MPs, does he not think that precisely because AV is not proportional, it raises complicated questions? It is extraordinarily dangerous, therefore, to have the referendum on the same day as other elections, namely the Scottish elections. We need a proper debate on the issue."

Mr. Leigh is one of forty-four Conservatives backing a motion, tabled by Conservative backbencher Bernard Jenkin, which urges the coalition government to rethink its plans, warning that they contradict advice issued by the Electoral Commission.

But Mr. Clegg replied:

"About 84% of voters in England will be voting in any event next May. In Scotland and Wales everybody will be entitled to vote.

"About 39 million people will be anyway invited to vote next May and it seems to me, instead of asking people to constantly go back to polling booths to cast separate votes, it is perfectly right to say on a very simple issue, yes or no, to invite them to do so at, by the way, lower cost to the Exchequer - it saves around £17m - on the same day as other elections."

In response to criticism from Labour backbencher Jim McGovern about the failure of the government to consult the Scottish Parliament about the timing of the vote, Mr Clegg told MPs:

"I think it is disrespectful to the voters and people of Scotland to suggest that somehow they are incapable of making two decisions at once."

A Record Number of Candidates are Fighting the General Election

With nominations for the six hundred and fifty constituencies now closed, it has been confirmed that a record four thousand one hundred and forty-nine candidates are standing at this general election - equivalent to six point candidates per seat across the United Kingdom.

1987 (2,325) was probably the last time when the average constituency in England saw a three-way fight (alongside (four-way contests in Scotland and Wales).

In 1992 (2,948) we then saw the emergence of hundreds of extra candidates from the Green Party and the Natural Law Party, whilst 1997 (3,724) then saw the intervention of the Referendum Party, which stood in the vast majority of seats.

The total dipped in 2001 (3,133), but has since continued to rise, arriving at that figure of just over four thousand for this year's general election.

According to the Press Association, four minor parties are fighting more than 100 constituencies, which are:

United Kingdom Independence Party - 557
British National Party - 337
Green - 334
English Democrats - 106

There are more than one hundred other minor parties putting up candidates, with more than three hundred individuals standing as Independents as well.

In the Gainsborough Constituency the candidates are:

Edward Leigh, Conservative
Pat O'Connor, Liberal Democrat
Jamie McMahon, Labour
Steven Pearson, United Kingdom Independence Party
Malcolm Porter, British National Party