I keep reading about how Vince Cable has refused to criticise plans to redevelop a site on Twickenham riverside despite it falling within his constituency. How accurate are these articles?

The New Statesman has had another go this week in this piece:

“I represent Twickenham in parliament, not on the council,” Cable has repeatedly told irate constituents - but residents point to several examples of their MP campaigning against the council when it was run by the Tories. Nowadays Richmond is Lib Dem-controlled.“He won’t go against his own council,” says Scott Naylor from the Friends of Riverside group. “He may have his national halo, but as a result of this, his local halo has fallen off.” Julie Hill, owner of the David Bellamy community garden, says: “Vince Cable promised to ‘kick up a fuss’ over the council’s plan . . . but when the time came, this was one media spotlight he didn’t want to be in. World economics mean more to him than voters in his own backyard.”

With the town’s Conservative candidate trying to capitalise on the row, and with a Tory landslide expected next year, it would be a paradox if his local reputation cost this supposed soothsayer of the crash his place on the national stage.”

There have been similar diary items and news stories elsewhere. A campaign to “Save Our Riverside” has carried out a petition with nine out of 10 locals wanting to stop the scheme. But is this as straightforward as it looks?

Here I should declare an interest. I’m a local resident and one of the 10 per cent minority. The anti-development campaign glosses over the fact that far from being a beautiful idyll, much of the site is boarded-up or used for car parking. There is an old swimming pool which has been derelict for decades.

Wind in the Willows it most certainly is not.

I’m not saying the redevelopment will be perfect; far from it. There are valid questions over whether it will create too much new housing. But the developers, Countryside Properties, are also planning a River Centre, new play area and boathouse. They have the backing of Sir David Attenborough, who is a patron.

Here is their website (with a suitably grotty picture of the current waterfront): here is the protesters website (with a much more flattering photo). Feel free to make up your own mind.

Cable seems to share my view that the scheme is the least worst option - compared to letting the site decay even further.

Which politician “on first name terms with the nation” is “swallowing hard” for his party, working “right at the coalface” and offering a “colourful alternative” to the “ordinary members” selecting the next Liberal Democrat president?

Why, Lembit Opik of course.

In a characteristically understated pitch to LibDem activists, Mr Opik says he has a “national profile” as “one of three politicians from any party who’s on first name terms with the nation!” (Why so modest Lembit? We can’t think of the other two.)

Here is the full “on first name terms with the nation” section of his email, which was sent to members earlier this week.

Active in politics for over 25 years, I’ve learned that while the hardest, most painful lessons can come from mistakes - no great achievement comes without risk. I know that it’s now time for me to swallow hard, step up to the platform - to proclaim what we value as Liberal Democrats and to breathe new life into British politics. As President I believe I can do this: I’ve got a national profile - I’m one of three politicians from any Party who’s on “first name terms” with the nation! This gives me a route to reach out and share our political narrative with people who aren’t all that interested in politics - but who could vote for us.

He goes on to explain what the party should expect if he’s elected president, against the wishes of almost all of Mr Opik’s parliamentary colleagues.

What’s the risk you take in electing me? PRESSURE! I’ll put all Lib Dems under pressure - to build the membership, to streamline our rather cumbersome internal structures, to spread the message of who we are and what we stand for - to be brave: so we can promote our policies in bright unmistakeable primary colours. And I will personally participate in telling our good news story: I’ll come and help you spread our message clearly and simply in ways which can’t be misunderstood. I’ll make us the colourful alternative to the dull “same as/same old” Parties.

Just in case anyone was still unconvinced, Mr Opik Lembit explains his unique approach to handling a hung parliament.

In 1994, at the request of the Federal Executive, I created the system to make a Party wide decision in a hung parliament situation. I’ve experience of going through a national coalition process a number of times - the only candidate to have done so. In Wales, during the coalition talks, I saw the need to focus on a “programme for Government,” and not on personal prejudices about the other Parties. I think we were wrong to walk away from the chance for power, because this contradicts our commitment to a fair votes system which is almost always going to deliver no overall majority.

It would be tragic if we were to miss the opportunity to govern in the UK on the basis of fear or emotion. Whatever the Party decides in that situation, we need to do it rationally, and in line with our goals, values and principles. I’ll take no part in the policy aspects of dialogue about coalition because it’s absolutely the Leader’s role to do that. But I WILL be a President who’ll facilitate dialogue. And I know I can manage that process - because I designed it!

There is more. While his colleagues in Westminster have a love of backstabbing and regicide, Lembit is 150 per cent loyal, without question, to anyone who may be popular with the grassroots. This bit of the email included a picture of Charles Kennedy and Lembit in happier times.

Your support combined with my passionate and loyal commitment will transform this Party. I backed Charles Kennedy throughout the time he was under pressure to resign, and stood up for Ming Campbell when he was in the same situation. And I’ll stand up for this Party with that same integrity and loyalty.

Enough already. Good luck Lembit.

Lord Oakeshott, Lib Dem Treasury spokesman, was horrified by the idea that Tory donors might have short-sold stocks, HBOS in particular (see my previous blog).

But what of Paul Marshall, co-founder of hedge fund Marshall Wace, who has given the Lib Dems about  £162,000 in recent years? Guido alludes today to the fact that Marshall Wace likes to short stocks.

What he doesn’t mention is that three separate funds run by the hedge fund were among those who disclosed short positions in HBOS after the FSA four-month ban on financial short-selling was brought in .

Oakeshott (pictured left) had described hedge funds which shorted HBOS as “wolves”. How come the discrepancy?

A Lib Dem spokesman says that the party has chastised short-selling despite having taken the Marshall donation. The Tories, by contrast, have refrained from any criticism. Not sure this explanation really washes.

And then there is Michael Brown, the controversial character who gave the Lib Dems £2.4m. Brown loved speculating in the City, although it is not clear if he went short as well as long.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bnudQEl3Xw[/youtube]

The time has come to expose the secret life of Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat health spokesman, North Norfolk MP, and Grime music* impresario.

After dark, while most of his Westminster colleagues are tucked up in bed watching Newsnight, Norman Lamb has been touring East London nightclubs sprinkling stardust on young British MCs. His first protégé is Tinchy Stryder, a Mobo award nominee known as the “Prince of Grime”. The Normans were so confident in Tinchy’s talents, they remortgaged their house to back him with £10,000. Tinchy and his “Ruff Sqwad” are now, quite possibly, set to become more famous than anyone on the Lib Dem frontbench.

You really do have to pinch yourself with this story, particularly after watching the bootylicious dancers in the “Styderman” video. But it is absolutely true. Mr Lamb’s son Archie and his mate Jack have been in the Grime scene for some time. When Archie decided university was not for him, Norman decided that he would spend some money supporting his ambitions as a music producer instead. Their record label Takeover Entertainment and its one artist Tinchy has been a big success.

Norman’s £10,000 loan was no doubt very useful. But I do wonder whether the MP showing up at Tinchy’s album launch (Peaches Geldof was there, apparently) and various gigs in East London would have done the Prince of Grime’s street cred much good. Norman, of course, recounts this all with his usual good humour. We salute you Norman, and your secret life of grime.

* For those of you out of the loop, Grime music is the big new thing in British urban music. The genre, which emerged on the streets of East London, is a mix of garage, dancehall and hip-hop (please don’t ask me to explain garage, dancehall and hip-hop.)  A piece in the New Yorker said “Grime sounds as if it had been made for a boxing gym, one where the fighters have a lot of punching to do but not much room to move.” Kim Howells, the former culture secretary, was less enthusiastic, claiming Grime stars were promoting a culture where “killing is almost a fashion accessory”.

Two people have already asked me why on earth I’m at the Liberal Democrat conference while the markets are in crisis. But it’s becoming more and more clear that I’m in exactly the right place. Bring more than 100 Liberal Democrat delegates together on a seaside resort and — with frightening regularity — capitalism seems to shudder.

Yesterday Vince Cable joked about the “Lib Dem curse” that has seen their autumn conference coincide with the collapse of Northern Rock, Lehman Brothers and Black Wednesday.

But there is more. In September 1998, while Paddy Ashdown was telling delegates to “grow up” and prepare for a possible Labour coalition, over on Wall St the Fed was negotiating the biggest bailout of a hedge fund in history. Most observers say Long Term Capital Management collapsed after taking massive, one-way bets on Russian interest rates. But was the “Lib Dem factor” decisive? Should traders now factor in a “Lib Dem discount”?

Delegates have long understood the powerful effect careless talk in conference debates can have on global capitalism. In 1951, when the Liberal party was at 1 per cent in the polls and could fit all its MPs in a hackney carriage, one delegate strode to the podium and said he would “carefully” choose his words for fear of “doing anything to unsettle the markets”. A good thing too.

I’ve been wondering for a while now how much the shortfall in stamp duty will be this year, given that house sales could be down 40 per cent and prices 10 per cent.  

Lord Oakeshott, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman for the Lords, has an estimate of £5bn, down from £10.1bn in 2007/8:

To put this in perspective, it’s almost DOUBLE the £2.7bn cost of compensating the abolition of the 10p tax band.

True, the Treasury did forecast in the Budget that stamp duty receipts would fall…..by about 5 per cent, not 50 per cent. Soon we’ll see who is right.  

Oakeshott makes the astute point that as property prices fall, buildings enter lower stamp duty bands, accentuating the effect.

You might argue that the Treasury will be compensated by rising oil prices, which result in higher VAT at petrol pumps and more North Sea Oil tax. Unfortunately, officials were knocking down this theory a few weeks ago (see Blogs passim).

A senior Tory tells me, over a cup of Earl Grey, that 30 Labour/Lib Dem councillors have defected to the Conservatives in the last 12 months.

Only one Tory councillor has quit the party during the same period.

UPDATE:

Mea culpa - apparently my source (who should know better - you know who you are) has underestimated the number of Tory defections. Here is a link with some extra information.  

In the end it took a face-to-face meeting between Gordon Brown and Frank Field last night to end the 10p revolt.

But if the government thinks it’s out of the woods, it should think again. Backbenchers are ready to use their newfound clout over other issues: the next big one being 42 days terror suspect detention without trial.

Not that the more left-wing Labour backbenchers are wholly convinced by today’s concessions:

Paul Flynn, MP for Newport West, tells me: “We’re saying we want to see issues that are recognisable as traditional Labour issues, we are now seeing the strength of the backbenchers, muscles have been flexed.” 

Dai Havard, MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (pictured below), says Frank Field had capitulated too quickly without cast-iron guarantees: “My opinion is if we’d squeezed his balls we’d have had £1bn in writing by Monday,” he tells the FT.