Battle of the Bush: The Results

I'm 7 hours ahead of you, which has the advantage of being able to watch the results come in at a leisurely time over breakfast after a good night's sleep here in Manila!

I'll post the results as they come in - Council and Parliamentary.

So if you're like some readers of this blog and clearly suffer from severe insomnia you know the place to come!

UPDATE 0300 FRIDAY - No long queues and people being locked out in Hammersmith but there have been in Ealing up the road so there may be a legal challenge to those results.

Fulham Chronicle has been attempting top blog from the count but sadly their technical people don't seem to have quite understood that blogging means regular updates - there hasnt been an update on their site since 1235! Which is shameful since Dan Hodges has spent the night at the count instead of in bed!

0320 - Tweets from Hammersmith count indicate that Andy Slaughter has retained the seat. Unconfirmed but indications on the count are that Labour has won the Battle of the Bush. Result now expected at 0400.

0325 - the Chronicle blog, which you can follow here, carries a statement from LibDem Merlene Emerson who is not only admitting a lack of progress but talking more about her other campaign to win a seat on Richmond Council. She can't "count chickens yet" she says. Not a great idea to run a part time campaign in either area I would have thought.

0355 - Stacks of votes now looking higher in Slaughter's favour but speaking to Dan Hodges he is taking nothing for granted. It's taking aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages for the result to come in!

0410 - Result now expected in Hammersmith in 20 minutes according to the Chronicle's man at the Count. What this means is that they now know the result and the candidates have been taken behind the curtain to be told and given a chance to compose themselves and make the finishing touches to their speeches. The Battle of the Bush is about to become clear...

Westfield robbery: arrests made

Detectives investigating this burglary at Westfield Shopping Centre yesterday have made arrests this morning (Thursday 6 May) in connectionwith the investigation.

Three males, aged 15, 17 and 18 were arrested at an address in Camden on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a burglary and are currently in custody at a West London police station - assumed to be Hammersmith.

Where is your polling station?

Here they all are, so you have no excuse not to vote! And click here to find out which station you should go to.

Whatever you do, whoever you vote for, please for goodness sakes get out and cast your ballot if you haven't done by post already. The Battle of the Bush is at a close. One last time, you can read what Andy Slaughter the Labour candidate said here, what Shaun Bailey the Conservative candidate said here and what Merlene Emerson the Liberal Democrat candidate said here. You can watch them on video addressing you here.

You have four votes. One is for those standing to be our MP (one vote) and three for those standing to be your ward councillor (three votes)

This election in our neighbourhood is on a knife edge - so every vote counts. It will change the face of Shepherd's Bush in the next few years - so have your say or don't complain about anything afterwards.

Independent: Hammersmith is "Cameron Land"

...and it aint pretty. Commentator Johan Hari has reviewed Hammersmith Council in this article and he doesn't like what he finds. Among other observations he notes the crackdown Stephen Greenhalgh launched against services for the most vulnerable in our society, including the homeless, which led to shameful episodes like this where a pregnant woman who was in need of safety from being beaten was left to fend for herself on a park bench.

Part of the money the Conservatives have saved has of course gone on producing the propaganda paper H&F News, which causes even Tory MPs to speak out.

He details the new charges the Council brought in for services like those for the elderly and sick and of the fightback launched by some residents who formed the Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition Against Community Care Cuts who have enjoyed some success in resisting the tide.

And he interviews some of the residents who have been fighting throughout the election period for guarantees that they will be consulted about the future of their homes, as our Council seeks to hand them over to developers instead.

I won no friends in the local Labour Party by arguing that there was little hope of them winning the Council back in these local elections. They'd need a landslide of seats and in the current climate that's, er, unlikely. But I would say it's every reason to vote as I have for Andy Slaughter  - if only to hold back some of our local authority's worst excesses.

UPDATE Thursday - a reader has responded by posting an article on this at the Tory blog Conservative Home, which you can see here.

Robbery at Westfield

An investigation has been launched following a burglary at Westfield Shopping Centre this morning (Wednesday 5 May). Police were called at around 01.20hrs to reports of the burglary in progress.

Police believe a group of up to ten people wearing balaclavas forced access to the premises through a fire door. They then broke into two jewellery stores and made off with a quantity of goods.

The group reportedly left the scene in three cars, which  police believe are either lost or stolen

Police followed one of the vehicles a short distance before losing sight of it.

No one has been injured and there have been no arrests at this stage.

Officers from Hammersmith and Fulham CID are investigating and liasingwith the Flying Squad.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 020 8246 2634 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111

UPDATE THURSDAY 6TH MAY - Police have made three arrests, details here

All change at QPR

A bonfire of underperforming players is in the offing at Loftus Road after a season that promised so much yet delivered a brush with relegation to League One. In fairness to the players they had to contend with the likes of Briatore coming and going and a manager that seems to have had some, well, anger management issues.

But remind yourself how much these people are paid every time you feel sorry for them, earning the average yearly wage in weeks some of their performances have been shameful. And now its time for the axe to fall on many of them.

Over the summer Neil Warnock, who clearly wants to retire as a premiership manager, will be making plans for the next campaign and I expect there to be a clutch of new cars coming and going at Loftus Road in the coming weeks and months. Surely the Bush deserves better than we got last year!

Battle of the Bush: Bush Boxing

Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey punched a vicar today. In a John Prescott moment Mr Bailey lashed out at the curate, who drew gasps from astonished onlookers by punching the politician right back.

Amazing what words out of context can look like! All of the above perfectly true (OK I made up the bit about astonished onlookers.) but top Tory Bailey did indeed use his fists but this time in support of Bush Youth Boxing, a new sports club aimed at young people which meets at St Simon's Church in Rockley Road.

He was joined by the local vicar, Cameron Collington, and tried out the new boxing ring and equipment (pictured above). Aimed at giving young people a positive approach to life Shaun described himself as "..a huge supporter of youth projects like Bush Youth Boxing" and said he wanted "to see more activities like this for local young people."

So there you are! Personally I'm not sure that there aren't other sports we could be advocating for young people rather than one which involves punching your opponent repeatedly in the head, but Shaun is clearly a big fan. And here in the land of Manny Pacquiao I suspect I am in the minority..

New Circle Line

Thanks to the excellent Going Underground blog we can now see the big picture - of what a combined new circle line plus overground is going to mean for the Bush and west London in general. Much better connected is the answer.

I remember before I moved to the Bush I had to travel there from Golders Green in North London. A journey that takes about 15 minutes on the north circular by car took over an hour because of having to travel right slap bang into Tottenham Ct Rd to change onto the central line.

On my travels I see orbital lines of various types on metro systems all over the world - and I suspect I won't be the only one who can't wait for us to get plugged in like this as soon as possible.

Battle of the Bush: LibDems rally, I voted Labour

Former Met Police Commander for Lambeth Brian Paddick will be in Hammersmith's Lyric Square tomorrow at 1230 to campaign for LibDem candidate Merlene Emerson. Expect lots of yellow balloons and activists on the look out for babies to kiss.

And the local LibDems are clearly getting excited about the very good campaign led by Nick Clegg and the frankly disastrous one led by Gordon Brown. I can tell you that the media on this side of the world in Asia has already made its mind up that the game is up for him.

But its not up for Andy Slaughter, at least not just yet. It's not unusual for a local candidate of any party to survive in a seat where they themselves are popular even if their own party is not, and even his worst critics would have to concede that Andy has suppport locally. But a rise in the LibDem vote, coupled with Lord Ashcroft's millions for the Conservatives could well mean that we have a change of MP come May 7th.

It's never been my role on this blog to tell anyone how to vote and I'm not doing that now, but I will tell you that before I left I cast my postal vote for Andy Slaughter to remain our MP. I did that because my politics are left of centre naturally, and I have seen first hand the long hours and sheer effort Andy puts in to local issues. He resigned his Ministerial post to fight against the expansion of Heathrow Airport and has consistently spoken against his own government where he disagreed, most notably on the Middle East. So he's independent minded and locally grounded.

Most important for me though is that I think we need balance in this Borough. There is no chance whatsoever that Labour are going to win the Council back - the arithmetic is overwhelming after they were routed at the last local elections. So there will be another Tory council. I think we need a Labour MP to balance that so things dont get railroaded through. Our Council are very good at railroading things through as the residents of Goldhawk Road know to their cost. So I voted Andy because he understands (and indeed grew up in) the local area and would be an effective counter-weight to a Council that doesnt listen to local residents but does spend their taxes on propaganda newspapers that even Tory MPs think are beyond the pale.

Having said all of that, I've been impressed by Shaun Bailey. He's a people person, and has been involved in local campaigns that have already made a positive difference to local people. He responded to our own residents campaign ahead of Andy Slaughter and once he got involved the Council, who until that time were not interested in our views, suddenly wanted to meet us. On a personal level he is very difficult not to like, and his campaign team contain some very clever people who know very well how to use that, so his is a formidable campaign. If he gets elected he would make a good MP.

And Merlene Emerson, suddenly focussed on the Hammersmith campaign instead of her other campaign to win a seat on Richmond Council, is stepping up a gear too. She's also hard not to like on a personal level but given the fact she is running a part time campaign here and in Richmond she hasn't been around as much as the others.

So that's my take on it dear readers!, but whoever you vote for, please for goodness sake VOTE! Or don't bother complaining about anything afterwards.

Sorry for the slow down in blogging recently. I'm going to share some of my experiences here in a couple of days, but it has been humbling. Just today I have been meeting bloggers and journalists who risk their lives reporting an altogether more menacing political life. More on that later, for now adieu!