It is the proper reward for years of hard campaigning.

Had this awful development gone ahead, it would have irrevocably destroyed the character of our city and district and would have reduced our roads to gridlock.  Of course it is disappointing that the Inspector did not accept the powerful arguments put forward by the council, by STRiFE and by local residents.

But at a political level, the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government has shown that it understands the importance of Green Belt and that there are alternative sites for railfreight terminals where much less damage would be caused.

Three cheers for a government which shows common sense.  And congratulations too to STRiFE, to St Albans District Council, to all the local political parties who were genuinely united on this issue, and most of all to local residents and interest groups who gave evidence, put up posters, wrote letters, raised money and delivered leaflets.  It is their well-deserved triumph.

The county council deserves a good kicking for its abject failure to mount a challenge on highways grounds – that allowed the Inspector to ignore the evidence presented by David Parry and myself that the traffic generation formulae were flawed (see earlier blog entries here).  My own belief is that we have identified a serious issue which will alter the way that traffic models are constructed in other similar applications.

One final thought.  12 months ago, our City and District had the twin threats of a wholly inappropriately sized Tesco in London Road and this terrible proposal for a gigantic lorry terminal to the south of the district.  In both cases, determined campaigning by local residents, a firm stance from the council, and a blessedly united front from the political parties have seen the respective Goliaths off.

We now have to take our city and district forward with appropriate developments which go with the grain of our ancient and wonderful community.

The BBC online report coyly noted that “after a series of five votes by MPs, in which other candidates were eliminated in stages, Mr Hoyle emerged with 161 backers, with Mr Evans on 133 and Ms Primarolo on 128. But Mr Evans was the first to gain the 129 votes deemed necessary under the new system.”

The official UK Parliament website comes clean about the “new system” – see http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2010/06/mps-elect-deputy-speakers/

It is the Single Transferable Vote preferred by Liberal Democrats for all elections – funny how it’s good enough for MPs’ internal elections but the best we are going to be offered for Commons elections is the much inferior Alternative Vote.

Not an easy ask since every day has thrown up a new surprise, and doubtless there will be more today with the first round of spending cuts.

But here is what I wrote:

Most constituencies had their own local hustings apeing the television spectaculars.  Our last was with local sixth formers.  It was the Friday before polling day and still glad confident morning for Liberal Democrats.

But every day, every week, every year that Deputy Prime Minister Clegg is beamed into the nation’s living rooms alongside Prime Minister Cameron, the more it will mean good riddance to old politics.

This week we had Simon Hughes in his dayglo taxi on Monday – and his magic touch conjured up even more poster boards in prominent locations.

Today Vince Cable came to town.  There’s only one Nick Clegg, there’s only one Vince Cable, there’s only so much they can do in the final day before polling day.  So it is highly significant that the party high command sent Deputy Leader Vince to St Albans for a walkabout in the market and a robust and enjoyable soap-box stump speech outside the Alban Arena.

It is a sign of their desperation that the Conservatives wheeled in a bunch of “students” from outside the city to wave blue placards and heckle – rather feebly I thought.  Given the almost total invisibility of any Conservative posters in the constituency, I remarked that just by being there they doubled the Conservative poster count from five to ten.

Both this morning and later at lunch time, shoppers came up to wish me luck and in  many cases to confirm that they had already voted LibDem by post.  Likewise residents in the street in Bedmond, Primrose Hill, St Albans and Park Street.

Ladbrokes today offers the same odds on me or Mrs Main winning – we are both at 10/11, with Labour drifting to 25/1.

Polls close at 10 pm and we will know the actual result sometime in the early hours of Friday.  Whatever happens, we have made a huge impact in this election – both nationally and locally.  Politics will never be the same.

PS If you need any information on voting or a lift to the polls, please call the Liberal Democrat headquarters on 01727 855523.

Today’s front page story in the Guardian by Julian Glover headlined “Lib Dems set for most MPs since 1923 – poll” reports on the newspaper’s polling carried out on Tuesday this week.  It shows big swings from Labour to the Liberal Democrats in key marginals.  The poll also shows a swing from Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats in the seats where polling was carried out.

“On yesterday’s results the Lib Dems could hope to win some seats, such as St Albans, from third place,” the Guardian writes.  St Albans was one of only six constituencies from across Britain mentioned by name in the article.

This echoes the story carried by last Saturday’s Daily Mirror headlined “Tories in Double Trouble”.  In that story, Kevin Maguire writes: “Cam[eron] could also lose seats such as Croydon Central (infighting) and St Albans (expenses).”  In this article St Albans was one of only four seats highlighted.

We all know something is happening in St Albans.  These articles by political experts simply reinforce what we are seeing on the ground.  We are easily winning the poster war, the response on the doorstep is very warm, and many Labour, Conservative and Green voters have switched to the Liberal Democrats.

And my brother-in-law has just phoned to tell me that Ladbrokes now have us at evens.

The BBC was determined to give no hint of the lavish excess we have come to expect from Broadcasting House.  Arriving at the nondescript office building at 1 Hastings Street in Luton, we were shown to a totally empty floor, just carpet tiles and pillars, and then into a stuffy room with five chairs for the five of us and a chair for Jonathan.

A nice touch was a cuddly toy in party colours on each chair to mark where we should sit.

The debate was rather more robust than the previous decorous encounters in St Albans churches, not least because Jonathan was considerably more probing as chairman.

We covered traffic, public transport, Green Belt, MP expenses, immigration, schools, and free gardening for specified council tenants.  The questions had been recorded in St Albans by local residents and then played back to us.

You can hear the full debate here.  (You need to start listening 2.02 hours into the programme.)

We have one more face-to-face encounter this Friday speaking to sixth formers from various local schools all gathered at Nicholas Breakspear.  It really is just nine days to polling day.

Sighs of relief all round.

Last night’s packed St Albans Abbey hustings demonstrated that there is a huge interest in this election.  The nave was a magnificent and uplifting venue with the evening sun streaming through the west window.

The event was chaired by the Archdeacon, Jonathan Smith.  He began by introducing us based on short descriptions we had provided – some laughter in the audience when Anne Main was described as having a home in St Albans.

The questions were thoroughly stimulating, I hope our answers gave food for thought, at two hours in length the audience sat through a marathon .

We were asked about

- What do we do to reinvolve people in politics? Actually I think Nick Clegg has set this election alight.  We have people of all ages pouring through the door of our office in 9 Hatfield Road, offering help, asking for posters etc.  My facebook pages are buzzing with new friends and supporters.  We just have to maintain the connections after May 6th.

- Is there more that should be done for young people, and how do we stop antisocial behaviour?  Big issue, we can celebrate the good (youth theatre, county music service, uniformed groups), need to recognise the need for more activities that appeal to everyone – over to our Conservative county council – but hooray for the Pioneer.  I noted that when we had a spate of garden invasions at home, one of the worst perpetrators popped up at our Remembrance Sunday service a few years later as a member of the volunteer fire brigade.  But we also need to recognise that antisocial behaviour makes some people’s lives a total misery.

- What were our views on the Digital Economy Bill? Having worked in the industry but left it five years ago, I know enough to know I don’t know enough.  People who create content (mostly music) need to be paid properly rather than have their stuff illegally downloaded but it is a horribly complex area and the Government’s determination to rush through legislation in the last week before Parliament was dissolved was wholly unnecessary.  The digital economy is crucial to Britain’s future, all parties agree on that, the time for full and proper debate would have been in the new Parliament.

- What about Trident replacement?  Apart from Anne Main, we all agreed that this is really stupid (though Roma had to express a personal opinion since Labour of course led on the unnecessary decision to continue with a weapons system for a Cold War that is no more).  I am delighted to see in this morning’s papers that a whole bunch of senior generals support the Liberal Democrat line on this.

- The treatment of people in immigration centres and particularly the detention of children?  The way we treat immigration and asylum seekers defines us as a society.  We need to separate out asylum seekers (where we have legal responsibilities) and then have clear, rapid and effective procedures for sorting out who is genuine and who is not.  Economic migrants are a separate issue, and clearly numbers need to be controlled. Liberal Democrats would end the detention of children.

- Global warming and should we be helping third world countries to adapt and mitigate?  Well yes we have to and this played directly into the previous question.  If climate change starts to accelerate, the implications for sub-Saharan Africa and low-lying nations like Bangladesh will be too awful to contemplate.  Climate change deniers like John Stocker who also don’t want any immigration had better realise the two issues are inextricably linked.  Lib Dem policy is to provide additional aid over and above existing commitments to help third world countries who are having to deal with massive problems created by our past carbon emissions.

- Is it reasonable to have a 50% target for participation in higher education? In my view Quality and Equality are the two key goals.  Apart from the USA we are the only country in the world to have truly world-leading universities and we should be cherishing them not starving them.  We also need to make sure that everybody has a fair chance of getting into higher education.  I am genuinely shocked that there is a lower percentage of state school educated students at Cambridge today than there was when I was there nearly 40 years ago.  The 50% target for participation seems wholly arbitrary and we need to think far more creatively about how we raise the prestige of vocational training.

- What about the loss of our Urgent Care Centre and the general downgrading of health facilities in St Albans? I replied as I have written in many previous postings in this blog about the way that the NHS “has left us”.  I also reported on the responses from our current survey (still being collated into a dossier) – some people are delighted with the care they have received, which always interests me as a politician since people are generally more ready to complain than to praise.  But what comes through loud and clear is the distress of older people at the problems of getting to Watford or Stevenage for appointments or to visit sick friends and relatives – impossible bus journeys, huge taxi fares, and if driving the difficulty and expense of finding parking.  We have to come up with better transport solutions.

- And finally answer in a word or 10 seconds what you would immediately campaign for if elected?  I answered “Fairness” – the Liberal Democrat mantra in this election.  This embraces taxation of course but also a fair start for young people, a fair approach to university costs with the abolition of student fees, and also a fair, sustainable and green economy – in fact see all of the above.

Of course there are pupils as well who have gone on school trips and are now stranded.  But the impacts will be bigger on whole school communities if teachers are trapped at their holiday destinations and unable to return home.

Today is an INSET day for some schools but then the scale of any problem will quickly become clear. The Easter break is a popular one for teacher holidays – there are bound to be gaps and shortages.

I just hope that Hertfordshire County Council is doing an urgent audit of the situation.  If it looks like flight bans are going to continue for a number of days, they may need to put out a call for teachers (with current valid CRB clearances) who are not currently working to get in touch with the council to see where they might be needed.

I hope too that no pupils have to be sent home, but priority must be given to keeping teaching and revision classes going for those facing exams in a few short weeks, with language orals being a particular concern.

I campaigned for Nick Clegg in the Liberal Democrat leadership election because I believed then that he had the potential to transform British politics. That is exactly what he did in this week’s debate leaving David Cameron and Gordon Brown looking tired and irrelevant.

I wonder if David Cameron remembers being asked to tell a political joke.  He said “Nick Clegg” and thought he was being so funny – and how his sycophants laughed?

I wonder if they are still laughing now.

The Lib Dems are well aware of the stakes. For their moment in the spotlight, they chose a focused, costed and serious political message.
The Guardian – 15th April 2010

The Liberal Democrat manifesto contains more extensive and more detailed tax and spending proposals than those of the other main UK parties.
Institute for Fiscal Studies – 14th April 2010

The [Liberal Democrats] deserve credit for costing its promises… unlike the Tories who hid their sums because they know the figures don’t add up.
The Mirror – 15th April 2010

They’ve got by far the most ambitious tax and spending plans
BBC – 14th April 2010

Their manifesto launch today was refreshingly candid in its clear focus on the deficit and the recession, subjects largely fudged by Labour and the Tories in their manifestos this week.
Evening Standard – 14th April 2010

The Liberal Democrat manifesto is about facts and figures and pledges
Martin Kettle; The Guardian – 14th April 2010

It is a pitch to the electorate that includes the most generous tax giveaway and the most explicit public spending cuts offered by any of the main parties.
The Financial Times – 15th April 2010

The most impressive part of the Liberal Democrat manifesto is its final few pages…The Lib Dems set out, in detail, how they plan to start reducing the deficit.
The Telegraph – 14th April 2010

Its unique selling point is the tables of tax spending and saving proposals included at the back…they are the only main party to open themselves to direct scrutiny in this way.
Adam Boulton – Sky news – April 14th 2010

They have produced what should be hailed as a credible economic programme… The Lib Dems say with some justification that they are the only party to have fully costed their plans without any reference to “efficiency savings”. This is likely to enhance their growing popularity.
The New Statesman – 14th April 2010

The Lib Dems’ manifesto does indeed include more detail on tax and spending policies than either Labour or the Tories.
Channel 4 Fact Check – 14th April 2010