Falmer For All Press Release - Early Day Motion Tabled in House of Commons

[mona]

It is interesting that no Lib Dems have signed the EDM yet. Even Bob Russell MP , a keen football follower, hasn't signed it. My prejudices against them are starting to grow.

 

[Jameson]

Just done Hendry - Wealden. I have sent him stuff before and he usually replies so let's see...

 

[balloonboy]

It is interesting that no Lib Dems have signed the EDM yet. Even Bob Russell MP , a keen football follower, hasn't signed it. My prejudices against them are starting to grow.

I live in Lib Dem country (ie, the South West), and have sent letters to Don Foster (Bath) and David Heath (Somerton & Frome). Foster once employed Bellotti as an election agent, but I had a go at him in a series of letters/emails. Not sure if they made any difference, but Bellotti later seemed to be relegated in his functions within the Bath constituency. It would be great if anyone with friends/relations in Bath could get them to write letters to Don Foster (he is actually the Lib Dem spokesman on Culture Media & Sport).

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

14 signed now

 

[Marc]

Tim Loughton replied to me, much more civilised than his earlier response to whoever it was:

Thank you for your e-mail. This is primarily a matter for Brighton & Hove and Lewes councils and their respective populations. Along with the other West Sussex Conservative MP's I have taken the view that I should keep out of the matter as it does in any case have ramifications for other house building projects along the foot of the Downs that we have been campaigning against with residents and in any case given previous form John Prescott is more likely to take a view diametrically opposed to our own. In any case we have never been approached by Brighton & Hove Council or the football club to explain the project and enlist our support so it is better we keep out of it. In any case the EDM will have little effect on the outcome of John Prescott's decision.

Tim Loughton MP

 

[Sergi Gotsmanov]

Mr Bottomley:

Thank you; as you know, I am not trying to be encouraging because I do not
believe the first action of the only Council to advocate the South Downs
National Park should be supported in trying to escape the obvious
consequence of its pressure on John Prescott.

Signing EDMs is a matter of choice and I do not intend to choose this one.
You will be pleased that others have.

If you think the opposition to a National Park is a game, you could listen
to West Sussex and to the other local councils who have practical reasons to
with to continue with the existing cooperative arrangements.

Yours, Peter Bottomley


Worth a go.

 

[balloonboy]

My brother in law lives in Mrs Bottomley's constituency. I've written a nice letter for him to sign - it'll be interesting to see what response he gets from Mrs B...

 

[balloonboy]

Just noticed that EDM 896, also launched on 23rd March, already has 39 signatures (compared to our 14). To save you the bother of looking it up, EDM 896 concerns Tasmanian Deforestation, and is proposed by Mr Norman Baker......

 

[Marc]

Just noticed that EDM 896, also launched on 23rd March, already has 39 signatures (compared to our 14). To save you the bother of looking it up, EDM 896 concerns Tasmanian Deforestation, and is proposed by Mr Norman Baker......

excuse me for being ignorant but WTF has a tasmanian forest got to do with Baker? cant he sort out problems closer to home first?

 

[Bob!]

Just received this lovely email from my Local MP


Thank you for your e-mail.

You are right that I would not usually support EDMs relating to issues
which are outside my constituency or my front bench responsibilities.
However, since the EDM has been signed by my front-bench colleague,
Julie Kirkbride, I have added my name.

With best wishes,
--
John Whittingdale OBE MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Member of Parliament for Maldon and East Chelmsford

It certainly pays when emailing Tory MPs to include the words from Julie Kirkbride

Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport Julie Kirkbride and M.P. for Bromsgrove, recently visited the proposed site at Falmer and was one of the first to sign the Early Day Motion. Ms Kirkbride commented, “A huge amount of effort has been put into these plans and the stadium would make a great use of the site, next to a station. The plan makes enormous sense. It's good for Brighton and Hove, good for fans, good for the local population and good for the Club. It's win, win, win all round and I very much hope John Prescott sees the good sense of this proposal. I am happy to lend any support I can in Parliament to make sure it goes ahead".

 

[Trish]

I've just sent a second e-mail to Tim Loughton quoting Julie Kirkbride and asking him to reconsider.

 

[Exiled in Exeter]

While Tim Loughton appears not to want to sign an EDM to support his local football club, he has found time to sign up to the very important EDM 885:

BEEFEATER GIN 23.03.04
Hoey/Kate
That this House notes that Beefeater gin, being the only genuine London gin and manufactured in Kennington in the heart of London, is not available in places of refreshment within the Palace of Westminster; and calls upon the Catering Committee to rectify this situation as a matter of urgency.

 

[balloonboy]

It certainly pays when emailing Tory MPs to include the words from Julie Kirkbride



When writing to a Lib Dem, I believe the key issues to note are:

1. What a great example of local democracy it represents (the Lib Dems are hot on local democracy, mainly cus they've got no hope of doing anything at national level);
2. That Brighton & Hove Lib Dems are firmly in favour (it may help to include a copy of the statement from Paul Elgood which you can find on B&H Lib Dems web site)

Alternatively, you could just find out whether they like a G&T, and suggest they sign EDM 885

 

[Marc]

While Tim Loughton appears not to want to sign an EDM to support his local football club, he has found time to sign up to the very important EDM 885:

BEEFEATER GIN 23.03.04
Hoey/Kate
That this House notes that Beefeater gin, being the only genuine London gin and manufactured in Kennington in the heart of London, is not available in places of refreshment within the Palace of Westminster; and calls upon the Catering Committee to rectify this situation as a matter of urgency.

jesus what a goon this bloke is, I'll reply to him later quoting Julie AND force home the fact that alot of BHA fans live in Shoreham-Lancing thus a few possible votes for him if he does sign it. I hardly doubt theres many anti-falmer living this way...if there are then I wanna know where they live!

 

[Morgans Mullet]

His constituency also covers Southwick and East Worthing (Broadwater) so I would say he has at least several hundred seagull supporters as potential voters, including me.
I also got the 'I will try sitting on the fence and hope no one notices' response from him.
I have been told by someone who spoke to him about it that he is against the stadium at Falmer so it would take a lot to change his mind.

 

[Josky]

His constituency also covers Southwick and East Worthing (Broadwater) so I would say he has at least several hundred seagull supporters as potential voters, including me.
I also got the 'I will try sitting on the fence and hope no one notices' response from him.
I have been told by someone who spoke to him about it that he is against the stadium at Falmer so it would take a lot to change his mind.

I know for a fact that he is against the Falmer stadium and very little is going to change his mind on this. Can we make some political capital out of this? - the East Worthing and Shoreham constituency must contain a good many Albion fans, including Lancing, Broadwater, etc. It certainly isn't as safe a seat as Peter Bottomley's West Worthing seat - I think it was almost a three way split last election.

 

[Josky]

Have Labour chosen their candidate for that seat yet and, if so, is he or she in favour?

Don't know about that, but if you look at last election's result, you can see that if the non Tory vote wasn't split between Lib and Lab, the Tories would be comprehensively defeated.

2001 General Election Result -

Tim Loughton (Tory) 18608
Daniel Yates (Labour) 12469
Paul Elgood (Lib Dem) 9876
James McColloch (UKIP) 1193
Chris Baldwin (Cannabis) 920

Although the number of Albion fans probably doesn't number near the amount we would need to affect the result, even a couple of thousand Albion supporters switching their votes or even canvassing for whichever candidate is pro-falmer will certainly get the incumbent party worried.

Listen to me, I feel like Peter Mandelson!

 

[Marc]

Don't know about that, but if you look at last election's result, you can see that if the non Tory vote wasn't split between Lib and Lab, the Tories would be comprehensively defeated.

2001 General Election Result -

Tim Loughton (Tory) 18608
Daniel Yates (Labour) 12469
Paul Elgood (Lib Dem) 9876
James McColloch (UKIP) 1193
Chris Baldwin (Cannabis) 920

Although the number of Albion fans probably doesn't number near the amount we would need to affect the result, even a couple of thousand Albion supporters switching their votes or even canvassing for whichever candidate is pro-falmer will certainly get the incumbent party worried.

Listen to me, I feel like Peter Mandelson!

thats not actually a bad idea, we have got a local election coming up so plenty of flyers pasted around Shoreham high street saying "Vote Pro-Falmer!" could do something! hmmm hope one of them comes canvassing on my doorstep!

 

[balloonboy]

Whilst it's struck as definitely a bad idea to set up a political party to campaign against Labour in Brighton if the Falmer decision goes against us (see logic below), I think there's much mileage in supporting pro-Falmer candidates in various constituencies.

Lewes will never be Labour, but a resurgent Tory party could give Stormin Norman a run for his money (may be tricky for some of us to support a Tory, and not sure what the Lewes Conservatives' view on Falmer is). However, places like East Worthing & Shoreham could be interesting. It would be useful to find out who the Labour candidate is, and whether he/she is pro-Falmer.

Logic: Even if we don't get Falmer, Labour is very likely to be the most supportive party. It would be crazy to cut off our noses to spite our faces....

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

This is the response I have had from Nicholas Soames. Not very helpful and he was a strong supporter of that daft identity card scheme that Maggie Thatcher wanted to bring in for football supporters. Mid Sussex is quite marginal, but I do not know what the result was.

Dear Duncan,



Thank you very much for your recent email concerning the planning application for a community stadium in Falmer.



I am sorry to have to tell you but I am afraid that I cannot support this application, or sign EDM No. 889, as I am strongly opposed to any building development in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

He clearly needs to be told the difference between a muddy field and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Whitbread Hollow, Belle Tout Wood, Crowlink it aint. Does the bloke ever visit Brighton? English's is supposed to be one of his favourite restaurants