The state and local government

902 See note 46.

903 Ibid.

904 House of Commons Library, 2010b, p. 2. Previously planned elections were not held in Exeter and Norwich where unitary re-organisation was due to take place in 2011. Moreover, a letter ordering a ministerial direction was leaked in February 2010, which involved Peter Housden, the permanent secretary and accounting officer at the Department for Communities and Local Government. Housden disagreed with the ex-secretary of state, John Denham, over plans to make Exeter and Norwich unitary authorities because he could not guarantee it offered "value for money" (P. Curtis and R. Evans, ‘Top civil servants made formal protests over Labour spending’, The Guardian, 19 May 2010).

905 House of Commons Library, 2010a, p. 12.

906 House of Commons Library, 2010b, p. 5.

907 Ibid., p. 4.

908 Ibid., p. 5.

909 Ibid., p. 4.

910 Ibid., p. 5.

911 Ibid., pp. 12-15.

912 Ibid., p. 4.

913 N. Lowles, 2010.

914 K. Edkins, 2009.

915 House of Commons Library, 2010b, p. 7.

916 Ibid.

917 Ibid.

918 K. Edkins, 2008, 2009 and 2010b. The Mebyon Kernow Party campaigns for self-government of Cornwall through the establishment of a legislative Assembly.

919 K. Edkins, 2010b.

920 In England one county council (4 per cent) had no overall control(NOC); 18 unitary authorities (33 per cent) had NOC; two London boroughs (6 per cent) had NOC; 15 metropolitan boroughs (42 per cent) had NOC; and 36 district councils (18 per cent) had NOC (see Appendix 13).

921 ‘Elections in Europe’, The Guardian, 9 June 2009.

922 See BBC News 2004 and 2009b for the data on which this discussion of the European elections is based.

923 K. Laybourn, 1988, p. 155; H. Pelling, 1993, p. 209. George Barnes was Chair of the parliamentary Labour party from 1910-11; and was replaced by Ramsay MacDonald at the beginning of 1911. Barnes was expelled from the Labour Party in November 1918 at the end of the war after he refused to leave Lloyd George’s coalition government (ibid., p. 32, p. 46, p. 210).

924 Hope not Hate, 2009.

925 Ibid.

926 BBC News 2004 and 2009b

927 C. Rallings and M. Thrasher, 'Majority missed by a whisker’, The Sunday Times, 9 May 2010.

928 C. Gilson and P. Dunleavey, 'State of the Race', 20 April 2010, http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/election/.

929 N. Lowles, 2010.

930 R. Bagley, ‘Red days as socialists gain’, Morning Star, 7/8 May 2010.

931 Morning Star, 7/8 May 2010.

932 Press release, 7 May 2010.

933 A. Travis, ‘Alternative vote system would have had little effect on result’, The Guardian, 11 May 2010.

934 P. Curtis, ‘Lib Dems approve deal – but demand assurances’, The Guardian, 17 May 2010.

935 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/region/48.stm.

936 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/region/7.stm.

937 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/region/10.stm.

938 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/region/6.stm.

939 J. Marshall, 2009, p. 1.

940 S. Wilks-Heeg. and S. Clayton, 2006.

941 P. Seyd and P. Whiteley, 2004, p. 360. Patrick Seyd is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield and Paul Whiteley is Professor of Politics in the Department of Government at the University of Essex.

942 See R.J. Dalton, 2008. Russell J. Dalton is a professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine.

943 Power Inquiry, 2006.

944 Ibid.

945 Quoted in The Power Inquiry, 2006, p. 42.

946 T. Bentley and P. Miller, ‘Party Poopers’ Financial Times, September 24 2004.

947 Ibid.

948 B. Page, 2005.

949 Cited in F. Mactaggart et al, 2006, p. 9.

950 D. Leighton, 2010, p. 5.

951 Ibid., p. 8.

952 A. Gramsci, 1999a, p. 556.

953 Ibid., p. 9.

954 See D. Alexander and E. Miliband, ‘We’ll defend the state’, The Guardian, 5 February 2010. Douglas Alexander and Ed Miliband’s article – written in their capacity as Labour’s 2010 general election and manifesto co-ordinators concludes by stating that ‘[we] will fight for our vision of society: enabling government, empowering people, a society where we grow together, not apart’ – exemplifies New Labour’s empowerment rhetoric which leaves the fundamentals of neoliberalism intact.

955 F. Mactaggart et al, 2006, p. 1, p. 7; Economic and Social Research Council, 2009, Slide 1.

956 J. Marshall, 2009, p. 2.

957 G. Johnston, Vice-chair, Save the Labour Party, letter in The Guardian, 28 July 2008; Labour Party, 2009, p. 4.

958 J. Harris, ‘Plunging Labour now recalls it needs two wings to fly’, The Guardian, 5 January 2010.

959 The Trade Union & Labour Party Liaison Organisation, http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/.

960 Labour Party, 2009, p. 10. In 2008 the credit crunch also cut donations to the other two main parties. The Tories were worst hit with a £1.1 million fall in income, an overall surplus down £1.3 million to £287,000 and a fall in donations from £18.9 million in 2007 to £16.5 million in 2008 (Conservative Party, 2009b, p. 9). Though they maintained spending at £31.9 million and outspent Labour by more than £5 million for the second year in a row (ibid.). The Conservatives' net debt was £7.5 million, down from £7.75 million last year (ibid., p.11). The Liberal Democrats spent just over £6 million in 2008, £500,000 more than the party’s income; donations fell from £1.9 million in 2007 to £1.5 million in 2008; and net assets fell from £1.1 million in 2007 to £457,000 in 2008 ( Liberal Democrats, 2009, p. 7, p. 9).

961 Labour Party, 2009, pp. 8-9.

962 Ibid., p. 10, p. 13, p. 15.

963 M. Woolf and I. Oakeshott, ‘Brown deserted by big election donors’, The Sunday Times, 14 June 2009.

964 P. Haste, ‘Privatisation “will spark Labour vote”’, Morning Star, 8 June 2009.