In Aberdeen Today

Moslems set for tactical strategy
The Press and Journal today (p11) is reporting that the Moslem community is being urged to vote tactically for the Lib Dems or the SNP in Scotland (no link, it's not online). The Muslim Association of Britain is asking muslims to vote against Labour because of the Iraq war and the recent anti-terrorism legislation. Scottish chairman, Dr Salah Beltagui, said:
"Moslem opposition to the war is well documented, but in recent months this has been joined with anger over the powers the Labour government has forced through, enabling them to hold people indefinitely without trial. Therefore we have found that to command support from Molsem constituents, it is not good enough to have been just anti-war, only to back the anti-terror legislation."

And the Labour response from an anonymous Scottish Labour spokesman:
"The only thing a vote for anyone other than Labour will deliver is Michael Howard getting into No.10 through the back door."
I wonder what Justin at Chicken Yoghurt would say about that? There are also one or two links in my post yesterday which make a nonsense of this claim. To adopt a New Labour strategy with one crucial difference, I will repeat once again that a vote for the Lib Dems in Aberdeen South will not lead to a Tory government. (Just in case you are not sure, the difference is that this endless repetition is actually true.)

More on yesterday's post
Read it here. On reflection, and in the spirit of trying not to think the worst of people, I decided to email Professor Qvortrup to ask if he could clarify his position. Strangely, the professor's email address is no longer available from the relevant RGU staff contact page. Fortunately, the google robots take a while to update changes to pages so his email address was still listed on the google page summary. Handy.

I've written a short summary of my concern and suggested he might like to read my post on his opinions. I also asked if he could supply me with the percentage swings and turnout figures on which he based his claim for Aberdeen South. I will be happy to clarify his position if he returms my email. Further updates may follow.
I've also emailed the Press and Journal expressing my concerns.

Not local, but
The Press and Journal website has an interesting story about John Hemming and his challenge to the postal voting system. Quite a few bloggers have been following this although I'm not sure if this will turn out to be a big election story. It certainly will be if the court rules in his favour. If you'd like more information, Mr Hemming has his own blog here.

That's it for now. In an effort to combat the generally rather negative opinions I express when writing about politics, my next post will contain only good things, nice things, and fun things. Underneath all the grumbles and complaints I'm actually quite a happy person.