The party man is in to Nottngham East...

So Chris Leslie has been selected as the Labour candidate for Nottingham East – an event about as surprising as a boiled potato.

The news came out this afternoon, but as ever I promise to bring something new to the table.

As Jim P at the FT correctly suggests this selection will be seen as an incident of parachuting.

There was of course an attempt to pay lip service to the local party by including three local candidates on a shortlist of nine.

Each of the nine were then given interviews by the “special selection panel”.

BUT, Lobbydog hears that the candidates were given five minutes each to make a mini-presentation and were then questioned for ten – 15 minutes each in total.

Given that the incumbent John Heppell has been in the seat for 18 years, as may his predecessor be, it seems an awfully short amount of time.

“But it’s so close to the election, we needed to do things quickly,” cry the Labour powers that be.

If that was the case then why didn’t they let the local party organise a hustings and selection on Monday, as they suggested doing, to finish the job two days earlier.

The reason is, of course, that the upper echelons of Labour wanted their man and got him.

It does not sound like there is an appetite for the local party to put up an independent in protest though, as has happened in Stoke Central.

That may be because the leading local candidate, Nottingham City Council Leader Jon Collins, is not everyone’s favourite bunny.

Collins apparently wanted the seat badly and had gone the extra mile in terms of lobbying for it.

But word has it that the unions effectively vetoed him from getting the seat during a meeting in Downing Street, because they had a vendetta to settle over a spat in Nottingham.

Never mind Jon – only another 18 years to wait. I’m sure the unions will have got over it by then.

Let them drown...

…is the attitude of the Treasury to local authorities which had cash in Icelandic banks, reckons one councillor.

Peter Antill from Tewkesbury said: “The approach adopted so far suggests that had Treasury officials and MET Office officials been on Thailand’s beeches at the time of the Tsunami, the Treasury officials would have stood by and watched MET Office officials drown because they were informed weather professionals.”

He was giving evidence to a committee after Alistair Darling’s department refused to guarantee councils' frozen deposits because authorities were “informed investors”.

Nottingham City Council had £42m in their Icelandic accounts - let's hope they keep their head above water.

Parking Probe

Lobbydog wants to see MPs on the Transport Committee push Nottingham City Council on their plans to introduce a Workplace Parking Levy today.

The proposals would see 500 firms in central Nottingham paying £185 a year per parking space they provide for employees, rising to £350 in 2014.

At a time when firms are being pushed to the brink by the downturn and as councils could soon get the power to bump up business rates anyway, it’s a prickly subject.

If the levy means less traffic, better transport, and no harm to the economy then great.

But I need to see the plan stand up to proper public scrutiny before I’m convinced.

Icelandic banks

Graham Allen MP thought it would be helpful for Nottingham City Council Leader Jon Collins and his deputy, Graham Chapman, to talk in person to an inquiry investigating the Icelandic banks situation.

I’m not sure the pair would thank Mr Allen, who is MP for Nottingham North.

When Lobbydog contacted the council to see if the leader and his right-hand man would be up for it, there was a predictable lack of response.

The council said it would submit written evidence to the inquiry on how it came to have £42m in the banks when they went under, but no mention was made of a visit to London in person.

If the inquiry committee is interested enough they may ask the council to come to Westminster next year and give oral evidence.

Until then I’d be interested to know whether you think the inquiry should be holding the council to account for its part in the predicament. Vote in the new Lobbydog poll.