But Ukip have long had eyes on the seat, earmarking it as a possible Ukip gain after a strong election showing there last year, with the party gaining two councillors and topping the European poll.
Realigning this balance is a more complex business than just earmarking certain types of data for deletion.
The formal retreat from the Treasury's long-sustained opposition to earmarking tax revenue is now expected in the transport white paper to be published on July 20th.The concession is an important breakthrough, for which local authorities have long campaigned.
Mr Coburn has called for the elimination of earmarking to be the centrepiece of any post-Abramoff reforms in Congress, and pledged to force his colleagues to justify their earmarks on the floor of the Senate.The deliverer of bad tidingsThere are all sorts of reasons why he might fail.
John McCain, who spent the late 1960s as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has chided Hillary Clinton for earmarking $1m for a Woodstock concert museum ("I wasn't there...I was tied up at the time").
And Murkowski pere had chaired the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.Am I saying earmarking (adding pet projects to bills), pork barrel spending and lunches with lobbyists are gateway drugs to corruption?
As a former chief rabbi of Norway and later an Israeli politician linked to the Labour party, he is urging the government to follow Norway's example by putting the state's share of profits into a sovereign wealth fund and earmarking the income for social welfare.
Firms linked to Jack Murtha, a Democrat notorious for earmarking funds for his home town, are under investigation.So far, there is little sign that Republican attacks on Democratic profligacy have had much bite, says Stuart Rothenberg, a political analyst.
9 26: Who is in prison for earmarking and pork barrel spending, Johnny Mac?
The president's speech hinted that the government might try to sell the idea of privatisation by earmarking the proceeds for social-sector schemes.Nor is the private sector as free as it should be.
Since March the government has granted 76 concessions for renewable-energy projects in northern Chile, earmarking 21,000 hectares of state-owned land for solar and wind development.
