Tuesday 28 April 2009

Straw gutted by Grieve


But the prisons problem remains.

A rather aggressive opening response to the Justice Secretaries U-turn on prisons. The rest of the response can be found at ConservativeHome. Its not bad. However no one has yet admitted that if you create loads of new offences, in a surveillance society, then more people will fall foul of them and more prison spaces will be needed - hence more money will have to be allocated or the sentencing regime altered. Its simply really.

The problem is the Justice Department and MP's are failing to deal with the issue which will drown out all other areas of the Department if they don't watch it. It is precisley the reason the Home Office hived it off in the first place!

Still a good aggressive start by Grieve;

"I thank the Justice Secretary for advance sight of his statement. I join him in paying tribute to the service and commitment of prison and probation staff, and police and emergency services, under such challenging conditions. May I therefore express my disappointment that once again he has trailed a major policy announcement in the weekend press, with the Government’s usual disdain for this House?

I should say at the outset that I welcome the Government’s U-turn on Titan prisons; giant warehouses are no good for reforming prisoners or for protecting the public. However, the Justice Secretary first announced Titans amid great fanfare in 2007. Why has it taken almost two years to work out what Opposition parties, the chief inspector of prisons, the voluntary sector and prison officers told him then? Is it because the Government ran out of money, or because the policy ran out of spin? The stark reality is that this U-turn is the nail in the coffin of a flawed approach to tackling crime".

The No.10 E-Petition fightback - flops


Is very very funny, if a little rude. See for yourself here. He has got around 60 "supporters". Meanwhile the resign petition is at around 25,000 at the minute.

Here is a list of brave supporters who have rallied to the dear leader:

# Joy Wendy Endcomes
# Andrew Neil
# Charles Ponzi
# D N Disnigh
# Noki Aitonthehead
# I. Wright
# Mr N.O. McMandate
# Ivor Broquen-Printer
# Mr. P. Iss-Off
# Mr S Meargate
# Dustin Mihands
# Gordon Smallcock
# Mrs Tricoteuse
# Prof L. Igate-Tosser
# Nick Robinson
# Asif Ali ZARDARI, President
# Sarah Brown
# Gordon pension robber Brown
# All your friends at the BBC
# A.S. Long-As-It's The Wright Thing
# Juan Ay-Jocque
# Billy Nomates
# I.T. Beganinamerica
# Simon Scrotum
# No More Return To Boom And BUST
# Karl Marx
# Dolly Draper
# Orson Carte
# Phil McHunt
# Imoff Tofrance
# Nucking Futter
# R Ving-Lhuun
# Mr Bunk Spubble (Labour supporter)
# it's oor oil
# Andrew Marr
# F*ck off back to Scotland
# Arthur Brown Penis
# Do you think you'll manage to get to 10 REAL signatures?
# Referee R.ndum and U. Ropevote
# Mr Barnett Dividend (Scottish Labour)
# Nicola O'Connor
# Wayne Kerr. Go Gordon your doing a grand job!
# Vaal Ewes
# Seymour Jocksin-Cabinet
# Bob Roberts Hamster
# Betty Swallocks
# Rock Ing-Horse
# M. Outhbreather
# Hugh R. Slicker
# Ilick Windows
# Blair mayne UUPCON
# I Hate Broon
# Robert Barking-Roberts
# K Y Jelly
# Toenails Robinson
# Jacqui Five-Bellies
# google ho-tel
# Jim Hacker's Dangly Knackers
# Stalin
# Hugh Janus
# Josef Fritzel
# My mate Gordo and me shag sheep at the weekends
# Esan Utter
# Iain Dale media whore
# Frankie McCheesecake
# Phil MacAvity
# Monk d'willy da honk
# 1eyed Scottish IDIOT
# HARRIET (too big for my boots) HARMAN
# Jonah Broon
# C.U. Jimmy
# U MacMesick
# B Ukake-Smith
# I.F. No-Job
# Tony Blair
# Napoleon,Snowball,Squealer and the rest of the pigs from Animal Farm
# Aime Wright-Burke
# Adolf Hitler
# Gordon FitzPeter
# Peter FitzGordon
# Gote Farqhuhar
# Mike Hunt
# Rufus T- Smee
# Damian McSmear
# Another fat faced bogey eater
# I'm going to emmigrate if Brown still leads the UK in a week
# Len dusafiver
# Titanic Captain
# prudence mcnutter
# Yuri Wright -Tosser
# Mr. You Don't Stand a Chance.

Monday 27 April 2009

Jack Straw and Prisons


He has just announced two new large prisons and a large U-Turn.

No Titan (2,500) prisons to be built anymore. I think principally because no one could find anyway for them to be built. 50 Acre sites are not easy to come by. I think the idea of the Titan prisons was pretty bad anyway. Much easier for things to get out of control on that sort of scale.

However two large prisons are to be built in Chelmsford and South East London. A 1,500 space prison will change Chelmsofrd a lot. New jobs yep but a lot of bother with it too.

Tories New Ad Campaign


It looks swish but I am not sure the slogan is that good. Still a for effort. Will appeal more to Tory voters than to general public.

Sunday 26 April 2009

Captain Cameron in Command


A really good speech. Just get the Tories in office ASAP to sort the mess out. Here is the speech in full, thanks to the efficient Tory website It deserves to be set out in full:

"It’s good to be here in Cheltenham, and to see this great Party so united, determined and optimistic.

Look what we’ve achieved since our Spring Forum in Gateshead last year.

We’ve now got more councillors than Labour and the Liberal Democrats – combined.

We’ve won our first by-election from Labour in thirty years.

And we’ve got the first Conservative Mayor of London.

All this - because of you and your round-the-clock hard work.

Because every strand of this Party – the volunteers, the councillors, professionals and parliamentarians came together to work side by side in common cause.

It doesn’t get said enough: thank you.



PARTY CHANGE

But we haven’t just been winning elections together.

We’ve been changing our Party together too.

Candidates who represent Britain as it is today.

Social action projects in our local communities.

And new issues to campaign about.

Yes we’re the party of strong borders, law and order and low taxes – and we always will be.

But today we’re also the party of the NHS, the environment and of social justice too.

Ours has been a voyage of connection.

Not just with the modern world and the challenges of the hour.

But with the rich heritage of our own political tradition – that strand of Conservatism that celebrates the local, the civic and the social.

We have strengthened our liberalism and rediscovered our Conservatism building a movement that isn’t just about the individual, but about the community not just about the ‘me’, but the ‘we’ not just about the market, but about society too.

That’s what we’ve achieved, and we can be hugely proud of it.

AGE OF AUSTERITY

But it has all been in preparation for what lies ahead.

The election could be just a year or so away.

This will not be any old election.

Its outcome will shape Britain for a very long time.

And it is an election we must win.

There are deep, dark clouds over our economy, our society, and our whole political system.

Steering our country through this storm; reaching the sunshine on the far side cannot mean sticking to the same, wrong course.

We need a complete change of direction.

I’m not just talking about changing one group of Ministers for another.

Or one set of policies, plans and proposals for another.

I’m talking about a whole new, never-been-done-before approach to the way this country is run.

Why?

Because the world has completely changed.

In this new world comes the reckoning for Labour’s economic incompetence.

The age of irresponsibility is giving way to the age of austerity.

Labour’s Debt Crisis.

The highest borrowing in peacetime history.

The deepest recession since the war.

Labour are spent.

The money has run out.

Now some people say: let’s get through the recession, let’s get through the election we can keep on spending more, keep on borrowing more, and deal with the debt crisis later.

Wrong - seriously wrong.

The alternative to dealing with the debt crisis now is mounting debt, higher interest rates and a weaker economy.

Unless we deal with this debt crisis, we risk becoming once again the sick man of Europe.

Our recovery will be held back, and our children will be weighed down, by a millstone of debt.

So this is no time for business as usual.

This is no time for more of the same.

There is only one way out of this mess, and that is through massive change.

I’m frustrated it’s not happening.

I’m impatient to get on with it.

And today I want to explain what the change needs to be.



RESPONSIBLE POLITICS

First, the age of austerity demands responsible politics.

Over the next few years, we will have to take some incredibly tough decisions on taxation, spending, borrowing – things that really affect people’s lives.

Getting through those difficult decisions will mean sticking together as a country – government and people.

That relationship, just as any other, is strengthened by honesty; undermined by dishonesty.

Gordon Brown doesn’t understand how important this is.

Despite the gravity of this debt crisis despite the serious consequences of not dealing with it he still can’t stop his politics of spin; smoke and mirrors; treating people as fools.

Remember, two years ago it was the election that never was.

He told us he bottled it because he thought he was going to win.

This time last year it was the 10p tax con.

He taxed the poor for the sake of a headline, claimed that no-one lost out, and then spent billions of pounds compensating them.

Last week it was the U-turn on YouTube.

After telling us to wait for the independent enquiry on MPs’ expenses, he suddenly popped up to announce his own plan.

And what was that great new plan?

Paying MPs to turn up for their job.

No receipts.

No questions asked.

More taxpayers’ money.

Less accountability.

But the most cynical trick yet came in last week’s Budget.

Everyone could see through what they were trying to do:

“Don’t look at this vast hole in the public finances over there look at this pathetic piece of class war posturing over here.”

When I see Brown and Darling, I’m reminded of those people who come to your door; one pretends to read your gas meter, while the other robs your house.

50p income tax when you have a budget deficit of £175 billion?

That’s not responsibility - it’s distraction burglary.

There’s no responsibility left in Labour.

They’re already set to have the highest borrowing in the G20.

And yet, unbelievably, this Government is planning to spend and borrow even more.

They’ve just announced a spending increase - not a cut, but an increase - of £20 billion for next year.

They’ve delayed the cuts until after the election.

Now I wonder why that could be?

Last week, Labour had their chance to set out their alternative, to show how they would lead us out of this crisis and they completely blew it.

And now, I just think people are completely sick of it.

Sick of Labour’s cynicism; sick of their incompetence; sick of their irresponsibility.



MORE FOR LESS

So it will fall to this Party to offer the responsible politics the country expects in this age of austerity.

But it expects more from us than a hair shirt and a stern lecture.

Over the past three years, we have set out a particular vision of the good society.

A fairer, safer, greener Britain - where opportunity is more equal.

Good schools. A better NHS.

Our broken society – on the mend.

Our battered economy – rebuilt, with modern, hi-tech enterprise; well-paid, rewarding jobs; where our standard of living and quality of life rise together.

We have explained that we want to achieve these progressive aims through Conservative means:

Personal responsibility. Social responsibility.

Taking power from the state and giving it to individual people and communities.

Is this vision dead?

Does the age of austerity force us to abandon our ambitions? No.

We are not here just to balance the books.

There’s more to our mission than coming in like a bunch of flint-faced accountants and sorting out the finances. By the way, I want to make it clear I’ve got nothing against accountants.

The last time I talked about flint-faced accountants I got a letter from the wife of an accountant saying: “Dear David Cameron…my husband isn’t flint-faced – he’s actually very good looking.”

The question is: how does government help achieve these wider aims in the age of austerity?

And the answer is: by delivering more for less.

That in turn means four big changes for government and the role of the state.

First, a return to traditional public spending control.

Second, a new culture of thrift in government.

Third, curing our big social problems, not just treating them.

And fourth, imagination and innovation as we harness the opportunities of technology to transform the way public services are delivered.



TRADITIONAL SPENDING CONTROL

So the first, and most obvious part of delivering more for less is to deliver the ‘less.’

The days of easy money are over, and we have no option but to weed out spending that is not essential.

In opposition that means not making pledges you can’t keep – and we haven’t.

It means not signing up to spending plans you can’t afford – and we didn’t.

We’ve made a good start by making sure we won’t arrive in government with a whole bunch of unaffordable commitments.

We opposed the £12 billion Labour wasted on the VAT cut.

We were against the fiscal stimulus.

We said they should reduce their spending plans back in 2008.

And now we’re saying they should abandon their irresponsible plan to increase spending in 2010.

Controlling public spending and delivering more for less must start right now.

Not next year, not after the election – now.

We’ve made it clear that a Conservative government would spend less than Labour.

We’re not frightened of their idiotic ritual chants about “cuts.”

Everybody knows that Labour’s Debt Crisis means public spending cuts.

And instead of putting them off, Labour should be making them today.

Here’s how they could start – by reversing those extensions of the state that do more harm than good and which Britain would be better off without.

So scrap the ID cards scheme.

Cancel the ContactPoint database.

And get rid of Regional Assemblies and all that useless regional bureaucracy.

Those may be easy choices for Conservatives.

But we’ll need to make hard choices too.

It is not easy, or popular, for governments to take money away from people.

But when there are still millions of people in this country living in poverty, and when the age of austerity means we must focus on the real priorities can we honestly say it’s right for people earning over £50,000 a year to get state benefits in the form of tax credits?

With a Conservative government, tax credits will be there to help make society fairer, not the state bigger.

And we must apply the same discipline throughout government.

That means making sure that public sector pay and pensions reflect the realities of the economic situation.

Let me make it clear to everyone who works in the public sector: we will honour existing pay deals, including any three year pay deals.

But many of them end next year.

And this is the deal we’ll be offering you then:

We will help you by getting rid of the central direction and bureaucracy that undermines your professional autonomy and morale.

And in exchange we will ask for your help in solving Labour’s Debt Crisis by keeping the cost of public sector pay only as high as the country can responsibly afford.

Ever since I became leader of this Party in 2005, people have been asking me to tell them, not in general terms but in specific detail what a new Conservative government would do on tax and spending in a Budget in 2010.

George and I have resisted that pressure and I believe experience shows we’re right.

Detailed plans or shadow budgets would become quickly out of date.

But in the weeks and months ahead, the Shadow Cabinet will redouble its efforts to identify wasteful and unnecessary public spending.

Make no mistake: I am very clear about how much more work there is still to be done in order to identify significant future savings.

We will carry out this work.

We will do so responsibly.

And in time, we will set out the hard choices that lie ahead.



A GOVERNMENT OF THRIFT

But cutting spending the country can do without is not going to deliver the scale of change we need.

Delivering more for less can’t just be about top-down cuts imposed by ministers.

We need a massive culture change at every level of government, to make the state careful, not casual, with public money.

Every pound of public spending has been earned on the shop floor, the factory floor, in the office.

It’s not government money, as Labour like to say.

It’s your money.

If Labour remembered that, maybe they wouldn’t have wasted over £2.3 billion – yes £2.3 billion – refurbishing the offices of the Ministry of Defence.

That’s more than they take in one year from Air Passenger Duty.

So next time you’re in your airline seat, just be grateful you’ve helped buy a comfy new chair for some bureaucrat.

This kind of extravagant waste is absolutely run of the mill in government.

From the £90,000 wasted on pot plants in the Department of Transport to over twelve billion wasted on the NHS computer they don’t think twice about splashing your cash.

Why?

Because of the culture of profligacy Labour have created.

Where spending money is a good in itself, regardless of what it gets you.

Where Ministers brag about getting a bigger budget than the next guy.

Only in government do people automatically think that the way to get things done is to spend more money.

But it’s just not true.

Our education departments employ nearly four thousand people, and Britain is ranked seventeenth in the world league table for maths.

Sweden is at number ten, and their education department employs just three hundred people.

In the London Borough of Southwark, a new social enterprise called Southwark Circle is delivering vastly improved care services for less money designed by elderly people for elderly people using local social networks to bring real improvements to people's lives.

Our government spends nearly £400 million a year on advertising to reach sixty million people while Wikipedia, one of the largest websites in the world, spends about one per cent of that to reach 280 million people.

Sweden’s education department. Southwark Circle. Wikipedia.

They’re all delivering more for less.

If they can do it, why can’t our government?

Well I believe it can – by replacing Labour’s spendaholic government with a new government of thrift.

Here’s how we’re going to go about it.

With a Conservative government, if ministers want to impress the boss, they’ll have to make their budgets smaller, not bigger.

On my watch it will be simple: if you do more for less you get promoted if you do less for more, you get sacked.

If we’d had this approach over the last twelve years, I don’t suppose there’d be a single Labour Minister left.

But this culture of thrift must apply to the civil service too.

So we’ll impose a new fiduciary responsibility on senior civil servants – a contractual obligation to save the taxpayer money.

And every government department needs a proper finance director.

Some of them today aren’t proper accountants – flint-faced or not.

With such huge sums of public money at stake a Conservative government will make sure we have the professional financial controls the taxpayer has a right to expect.



FROM TREATMENT TO CURE

But let’s not pretend that cutting waste, and turning round the culture, will be enough to deal with the decade of debt that will be Labour’s legacy.

Achieving more for less in this age of austerity is not just a technical question of managerial efficiency.

It is a philosophical question too.

It’s about your approach to the big social problems that government must help address.

And we have a fundamentally different approach to Labour.

Because Labour always want to expand the state, they focus on treating social ills leaving the state with an ongoing role.

Because we want to expand society, not the state, we focus on curing social ills so the state is no longer needed.

For example, when it comes to poverty, Labour’s approach is just to treat the symptoms by spending more money.

Our approach is to understand why people are stuck in poverty in the first place, and help them break free by tackling welfare dependency, addiction, debt, poor schooling and above all, family breakdown.

There is no way this country will prosper in the twenty-first century, let alone deal with the debt crisis if we keep asking taxpayers to foot the £100 billion a year bill for the broken society.

So our plans for school reform, welfare reform and strengthening families plans which might once have been seen as just socially desirable in the age of austerity become economically essential.



REFORM AND INNOVATION

And here’s another way our philosophical differences with Labour give us an advantage in the battle for budget discipline.

We don’t believe in top-down central control: we believe in local control.

We don’t believe in taking power, we believe in giving it away.

And that’s the principle behind many of our most important reform plans: taking power from the central state and giving it to local people.

So in education we’ll end the state monopoly and allow new schools to be set up, giving parents real school choice for the first time.

In the NHS we’ll scrap those bureaucratic process targets and instead publish the health outcomes that matter, so patients can really choose where to be treated.

And in prisons we’ll redefine their purpose: from places where criminals are just locked up, to places where criminals are rehabilitated.

We’ll invite social enterprises, private companies and community organisations to help run our public services not in a limited, half-hearted way, like Labour have, but with passion and enthusiasm, because we really believe in it.

And we will pay these new providers by the results they achieve, so there’s a real incentive to improve.

Trusting people, sharing responsibility, decentralising and devolving power.

When it comes to running public services, that’s the way you get new ideas, new people, new ways of doing things.

And guess what, when you do that, you not only get better results.

You save money too.

In a phrase, you get more for less.



TECHNOLOGY

And there’s one more way to combine financial discipline with our positive vision.

Today, technology means everyone can have the information that was once kept by the privileged few.

In the hands of a party like Labour, that believes in central control, this opportunity is stifled.

Just look at computerising the NHS.

Labour say: let’s call in the expensive consultants. Let’s commission a massive IT project. Let’s make the state more powerful with a new, centralised computer to store everyone’s health records.

The result: NHS Connecting for Health, costing over twelve billion pounds.

One part of it is the Electronic Patient Records system - a central state-run database designed to let GPs, hospital doctors and nurses share your medical notes.

Now I want you to imagine how we’d have gone about it, if we’d had the chance.

We would have said: today, you don’t need a massive central computer to do this.

People can store their health records securely online, they can show them to whichever doctor they want.

They’re in control, not the state.

And when they’re in control of their own health records, they’re more interested in their health, so they might start living more healthily, saving the NHS money.

But best of all in this age of austerity, a web-based version of the government’s bureaucratic scheme services like Google Health or Microsoft Health Vault cost virtually nothing to run.

So this is where some really big savings could be made.

Not just shaving a bit off this budget here; that cost there.

Instead replacing whole chunks of the expensive, bureaucratic government machine with more modern methods - for a tiny fraction of the cost.

But it will only happen if you have a government that actually believes in giving power away.



TRANSPARENCY

And in an age when we’re asking people to put up with tax rises and spending cuts to pay for Labour’s Debt Crisis we can use technology to give people even more power – through transparency.

If a company is failing and new management comes in, transparency is the first thing they demand - opening up the books and seeing how every penny is spent.

It’s going to be the same with us.

So today I can announce our ‘People’s Right to Know’ plan – a democratic check on wasteful spending.

Every item of government spending over £25,000, nationally and locally, will have to be published online.

If you want to see how it could work, look at the Missouri Accountability Portal.

It will show you why transparency is such a powerful tool in controlling public spending.

And it can have an especially powerful effect when it comes to salaries.

Spending on public sector salaries has soared under Labour.

Where this has gone to nurses, doctors, teachers, police and other frontline stars, that is money well spent.

But it’s certainly not true of the wage bill for the swarm of unaccountable quangos that has infested our country under Labour.

In the age of austerity, where we’ll be asking frontline public sector workers to help us keep pay levels down we cannot leave the pay of public sector bureaucrats untouched.

People have a right to know exactly how much they’re getting.

So we’ll publish online all public sector salaries over £150,000.

Let’s see which officials have been getting rich at the taxpayer’s expense - and whether they’re worth the money.

Today we’re publishing a list of some we already know about.

Ed Richards at OfCom – he earns over £400,000 a year.

In fact, if you took the top thirty salaries at Ofcom, the communications watchdog, you could provide the whole of Cheltenham with free broadband access.

And then there’s the British Waterways Board.

The salaries of their top four employees – Robin Evans, Nigel Johnson, James Froomberg and Phillip Ridal – add up to £900,000.

That’s thirty nurses.

In the age of austerity we’ve got to ask ourselves what we really value in the public sector: and I know what the answer is.

It’s not the fat cats but the frontline workers.



CONCLUSION

This is the post-bureaucratic age.

With imagination and determination, we can deliver more for less.

For me, this is very personal.

Fifteen years ago, I was in the Treasury as we had to deal with public finances that had got out of control; debt that had got too high.

We had to put up taxes, and I hated it.

But it was the right thing to do and that lesson has stayed with me.

That’s why I’m a fiscal conservative.

That’s why, when it came to that big decision to oppose the VAT cut and the so-called fiscal stimulus, I didn’t consult a focus group or an opinion poll I just knew it was the right thing to do.

And there’s something else.

I know that if we win the election, we’ll be judged a successful government if we deal with the debt crisis - and a failure if we don’t.

Believe me, I get that.

I think people know by now that I want us to stand up for the poorest in Britain and to show that fiscal responsibility can go hand in hand with a social conscience.

And they know I will stand up for the aspiring and the enterprising, kicked in the teeth by a Labour Party reverting to type.

We will show that social responsibility can go hand in hand with personal ambition.

But what people also need to know is that I will stand up for responsibility and thrift.

Those are values this country needs today.

Labour’s leaders say only they stand for fairness.

Fairness?

These Labour ministers, saddling future generations with debt?

These Labour ministers, making our children pay the price of their incompetence?

Their “fairness” is utterly phoney.

So let’s turn our anger into passion ad our passion into action to give Britain the leadership she needs.

Yes if we win the election, we may not see the full fruits of our labours in the lifetime of our government.

But if we stick together and tackle this crisis our children and grandchildren will thank us for what we did for them and for our country."

NOT BAD EHH!

The Tory Spring Forum - Sunday


Sunday agenda

13:30 SPRING FORUM OPENING
Speech by Party Chairman, Eric Pickles
13:40 – 14:45
Routemap to Recovery
This session will examine our routemap to economic recovery, including our focus on
improving financial regulation, tackling welfare dependency, rebalancing our economy,
and solving Labour's Debt Crisis. Underlying all of these things is our plan to restore
responsibility to our economy.
This will include a panel led by Theresa May and George Osborne will close the
session with a speech.
14:45 – 15:00
Break
15:00 – 15:10
Gordon Brown's Broken Promise on the referendum
Speech by Daniel Hannan MEP
15:10 – 16:00
Our vision of the future
This will consist of a panel session, led by Oliver Letwin, highlighting our vision for
Britain’s economy. The focus of the session will be on the Green Papers we have
published since January – Low Carbon, Decentralisation and Housing.
Ken Clarke will close this session with a speech. (Couldnt speak as wife ill).
16:05 – 16:30
Speech by the Leader of the Conservative Party
David Cameron
16:30 – CONFERENCE CLOSES

All seems to have gone very well. Hope Camerons closing speech is a barnstormer.

Dan Hannan MEP


He has just made a very very good speech at the Cheltenham Conservative Spring Conference. Very good analysis where Europe is going, what it means and what we should do.

85% of our legislation comes by dictat from the 27 member EU commission; which is of course unelected.

He also analysed the EU constitution very well. An unelected leader, foreign policy, criminal justice reform and a legal identity. ie it will sign treaties etc and we will be pat of it. The criminal justice bit is awful. There goes are justice system!

It is worthy of very lengthy debate and discussion because afterall we ave not been consulted on any of this increasing union for a very long time.

Interesting.

Our PM - Nuts



Where does that smile come from?

Also you will note he has already backtracked form this Youtube announcement having discovered that the Tories, the Liberals and Labour backbenchers won't support it.

Plus. I don't believe him when he says no one wants to be an MP. There are thousands of Politico's who would jump at the chance.

Tories Live!



Well only for the Cheltenham Spring Conference. But impresive use of tech anyway.

THE NO. 10 E- PETITION


Sign now, if only for the fun factor once this hits the press and goes mainstream. Whats the betting the petition gets removed from the website. Who was the moron who allowed it online. That webmonkey is going to get a printer thrown at them by the PM. Things will really lift off on Monday when everyone is back at work and the word spreads. Obviously this police state/authoritarian government will know who you are if you sign up. (Don't worry, even I am not that paranoid - yet)

The People have spoken


The polls are, well they are truly terrible for Labour. The latest is in the People. The last three have had massive Tory leads. These polls have been after the Governments attempt at a fightback at the G20 and the Budget. They put a lot of energy into those events. They have few set pieces left where they can impress - I can't see the local or Euro elections turning out well.

They are left hoping for random events going their way. They haven't recently. Remember Darling saying 1.6% decline on budget day, then the next day the ONS saying the decline for the quarter was 1.9%. All the sleaze allegations and leaks, the Gurkha thing. Infact every random event has gone against them in the last month or so.

I can see the lead narrowing again but I cannot see Labour winning the election or being back in office unless they enter a coalition with the Lib Dems. That would be a disaster for the - Lib Dems.

Expenses could cost Parliamentarians dear


Will the Lost John Lewis list cost some MP's their job. Certainly Jacqui Smith looks in severe danger of losing her seat.

The rumour mill is in overdrive. The expense receipts for all MP's are to be released in July. However there have been many delays so far and there may be more given the rumour mill gossip.

Example one - MP's using the second home allowance to claim for overseas homes. I hope not. Outrageous.

Example two - I still can't believe the Home secretary claimed for a bath plug! I mean really!

Example three - The fact that expense claims have gone thougth the roof in the last ten years.

There are three main problems as I see it.

1) We are going to find in July that some MP's have made some very dodgy and pathetic cliams. They will pay the price for that. It must stop.

2) The system has to be explained to the country clearly. Some of the press reports such as MP's having £100,000 office allowance are not helpful. The allowance is never seen by the MP's, its used by the Parlimanetary estate to pay the MP's secretaries and researchers and pencils etc. However if the whole system is too embarassing to be explained then reform it.

Do not do this by way of a random Youtube announcement by the PM (who looks nuts in it). Rather you should wait for the independant report, read it and then make changes prior to the next election so the the new intake of MP's are not tainted by he past and have a clear system that the country understands.

3) When reforming do not make the mistake of saying "I as an MP work hard and don't get paid enough". You may work hard, most do, however you are a) Effectively in a vocation - public service b) You have no qualifications, anyone can do the job and thousands want to.

So SUPPLY and DEMAND dictates you could get a huge pay cout and there would still be no shortage of applicants.

We shall see what happens a) next week - I bet the Gov pulls the vote on their randomly announced reforms, b) After July when the fan gets hit with expense claims int he public domain.

South Africa: A downward Spiral


It is good news that the opposition parties made a bit of ground against the ANC. Winning the Cape Province is good too. However it is clear that South Africa is heading confidently down the path to being a one party state.

Poverty is still everywhere, and while huge huge strides have been made in terms of housing and even in healthcare there are some very worrying signs. First of all the corruption in the public infrastructure sector is now a serious issue. Secondly why it took Mbeki so long to acknowledge AIDs is beyond most.

Generally the murmurs are that Zuma could affect foreign direct investment as companies worry about what he and his cronies do. Will he let the Unions run riot. It cuts both ways as that would mean a harsher line against Mugabe (good), but could stifle investment and create yet more racial seperation in employment. The situation there being that there are now several thousand Afrikaaner squatter camps. They have nothing, can't get jobs and are paying a heavy price for the past. Mixed race people in the Cape have had enough of the employment discrimination they face from black south Africans and voted elsewhere this time. But most worryingly is the racial divide amongst black communities. People only employing people from their tribe etc. This is what has helped wreck Zim and has almost ruined Kenya. It cannot be allowed to flourish in South Africa.

Frequent reports about basic state corruption are a problem. For example it is virtually impossible in many places to claim any form of state benefit unless you produce an ANC card. Not a good thing.

South Africa is the shining beacon in sub saharan africa, don't let the flame exinguish.

President Zuma has a lot to live up to. I suspect he personally will do okay but that (as so often has happened elsewhere) he will fail to reign in his cronies who will build power bases, take money and divide the nation. Corruption will grow and the brain drain will continue.

John Rentoul: Step down, Gordon, and liberate Labour


Well the headline is good from Rentoul. But the first sentence of his article in the Independant on Sunday is HILARIOUS;

"The party is delivering, but it will only win votes if it persuades the Prime Minister to make way for Alan Johnson"

The party is delivering - Are you having a laugh. Who in the UK believes that!

Brown to make way for Johno isnt the answer there. Sadly I can't help them though as the problem they have is there is no obvious alternative. I think Johno wuld get eaten alive, Balls is awful, the Millibands are lightweight and have no idea of real life, Harriet Harman would be wonderful news for all opposition parties. just who could replace Gordon from the current Government. Tricky isn't it. The Downfall is coming, at last.

What about Peter Hain! No I thought not. So tricky.......

Sunday, Bloody Sunday


Another weekend of horrendous headlines for New Labour, below summed up by Guido;

Looks like two Labour peers have been found guilty of taking cash for amendments. The Sunday Times reports that Lord Taylor of Blackburn and Lord Truscott face a one year suspension.

A years suspension from the gravy train? They just got caught trying to sell legislation, isn’t whoring out parliament a bit more serious than that punishment suggests? Is there really no criminal sanction available?

We still have yet to hear the outcome of the investigation into Alistair Darling’s old flatmate, Lord Moonie. Guido would also love to get to the bottom of the financial relationship between Moonie, Gordon Brown and Darling.

We know Moonie paid Gordon Brown handsomely for his old Kennington flat which he then sub-let to Alistair Darling. We are clearly not dealing with an obscure outsider here, we are dealing with someone at the corrupt heart of Labour’s Scottish Raj. Did Darling claiming an allowance from the taxpayers to be paid to his mate Moonie? Isn’t that a little too cosy a use of public money?

UPDATE I : The proxy battle for the soul of the Labour party being waged by Blairites via the candidacy of Georgia Gould, 22 year old daughter of Philip, one of the architects of New Labour, is hotting up. Unsealed ballot boxes, dirty tricks, offers of ministerial bribes, mendacious “uncle Ally” Campbell lobbying on her behalf and finally the sitting Labour MP calling for a police investigation into irregularities. This is the future of the Labour Party.

UPDATE II : Tommy McAvoy, the whip behind Gordon’s expense plans, has had a million quid in expenses, employs multiple family members at the taxpayer’s expense and owns a pub according to the Mail on Sunday. Time please…

UPDATE III : The News of the World says that according to Labour’s own internal polling - based on polls and focus groups carried out over the past two weeks - Guido’s two favourite topics; MP’s sleaze and MP’s expense fiddling have destroyed the Labour Party’s electoral hopes:

* Voters think Labour are now sleazier than the Tories.

* Even if Brown fixes the economy, voters still don’t want another Labour government.

One senior Labour insider told the News of the World: “This is an awful toxic mix for us. The research shows we have lost the one advantage we had over the Tories.

“People always thought Labour stood for helping other people, for social justice, while the Tories stood for self interest.

“Now they think we are sleazier than the Tories.”

I MEAN, HOW MANY MORE BAD WEEKS CAN THEY HAVE. NEW LABOUR LOOK KNACKERED.

Sunday 12 April 2009

Axing MP's


I hope the Tories do reduce the number of MP's to below 600. There are too many, especially when there are now MEP's, AM's, SMP's etc.

It will be tricky and will require changes in the law but these can be done at the same time as electoral commission reforms re boundaries (which are deperately needed).

Come on Dave stick with it;

"David Cameron is drawing up proposals to reduce the number of MPs at Westminster by between 60 and 65, amid intense public anger over the abuse of parliamentary expenses. The Tory leader’s plan, which is expected to be a manifesto pledge, would involve an overhaul of constituency boundaries and require the scrapping of a long-standing rule that constituencies should not cross county borders." - Sunday Times

Who's Next


Beware the blogoshphere. Who will Guido et al go after next. For example there are a lot of politicians who be worried about their expenses.

V for Vendetta


Tis a good film with a man in a Guido Fawkes mask destroying an evil regime.

This Bank Holiday weekend has seen Guido Fawkes destroy Damian McBride and Derek Draper. Both are men that had smeared Guido earlier along with many others over the years. They have met their match and are clearly seriously misjudging the public mood.

Lets hope McBride does not get a great big pay off or a cushy Labour think tank job.

Comedy v Reality

Guido Fawkes is correct when he notes that the McBride, Draper, Watson email debacle is straight out of the thick of it.

Sunday 8 March 2009

Pretty Picture - NOT



Who knows where this will go. After nine months of downturn maybe the bottom is in sight. If not then we may well be in freefall and continue along the lines suggested above. Who knows. I don't and nor do the eceonomists.

Mad Mugabes' Murder


Yep he finally had a go at eliminating his long term enemy and more recent Prime Minister. Madman Mugabe went for the oft used golden oldie, "a road accident" (Its also a favourite in Kenya). Sadly for Morgan Tsvangirai Mugabe killed the mans wife, if not the man.

What can the MDC do now? I suppose they should have a go at seeing if there is any link between the accident and Mugabe. If there is proof then that will give them great leverage. However its unlikely they can prove anything. So what to do. Stay in coalition or leave Mugabe and his henchmen to complete the total destruction of the Zimbabwe. It is tough. Can they work within the Zanu PF Gov system or should they just leave well alone until the end comes for Mugabe. This accident just goes to show how dangerous the coalition is to the MDC. They knew it would be politically risky but I doubt they thought Mugabe would be this brazen this fast.

I give up on predicting when Mugabe will go, give up, die or be killed. He always seems to come out on top. He is a genius in terms of the ability to retain power no matter at what expense.

Here is the best place to go to keep updated on the Zim madness.

The Zimbabwe Situation

Jacks Justice


Alasdair Palmer in the Telegraph picks up on the terrible bill going through Parliament at the minute. It has been heavily attacked by everyone who has spotted the horrendous attack on liberty that it contains within it. (In fact there are lots of attacks like getting rid of juries etc contained in it).

He notes; The Coroner's and Justice Act, making its way through Parliament, contains a genuinely shocking provision that would allow ministers to make an order allowing any personal information to be disclosed to a third party (such as another Government department, or a private company), regardless of whether the information was to be used for a purpose related to that for which it was obtained. Doctors have already voiced concerns that it means that medical records could be disclosed without the patient's consent.

Jack Straw, the Minister of Justice, now says the relevant clause will be abandoned – although he also plans to introduce a new clause with similar effects. The ubiquity of government incompetence may prevent ministers from creating Nineteen Eighty-Four. But it won't stop them trying.


Straw tries to defend the governments general surveillance state approach on his website. He just doesnt get it, which is worring as he is the Sec of State for Justice. What chance do we have!

This Government just sucks. They are just not very bright. In their leap to the future they repeatedly ditch the past including our hard won liberty. But as they say the price of liberty is eternal vigilence. Perhaps its time we fought back like the lady with the green custard who has just been arrested. Mandelson asctually handled that well with humour. Much better than his Andrew Marr performance where he waa back to his true and appallig self.

Potty Peter Paints Picture


What is Hain up to. His Article in the Independant is effectively an attack on Brown. About the only time he makes sense is when noting the polls are dismal for Labour. He is right and articles like his don't help.

He's the Judge and wants a Jury


Former Tory director general and ministerial adviser, Sir Paul Judge, has written in this morning's Sunday Times about Jury Team, the new political party he is launching.

Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show this morning he confirmed that he is no longer a member of he Conservative Party. The premise of this new party is that political parties are a bad thing, since the party machines and whips wield too much power.

Jury Team Proposals:

1.End of the Party Whips
2.Transparent Pay for MPs and MEPs
3.An independent Politicians Complaints Commission
4.Capping donations to political parties
5.Elected Select Committees
6.European Legislation applied appropriately
7.Term limits for MPs and MEPs
8.General elections every five years
9.Referendums as requested by 5% of the electorate
10.Government departments run by a Board
11.Independent publication of Government statistics
12.Applying these principles

I don't mind most of these proposals in fact I support many of them. I can't agree with 7 and am not keen on 9. We shall see how it goes.

Will it take votes in the Euro elections away from the Tories and UKIP. I suspect if they can get this off the ground then it will do. However its a big if.

New Labour, New Vision



Bansky has it right. Do we want to live in this type of society as thats what we are heading for.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

The Convention on Modern Liberty

Takes place on saturday 28 February. We should all attend.

See the website for more details.

There are some excellent speakers.

The Abolition of Freedom Act 2009

NuLabour are no doubt proud of this trail of destruction.

null

Tuesday 17 February 2009

Bankrupt Britain


ConservativeHome yesterday published a report entitled "Bankrupt Britain". The report by Malcolm Offord - a City fund manager with 21 years experience and an adviser to the Centre for Social Justice - paints a devastating picture of the UK government's finances. The Sunday Times covered the report - Britain faces £100bn cut in spending according to 'Bankrupt Britain' report - and you can read a full PDF here.

It could be a long road to recovery.

The Berlusconi bribe


Yet more sleaze associated with New Labour. This time it results in 4 and a half years. By an Italian Court of all places!

The Times reports:

David Mills, the estranged husband of Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, was given a jail sentence today for accepting a bribe of $600,000 (at the time £350,000) from Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, to give false evidence on his behalf in corruption trials.

Judge Nicoletta Gandus sentenced Mills to four years and six months in jail and ordered him to pay legal costs of €25,000 (£22,000), though Mills hopes to avoid prison by stringing out the appeals process.

Throughout the trial Mills exercised his right under Italian law not to appear in person and he was not in court to hear the verdict.

See more here

The Draper Tapes

IPSOS Poll: Rogue or Trend


Either way its good news.

Thursday 12 February 2009

Ministry of Justice


Have a look at what they do. Its a real mix and a lot. Surely prisons dominates it all. Still the department may give the smaller bits within it a bigger voice at the cabinet table than they had previously. Apparently the judges quite like the new arrangements which is intereting given the level of anger when the new department was created.

Flash Gordon


He looks tired, the vultures are circling, the media delirious, the economy disastrous, unemployment growing etc etc. Surely Brown has decided to hang on until the last minute (ie mid 2010) for an election. He should, he will lose. Woolworths woman doesnt like him that is certain.

The Bankers say sorry (sort of)



I am not sure what the politicians thought they could achieve other than publicly telling off the bankers and getting them to say sorry. The lot above have all left and are retired millionaires. It must be hell.

In any event the former bankers spent the weekend with PR advisors who cunningly told them to be contrite. (Genius).

Now Crosby has quit as Deputy of the FSA. Good move or push. He would have dominated the headlines for days. However it means the story moves closer to No.10 and means the press will go and attack other former senior bankers who are now doing qaungo jobs. (I know you ahve no sympathy for them and neither do I).

Still just what can the politicians do to get the bankers back? Stop the bonuses. It would feel good but would it be good? i dont know but the future is not as bright for bankers as it once was.

Transport: Tory Trains


Here is a brief summary of the eight key planks of what she is saying the Conservatives would do with regard to the railways:

•A high speed rail line linking London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds - to dramatically improve journey times;
•Creating a "passenger champion" - a powerful consumer-facing regulator;
•A reformed Network Rail - with a new supervisory board, giving passengers a stronger voice;
•Better cooperation between track and train - strengthening and extending the duties placed on Network Rail to work closely with train service providers;
•Longer and better franchises - with 15-20 year franchises being made the norm to give greater certainty and to encourage investment in new capacity;
•Innovation in Rail Improvements - with funding for smaller scale capacity enhancements being made contestable and opened up to other providers;
•Ending Whitehall meddling - radically scaling back the detailed involvement of the Government in areas such as timetabling and buying new rolling stock; and
•A moratorium on building on disused rail paths - conserving any disused railway lines still in public ownership to keep alive the prospect of reopening these lines in the future.
Theresa Villiers hailed the plans as a providing both a long-term vision for the railways and practical solutions to passengers' everyday concerns:

“By building a new high speed line connecting London, Birmingham Manchester and Leeds, the Conservatives will take a major step forward in transforming the UK’s transport infrastructure. But we also recognise the need to tackle the issues that plague out existing railways and which Labour continue to ignore. We will put passengers first by introducing a Passenger Champion with a mandate to hold Network Rail and train franchise operators to account when they fail.

“After twelve years of disappointment under a Labour Government people know the only way to see Britain’s railways improve is through a change of Government. Our rail review shows the Conservatives have forward looking ideas to make the changes people want to see.”

Click here to download the pdf of the full rail review, Getting the Best for Passengers.

The Government are outlining their strategy today. The Tories outline doesnt look bad nor does it look radical.

The Polls


Well the latest set end with a jump for the Lib Dems. Overall Gordon Brown and co and in decline again and the dead cat bounceover (even then they were 5% behind). Its all over for Labour isnt it?

A Recipe for disaster


Zimbabwe update 2: Is this going to work - No

The BBC has a good website covering it all. There is this even better independent website.

The Zimbabwe Situation - News update


Zimbabwe's NEW Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, has vowed to stabilise the country's shattered economy and end political violence. Wel congratulations to Morgan. He has taken a huge risk. I would imagine that Mugabe will try and stop everything Morgan and co do to imporve the country and then blame it on Morgan.

Mugabe has brought in opponents before and then destroyed them.

It is a big big risk for the MDC. I think the international community will sit back and wait to see if anything has in fact changed before ploughing money in.

Mugabe lives on. Bummer.

BJ4BW - ONS states the facts


Brown and co. won't like this and nor should they. It is tricky. we do have millions of brits working in Europe and elsewhere. Thats difficult to explain to the unemployed who see Europeans coming in to do jobs in their local community.

Its all highlighted in the Times;

The UK’s official statistician weighed into the debate about foreign workers yesterday by highlighting the growing numbers of immigrants getting jobs while the British workforce declines.

On the day that figures showed the number of people unemployed at a 12-year high, the Office for National Statistics chose to reveal that the number of foreign workers increased by 175,000 to 2.4 million last year while the number of British workers fell by 234,000 to 27 million.

More here

Boris Blunder - Minor Incident


According to the Evening Standard Boris Johnson launched a furious F-word attack against a senior MP in a telephone call.

The Mayor of London also accused Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the all-party Commons home affairs committee, of "bullshit", say sources.

The two men clashed over the accuracy of evidence given by Mr Johnson over when he first spoke to Tory leader David Cameron about the arrest of shadow immigration minister Damian Green during a police leak inquiry.

The Mayor used the F-word 10 times, according to minutes of their conversation allegedly taken and later circulated to committee members.

However, Mr Johnson's aides said he had used the F-word no more than two or three times. They also stressed that the Mayor had regarded the talks as private.

- This will all be very annoying for Boris because it keeps the spat going in the media and takes away from more important questions that the Home Affairs Select Committee should be covering. Clever, if cheeky, of Vaz. It does show Boris doesnt like him, but then there are few politico's who do.

Bloggers Rule


Obama Calls On HuffPo from AlleyInsider on Vimeo.

This does seem to be the first time the blogosphere has been favoured over the printed press. Tough question too.

Saturday 7 February 2009

Hmmmm

Tim Shipman has an intersting story in tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph. Here's the start of it:



"American spy chiefs have told the President that the CIA has launched a vast spying operation in the UK to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks being launched from Britain.



They believe that a British-born Pakistani extremist entering the US under the visa waiver programme is the most likely source of another terrorist spectacular on American soil.

Intelligence briefings for Mr Obama have detailed a dramatic escalation in American espionage in Britain.