OLD NEMO

Guardian Stumped?

2011-08-20T09:42:00.001+01:00

Guido Fawkes has it all.

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Tax Haven

2011-08-20T09:32:00.001+01:00

Some daydream about a libertarian nirvana, where the rights of individuals are protected, guided by a moral order based on freedom and responsibility, and the leviathan state is forever constrained - adapted from The Commentator

Apparently one Ayn Rand created a fictional version of a libertarian nirvana in Atlas Shrugged and called it Galt’s Gulch. Peter Thiel and other advocates of liberty want to turn fiction into reality.

From Yahoo:

"Pay Pal founder and early Facebook investor Peter Thiel has given $1.25 million to an initiative to create floating libertarian countries in international waters, according to a profile of the billionaire in Details magazine. Thiel has been a big backer of the Seasteading Institute, which seeks to build sovereign nations on oil rig-like platforms to occupy waters beyond the reach of law-of-the-sea treaties. The idea is for these countries to start from scratch–free from the laws, regulations, and moral codes of any existing place. Details says the experiment would be “a kind of floating petri dish for implementing policies that libertarians, stymied by indifference at the voting booths, have been unable to advance: no welfare, looser building codes, no minimum wage, and few restrictions on weapons.” …The Seasteading Institute’s Patri Friedman says the group plans to launch an office park off the San Francisco coast next year, with the first full-time settlements following seven years later."

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Muppet

2011-06-13T19:28:00.001+01:00

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Location:He is hopeless isn't he

The Met at work

2010-12-27T08:16:00.003Z

The Met on holiday

2010-12-27T08:16:00.001Z

Why oh why oh why

2010-09-19T11:16:00.001+01:00

Would the deputy chairman of the conservative party wish to have a go about the failure of the party to gain outright victory at the election when giving a keynote speech at the Conservative party conference.

Asking for trouble surely!

Ed and Dave Milliband are idiots

2010-06-20T00:03:00.000+01:00

Both inhibit ivory towers. Just listening to Ed now on radio 5, it's cringe worthy stuff.

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The Sunday Polls

2010-04-25T10:51:00.001+01:00

There are five polls out today. The best for the tories is pictured here.

Its interesting to note that the polls indicate that people seem to have got over the shock of seeing Nick Clegg on TV. The Tories are on top but not by enough.

Its Labour that need a massive change in fortune. They are doing appallingly. They are in office but being treated like a third party.

The media are bored by the campaigning style of the parties which is very restricting. A fair point. I think the public are to. Hence everyone has gone over board with the TV debates and Nick Clegg.

But it is a fascinating election in that no one knows how its going to end.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Lib Dem Leader Leads

2010-04-17T19:26:00.001+01:00

What an initial impact there has been since Nick Clegg was given the oppurtunity to appear with Brown and Cameron in the first leadership debate on ITV.

The polls that have appeared in the days since the debate have all shown a) Clegg benefitted massively b) it has shaken up the election completely.

I suspect this is all soft support, but if he can keep these floating voters then who knows what will happen on election day.

Clegg will find it harder now as the big guns are turned on the Lib Dems and the scrutiny begins. It will also be harder to shine in the second debate on foreign affairs.

But he has made the most of his oppurtunity and given Brown and Cameron a lot to think about.

Game on all round.

Its Marginal

2010-01-24T18:31:00.001Z

The NOTW marginal polling seems to suggest the Tories are doing very well there. Not just stacking up votes in safe seats.

However I have not seen anything that throws the Lib Dems into the marginal mix. How are the Tories fairing against them. It will count.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Sunday Papers

2010-01-10T12:26:00.000Z

UK paper review - pre-election warm-up bores press

5 January 10 07:04 GMT

After the first day of what is being termed the pre-election campaign in the UK, several commentators are already willing it to be over.

"Five more months of this nonsense!" cries Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail. "Wake me up when it's over."

With "election starts" emblazoned across a television screen, cartoonist Matt's character in the Daily Telegraph covers his eyes in despair.

"If I was wearing exploding underpants, I'd set them off right now," he says.

First blood?

"The sooner we have that election," argues the Sun, "the sooner Britain can get back on its feet."

Labour's bid to launch an attack on Tory spending plans backfired, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The move exposed divisions in the Government's own economic policies, says the paper.

But the Guardian believes Labour drew first blood in the pre-election battle with David Cameron appearing to change policy on married couples' tax breaks.

Al-Qaeda concerns

Britain's relationship with Yemen is the focus of much press attention.

The Financial Times highlights concerns that al- Qaeda is seeking to make Yemen a haven.

It says a crackdown in Saudi Arabia has shifted the threat to its neighbour, adding that al-Qaeda could relocate there from Pakistan or Afghanistan.

The Times notes an added concern - that 14% of Guantanamo Bay detainees turned to terrorism after release and nearly half of the remaining 198 are Yemeni.

Chilled out

The Daily Star notes that the country is frozen solid, with no end in sight.

Beneath the headline "Just Chilling", the Daily Mirror pictures families skating and tobogganing during what it says is the coldest snap for 100 years.

The Guardian says that while it is bad in Britain, it is much worse elsewhere, highlighting record snow in China and South Korea.

The Arctic freeze wreaking havoc across the planet might seem to defy the logic of a warming world, notes the Times.

Straw gutted by Grieve

2009-04-28T19:57:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-28T19:46:00.004+01:00

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.

Jack Straw and Prisons

2009-04-27T16:40:00.003+01:00

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

2009-04-27T16:37:00.003+01:00

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.

Captain Cameron in Command

2009-04-26T18:57:00.003+01:00

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

2009-04-26T15:34:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-26T15:24:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-26T15:06:00.002+01:00

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!

2009-04-26T15:03:00.002+01:00

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

THE NO. 10 E- PETITION

2009-04-26T14:49:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-26T14:39:00.004+01:00

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

2009-04-26T14:19:00.003+01:00

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

2009-04-26T14:01:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-26T13:51:00.003+01:00

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

2009-04-26T13:44:00.002+01:00

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.

Axing MP's

2009-04-12T14:24:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-12T14:21:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-12T14:12:00.002+01:00

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

2009-04-12T14:09:00.002+01:00

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

Pretty Picture - NOT

2009-03-08T14:04:00.002Z

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

2009-03-08T13:50:00.008Z

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

2009-03-08T13:28:00.003Z

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

2009-03-08T13:19:00.002Z

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

2009-03-08T13:09:00.004Z

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

2009-03-08T13:06:00.001Z

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

The Convention on Modern Liberty

2009-02-24T20:29:00.002Z

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

2009-02-24T20:25:00.001Z

NuLabour are no doubt proud of this trail of destruction.

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Publish at Scribd or explore others: null

Bankrupt Britain

2009-02-17T20:05:00.002Z

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

2009-02-17T19:58:00.003Z

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

2009-02-17T19:41:00.000Z

IPSOS Poll: Rogue or Trend

2009-02-17T19:40:00.002Z

Either way its good news.

Ministry of Justice

2009-02-12T14:51:00.004Z

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

2009-02-12T14:45:00.002Z

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)

2009-02-12T14:26:00.002Z

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

2009-02-12T14:11:00.002Z

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

2009-02-12T14:08:00.002Z

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

2009-02-12T14:01:00.006Z

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

2009-02-12T13:55:00.004Z

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

2009-02-12T13:40:00.003Z

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

2009-02-12T13:30:00.004Z

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

2009-02-12T13:26:00.001Z

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.

Hmmmm

2009-02-07T21:16:00.002Z

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.

Casualties of Chaos

2008-10-10T21:05:00.002+01:00

It is difficult to comprehend the magnitude of all this chaos. It appears to be madness on the global stockmarkets at the moment as people have lost confidence and expect a whopping recession.

Surely things have to settle soon.

Steady as she goes

2008-10-05T14:06:00.002+01:00

These three so called "big beasts" have a difficult job on their hands. They have to do enough in policy terms to not be accused of being a vacuum (which they aren't) but they don't want to do too much otherwise Labour will steel all their policies and badly implement them.

Secondly they have to watch the Labour attack line on them lacking experience on the economy. (Cameron did well in his conference speech dealing with that - they must maintain it).

Finally they have to make sure the Tory fringes don't get too excited otherwise there could be a bit too much gossip and moaning that could detract from Labours collapse. Over confidence would be a disaster.

If these issues can be handled then good polls should be maintained and a Labour loss realised at the next election.

Only 18 months to go!

Word Game

2008-10-05T14:03:00.002+01:00

Mildly interesting stuff from the BBC on what the key words were at the political conferences:

The battle lines for the next general election are clearly drawn in the conference speeches of David Cameron and Gordon Brown.

The prime minister made "fairness" the key theme of his speech, mentioning it 22 times. Mr Cameron did not mention it at all, perhaps to avoid fighting Mr Brown on his own terms.

The Conservative leader instead made "responsibility" and "character" the twin themes of his own speech (20 and 10 times respectively), words that were barely used by Gordon Brown.

Mr Cameron, along with his Lib Dem counterpart Nick Clegg, clearly sense that Mr Brown is vulnerable on the issue of taxation. They each mentioned taxes at least 10 times, while the prime minister did not say the word once.

There is an additional fight going on over who is the party of change. Cameron said it 20 times, Brown 17 times and Clegg nine times.

Zimbabwe unity cabinet talks fail

2008-10-05T13:40:00.002+01:00

The BBC notes that - Talks between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the new Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai have failed to reach agreement on a unity cabinet.

The two signed a power-sharing deal nearly three weeks ago after disputed presidential elections in June.

It was agreed that Mr Mugabe - Zimbabwe's leader for three decades - would remain president while Mr Tsvangirai would become prime minister.

Both sides said they would meet early next week to resume negotiations.

A spokesman for Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the discussions had been "frank and realistic" but that negotiations remained deadlocked.

Mr Mugabe's spokesman, George Charamba, said differences remained over who should hold the finance and home affairs portfolios.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has confirmed he will continue his efforts to mediate the deadlock in Zimbabwe.

Mugger Mugabe will never give in will he? His tenacious ability to cling to power is incredible.

Will the Mandelson gamble pay off for Brown?

2008-10-05T13:34:00.003+01:00

I doubt it but it could take some of the media spotlight off Brown and buy him a tiny bit of time. On the other hand Mandy could do for him if they fall out again. I think it would be a historical first if Mandy had to resign from Cabinet for a third time. So many possibilities.

Marginal Murder

2008-10-05T13:26:00.003+01:00

The News of the World has conducted one of its marginal seat polls, in 192 Labour-held constituencies – details here. Taken Wednesday through Friday, it indicates Cameron is on course for a 78-seat majority with a 15-point lead. As is normal when a party is ahead by such a margin, the Tories are credited with better policies across the board. The Tory vote is slightly harder in the marginals – 62 percent say they’re certain to vote, v 56 percent for Labour supporters.

The poll would have the following effecton cabinet attendees. Anyone with less than a ten percent majority is in trouble.

Rank, Swing, Incumbent, 2nd, Constituency
1, 3.37%, Jacqui Smith, Con, Redditch
2, 4.66%, Tony McNulty, Con, Harrow East
3, 6.52%, Margaret Beckett, LD, Derby South
4, 7.02%, Jim Murphy, Con, Renfrewshire East
5, 8.25%, Alistair Darling, Con, Edinburgh South West
6, 8.27%, John Hutton, Con, Barrow & Furness
7, 9.58%, Jack Straw, Con, Blackburn
8, 9.59%, Liam Byrne, LD, Birmingham Hodge Hill
9, 10.76%, John Denham, Con, Southampton Itchen
10, 11.82%, James Purnell, Con, Stalybridge & Hyde
11, 11.94%, Nick Brown, LD, Newcastle East & Wallsend
12, 12.15%, Geoff Hoon, Con, Ashfield
13, 13.12%, Shaun Woodward, LD, St Helens South
14, 13.37%, Ed Balls, Con, Normanton
15, 16.99%, Alan Johnson, LD, Hull West & Hessle
16, 17.48%, Douglas Alexander, LD, Paisley & Renfrewshire South
17, 17.58%, Hazel Blears, LD, Salford
18, 20.04%, Ed Miliband, Con, Doncaster North
19, 20.33%, Hilary Benn, LD, Leeds Central
20, 20.38%, David Miliband, LD, South Shields
21, 20.56%, Paul Murphy, Con, Torfaen
22, 21.79%, Gordon Brown, SNP, Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath
23, 23.14%, Yvette Cooper , Con, Pontefract & Castleford
24, 23.26%, Harriet Harman, LD, Camberwell & Peckham
25, 23.67%, Andy Burnham, Con, Leigh

Spelman Sprinkles some magic

2008-09-29T20:41:00.005+01:00

Caroline Spelman rules OK! well nearly. She said "no to more Heathrow" today. Thank god. I agree with her totally, a third runway there is not the answer. Heathrow sucks and blights the lives of millions in the south via noise pollution. The Heathrow lobby group that represents 250 companies and says a third runway is vital can take a running jump. The idea that the world will flee London because there is no third runway is just ridiculous. Our skys are crowded, Heathrow is a giant planning mistake and we should not compound the error, we should build elsewhere.

I also agreed completely with the high speed train network idea. I just hope the timescale is altered as it needs to be fully operational a lot sooner than 2027!

Finally I had to mark down her speech slightly as she tried to talk down Boris' idea of the Thames Estuary Airport. That idea is the great solution to our crowded and noisy sky problem. I think it can and will be built. However I do concede that the financial crisis is not the best time to be talking about spending billions. If you look at the graphic above you can see that it would be easy to link the Thames Estuary Airport into the new high speed railway!

Apocalypse Now - Revisited

2008-09-29T20:25:00.004+01:00

If you read Peston's picks blog this afternoon you will have seen this post which neatly summarised how bad a day it was for the world of finance. However he assumed, like most, that the $700 billion congressional bail out would not be voted out. We were all wrong. Its incredible but they rejected it. Stock Markets are now nose diving. Just think, the FTSE had fallen over five percent and closed before the vote - they had assumed the bail out would be voted through. So the Dow Jones cold (and is) falling by a lot more than that.

Shares in banks have been mullered. The virus has spread to Europe with Fortis being bailed out and there are problems in the middle east and Russia with huge losses being made in one form or another. Some "Oligarchs" have lost over $5 billion dollars each - I feel their pain.

Everyone is saying that the Wall Street crisis could spread to main street USA and then the worlds high street. They may well be right which is why its incredible that congress won't return to fix the mess until Thursday. Its just insane.

God alone knows what the FTSE will make of it all tomorrow. Once again all thoughts of taking out the pension have been shelved for hundreds of thousands, jobs are now under threat as well as much much more.

Surely after the next few days the bottom of the financial crisis will have been reached. Then we will have to deal with the wider fallout in the real economy. It looks like a mild downturn in Western world may now be uprated and we could be feeling the big chill.

The Zim Crisis

2008-09-21T13:42:00.003+01:00

Sorting out the mess of Zimbabwe's agricultural sector will be key to breathing life back into the country's economy and to the success of the power-sharing deal signed this week.

Firstly, there is to be an audit of the land to eliminate "multiple farm ownerships".

This has long been a call by the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change, which feels that much of the 11m hectares of prime farmland taken from 4,000 mainly white farmers has been given to ruling party loyalists.

The security of tenure the agreement guarantees to land holders, is key to rebooting the sector. Details of the guarantee are yet to be decided, but it is likely that land, now considered state property, will be allocated on 99-year leases.

This will allow capital to be raised, which has stunted new farmers, leaving them unable to pay for equipment and seeds. It will also allow some former farmers to come back. There will now be no race colour or creed barrier.

HOWEVER the main probelm will be the fact that the power sharing agreement is in general insane. It will cause schizophrenia. The only choice for those wishing to invest in Zim is to wait for Mugabe to die. There will then be a huge power struggle and only after that can investors make a rational decision.

STILL - At least Mugger Mugabes grip is weakening and at 84 years old, time is not on his side. once gone the military junta that keeps him on his pedastal (maybe forcibly) will have nowhere to hide and will have to put up or shut up.

Kenya update

2008-09-21T13:30:00.001+01:00

Kenya's political parties spent millions of dollars bribing voters in last year's elections, a survey says. The Coalition for Accountable Party Finance says out of $90m raised by the parties, 40% was used as bribes. The report also says public corporations contributed to President Mwai Kibaki’s campaign via his party.

Some 1,500 people died and 600,000 others were displaced during violence following the disputed poll, before the rivals agreed to share power.

The allegations relate to both of Kenya's main parties - the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) and Mr Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU). ODM leader Raila Odinga last week became Kenya's prime minister (He's not quite as bad as the rest).

The disputed elections were the most competitive in Kenyan history. The lobby group now wants legislation to compel politicians to reveal their sources of income and expenditure during election campaigns.

The BBC has a handy Kenya in Crisis web page

Its all a damn shame. I love Kenya, it is stunning to look at and fun to be in. However it is so corrupt it is untrue, its population is booming resulting in a huge rise in relative poverty and the infrastructure is fading fast. These politicians will not help. Mwai Kibaki is as corrupt as they get. Kenya is in danger in going back to year zero. Sadly I see no way out for it, things get worse each year for the people, its no wonder tehy take the £1 bribe they are given to vote for people. (infact they usually don't vote for them, just take the money and so would you if it amounted to more than a days wages).

Politics Home Mass Marginal Polling

2008-09-21T13:15:00.002+01:00

Published today: the PoliticsHome Electoral Index

Largest ever study of marginal seats
PoliticsHome forecast a Conservative majority of 146

In an election now Labour would suffer a 1997 scale defeat
8 cabinet ministers would lose their seats
Three figure majority for David Cameron

An exclusive PoliticsHome study of marginal seats, using an unprecedented sample of almost 35,000 people over 238 marginal constituencies and based on fieldwork carried out by YouGov, gives us the best ever idea of what would happen if a general election were held now.

The full report can be found here

Makes very interesting reading. I find the Labour meltdown prospect in Scotland of note as well as the Labour meltdown in the South. They need to get their scates on and fast. A survey of 35,000 people as well is pretty impressive even if it was done online.

‘Boris Island’ airport

2008-09-21T13:08:00.002+01:00

The Sunday Times updates us on the Island in the Sea idea. I back Boris all the way on this and hope it gets done not matter what the scale of objection is from vested interests. I am extremely happy at the idea that Heathrow be phased out once this airport island is built. There is no doubt that aircraft noise pollution blights the lives of all those who live in the west of London. That is millions of people. There are also massive infrstructure problems at Heathrow and the cost of any expansion economically, environmentally and socially is far too great.

That is why the airport in sea, the Thames estuary, would be brilliant. It would allow brand new infrastructure to take the strain. Also the noise pollution issue would virtually disappear. THIS website has lots of infoont he possibilities.

Come on lets build it!

APOCALYPSE NOW - AVERTED

2008-09-18T21:36:00.007+01:00

Today has been a bad day in the credit markets and the stock market has not recovered but it has calmed a bit.

However the main news is that the FSA has banned the short selling of financial stocks. Will this halt the impending disaster? I suspect that there is a lot of bad news to come. The Banks still need hundreds of billions of fresh cash to shore up their balance sheets and a frozen credit market is still not helping. So the easy lending days are gone. However with the US and the UK regulators both acting to stop short selling it may calm the stock market and give the brokers a chance to cool down too and get a nights sleep.

Still we are left with the question of whether the attacks on Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs will be successful? And will the European and even some Asian banks admit to losses? Europe certainly needs an honesty session.

It was a mob killing

2008-09-18T21:36:00.003+01:00

I blame father time for influencing the British public and clearing encouraging them to kill Labour. Surely its attempted murder and I suspect it will end up in a brutal brutal killing.

Its all ebbs and flows you see. That is my theory of everything.

Destruction in sight

2008-09-17T22:26:00.002+01:00

According to Electoral Calculus, this would give the Tories 493 seats, Labour 121 and leave the Lib Dems on 8 seats.

Would love to be a fly on the wall in No. 10 tonight.

Lloyds rescues HBOS

2008-09-17T22:15:00.003+01:00

Great news for Lloyds in terms of grabbing market share. Lets just hope they haven't bought toxic assets.

Also shows the FSA, the Bank of England and the rest in proactive mode.

But further highlights just how nightmarish this banking crisis is. Apparently HBOs was leaking deposits on a massive scale. It had to be sold before the leak became a flood. Before the middle classes hit the tinternet and started moving there money.

The stock market has still tanked and this is not over.

Labour Isn't Working (Again)

2008-09-17T22:08:00.002+01:00

On any normal news day, the fact that unemployment has gone up by 5% in one month - let me repeat that, 5% in one month, would have been the top story of the day. Yet, it has been eclipsed by the Lloyds/HBOS story. Unemployment is at a nine year high. For a government which defines economic success by the length of the dole queues, this is a bitter blow. I have been trying in vain to Google the figures for April 1997, but it seems sure that very soon the headline unemployment figure will soon exceed that which existed when Labour took power.

One economist predicted that unemployment would reach 2 million by the end of the year. I'll make another prediction. Next month the rate will rise by more than 100,000. That is one prediction I hope very much will be wrong.

Home Office caught out over immigration statistics

2008-09-17T21:59:00.002+01:00

Good spot from three line whip

Well, well: the statistical chickens are coming home to roost for a government that has long played fast and loose with official figures.

The Home Office apologised for interfering with immigration figures

The Home Office has been forced to say sorry for seeking to interfere in the way immigration figures were released recently.

It seems old habits die hard. In order to inject some credibility into official figures, the Government agreed that they should all be issued by a new arm's length body under the auspices of the new UK Statistics Authority.

But when immigration figures were published last week, the Home Office sent an official along to the Office for National Statistics briefing to hand out a press release that gave a distinctly unbalanced take on the subject.

The Home Office decided that the subject of greatest importance was a decline in the number of eastern Europeans coming to the UK, a line that was apparently followed up by at least one national newspaper.

Now, Prof David Hand, the head of the Royal Statistical Society, has complained that this "succeeded in partially diverting some journalists' attention away from the comprehensive range of data being presented towards one specific issue".

In truth, it should not have had this effect because any journalist following immigration and crime figures over the years have known to take any Home Office press notice with a pinch of salt.

They are always selective with their use of the statistics in order to cast the government in a positive light. That is why public faith in official figures has plummeted over the years.

As Prof Hand says in a letter to Sir Michal Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority: "The whole incident epitomises some of the bad practices that have helped to undermine public confidence in official statistics.... At worst this can help to 'bury' news perceived as unfavourable to the Government."

When you think of the vast sums of our money spent by the Government we at least have a basic right to know, without any statistical jiggery pokery, what we are getting for it.

Yet finding the truth, or anything like it, is often impossible because yardsticks are changed, goalposts moved, timescales altered, benchmarks lowered - all to make failure as difficult to discern as possible.

On the positive side, however, we appear to be seeing that rare creature: a state regulator with teeth. Previously, there was a Statistics Commission that was meant to keep an eye on all this but it was powerless to stop the abuse.

The head of the new statutory authority, Sir Michael Scholar, is a former permanent secretary at the Department of Trade and Industry. In an interview with this newspaper, he likened the creation of the authority to Gordon Brown's decision to give independence to the Bank of England in 1997. "Good statistics are as important as sound money or clean water," he said.

Maybe the Home Office and other departments have now got the message.

The Polls are horrendous for Labour

2008-09-14T15:11:00.003+01:00

Today's YouGov poll for the Sunday Times was taken between 10th and 12th September. As well as a strong Tory lead, the poll also shows the Liberal Democrats down 2 points as the party's conference kicks off.

"The YouGov survey for The Sunday Times puts the Conservatives up one, on 46%, and Labour up two, on 27%...

"The Liberal Democrats, gathering in Bournemouth for their annual conference, are down two points on 16%.

"Some 73% of voters felt Mr Brown was doing a bad job as prime minister, compared with 20% who thought he was doing well.

"That gave him a net negative rating of 53%, while Tory leader David Cameron had a net positive rating of 27%."

Happy days for the Tories, very depressing for Labour. We shall have to see if the conference season does actually change anything.

Is Mugger Mugabe Muted

2008-09-14T15:04:00.003+01:00

Or has he kept his grip on power. From the gossip that has come out of the negotiations it seems he will maintain his presidential position, control of the army and the cabinet. Tsvangari gets to be Prime Minister, controls the Police and has a panel to revue policy. It seems to me that if that proves correct then Mugabe will be happy. He can let Morgan get on with sorting the economy and getting the 1 and half billion dollars of international aid flowing, safe in the knowledge that as President he cannot be charged with war crimes. Furthermore he can be a pest and stop Morgan fully implementing his plans if he does not like them.

We shall see on Monday when the deal is announced.

I fear Mugabe is not done yet.

Time For A Leadership Election says the Times

2008-09-14T15:00:00.004+01:00

I agree. Read here for their take on it.

Political Betting agrees with the analysis.

Brown has had it anyway but calling their bluff and winning would delay the inevitable for him.

Dominic Grieve draws the line

2008-09-14T14:46:00.002+01:00

And he is right. Today the Times spots that the government has "quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence".

Apparently rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court. The decision has been welcomed by Inayat Bunglawala from the Muslim Council of Britain.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.

Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”

All a bit tricky really. The Beth Din is allowed to operate so why not the Sharia courts. Its because of fear, fear of the future. If the British Rule of law is not enforced now then it has had it. In the future the Muslim population is going to be very large. Fine its part of the changei Britain and the world. However we cannot have a parallel legal system. it won't work and could cause all sorts of social problems.

Therefore I agree with Dominic Grieve. The line must be drawn now. If that means amending legislation then do it even if it affects the Beth Din and Sharia Courts.

Party Conferences - What Fun

2008-09-13T20:22:00.004+01:00

1) Do the Lib Dems really need a 5 day conference even if they do discuss policy - no.

2) Are the Lib Dems annoyed that the Labour night of the long knives on Brown has stolen the headlines - Yes they don't get much coverage and this is their chance.

3) Will the Conservatives blow our minds at their conference in Brum - No they will be desperate to avoid a mistake and loving the new found attention of the lobby industry who have massively stepped up their interest in the Tories. Champagne all round.

4) Labour Conference - For the delegates it will be misery as they watch their party at first hand attempt to decapitate itself. For the media it will be a frenzy.

5) Will we be any more informed as the general publc afterwards - No.

6) Will the Politicos have had a good time and enjoyed the freebies - Ohh yes.

This can't last Jonah!

2008-09-13T20:03:00.002+01:00

Poor Prime Mentalist, as Guido Fawkes would say. I do think I am beginning to feel sorry for him which is disgraceful. Its just that I can see this being a protracted and painful end. This man will cling on to the post he has striven for his entire life and just not been up to it when he got there. That in itself must hurt but the bad luck and bitter way this is ending must hurt even more.

It just can't go on though. Labour need to back him or sack him. If they choose the latter then they need to start thinking about who can succeed him. I think thats where the problems start. The idea that Brown has failed is not the issue, its agreed. The issue is what to to about it.

The Country at large, the media and the Labour Party itself are going to tire of this mess. While the issue of leadership festers it leaves the Conservatives completely off the hook. The media and the PLP are not challenging them at all and there are a few areas where they could.

Get Carter - Carter Got

2008-09-01T20:55:00.002+01:00

"Stephen Carter being moved down the pecking order inside the Number 10 bunker - from chief strategist to not so chief strategist? - is a sign that more blood will flow, and soon, in the Number 10 bunker." - So says the Times. Well Carter is on the way out but its not a bad thing is it? Just what understanding did he possess of big time politics. Answer = None.

So no wonder the Brown loyalists want him gone,m but its not infighting its just they think he is crap and not up to it at a time when they really need quality. Does it mean further blood on the floor will follow as a consequence? No, there will be more blood on the carpet in 10 Downing Street because the Labour Party is in decline. The two things are not the same.

Brown V Darling

2008-09-01T20:39:00.003+01:00

There has been talk today that Brown may have to ditch Darling after the "terrible" interview Darling gave to the Guardian. Further, Downing Street are "fuming" and the attack dogs are straining at the leash.

Well what rubbish. Brown and Darling go way back. They are friends and their families get on well. So I just can't see it at all. I can see that Brown may be a bit miffed and will have asked Darling what he was on about. Also I can imagine Darling thinking that perhaps he could have phrased it all a bit differently and not been so relaxed as he was in his holiday home. Certainly Darling looks knackered despite his holiday.

The BBC interview in which Darling can be seen to be flustered about it all is here: Brian Taylor's interview. But having a trembling lip and being flustered is a long way from being sacked folowing a major fallout with Brown. They are friends. They have a slightly different view on what line to take on the economy. But both understand how tricky it is going to be.

Finally if Darling is ditched in yet another suicidal move by Brown thenwho will replace Darling?

Home Office Proposal - Post Charge questionning

2008-08-31T11:29:00.003+01:00

All well and good this idea BUT:

a) The Police have had to improve their questionning to make sure they have enough prior to charge. This proposed change would allow them to get lazy and just ask for a post charge interview. That is not efficient.

b) The whole reason for stooping this practice 24 years ago was to stop abuse and oppressive questionning etc.

c) The most important impact will be this; They legal services commission will have to completely change the fee structure for solicitors attending at Police Stations. At the the moment it is all fixed fee. But if solicitors have to keep coming back for post charge interviews as part of the fixed fee then only one thing will happen. Criminal solicitors cannot take such a loss of income (it is hard enough as it is). Therefore they will simply refuse to attend or tell the client to no comment via phone. This will not be in the interests of justice.

I doubt this has been thought about but it willbe a big problem.

Finally remember that police can re interview post charge at the moment but only if they have a very good reason. (surely that is the best approach).

The Polls - The nightmare continues

2008-08-31T11:14:00.003+01:00

ConservativeHome - "The Tories remain well ahead in the latest YouGov survey for The Daily Telegraph. CCHQ insist there is no room for complacency and that's one of the reasons there was annoyance at Eric Pickles for his recent suggestion that it was "impossible" for Labour to win the next election."

How many months has the lead been around this mark for now? Must be 5 or 6 at least. Brown is absolutely finished. His personal ratings are still the worst for any primeminister ever and any hope of recovery is going to be scuppered by the economy. The Tories need to maintain a steady course and be the viable alternative. Yes more concrete policies are needed but not yet. (Labour would only nick them and then implement them abysmally).

Plus this is mid term polling and the Tories always do better at election time so we could add on a few more percentage points on to the above.

However the fact that bondary changes will affect the majority of seats next time means calculating possible majorities is virtually impossible and futile because nominal figures are tricky.

Still another 20 point lead spells continued gloom in the Brown Bunker.

Russian Bear

2008-08-31T11:02:00.002+01:00

Everyone has come to the view that the Russians have gone nuts and will aggressively defend "their" sphere of influence. Certainly the Georgia intervention was a case of protecting such a thing. Well I understand to an extent their position:

The Russian State has always considered itself as a strong man. It has had to put up with 15 to 20 years of weakness when the West could expand its sphere of influence. Now the Russians are back. They have Oil and Gas and can throw their weight around. They feel the EU and NATO are messing in their backyard and they can't understand why Europe would take that risk. In the Ruskies minds all they have to to is threaten to turn the gas and oil taps off and all hell will break loose in Europe. They are right off course.

So it will all end in stalemate. Europe will bluster but do nothing and Russia will not do anything so overtly aggressive again in the near future. The reason why? Because if Russia did carry our their threat to turn the taps off it would hurt them as well as us. (just look at the recent performance of their stock market - it has dived).

So really all we have learnt recently is that Russia will not be "pushed around" by the West. They are back on the map. If they went further and intervened elsewhere or turned off the taps it would be a massive gamble and I can't see what incentive they would have for doing it.

(Still doesnt help Georgia. A sovereign nation - that situation requires a UN peacekeeping force and gradual transition back to normality and the official forming of semi autonmous regions).

We shall see.

Mugger Mugabe - Exit Now Mate

2008-08-31T10:55:00.003+01:00

Shouted at, heckled, booed and chanted at during the state opening of Parliament< Mugabe left annoyed and shocked. He could not believe what had just happened. That showed to me just how hopelessly out if touch he is and what a complete state of denial he was in.

However he refuses to go. He is playing all his cards in the power sharing talks. Every year people predict he will go. Yet he is still there clinging to power as are the military chiefs that keep so close to him.

At 84 maybe it will be infirmity that will get him in the end.

PS. Come on Thabo Umbeki. Keep the pressure up and prove that your queit diplomacy was the best way after all.

Tower Hamlets and Ramadan

2008-08-31T10:46:00.002+01:00

Stories about none Muslim Councillors not being able to eat during Council meetings while Ramadan is on are not helpful at all for community cohesion. Tower Hamlets cannot have any idea about the upset this kind of story causes nationwide. It grates with the majority of people and creates negative views.

If not true they should get out there and say so, now. If true they should change policy rapidly.

The pres should also be careful how they report stories like this. They must make sure it is true and report it neutrally.

Darling - “arguably the worst” slump in 60 years

2008-08-31T10:30:00.002+01:00

Not a helpful comment for Brown and the Government, but is it true? If you brought a house a couple of years ago then you are not happy now; paying energy bills and putting petrol in the car is painful now; if you were starting to take your pension now then you will be getting about 20% less than a few years ago;the banks have yet to work through the credit crisis fallout; so mortgages and house sales are still low; unemployment is expected to top 2 million by Christmas; the Poles are going home, is that a sign?; the high street claims to be in agony; personal debt is still enormous and the Treasury is skint.

Yes there is a problem but at this stage its not the worst thing to happen in sixty years. The fact he said anything is key. Darling clearly wants to brace us for the future and make sure he is not blamed for it.

It is almost unprecedented for a Chancellor to speak out like this. So the presure is beginning to tell. Brown will also be pissed off that Darling has said the voters are "pissed off" with NuLabour. It just does not help and diverts attention from the economic relaunch plan. That plan seems No.10 driven and may be another reason for Darling speaking out as he and the Treasury are being sidelined in the process.

Tories Hotter Election Favourites Than Ever

2008-07-12T16:54:00.004+01:00

So say William Hill and here are the odds:

TORIES HOTTER ELECTION FAVOURITES THAN EVER
The Conservatives are 1/4 favourites - the shortest odds tghey have been sinced losing power eleven years ago -to win the next General Election with William Hill, who make Labour 11/4, the longest odds they have been since coming to power.'There is no sign of a revival in support for Labour to win the next Election under Gordon Brown' said Hill's spokesman Graham Sharpe.

(they are surely completely right above but I am far less conivnced with the generosity of the odds below relating to David Davis:

WHAT WILL DAVID DAVIS GET UP TO NEXT?
AFTER HIS bloodless victory in the Haltemprice By Election, David Davis is quoted at 7/1 by William Hill to launch his own Political Party in time for the next General Election (must field at least two candidates); 10/1 to stand in a Tory leadership contest against David Cameron before the next General Election; 12/1 to regain his position as Shadow Home Secretary before the next Election; 14/1 to become the next leader of the Tory Party.

There is no way DD is going to stand again in a Tory election so odds of 10 to 1 look rubbish. He is too old and does not want it. Therefore 14/1 also looks hopeless. However 12/1 to become shadow home sec again is a good bet. I reckon he might come back straight into that position. Remember Dominic Grieve QC MP has yet to relinquish his shadow AG title and so could always leave the shadow home sec job leaving the way for DD to return.

The Polls they are a changing

2008-07-07T20:35:00.002+01:00

BUT only a bit. Populus has the Tories at a mere 13 point lead. There cannot be any complaints at that. That means the last 20 or so polls have given massive leads to the Tories. Gordon can't be too happy. Perhaps its got to the stage where they just shrug their shoulders and get on with preparing the next disaster of a policy. We shall see how the lan lies in two years time but Labour cannot go on like this, which puts pressure on Brown and Co.

G8 Summit

2008-07-07T20:16:00.002+01:00

To me the whole G8 thing seems increasingly out of touch. Many of those there both people and countries represent the past. The rubbish way they handle issues and the media does not help. The photocall at the eight course dinner, which followed a six course lunch, being an example.

Change is everywhere and I am not sure how long the logo here will be accurate for. Does the G8 really have the influence that the logo suggests. I am not so sure now.

Certainly it will be interesting to see how long we are invited for!

Its Oh So Quiet in Haltemprice and Howden

2008-07-07T19:55:00.004+01:00

Come on DD make some noise.

He really is having a hard time getting into the media at the moment. I almost feel sorry for him but then I still haven't quite got why he quit in the first place.

Cameron and Catholicism

2008-07-07T19:33:00.003+01:00

Well he may not have converted like Tony Blair but he did visit and speak at a Catholic Church in Glasgow East. Cameron was there in order to campaign in the byelection and of course to take a whole lot of the southern press pack to Glasgow East to show them and therefore the country just how badly Labour have messed up over the last 30 years. It is a deprived hellhole Labour created and have done nothing to solve. The former Labour MP should be ashamed of himself. I truly hope he is. 30 years an MP and bugger all change to show for it.

Some have seen the Catholic angle as a bit much. Obviously there is a lot of history in Glasgow between Catholics and Protestants and it still simmers today although in different forms.

Most people in Glasgow East are Catholics and they have always voted Labour over the last century. Well that could just change and I see no problem with the Church visit.

I do see a problem for Labour in Glasgow East. It would be incredible if they lost to the SNP but a week after the prospect of defeat arose, Labour have failed to go on the attack. Infact they have suffered a "lost weekend" while trying to find a candidate. Thank god they have managed to persuade their fourth or fifth choice to stand!

Its being called the broken society by-election by the Tories. Not a bad title unless you live in the constituency. Its not going to win any new votes but then I don't suppose the Tories care. highlighting Labour pain is enough, the SNP can take the glory on this. Not good for the Union though.

On the train to Truro

2008-07-06T19:05:00.001+01:00

It occurs to me on this never ending and cramped journey that we really ought to improve public transport. The system sucks.

Surely we could get proper high speed trains that won't cost the earth to go on. I know the government are looking into this idea now. They are probably the umpteenth one to do so but they really should.

Anyway only three more hours to Truro.

Watchdog rejects Treasury accounts

2008-07-05T17:34:00.002+01:00

According to the Times:

“..Mr Darling is fighting a bruising battle with the National Audit Office (NAO), which is unhappy at the way that the nationalisation of Northern Rock is being treated in the Treasury’s books. The annual report from No 11 was published yesterday but, in a highly unusual departure from normal procedure, without the department’s resource accounts..A Treasury spokesman confirmed the delay but denied that the spending watchdog had threatened to qualify its accounts. The books must be published before the parliamentary recess in three weeks’ time…”

I know this was from earlier in the week but it is still annoying me. I simply cannot believe that they ahve been unable to be able to sort this out yet, having known of the issues for months. It makes the UK look like the EU with 11 years of unaudited accounts.

This story will not capture the public imagination but it is another dent in the PM's Treasury legacy. Certainly it caps another bad week for Alistair Darling.

The Treasury is under pressure. Too many people have left and their is very low moral all at a time when they are needed to be strong. It may be tricky but they should work this out quickly. I know they will never agree with the NAO as that would result in smashing the "golden rule" on borrowing to bits, but it would be good!

MP's, pay and expenses - A lost chance

2008-07-05T17:04:00.002+01:00

I don't think MP's should be in it for the money and think their pay combined with the pension is not too far off where it should be. Expenses, well that has to change. The system must be more transparent and the blatant abuse by some will surface soon and they will regret the £2000 TV from John Lewis purchase as well they should.

However if I was one of them I may have made the following calculation:

People can't stand us as it is and so sod them, we can't get lower in their estimation so we may as well get all we can. Ergo I would have voted for the maximum pay rise and then looked to vote for an expenses system that gave me the most. They did not and have still ended up looking stupid. No one will give them credit for limiting the pay rise and everyone will ridicule them for keeping the current abusive expense system.

What should happen is that they don't vote on their pay at all. Someone else should tell them how much they will get. Expenses should be very very transparent and all MP's should note the following:

a) Their are thousands of wannabe MP's and so in terms of supply and demand economics they are lucky to get paid at all.

b) They are not special. Most people could do their job. It requires no qualifications and the only real difficulty, especially for a back bencher is i) the long hours of "work" and "gossip" and ii) having to deal with those pesky constituents by getting your secretary or caseworker to deal with them.

c) They are meant to serve the public not themselves.

Now obviously there are a great many brilliant and hard working MP's. Equally there are many who are just plain rubbish. Infact the low quality of many is surprising given the competition to get in.

Ed Balls

2008-07-05T16:48:00.003+01:00

Is a moron. I can't stand the man and his comments on education this week and the need NOT to inform parents and kids of SATs exam dates show a breathtaking lack of connection with parents in the country. It was his answer to reducing the stress around exams, "just don't tell them". Not only is that impractical as the word would get out, it also shows dismissive arrogance. What a plonker.

The news that the outsourced marking system has gone to pot seems to have surprised Mr Balls. I don't see why as many a news network anticipated this disaster weeks ago. Why did Mr Balls and his Department miss it. Anyway he has announced a review into why children and parents will have to wait weeks longer than anticipated for results (ie hope the news cycle moves on). This disaster also plays havoc for schools who can't know what kid should go where until the results are back and hence can't plan.

This all comes on top of his recent attacks on faith schools and grammar schools. The man is nuts. He will not stop until he has lowered the education system to the lowest common denominator and will then claim victory.

Glasgow East - Gordon and his destiny

2008-07-05T16:24:00.002+01:00

In the unlikely event that the Labour Party lose this by election it has got to be curtains for Brown. That in turn would be bad news for the Tory Party. The PM needs to stick it out and lead Labour to landslide defeat in two years time. The Tories don't want a new Labour leader who may have a vague understanding of whats going on on the ground, something which Brown does not get.

However a lot of commentors and punters seem very optimistic about a defeat for Labour despite them having achieved 61% of the vote last time. Glasgow East is Labour Land, overturning a 13,000+ majority will be near impossible even though Labour is Leaderless in Scotland and tanking in the polls.

Yet the bookies have the SNP as odds on favourite to win and the Westminster Village seem to think its a genuine possibility. Its all incredible really.

I understand that Labour has this afternoon picked a candidate to stand which clears up one mess for them after their preferred man pulled out last night. However this MSP will not have long to stamp authority on the campaign or time to adjust to the oncoming media onslaught.

We shall see who wins on 24 July. Whoever does so will have a hell of a difficult time in improving the lives of those that live in what is statistically not the best place to live. It appears to be a huge social housing programme gone disastrously wrong adn no one has adressed it for 30 years.

Lost Discs - We are sorry

2008-06-25T20:46:00.005+01:00

The report was revealed today in the House by Alistair Darling.

A mere 25 millions personal records ehh. I find it difficult to blame Government Ministers directly. I should not though. If they had made data protection a priority then we would not be in this situation. But they did not so mandarins obviously did not take it seriously and therefore it was not focussed on by people below. Infact the investigation revealed that it was junior employees who felt there were risks in using this method but were ignored.

Weak Government, poor management, poor leadership and 11 years of manic headline chasing instead. What a waste of a golden opportunity.

Wendy Alexander - Another Mess

2008-06-25T20:30:00.004+01:00

Wendy has messed up again. Been found guilty of failing to declare. Its does not seem to be entirely her fault. She asked the relevant Parliamentary clerks what to do and they said no need to declare. An advice from a hotshot QC contradicted that and here we are she is in trouble.

I am not that bothered about it really and wouldn't be if she was my MSP. The problem is that this is one in a long line of mistakes and generally poor leadership. Wendy does not cut it in the media, has hopeless attack lines and no interesting ideas whatsoever to put forward. The Scottish Labour Party is in about as much turmoil as their counterparts South of the border.

I admit she is not helped by having Gordon Brown as PM and her brother in the Cabinet, it takes away from her attempts at authority.

But generally she is not good enough I am afraid. Lucky for her that there is no alternative Scottish Labour Leader. A bit like their is really not much of a Labour alternative to Brown. Trouble up North and trouble down South.

Flock, Safari, Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer

2008-06-22T22:06:00.001+01:00

I have been having a look at various web browsers the main ones being listed above.

I reckon Flock (which is new) will be a big hit in the youth market as it better enables communication between people, easy drag and drop feature and clever blogging capabilities. It generally has lots of add ons built in.

Firefox has to be the best all rounder and beats Internet Explorer which seems slightly slower and more tired looking. However the slowness may be a result of now having the best security (so the experts say). Firefox has loads of add ons that you can go and get and thereby end up with your own personalised web browser.

Safari looks brilliant, it is Apple stuff and similar in look to the i-pod software. It also has some nifty features but does seem to be a little slow on page opening.

Opera is quick very quick. Very simple and so fewer obvious accessories. It is also supposed to have the worst security but how we know that I don't know.

Internet Explorer. Well we all know it and in recent years it has got better. I think the main reason for its improvement being the above opposition beginning to challenge its dominance.

Finally I have omitted netscape as the latest version of it will be the last and they have advised all their loyal fans to go to firefox as its supposed to be the closest to their operating style. That is true but has the added benefit of not being Microsoft owned.

So having wasted an hour I shall stick to firefox but keep messing around with Safari and maybe Flock (which will be good once I have set it up and integrated email, facebook etc etc).

Testing Flock

2008-06-22T19:37:00.001+01:00

Well does it work then?

DD and Labour Home Wed!

2008-06-19T22:00:00.000+01:00