The latest poll from Populus.

The Labour lead is down to one point say Populus. This backs up the private polling done for the Tories and I am believe it.

People are willing to look for an alternative government. The Tories have got to shape up and be that alternative.

The Lions of Basra

So says the Sun and we all surely agree the military are being asked to do too much with too little.

They deserve better.

They are underfunded, undermanned and poorly equipped.

They need a Conservative government.

Michael Ancram

The man has not been helpful.

He has written in the Telegraph asking the Tories to recapture their "soul". He also published a pamphlet entitled "still a conservative".

He has a point, that it is time to move on from rebranding and also that we must bear in mind our broad beleifs.

But a) we are moving on, the policy reviews as he himself states, are drawing to a close and we can go on the attack showing ourselves as the alternative. B) he should not have gone public. It means a day of bad media headlines on one hand set against yet more of Brown on TV.

It just does not help one bit, except for him as we all now know of his pamphlet.

The Tory Transport Issue

This week we have seen a lot of commentators complain about the possibility of the Tories adopting a policy of no airport expansion. Cameron effectivel dismissed the option on Newsnight last thursday.

I think Goldsmith and Gummer should go for the idea and recommend it as a policy. They will not now I suspect.

Personally I do not want more and more plane noise in the skies of the south east. I do not think the benefits of huge airports are all they are cracked up to be.

Yes we need airports that business find easy to use and commute from. London's financial centre must be cared for. We also should have a pleasant experience when going on holiday. Nothing controversial there.

However we do not need to further develop the UK as the centre of a hub and spoke system for major carriers. Why do we do this. The revenue gained is not vast, the jobs created by it are not inspiring and a large chunk filled by EU migrant labour. The environmental and nosie pollution outweighs any other benefit.

Getting rid of the hub and spoke system would create a bit of space in busy landing slots. Once that is done we should indeed scrap most internal flights. This would free up yet more landing slots and prevent the need for expansion. It would also force everyone to upgrade our other transport infrastructure that is not now good enough.

Having the UK as a global aviation hub is just nuts and not related to it being a global financial centre.

Go for it Gummer.

Conservative Party's Private Poll

Under the British Polling Council’s disclosure rules Populus have released the full table for the Conservative party’s private polling that was mentioned in the Telegraph this morning. The topline results, with changes from the last Populus poll, are CON 36% (+3), LAB 37% (-2), LDEM 16% (+1). It was carried out between the 25th and 28th August.

Does not look that bad at all. I do think that it is nearer the truth. People have been reasonably happy with Gordon Brown and so have given him the benefit of the doubt. Deep down everyone knows he is the other half of a team that has run government for years and so he is accountable for the problems that have arisen on his watch just as much as Blair was (and is).

News Extra- Diana is dead

Can we move on from this please. It has been ten years.

Boris has the left worried.

Yep I think its true. But Boris will have to stop playing the fool.

Election fever

Everyone seems to think labour are planning something for next week.



Surely not an election announcement. You cannot tell anything from the polls yet and so why take the risk.



I doubt it will be anything exciting but keeps the politicos interested.

This will wind up Dean Godson

Anarchy in the UK

Not too far from the truth.

It ties in with the theme of breakthrough britain that IDS has come up with and Cameron is running with.

IT

Tories need to make better use of it. Especially in Parliament and in using it to keep CCHQ, MP's, the leaders office and everyone else connected.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

The future

The Conservative party is a mighty political beast. However it must be more.

There needs to be a real hunger, a sense of direction and an all consuming desire to succeed.

The direction must come now. Speed up the policy reviews and once they are out pick the policies and go for them all out.

Decisions also need to be taken in relation to Europe. The message must be loud and clear that the EU treaty is a constitution in all but name and that we the British people are being treated like idiots.

Social policy via breakthrough Britain must also be sold hard. It is spot on and strikes a cord with the public who see the problems day in day out.

Tax and immigration will also have to be faced up to. A) we can't go on living on the never never B) The rate of immigration is so high it affects everything else from housing, house prices, transport pressure, land pressure, pressure on the NHS, on education, social welfare, social cohesion etc etc. Either you slow the rate or you set aside large provisions to deal with the consequences. Avoiding the whole issue is madness but so is focussing on it to the exclusion of all else.

Finally, the Tory party is more than brand Cameron. Everyone needs to pitch in and to be able to pitch in. Relying on theCameron effect alone will end in tears as soon as the media tire of him. (Which they are as yet not near despite a blip of late).

MPs angry at written statements

Why?

Because they are supposed to read them?

Or because they are churned out on mass at the end of term?

Or possibly because this Government buries so much it is plain depressing?

All three I think.

Shad Cab part-timers

Ben Brogan, from the daily mail, recently wrote an article about how many shad cab members have outside interests. It has been picked up by Iain Dale and Guido. There is no problem with having outside interests. It can be an advantage. But some from the list below go too far. Dedication is what you need. Get into office first.

Consider the number of part-timers in the Shadow Cabinet, based on the latest Register of Members' Interests:

William Hague: two paid directorships for companies that have nothing to do with politics or the Tories; 'parliamentary adviser' for three companies to the tune of about £100k pa; regular speeches, worth about £120k so far this year; biographer.

Dr Liam Fox: lectures on emergency medical procedures for a company of which he is a shareholder.

Francis Maude: seven paid directorships for companies that have nothing to do with politics or the Tories, of one of which he is a shareholder; paid parliamentary adviser to Barclays.

David Willetts: chairman of two science companies, of one of which he is a shareholder; paid adviser to a merchant bank and to a firm of actuaries.

Andrew Mitchell: seven paid directorships, six of which are for different companies of the Lazards group, none of which have anything to do with politics or the Tories; "senior strategy adviser" to Accenture, at ca£40k pa.

Alan Duncan: one paid directorship, for a "catalytic coating" company; income as owner of Harcourt Consultants, oil and gas advisers.

Oliver Letwin: paid non-executive director of NM Rothschild Corporate Finance Ltd.

Eric Pickles: one paid non-executive directorship; paid parliamentary adviser to the Royal British Legion.

Michael Gove: earnings as a Times columnist, broadcaster and author.

Grant Shapps: two paid directorships for companies in which he has a registerable shareholding and which have nothing to do with politics or the Tory party.

Jeremy Hunt: paid adviser to Bristol Port Company.

Lord Strathclyde: five paid directorships.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns: director of World Travel Market.

A Con Home Comment

This comment posted by someone on Con Home was in response to Peter Lilley the Conservative Globalisation and Global Poverty Policy Group Chairman:


"Our Army is undermanned, run down and being hung out to dry in Iraq.

Our navy is sailing at half-speed due to fuel rationing.

Our Aircraft carriers have not been ordered and there are no planes currently in the Fleet Air Arm anyway.

Our Liberties are being eroded by the EU and by our own government.

Our taxes are too high.

The state is too big.

We are force-fed drivel about the environment morning, noon and night.

Our cities are full of illegal immigrants and our streets are not safe.

Half our children cannot read as well as their grandparents.

Half the country cannot work out what one eighth of 32 is

Elderly people are effectively condenmed to to death if sent to our filthy disease-ridden hospitals.

Our electoral system is being debased and corrupted.

Muslim terrorists roam our Country whilst British citizens are told to mind their P & Q's

Forgive me if the only question I can think of is:

'Why the hell are we wasting our time on being missionaries to the world while our own fellow citizens are left to rot?"


THAT IS ONE DEPRESSED TORY

Telegraph stating the bleeding obvious

"We want the Conservatives to hold out concrete incentives to the coping classes: working people struggling with rising bills and mortgage payments, who resent the way higher taxes have failed to improve services. These are the swing voters, let down by Labour, but looking for reasons to install an alternative. The Tories need to start speaking to and for the hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying, lied-to, ripped-off classes. Time is short but winning over this group is achievable. They should get cracking." - Telegraph leader


Well obviously. All the parties need to attract as many votes as possible.

Conservative Home asks

Is the Conservative Party in "a very grave crisis"?

That's certainly is the view of Peter Oborne in today's Mail:

"The Conservative Party really is in a very grave crisis indeed, and that crisis is about much more than the temporary difficulties facing David Cameron and the small group of modernisers who advise him. It concerns the future of the Conservative Party itself. Gordon Brown, who is an accomplished and highly intelligent strategist, understands this extremely well. That is why almost everything he has sought to do since entering Downing Street five weeks ago has been designed to entrench the Labour Party in the centre, in some ways even the centre-Right, of British politics."

The answer is NO. Crisis? what crisis? there will only be one if we talk ourselves into one.

David Cameron

What a few weeks this man has had.

He should ignore the death throws of the shire seated Tory MP's.

Instead Cameron should go on holiday and come back ready to take on Brown.

Will Maude go in the reshuffle. I hope so!

Forget the grammar school row it is the last Tory Conference that he was useless at. People waited days for the security checks to be carried out. During that time they were stuck inside a theatre awaiting their name to be called out. Maude came in at one time to apologise, he succeeded in winding up the entire room. His people skills sucked and he did not seem to appreciate how upset people were.

Say no to Michael Gove

He is a clever man but I have never met anyone who has not found him annoying. He will never appeal to voters.