Hold fast to Howard's Way

The Telegraph is not really right with regards to this - Howard, Saatchi and Fox have a plan, and to achieve it they have to hold fast. Post- June 10 everyone will feel 'let down by Labour' and then is the time for inspiration as we see the new Conservative policies rain down!

This on the other hand...

...is absolutely disgraceful and shows up what a non-thinking bunch of bigots the 'party' really are. Let them embarrass themselves but let's make damn sure we tell people how wrong he is and why.

Classic.

This poster is brilliant. There's quite a good selection of these designed by the general public on the Conservative Party's 'Let Down by Labour' advert.

LibDems not up to it

LibDems have, they think been proved correct on Iraq, "[b]ut it's not yet good enough to convince the British people that this is a party ready to replace either the Conservatives or Labour as a party of government.

Our health and education policies still duck difficult questions about making public services accountable to the public rather than public sector interests. Our media policy could have been written by the BBC and leaves us wishing to axe the 'unfair' council tax while defending a presumably 'fair' poll tax on a piece of furniture. Our tuition fees policy may be rendered redundant by time if there is no collapse in university numbers or crisis of student poverty as a result of government policy. The most heated debate at our last party conference was not a matter of great public interest, but an internal bust-up between the leadership and federal executive about the appointment of candidates for the House of Lords, an institution we wish to abolish."

Not my words but those of a LibDem newsletter....I couldn't agree (much) more!

Immigrants should learn English

Agreed. Let's not allow a positive and inherently sensible approach to this to allow the immigration debate generally to descend though.

Bring it on

One down...could have gone better...Three questions fairly top-drawer but my timing was messed up so I struggled through a tough fourth question in short time. I wouldn't be me though if I didn't give myself a hill to climb!

To amuse some readers the next exam (Friday) is European Union Law. How much easier would my life be if we weren't members!!

And so it begins...

...the beginning of the end.

Finals begin tomorrow - Company Law. I feel like I know what it's all about but am a bit concerned how much I've retained individual case names to tie it all together. We shall soon see anyway!

Guilty until proven innocent...

...again.

Dreadful. What they're really saying is that we can't drink at all and our lives must be slowed down for no reason personal to us whenever the police fancy stopping us.

Yet again...

I've always thought Matthew Taylor, LibDem Chairman, was a pratt but he's confirmed it today:

"With a General Election now likely to be less than a year away, Polls taken on the same basis both in 2000 and today show the Conservatives making no advance at all - it is the Liberal Democrats electors are turning to, because they know we offer the support for nurses, doctors, education and the environment which Labour has failed to deliver, and which the Conservatives don’t want to deliver."

Of course the Conservatives and Labour WANT to deliver that. This is just typical of the sort of gutter politics much of the Party seems to prosper from. We've had pictures of American abuse in Abu Ghraib prison under captions of "WHAT LABOUR (AND THE CONSERVATIVES) DID TO HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAQ", we have deliberately posed publicity to make it sound like their policies are completely different, a misleading political broadcast purporting genuine harassment of pensioners in relation to council tax and a rabid campaign to poke fun at the Tory Party. All at the same time as they try to extol 'hohnest pohlitics' which marks them out from the other main parties.

Here Taylor politely 'forgets' to mention the two Conservatives gains from LibDems in Folkestone & Hythe in the last month when he asserts voters in Howard's constituency are flocking to them. Tripe.

This is the strength of mankind

Fantastic.

French plea for 'flexible EU' attacked by Straw

...and they scoff when the Tories propose a multi-speed Europe as a sensible way forward and pretend that they have an isolated view which would never hold water!

I seriously think this is the second stage of Blair's 'referendum' pledge. He's trying to destroy the Constitution now so that he doesn't have to lose a vote on it: at the same time he's banking on keeping the support of European leaders who will see him as less of a threat to integration and less belligerent than Howard.

'Attack' in House of Commons

This just goes to show that no matter how draconian your security is and no matter how much you erode our freedoms those who are truly determined to disrupt and damage democratic life will continue to do so. Any measures we do take must be proportionate and reasonable, not knee-jerk publicity attempts. I hope it was nothing serious which was thrown

Iraq leader killed

Bloody hell.


Either the country will descend into a complete hell-hole or the ordinary Iraqis may now see that the small hard-line groups are enemies of their future.

How do we stop the vile BNP?

This is something I have been musing over, in a somewhat depresses way, over the last few days. Is merely pushing the main political parties enough? I don't know why people vote for the BNP but I want to know. Is it that they don't understand their policies and think they're just another ordinary party? I can't believe this. I can't believe people don't see they're not on the national stage and don't see the main parties talking about how vile they are. Is it because they see it as a protest vote, with no other party talking about what concerns them (either through lack of knowledge or fear of causing offence)? If so then the main parties have to identify those concerns and deal with them. But I'm not convinced this would be enough or that it would happen. It's a very worrying state of affairs...

I won't seek re-election if crime isn't cut

Good stuff Nobber Norris! After today's poll showing him closing in on Livingstone he could actually do it!

Labour isn't working

Here's Labour's offering. Very well-made but I think pretty piss-poor. Looks like good publicity for Howard to be honest, as the descriptions of the 'horrible' things he did weren't actually that shocking. I do think this will work against them.

And what's wrong with cutting police numbers by 1100 if you actually are reducing crime? Isn't this good.

Signed,

Someone who's also callled the NHS Stalinist in public debate....

It had to be a Brummie!

It's CUSU Badger-time

Check out Downing College's viral marketing relating to the great 'to disaffiliate or not to disaffiliate' row which is rumbling on. The crux of it is a feeling of lack of accountability of the University Students Union to the individual colleges and an aversion to overtly political motions.

Anyway, sparing you the tedious details this has been a massive hit in Cambridge!

Badger, badger, badger

PS - the Badger is Wes Streeting the President-elect....
PPS - the bubble from the snake is the way one of the CUSU exec members described the college's concerns!

Taking from the poor to give to those hurt by our weapons

One of my regular readers pointed this out to me first, and I have to agree with him that it is horrific.

What is particularly shocking is that money has been diverted away from causes which haven't suddenly become less pressing in order to fund the reconstruction of Iraq. My feelings are that if we couldn't afford to finish the job without seriously harming other countries then we shouldn't have invaded. This was never presented as one of the costs of war when the government were lobbying for our support for it.

Having said that, where the war on terror involves asking countries not to harbour terrorists et al. I do not see it as being as unfair or unreasonable to divert more funds to help countries which are actively helping to promote world security.

One of my strong feelings is that much of our aid should be conditional on the countries to whom we are giving it taking certain measures to not only help themselves but to help preserve the environment they have there. This, of course, has to be done through a process of discussion and negotiation, not imposed as a demand, but would help many problems in the long-term and help focus the attentions of governments who ignore many of their people upon their people.

New Flame!

Watch the Tories' election broadcast - I love the new flame!

Although much of it is good, some of it is a little cringeworthy....

Negative negativity

Negative campaigning, however much I dislike it, has its place.

This, however, is just pathetic.I'm not sure it will play with the voters - I think they're already decided enough about their views of the Tories and Howard over that period. All this can possibly do is add to apathy and cynicism about the political process. It would be all to easy to publicly compare the manifesto Blair stood on in 1983 with that he stands on now.


Nice one Tony...again.

"Ali D"

There are more important things to blog about but this made me chuckle and cringe...enjoy!

Opportunistic?!

"The Lib Dem leader hopes to capitalise on his party's opposition to the US-led invasion.

He said voters felt their views had been ignored by the government and the euro poll was the "most appropriate forum" to send a message to Tony Blair."

Err....no. Is he that desperate for votes?

Parents 'to blame for bad pupils'

Who'd have thought it? Cutting-edge ideas here...

25 years on

"A quarter of a century after becoming prime minister, Margaret Thatcher remains a misunderstood figure, almost as much by her supporters as by her opponents. For the Left, she is synonymous with selfishness; and even some people who voted for her assume that the whole point of Thatcherism lay in self-enrichment. It is true that millions benefited financially from the entrepreneurial spirit released by Lady Thatcher, and that – as is always the case when a state-directed economy is unbound – they included a few unpleasant and corrupt businessmen. But the economic dimension of Thatcherism was never its essence; at least, not as its founder understood it.



"There is no such thing as society," she once said, appearing to justify the callous solipsism of her crudest supporters. In fact, the remark, which is invariably quoted out of context, means almost exactly the opposite of what it has come to mean in the popular legend. It was part of a broader attack on a culture of entitlement that permits people to neglect their families and their neighbours on the grounds that "society" is responsible for them. Lady Thatcher deplored that sort of selfishness, just as she deplored the selfishness of the unions whose power she broke.

Her political philosophy was always more restorationist than revolutionary. One of the purposes of wealth creation at all levels of society was to restore the organic unity of a nation fractured by class warfare. That unity rested on peculiarly British traditions of philanthropy, self-sacrifice and duty; and it was held together by loyalty to the traditional institutions of Church and State. One might argue that some of Lady Thatcher’s decisions – such as the signing of the Single European Act – had the effect of weakening those institutions; but it was an unintended effect.

And that is one of the important differences between Margaret Thatcher and our current Prime Minister. Although Tony Blair is the first Labour leader to talk enthusiastically about wealth creation, and although he pays lip service to social cohesion, he is loosening the ties that bind our society. He has done so through naive and hasty constitutional "reforms", unrestricted immigration, the surrender of national sovereignty to the European Union and the growth of a client state of bossy social engineers committed to a culture of therapeutic self-pity.

It is hypocrisy for Mr Blair to claim, as he often does, that he has preserved the best elements in Thatcherism while turning his back on its selfish ethos. The truth is that he has learnt a few narrow economic lessons from Lady Thatcher, and nothing else."