The Bailey Blog

2010-05-29T16:24:00.002Z

Coming soon.
A blog reporting from the Horn of Africa and the challenge of restoring hope to Somalia.

Dear Monsieur Sarkozy,

2007-05-07T09:50:00.000Z

Many congratulations on your most exceptional victory. I am in complete admiration and wish you the strewngth of Samson in your endevour to modernise France.

Please note, do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Our annual vacance en France would be ruined if you iron out all the most magnificent French quirks. Two days spent railing against the shops shutting at lunchtime and the impossibly slow pace of life and then....pure relaxation. Don't ruin it.

However, very grateful if you would kindly prevent illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa from reaching, let alone encamping at, Calais. One has always wondered how these people are hosted and cared for with impunity on your side of the Channel but suddenly become illegal immigrants by the time they reach Dover (in the back of or underneath whatever vehicle they can strap themselves to).

If they are legal at your end, be so kind as to make them feel welcome.
If they are not, please deport them before they make onward travel arrangements.

Get a bloody grip.

yours,

RB

Blair's contempt writ large

2007-05-06T17:30:00.000Z

To spend his final days in power deliberately skewering his own successor at the expense of the Nation would tell you all you need to know about this pathetic little student we've had for a Prime Minister these past 10 years.

PR - The death of Government

2007-05-06T16:11:00.000Z

The Scottish elections have really underlined for me why Proportional Representation is so bad.

Not only is the voting system so totally incomprehendable, but there is a fundamental disconnection between votes and candidates.

People don't vote for Parties, they vote for people. A Party dictated regional list is contemptuous of the voter. These people do not take personal responsibility for their electoral platform, they are secondary campaigners and yet, based on nothing more than a proportion of the vote, they get to sit in power and make decisions with no individual and answerable public mandate.

PR is often represented as being"fair and equal" but it is nothing of the sort. It is a collection of robots controlled by an Orwellian Party dictatorship and I will do everything possible to prevent it spreading any further.

Scotland, poor sods, are condemned to a lifetime of powerless, coalition government managing social and economic terminal decline.

BBC Bias (part 2,343,467)

2007-05-06T15:15:00.000Z

The election coverage of the BBC, and for that matter many other outlets, was as biased and dreadful as always.

Blind to steady but evident advances the Tories were making all night long, the BBC did everything to portray the election as a disaster for the Cameron project.

Firstly there is no Cameron project, merely the resurrection of the Conservative Party as a whole and secondly winning control of 38 additional Councils and 900 additional seats to control nearly 60% of the Councils of England is impressive by any measure and a victory by all.

I am the first to accept that council elections do not wholly indicate national trends. The Tories made some pretty odd loses alongside their wins. However, people are now looking at and voting for the Tories in a way inconceivable just 5 years ago.

The most appalling aspect of the media coverage, however, was their complicity in the Labour line that the Tories were making no ground in the North and had "no Councillors in Manchester, Liverpool or Newcastle".

It is indeed the case that these three great Cities have no Conservative representation, but consider this - Labour have absolutely no representation on 90, yes, 90 English Councils. As the map below shows, Labour are lost all across the Country. There are another 40 or 50 Councils which have less than 5 Labour Councillors.

The media simply cannot bring themselves to accept the Tory resurgence. This is fine where media bias is well founded and well understood. I will never expect the Mirror or the Guardian to be treat Cameron fairly but that is a business decision and those publications live and die by their allegiance.

The BBC is very different. It exists in the public interest, funded by each and everyone of us through the most blatant and unreasonable tax.

It is very simple, the BBC can become politically biased if they want to, but they must face the same price and risk as all the others. Bias or license fee - not both. You decide.

Ashdown, Kennedy, Menzies Campbell, ???

2007-05-06T15:12:00.000Z

Standby for another Lib Dem leadership campaign. If you can bear it.

Hanging Chavs

2007-05-06T14:21:00.000Z

Last week, Scotland hosted the sort of election Zimbabwe would have been distinctly proud of.

With people facing two separate elections involving three different election systems, the result was a staggering 1 in 10 ballot papers spoilt. Spoilt by confusion and complication that is, not apathy and anarchy.

The whole point about the simplicity of democracy is that everyone can understand it. The act of marking a single paper with a single 'X' is time-honoured.

Rather like Bush and his ludicrous "hanging chads", one expected Scotland to burst into a flame of legal contest as losers claimed that their victory was buried amongst the discarded papers.

Those first in the queue should be the decent people of Scotland whose honourable attempt to participate in the democratic process has come to nought through no fault of their own. I myself have spent some considerable time trying to figure it all out and well done to all those who got it right. I cannot be sure I would have myself!!

The one group of people, however, who have absolutely no right to challenge the result are the Scottish Labour Party, under whose watch and with whose direction and compliance, such an abomination was allowed to take place.

It is ironic that their own thoughtless, flawed and pathetically "equal" system has brought about their own downfall.

Mr Allan Wilson, defeated Labour candidate in Cunnignhame North, smarts at his personal loss. Not half as much as the 100,000 Scots denied their right to vote.

Abandon the Brown Ship

2007-05-06T12:28:00.000Z

Labour’s new strategy: cut and run; survive to fight another day.

A the end of a very bad day for the Labour party in the country , it is the news that Charles Clarke has publicly announced that he will not run for the Labour leadership and John Reid's news that he will resign from teh Cabinet when Brown takes over that really gives us the meaning of it all and describes just how bad things are.

Clarke, with his cohort, Milburn, has always had that glint in his eye that just told you he was going to go for it. But even one as slightly deranged as he has taken one look at today's political landscape and has pulled out.

Everyone now knows that the game is up and that Brown must face the music – alone. It will be immensely painful but thankfully it will be brief. And that is precisely why all the other potential candidates will sit on their hands. They prefer a survival strategy. The sooner Brown takes over, the sooner they lose and the sooner Brown can be dispatched and replaced. That is the time to rescue Labour, not now.

If you are around 50-ish, that is by far a better option than challenging now. After all, even if you win, what is the prize? The vile legacy of Blair and Iraq? The economic pensions black hole of Brown? A failing NHS? The torment of the Scottish Nationalists and the collapse of the Union? A revived and attractive Conservative challenge?

No thanks, Mr Brown. Its all yours, and you deserve it.

Brown has made his bed and he must now lie in it. He will fulfil the single ambition that has driven him for two decades and, in sweet revenge for his bitterness, cowardice, stubbornness and failure, it will be a (short) living nightmare.

If you have ever wondered what it is like to be governed by a very vicious, nasty man with a bunker, Millwall* supporter mentality, you are about to find out.

It pains me to realise that I am living the best years of my life under some of the most despicable political leadership I can imagine.

*Famously, Millwall supporters chant “Everyone hates us, we don’t care!”

Cut in haste, pay at leisure.

2007-03-21T23:00:00.000Z

If I can adapt the much loved phrase "marry in haste, repent at leisure" to this Budget, I would say "cut in haste, pay at leisure".

This Budget and indeed the political activity of the last few days, provides all the evidence you need that Cameron is now running the country.

Cameron leads on environment, Gordon turns green. Cameron leads a Doctors rally, Gordon (& Tony) hold tortuous press conference on public services. Cameron looks for tax cuts, Gordon delivers - but just to out flank Cameron.

Gordon's mistake is that everything he is currently doing is designed to destroy Cameron. He can't help himself. He is the ultimate class warrior.

The trouble is that twisting and turning to outwit Cameron is a world apart from leading the country and his obsession will be seen for what it is.

I admire the loyalty of those who love Gordon, but even they must smart at some of the things he has and will do to win the votes of middle England. He is betraying his principals, the poorest in society and his supporters, but Gordon's "destiny" is more important than good or principalled leadership.

I may not like the policies they hold, but I do respect Socialists such as Tony Benn, who stand up for what they believe, argue with passion and honesty and take the rough with the smooth. Brown is the epitomy of true Scottish socialist / communist conviction, but he has done nothing for the poor. If anything, he has made their lives vastly worse by complicating the benefits process beyond their intellectual capability, failing the education system and standing by while crime and disorder in our poorer communities becomes endemic.

I despise his conceit. I despise his class warfare. And I despise his cynical, deceitful approach to government.

Admirable Chancellor - disastrous Prime Minister in waiting.

Pretty much sums it up for me.

Update: Did I really say 'admirable'?? Should read "abominable"!

The Scottish Handgrenade

2007-02-28T15:15:00.000Z

History is about to repeat itself and once again, Scotland plays a leading role.

In 1990, Thatcher was driven from office by her own Party after 11 (great) years in absolute power. Scotland delivered the final blow in its reaction to the trial of the infamous Poll Tax. Heseltine, the big noise of the then Tory Party, had previously dithered over the assassination, trying all manner of underhand tactics to prompt revolt. The departure of such a powerful leader exposed the shallowness of spirit in those left behind and the complete absence of talent or leadership.

In the end, the apparently dominant Heseltine failed to secure the leadership as the Party chose to “play safe” behind the featureless charisma vacuum that was Mr Major. The Government and, frankly, the country descended into unseemly decay. Scotland did for Thatcher and the Tories haven’t managed to win more than one seat North of the Border ever since.

In the next few months, Scotland will once again provoke political chaos, and, albeit in a slightly different way, the outcome will be the same. Power will be usurped, a talentless inner lining will be exposed, and the dominant figure will stumble in the final straight as a divided and rudderless party loses its nerve.

Scotland, Gordon Brown’s personal fiefdom, is set to go to the polls in 60 odd days to elect MSP’s to a Parliament that only exists because our current Government made it so. The polls suggest however, that they will express their thanks by voting Labour out of office in favour of the Nationalist SNP. Thanks indeed. Scots were never known for their sense of humour.

This time Scotland will do for the “Prince Regent” at the moment of transition, and the Labour Party will panic and play safe. This time, however, the Opposition are ready and waiting and there will be no extended death throes.

Gordon Brown, broken and furious, will never understand how his own people conspired to use the liberty he helped to give them to betray him.

The moral of the story, if that is what you are looking for, is that politics is a ruthless business not for the fainthearted. Power must be acquired and retained by fair means or foul. Most of all, if you don’t take control of your destiny, your destiny will crumble to dust before your very eyes.

Oh yes, and Scotland may be very beautiful but its residents are a political liability! I feel the onset of a new metaphor. Alongside the "Trojan Horse" perhaps we should have the "Scottish handgrenade".

Brookes - the new Hogarth

2007-02-28T15:02:00.000Z

HAT TIP to Peter Brookes, the Times Newspaper cartoonist. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

So, I have been bullied back into Blogging after a severe dose of apathy. A few notes on the most prominent themes while I have been away:

Alan Johnson truly deserves contempt. At the height of a wide ranging national ‘youth’ scandal (worst place to be a child in the developed world, youth gun crime, gangs and male displacement), Mr Johnson commits himself to the single policy most responsible for the problem – the abandonment of marriage. Marriage and family are the essential building blocks of society. Withdrawing Government support for marriage in search of some liberal utopia is criminal dereliction of the youth it ultimately betrays. New Labour have made their bed, and they must now lie in it. Never has a cartoon ever summed up my feelings as this one by Brookes. If the rights were acquired by the Tories and used properly, this single cartoon could and should bring this government down.

The contest for the Leadership of the Labour Party is hotting up in true New Labour style. Milburn and Clarke’s launch of their ‘debate’ is little more than we have come to expect from this tawdry bunch. Its deceit is so transparent. Its propagators lie and spin their way through a press conference claiming that their purpose is to raise policy issues – but not one single policy is discussed. This cowardly, deceitful approach to politics is precisely the legacy that Blair leaves behind and precisely the reason why this leadership campaign is doomed to failure. All Cameron has to do is be honest, decent, open and true, and he will sweep these desperados from power.

The contest for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party interests me not. With one exception. The very fact that it is underway before we, or more particularly they, know who the next Leader of the Party is. They appear to be saying that they are happy to be deputy leader to any of Brown, Meacher, McDonnell, Miliband or Milburn and as such their political credibility is shot and their self serving rush for power is beneath contempt.

If I see another moment of media coverage of either Jade Goody, Anna Nicole Smith or that other brainless female, Danielle, I will lose all sense of decorum. The media does many great things but its creation and propagation of the cult of celebrity is an evil that must be brought to a rapid end.

Ireland have finally grown up. Patronising though that may be, I speak as man with significant quantities of Irish blood but who has grown up knowing nothing but Irish petulance and violence. I have stood between them and witnessed their bigotry first hand. As such, I expected little from the crowd at the highly charged, Nationalist venue, Croke Park in Dublin for the Ireland vs. England Rugby international. For those unaware, Croke Park is the now impressive Gaelic Football stadium in which, in 1920, British troops took revenge for the killing of British agents by opening fire indiscriminately during a football game killing 14 people. Since when the stadium has stood as a bastion of nationalism and until just two weeks ago had NEVER played host to any international team. I was deeply moved therefore, by the all round decency of the crowd last Saturday. Their applause for the English team, their silence (to a man) for the British National Anthem and their generosity in victory. Fantastic game of rugby!

I'm afraid Mrs Blair is unavailable today...

2007-01-25T15:27:00.000Z

I have to say, I find it quite hysterical that rumours are circulating (falsely no doubt) that Mrs "Never known to miss a bargain" Blair cancelled appointments and court hearings in her mad dash to join the throng on the Devon beach earlier in the week.

Devolution revolutions

2007-01-17T18:47:00.000Z

What a fuss about nothing.

People want a bit of parity and fairness and everyone over-reacts, claiming that the UK will fall apart. What rubbish.

New Labour tactics are crude and self interested (as always). A Scots dominated government gave Scotland a little of what they wanted a decade ago, and just as it threatens to bring the party to a close, they start scaremongering.

If English MPs have no say in how public money is spent on health and education in Scotland and Wales, why should Scottish and Welsh MPs have a say on English spending. There is nothing wrong in pointing out the absurdity of certain people having a vote in issues which do not affect the people they represent or govern.

If that was acceptable we would have welcomed the Nazis with open arms. But it is not acceptable and we are right to demand that our “leaders” put right what they have screwed up.

This Government should have fallen the day that Scottish MPs imposed tuition fees on English Universities and students just to protect the Government from an embarrassing defeat. This is vastly more iniquitous than the poll tax trial in Scotland ever was, and that issue directly brought about Thatcher’s demise.

Devolution is very simple to operate. It is quite simple – just exclude Scottish and Welsh MP’s from debates and votes concerning any issues which are already decided upon under devolved powers in Edinburgh and Cardiff.

You don’t need a new building, you don’t need any new politicians and you don’t need a new flag.

You just need some common sense and a willingness to ask one simple question – will the outcome of this vote directly affect the people of Scotland and Wales. If yes, Scottish and Welsh MPs vote, if no, they don’t.

Tricky isn’t it.

The camera never lies

2007-01-17T16:17:00.000Z

This is the second time in a couple of weeks that those behind the cameras have been scorned and scolded for the actions in front of the camera.

Previously we had the debate concerning Saddam’s execution and the outrage that it had been filmed and was being shown on TV and on the internet. The manner of Saddam’s execution told the truth about Iraq and the strongest complaints came from those most upset that the truth had been exposed. It was in effect the perfect ending to Bush and Blair’s personal crusade and their ignorant misadventure. But instead of accepting the reality of what they saw, they tried to damn those who dared film it.

Iraq lies in tatters and the vengeful and hateful manner of his execution gave a pretty big clue as to how the next 20 years of Iraqi affairs will pan out. Anyway, as an aside, we all know that Blair’s speciality is breaking things he doesn’t like and then staring at the pieces without any idea how to put them back together.

How many history lessons does it take to learn that if you remove a suppressive dictator, you either accept that a new, bloody and vengeful power struggle will ensue, or you must replace it immediately with an equally forceful leadership.

Now we have Big Brother who crime is simply to film and broadcast the true character of “beasts” that we have created and which we conspire to create through our tacit condoning of modern contrived culture.

These people exist because we created them and because we allow them to.

The camera never lies and broadcasters do us a greater service than we care to imagine. People always say that before you can change, you must first see and accept what is wrong. Thanks to TV, society finally has the looking glass is so badly needs.

Keep the cameras rolling

2007-01-17T16:15:00.000Z

It is absolutely crucial that the cameras of Endemol keep rolling. Indeed, all evictions should be suspended just to make sure that this situation continues as long as possible.

You see the Big Brother house currently hosts the perfect microcosm of society as a whole.

We have so many features being played out. We have raw selfish ambition. We have astonishing ignorance and stupidity. We have youthful intimidation. We have supine cowardliness. We have spiritual condescension. Our shallow, vacuous, selfish, disrespectful society writ large.

That Joe, Jade and Danielle are celebrated in society at any level is an insult to every molecule of my being.
That they are as unintelligent and ill educated as they are is the most potent comment one could make about a decade of New Labour education policies.
That they act as they do is the most accurate reflection of that generation of our young white population.

That the older people in the house do nothing is diabolical and yet unsurprising. It happens in every walk of life every day.

The girlie gang’s behaviour is tawdry and offensive. It verges on racism in as much as they are basing their dislike for Shilpa on her cultural mannerisms and traditions. I would suggest that their primary crime is bullying, but it is strongly supplemented with racial aggravation. When cats in a sack fight, the hissing and scratching is prolific.

Shilpa, however, knows exactly what she is doing and is more in control of the situation than most of the 15,000 complainants give her credit. She is in the house for ambitious personal gain. She is clearly as manipulative as any motivated woman can be. She is playing the audience well and they are responding superbly.

Regular readers of this blog know just how important an impact I believe a leader has on those they lead and so none will be surprised when I suggest that what we are seeing in the Big Brother House this month is exactly the advert I would make for a decade of Blair’s Britain. Big Brother is Blair’s real legacy. Big Brother epitomises the Blair years.

The cameras hold a mirror up to society and we don’t like what we see.
Thank god for that.
Perhaps we are now as close as ever to the point at which society fights back.

P.S. I would of course love to know just how many of the 15k complainants laugh heartily at Little Britain and the racially inspired humour derived from the Indian lady in the Fat Fighters Club. “Say it again?!”

Another fine mess

2007-01-12T11:07:00.000Z

I hate Blair with a passion and today’s headline just sums up why. It has been this Government's most consistent tactic - to (deliberately) screw things up, and then seek credit for cleaning up their own mess.

He has spent the last decade patrolling the world throwing British people and resources at any and every problem he can find. Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Iraq. His ego knows no bounds, especially when other people are cashing the cheques.

So, the world is in chaos; the Middle East is in turmoil; new unstable countries are pursuing nuclear capability; a full scale War of Terror is underway; our Armed Forces are in melt down - stretched to breaking point and criminally underfunded; our expedition / crusade to Iraq has failed; and Afghanistan could rage for another ten years, just as it did for the Russians.

So having broken this particular toy, what is Tony’s answer – to have a debate about what role Britain should have in the World today.

The only reason we need a debate, Tony, is because you have made such a total and incomprehendable mess of it all. Oh, and by the way, the rest of us have been debating this very question for a number of years. It is just that you haven't noticed or cared.

He is without question the most contemptible and unthinking Prime Minister we have ever had.

Unbearably brilliant

2007-01-06T01:43:00.000Z

All I ever hope for is that some significant part of my life coincides with a period in which my national team are the best in the world at my favourite sport.

Football fans of my generation will sympathise with that sentiment, I am sure. We have been nearly-rans in World football since 1986 and with such a fabulously talented squad of players.

When you think you are nearly there, a thrashing like this is quite unbearable. Worst of all, it is the sort of ‘video nasty’ you just have watch.

Another “worst” aspect of this debacle was the fact that deep down, you knew we were on the receiving end of something very special. I wished I could have been neutral and been able to enjoy it for what it was – cricket history and the swansong of two of crickets living legends. Shane Warne is the first sportsman whose career and mastery I watched as it happened and who will still be talked about in 100 years. He is my Pele, my Mohammed Ali, my Bradman. I should have enjoyed it more. I should have seen him live.

Since an inquiry into England’s loss is soon to commence, and they will almost certainly consult this blog for views, I really had better provide some.

England were whitewashed the day the Aussie squad AGREED to partake in a boot camp last year. It told me everything I needed to know about their seriousness, their humility and their commitment to each other. I, and now they, understand the monumental importance of a shared hardship in building the team. I come from a culture of “train hard, fight easy” and the Aussies approach to this series is its epitomy. I emphasise the word ‘agreed’ because in England, even if such an idea made it to first base, it would have been laughed out of Court. Go on, suggest it now – see what happens.

England were whitewashed because our BOWLING was atrocious. Batting may be the glorious face of cricket but bowling is the only aspect that matters. You see the ONLY way to WIN a test match is to bowl the opposition out twice. You can score a thousand runs, but if you only take 19 wickets, you draw. It really doesn’t matter how good your batsmen are (and ours really are pretty good), if your bowlers let the opposition back into the game at every turn, confidence wanes, fluency departs, runs dry up and the old middle order collapse becomes endemic. In the crucial 2nd Test, our batsmen scored a massive 1st innings total, only to watch their bowlers throw the advantage away. Its like pouring water into a bath with the plug out – pointless and demoralizing.

England were whitewashed because we didn’t have a Captain. Flintoff may be an incomparable all rounder, he may be a talisman, he may be capable of turning a game, but he is not a leader and he is not a Captain. He cannot even spell the words and must be sacked immediately. I am pretty much alone in this observation. The TV pundits won’t touch him but he is to blame. The Captaincy quite obviously suffocated his own game and his strategies were hopeless. But worst of all, Flintoff doesn’t have the courage to stand apart from the team. He tries to lead by having pals, which of course means that your team splits into two camps and falls apart under pressure. He was powerless to help the floundering Harmison and he wouldn’t fire Jones or Giles until the Ashes were lost because they are all best mates. Just remember, this is the man who was received by our Queen completely pissed. How we laughed.

In summary, I believe that:

Giles, G Jones (wkpr), Mahmood and Anderson should not play for England again.

Harmison and Trescothick must be put in last chance saloon and asked to find their own way back to the top. Only then will we know if they really want it. Is Harmison a tough Durham miner or is he a wet, Essex lady-boy?

Dogged though he is, Collingwood must make way for Vaughan, who must play at number 6 initially.

Flintoff must hand the Captaincy back to Vaughan and return to the ranks where he is most effective.

Strauss must be Vice Captain at all times.

The search for a strong wicket keeper / batsman goes on, but trust me every candidate under the age of 23 knows exactly what they have to do, and will stop at nothing to achieve it. One of them will make it.

The ECB must face up to their error and pay any price to bring Troy Cooley back as our bowling coach.

Young bowlers such as Lewis, Tremlett, Plunkett and Broad must square up for the two places available in support of Hoggard, Flintoff and Panesar.

Our batsmen must be reminded that scoring runs is a matter of pride under any circumstances and regardless of how crap everyone else around you is. Cricket may be a team game but at the crease, you are on your own and should be as selfishly determined to succeed as Tiger Woods or Roger Federer.

Strauss, Cook, Bell, Pietersen, Flintoff, Vaughan, Wicketkeeper, Panesar, Hoggard, fast bowler, fast bowler. That’s the order and we have three un-named spaces. Go for your lives this summer, boys. Fight for it. The others all have.

We really do have a fantastic (and young) team here, but it must be lead properly, it must have ruthlessly disciplined and effective bowlers and it must live and breathe as one through thick and thin. It must also know that success comes from greatness, and greatest is not borne on the back of winning one perilously close Ashes series.

Man the wire. English tourist on the loose!

2006-12-13T01:41:00.000Z

What follows is the content of an email I received this evening from a friend describing his most wonderful encounter with Federal Agents protecting the US capital. It is published with consent but anonymously.

"Mohammed Al-Touristkh" as we shall call him, is a great friend and a very loyal servant of the Crown. He is taking some time out between arduous postings to visit the States (and undertake some serious 'courting' of a delightful babe called Amanda!).

Here is the story. This is what we are fighting for in Iraq and Afghanistan!

Howdie folks,

Just thought I would fill you in with the latest from N America. I haven't been in touch much but I spent about 3 weeks in Canada - 11 days of that skiing.

Anyways, I am currently in Washington DC visiting a friend from Baghdad and doing some sightseeing.

Sooo, I've done the Capitol, seen the White House (hey's it is sooo much smaller in real life compared to TV), the memorials on the Mall etc. etc. Very impressive. Really inspiring.

So, what's left? hmmm.

Well, I think I'll go to Arlington Cemetery (well worth a visit by the way). So, on the way to the Cemetery on the Metro is the Pentagon.

First mistake: I had a thought off the top of my head. Spontaneity will kill me one of these days.

I kinda know there won't be much to see but nothing prepared me for the reception I got. I come up from the Metro and clearly the Metro is right (I mean right) by the entrance to the Pentagon. OK, so I've worked in a few security sensitive environments.

I like to think I am becoming worldly but am I naive?

I ask the kindly security guard where I can walk around, admitting I am a tourist.

BIG mistake.

I have no Kalashinkov on me, I am not wearing a beard. No rucsac. So, they say you can't see anything, no photos. Fair enough.

I was just standing there having got off the tube. Imagine being at the gates at the end of Downing St - kinda like that. You're not going anywhere, not asking to go anywhere. Rather, you're asking where you should not go.

They ask for ID. So I show them my driving licence - which the guard disappears with for a while. Next step:

"Sir, please walk forward. Remove your hands from your pocket." I had ipod wires sprouting from my pockets.

"Sir, please empty your pockets. Show me what those wires are attached to. What's in that pocket." Crikey, what have I done?

"Sir, I would like to ask you some questions." Out comes the form.

I also want to ask a few questions, sir.

Then we go through all my intimates name, address, height, age, weight. Well, not as fat as half your country, sir.

What's the address of your hotel. Oh, well that's not too hard, I've got a card in my pocket that has the address. But I have to put down my book on my counter and I know what'll happen. I smirk inwardly. You've gotta enjoy this bit. Just out of sheer playfulness.

So I inwardly sigh with delight as I place my book down face upwards, on his desk. "Taliban" rages the front cover. Come on, sir, it's a good read.

I don't need to look into the guard's eyes to see flashing lights, sirens, alarm bells go off. The whole lot. I half expect to look down and see a red dot somewhere on my chest.

I am playing it utterly straight at this point despite my mind working overtime. I am NOT provoking. I understand what is going on. It's just a slightly unexpected version of what can happen anywhere at anytime in Iraq.

Question, "Where do you work, sir." For the U.S. Government, sir! 53rd Division, Blair Brigade, sir.

I answer, "For the Foreign Office (pause). Kinda like your State Department."

"Where?"

"I've spent the last six months in Baghdad." I was sort of disappointed. He was not very impressed.

I have been detained at this checkpoint for 20 mins by now. They still have my licence.

Now you'll love what happens next.

Ah, the suits appear, aka "The Feds." A pair of them. The short one is wearing a pink shirt and all cold smiles. The tall one is in a brown leather jacket; he'll be playing the bad cop.

"Sir, what are you doing here? When did you come into the country? When are you leaving?"

Am I in Hollywood? I'm not sure I've got enough make-up on for this sort of role.

I have my hands in my pockets.

"Sir, please remove your hands from your pockets." My Dad always said never to put your hands in your pockets. Now, I know why.

This is just too much. I try for a bit of childish, brazen antics. I put my hands in the air. They didn't like this.

I give a bit back after another few questions. Not aggressive, I just try it on. Fortunately, they are badly trained. They get provoked and show it. Pathetic. This is not security, this is a bureaucratic waste of time. The CIA is clearly so large they have people who have far too much spare time to enter stupid, pointless data into.

Anyway, they are basically conciliatory but it takes a while to get to that point.

The problem was I had unknowingly stepped onto federal property. Unfortunately that happened pretty much immediately after I got off the Metro - I'm serious. And I didn't have my passport on me which would have showed that I had not been smuggled in with some coke from Afghanistan, if you know what I mean.

Things are a little lighter now. They give me some advice. Carry your passport, sir. Fair enough, that makes sense. I had already recommended to them that they have a sign saying that security restrictions are in place. They have more advice.

"Even been seen reading that book on the Metro. Someone might make a phone call and report..."

What?

"What about freedom of speech?"

"... people are scared of dying." Some people clearly are.

I'm scared of dying intellectually. Are you scared? Is your country, sir? Is it scared of asking, quizzing, being curious, being inquisitive, asking what you shouldn't ask, being different, finding out more, not accepting what you are told, going beyond the conventional.

I walk off, my mind a whirlwind. Freedom, stupid bureaucracy, the image of US overseas, 9/11, liberty, security, state of fear, debate, or lack of it, authoritarianism, militarism.

My first interaction with the federal government of the United States of America has just taken approximately 55 minutes out of my life.

Now I know them.

And they know me.

How to deal with a marketing caller

2006-12-09T21:03:00.000Z

Give yourself a couple of minutes, kick back and laugh out loud...

Click here.

Hat tip to www.stephenpollard.net

The Perth Test

2006-12-05T23:38:00.000Z

The England team for the 3rd Test in Perth should be:

Strauss (Captain)
Cook
Bell
Pietersen
Flintoff
Collingwood
Read
Mahmood
Hoggard
Harmison
Panesar

Six batsmen; 7 bowlers; 1 decent wickie.

Strauss must be Captain. Then and only then will he come to the party.
Cook will get there (remember, Bell was worse than this in 2005!)
Bell is on the verge of something special.
Number 4 is the place for the best batsman. KP must move up and send out a more positive message.
5 is the place for devastation and for the world’s best all rounder. Enter Freddie breathing fire.
Despite his double century, Colly is a dependable support act for superior batsmen above him and also the best man to bat with the tail to maximum effect.
Keepers are there to take wickets and save runs. He is technically better at that than Jones.
Mahmood is as good a bowler as Anderson and will support Hoggard and Flintoff more effectively. As it happens he is also a cocky batsman who loves to get whatever runs he can.
Monty may be quiet and unassuming, but he is also lethal.

1982 all over again

2006-12-05T23:31:00.000Z

Flintoff is a great bowler and a devastating batsman on his day. He is an inspiration and a talisman.
He is, however, not a leader and not a Captain. Those are different skills and, like Botham before him, Flintoff does not possess them. He must be replaced immediately with Strauss and ultimately Vaughan.

Flintoff’s ‘shock and awe’ cricket is a weapon to be deployed, it is not a strategy that wins games. Brilliant individual play can turn and win games but only when it is deployed within a thought through strategy. It is the thinking that is missing and consequently individual brilliance is worthless.

One wonders when England will ever realise that individual brilliance does NOT equal automatic Captaincy. It is a national disease that we promote the best player on the team. I mean you only have to look across to Mr Beckham to see what I mean. For generations we coached and cultured leadership as crucially as sporting skills themselves and often carried a moderate player as Captain simply because his skills were as fundamental to the team make up as batting and bowling – Mike Brierley being the obvious example.

Flintoff came into this series with a fearsome reputation, but placed in an invidious position by the Sport’s board. He is on the brink of disaster, both personal and national.

He has to understand that the hardest decision is the one which will save his team and himself. He must throw off the shackles of leadership, return to the talismanic position he always enjoyed and put the Aussies to the sword.

Just make him watch the story of 1982. For Botham read Flintoff. For Brierley read Vaughan and for Bob Willis, read Harmison. We are now in the crucial gap between 2nd and 3rd tests, when in 1982 Botham was released to savage the Aussies and restore his reputation. Brierley managed him perfectly and carried Willis forward too, giving him the opportunity to sock it to his critics also.

This can still be his Ashes, but not if he persists, misguided by the belief that he must press on in a role that he cannot perform and which is slowly suffocating his massive talent.

Vaughan must play. Fit or not, a team around him (even at number 11!) can fight back.

Fletcher and England are living in the past

2006-12-05T23:27:00.000Z

Most people will probably search our 2nd innings batting card for the answers to this miserable defeat, but the real answer lies in our 1st Innings bowling card. We dawdled through our overs, allowed hours of toothless bowling and passive defensive fielding and took far too long to get the wickets.

This test will be used by coaches for the rest of time to demonstrate just why test match cricket is won with the ball not the bat. It really doesn’t matter how many runs you score. If you can’t or don’t bowl out the opposition twice, you cannot win.

Fletcher’s determination “to bat to eight” sums up the defensive, backward approach this team is taking to the series. They believe that they cannot bowl them out, so they are trying to score enough runs to get draws. Can you imagine how Collingwood, Pietersen and Hoggard feel tonight. Massive personal performances made worthless by a tangible lack of team ambition.

We are in a pretty sorry state when we select our bowlers on the basis of their batting ability! But that is precisely what we are doing. The trouble is, the team slumps. The real batsmen don’t feel the pressure and the whole team dreads fielding.

Fletcher must reverse his thinking immediately. He must aspire to ‘bowl to four’ if you see what I mean. Whatever he does, he must restore the detailed plans for each batsmen. You see the Aussies are fighting back. Last year’s plans aren’t working anymore. The Aussies are thinking. We are just battering on.

Take a vote - this or speed cameras

2006-11-26T23:11:00.000Z

We have something of a speeding problem along our stretch of the A1 and I along with other councillors am trying to find a resolution.
Sadly, I fear it may not be as simple as this...

(I make no comment other than to say that you need neither an understanding of Danish nor any level of volume. Any one offended by female "birthday suits" may want to skip on by.)

Click here:
http://5x5m.com/files/speedbandits/

Hat tip to Iain Dale

Middle & Off Ashes Blog

2006-11-26T01:05:00.000Z

A very good friend has started an Ashes Blog.
Join the debate at www.middleandoff.blogspot.com

Why am I doing this?

2006-11-26T00:55:00.000Z

I am one of the mugs who have tried to reorganize their day to accommodate a bit of live cricket, but if this is how we are to be rewarded, then frankly they can all go to hell in a hand cart.
Flintoff hasn’t got a clue what to do. Honestly, even if he has to bat at 11 with a runner, I would prefer Vaughan to be brought back immediately.
Our great “batting solution” to play Giles and Jones in place of Panesar and Read, managed to accumulate a mere 43 runs. Frankly I would rather have a proper spinner and keeper who could do something about the number of runs being scored by the opposition in the first place.

How can it be that the England manager and captain have forgotten the simple fact that in cricket, it doesn’t matter how many runs you score yourself, but you can ONLY win by taking 20 wickets and getting the other side out twice. Therefore you must make your bowling attack the very best you can.

Love, Love, Divorce. Love, Love, Divorce.

2006-11-26T00:51:00.000Z

On the news that Heather Mills is quitting Britain for good, I am compelled to say what I have been longing to say for a while.
This whole divorce / gold digging affair just couldn’t have happened to nicer people. Bye bye Mills, and if you can take McCartney with you all the better.
Don't you wonder about the rather odd release of a new Beatles Love Album? Fundraiser to pay off Mills without making quite such a dent in your finances perhaps?

Complete surrender

2006-11-26T00:41:00.000Z

How ironic that the Govt’s efforts to restore peace to Northern Ireland are nearly reduced to a pile of rubble by a man only free to roam the streets because of their own Early Release Scheme. The pony tailed prat was sentenced to ovewr 600 years in prison in 1989 and released 11 years later.
Sorry mate but we surrendered ages ago.

Fletcher and Flintoff have f~**&^*d up and I am furious

2006-11-23T13:15:00.000Z

Fletcher’s crimes:

Woefully inadequate preparation of our strike bowlers
Pathetic handling of Trescothick
Picking Flintoff as Captain. He may be the best player on the pitch and a genuine inspiration, but that does not make him a Captain. The Captaincy will do nothing but dilute and suffocate the very flair that makes him so dangerous. Flintoff leads by being ‘mates’ with the players and it doesn’t work.
Failure to stand up for English cricket and throw the recent ICC Champions trophy to the dogs, in favour of a proper build up to this series in Australia.
Over reliance on injured players coming straight back to the team without form. Giles, Flintoff, Harmison, Anderson all fit that bill. There is even talk of Vaughan playing in later tests even though he has not played since the last Ashes series.
Staggering decision to pick Giles over Panesar for this Test just because Giles MIGHT score a few runs. If you are looking for a bowler who can slog some runs, try Mahmood, who scored 46 runs just three days ago.
The team decision this morning told the Aussies that we have no confidence, and if you do that you might as well stay at home.

Flintoff’s crimes:

Conspiring with Fletcher to allow the above list of crimes to takes place
Preference for Giles over Panesar and Mahmood over Anderson. Panesar must have burst into tears when he saw Pieterson being asked to bowl spin.
Failure to react to what the pitch and the batsmen were showing him in the first session. Harmison did not bowl that well but ball after ball went flying through extra gulley, yet he never once plugged the gap.
Flintoff didn’t think today and he didn’t manage his bowlers. He lost control early, had no plan and chased the game for most of the day.

If this is the tone of the series then Flintoff can only expect to go the way of our last cricketing great – I.T. Botham, and England will come home empty handed.

Make Vaughan Captain again, crutches and all.

How Men and Women differ

2006-10-15T10:38:00.000Z

Please engage sense of humour before reading!

NICKNAMES
If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah.
If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Godzilla and Four-eyes.

EATING OUT
When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in £20, even though it's only for £32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back.
When the girls get their bill, out come the pocket calculators.

MONEY
A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs.
A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale

BATHROOMS
A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel from M&S.
The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items.

CATS
Women love cats.
Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats.

FUTURE
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.

MARRIAGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does.

DRESSING UP
A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the bins, answer the phone, read a book, and get the post.
A man will dress up for weddings and funerals.

NATURAL
Men wake up as good-looking as they went to bed.
Women somehow deteriorate during the night.

OFFSPRING
Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about their dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favourite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams.
A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Any married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing.

What a woman says:

“C'mon...This place is a mess. You and I need to clean. Your trousers are on the floor and you'll have no clothes if we don't do the laundry now.”

What a man hears:

“C'MON ... blah, blah, blah YOU AND I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah ON THE FLOOR blah, blah, blah, NO CLOTHES blah, blah, blah, blah, NOW.”

Hat tip to Vicki

Just not enough, I'm afraid

2006-10-09T13:36:00.000Z

Hat-tip: Image from Hunts Post

I attended the march on Saturday morning to “Save Hinchingbrooke Hospital” along with my boys, Oliver and Jasper. Lara was working in the hospital that day.

I won’t beat around the bush. I won’t pretend that the earth moved for me. To be honest, I thought it was pretty weak and I was disappointed.

Huntingdonshire has an adult population of about 150k. All reports suggest that around 1000 attended. That is about ½ a percent. It is not exactly the sound of thunder, eh?

No doubt others will be more upbeat. The media, who played a large role in organising the event, will crop the pictures and the news reports to make the crowd look big; the Unions will say it was as good as could be expected and local politicians (all except this one that is) will say it was an effective demonstration of public opinion.

This local politician will say only this: If we are really want to save our hospital, we are going to have to do are darn site better than that. A turn out of ½ a percent is music to the Health Authority’s ears. If that is genuinely the level of concern in this area, then we will lose the hospital for sure. Even if they don’t level it in one go, they will bleed it of services over a few years until it becomes untenable.

Signing a petition is all very well, but we all know just how little effort that requires. What is needed are feet on the streets, a rally that fills Hinchingbrooke Park and some speakers that set the crowd alight.

This Government is spending at least double the amount of YOUR money and taxes on health services, and yet they threaten to close our hospital. Square that circle if you can? We have a right to these services and we must fight much harder to keep them.

If we do not fight to keep Hinchingbrooke, heart attack victims will die on the A14 and mothers who hemorrhage in labour will lose their babies on the way to Peterborough.

The simple fact of the matter is that the unnecessary loss of the hospital in Huntingdonshire will inevitably lead to the unnecessary loss of life in Huntingdonshire.

Insubordinate coward? - I doubt it

2006-10-06T12:11:00.000Z

In Northern Ireland over the past three decades a vast number of unfeasably brave officers have defied the threats to their person to serve their community without fear or favour. However, it is also a fact, overlooked by David Davis in his Telegraph article today, that we have for years been excusing Catholic policemen from policing protestant areas, and always on grounds of personal safety.

If you want a multi cultural police force, you have to apply common sense to the way you deploy them. If Muslims applicants think that they and their families may be placed in personal danger, they will not join and the end result will be the very white uni-cultural police force that common decency would suggest is unhealthy in a multi cultural society.

David Davis also grossly misrepresents policing as equivalent to soldiering. The two are fundamentally different. Soldiering is, frankly, about 'identifying and neutralising an enemy', i.e. killing people. Policing is about maintaining peaceful, law abiding communities, from within those communities. Soldiering necessarily comes with a tolerated cost in human life. Policing does not and should not.

This man did not refuse to police, he simply raised an uncomfortable issue resulting from an unforseen consequence of his service and asked for some common sense. It is most unpleasant that we cast this man as an insubordinate coward. He represents great bravery simply by wearing the uniform in today's society.

This man will have served for a number of years prior to his appointment to this specialist division. I wonder what an examination of his record would reveal? After all here is a Muslim man who has policed communities in our country during some particularly turbulent years. Just stop for a moment and ask yourself what sort of person volunteers for today's police, let alone what sort of Muslim person.

The most important point is that he only appears to have requested the redeployment because the threat was to his wider family. As is revealed in a further Telegraph article today, PC Omar Bashar's employment is widely known within his community and by an extremist cleric living in the Lebanon, where his wife's family also live. He had already previously intervened to prevent Muslims from distributing offensive material outside a North London library.

No policeman should request redeployment through fear for his own safety, nor should they refuse to police on any grounds. But when it can be demonstrated that the lives of innocent relations are at risk, common sense applies. It was not his own safety he was trying to preserve but those of innocent bystanders.

I am right, I am bloody right!

2006-10-04T19:19:00.000Z

On this blog just a day ago I wrote this:

"It is our society that needs fixing, not our economy. It is not 1979."

36hrs later, David Cameron said this:

"When our Party was last in power, our task was to restore economic responsibility....The task for us today is different...Our fundamental aim is to roll forward the frontiers of society."

I have always agreed with David Cameron, but I had no idea he agreed with me.

Frank advice!

2006-10-04T16:03:00.000Z

I don't want tax cuts...

2006-10-03T08:31:00.000Z

Until there are double the number of policemen on our streets to stamp out the complete breakdown of civil behaviour and violence in our communities and until we have built the prisons and Courts required to handle those who think they are above the law.

Until we have taken control of our borders so that we know exactly who and how many are coming into our country. I repeat, taken control of - I did not say closed.

Until our social security system actually works.

Until our servicemen and women have both the resources to fight the wars we send them to and the care they deserve if they come home injured.

Until our state schools actually teach our children to read, write and count and until discipline and standards are returned to our schools.

Until our health system is sorted out, either through effective management of the system we have or a subsidised transition to a system that actually works.

Until we have taken control of our law making and retrieved powers from Brussels.

Until we have invested in renewable energy and stopped the pollution that threatens the very earth that sustains us.

Until we have sorted out the mess into which our farming and fisheries have descended.

I am as Conservative as they come, but I do NOT want tax cuts.

It is our society that needs fixing, not our economy. It is not 1979.

Cameron has got it right.

Cameron's Clause 4

2006-10-02T22:35:00.000Z

I hate trite comparisons, for example the habit of putting "gate" after the name of every scandal, but in this case there really is no other way.

Cameron has chosen tax as his defining battleground; his equivalent of Tony Blair's Clause 4. He positively wants a huge row over tax cuts. He wants Tebbitt and all the others to attack him. There is no better way to demonstrate the level and extent of change.

But why has he chosen tax? I'd say that was simple really. Tax cuts are definably "old Tory" so their rejection is emblematic of the change he represents. Furthermore, in this new world tax cutting promises don't work at election time. 2001 and 2005 being proof should you need it. The true legacy of Thatcher is an electorate of feel-goods. They have their relative wealth, now they want as much as they can get for "free". For the Tories to capture the masses as Thatcher did, they must now have relevant policies for the "cake and eat it" generation. They don't want tax cuts, they want free health and education. Most of all they want mortgage interest to remain stable and they want house prices to march upwards unwaveringly.

A public scrap over taxes with his own party is the most effective way to underline economic trustworthiness in the public's mind and that is the most essential thing. He has started early and he intends to keep the issue simmering for as long as he can. He will lose a section on the right of the party, but he could do so much more to hang on to them. Immigration and Europe are two areas where he could balance the equation. I hope he does.

I would love tax cuts, but I want a Conservative Government more. I think he is reading the public profile correctly. On this issue I think he has got it right and I continue to support him.

Hands off our Hospital

2006-09-29T12:21:00.000Z

Hat-tip: Image from Hunts Post

Huntingdon's Hinchingbrooke Hospital is under threat. Sign our online petition here.

It has been said that the threat to Hinchingbrooke Hospital should not be allowed to become a 'political issue'. This County’s predominant Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians will work unwaveringly together to defend our hospital but, whilst a laudable sentiment, this situation is profoundly political and for one very good reason. We have all paid ever increasing levels of tax and contributed to astonishing levels of health spending, so it is now our duty to demand and claim the service that we have paid for.

Please join the march on Saturday 7th October at 10.30 in Huntingdon and make your presence count.

Round Wheels are best

2006-09-28T23:38:00.000Z

The Government have decided to reinvent the wheel, only they've made in square and they are asking the Police to flog it to us.

Policing is and always has been a community activity. Policemen living among us, knowing who is who and what is what. Local, authoritative, visible police keeping on top of their communities. It worked for centuries.

Now our police announce a brand new initiative - Neighbourhood policing. Only instead of spending their money increasing police numbers and putting them back into our communities, this contrived version holds quarterly meetings with the public asking them where the problems are and what the priorities should be. At this meeting they even asked a working group to stay behind and help them work out how to deal with the priorities.

The lack of leadership and authority is depressing. I for one want a police force that knows the people, knows the ground, knows the issues and knows what to do about them.

These two cuttings from this weeks local paper pretty much say the rest. My comments, terse as they are, are on the second image.

Favourite Frasier lines 1#

2006-09-28T08:30:00.000Z

Daphne - "Well it is not like men have never used sex to get what they want."

Frasier - "How can men possibly USE sex to get what they want. Sex IS what they want!!!"

More Relish

2006-09-26T23:01:00.000Z

Note to David Cameron:

In the year that you have been Leader, I have supported you unwaveringly. I have fought your corner countless times Conservative Home's "complaints section" and I have even tolerated your charitable employment of Mad Maude.

You have spent an outstanding year transforming the perception of our party. Many people of a neutral or even centre-left persuasion are listening to you and us now, and with every word that Heffer and Tebbit utter, more people are convinced of that change. You have aplogised for the most obvious and serious of your predecessors mistakes, you have dragged the Party into the 21st century and you have made surprising new friends.

However, this time next week that phase of your strategy must come to an end. This time next week you must lead out into a year or more of unbridled and unrelenting opposition. You must expose the shallow grave of New Labour's legacy and condemn any thoughts of Labour's second chance. People are now ready to hear and understand William's prophetic 2001 election slogan "You paid the taxes, so where's the service."

You must expose the degradation of our society, the chaos of our public services and the collapse of our vandalised constitution. You must lead a united and committed shadow team and you must dispense with any who have become conceited or perhaps simply too comfortable in their tea-room chair. [Word to the wise: Osbourne isn't cutting it.]

Tactically, it may be too soon to announce your policies, but with a Government in freefall, a Prime Minister on a farewell tour and a Leadership contest underway, you have the advantage of some shooting practice in advance of the main event. It is time to get your eye in with some live bait and if you don't take this opportunity I will lead the search for someone who will.

A happy Jock is a whingeing Jock

2006-09-25T21:12:00.000Z

Point by point, phrase by phrase, I could pull Mr Brown and his awesome speech apart. But I have better things to do.

Brown's speech was remarkable for many reasons. Foremost among them was his devastating analysis of his own failure. Every one of his manifesto policies (for that is exactly what they were) do nothing but rectify his own mistakes. Hardly surprising I suppose. The defining feature of this Government has always been its tactic of causing a mess and then demanding pocket money for cleaning it up.

No matter how hard he tries to pretend that he has had nothing to do with the last ten years, he remains its most prominent author. You would have thought that he'd have realised that with everyone of the heartfelt mentions of today's social ills, he ploughed another bullet into his foot.

To everyone who was listening, he revealed the true Brown - the one who vastly prefers the pleasure of complaining, the endless battle of opposition and the pulpit frisson of "fighting the good fight" to the harsh realities of government and actually solving the problems. It was a "one hand, one bounce" speech. It was the premeditated squawk of a small child pleading not to be given out first ball.

It was a speech worthy of the Labour Party Conference in 1996. Trouble is that after ten years in office, a decade to make a difference, this hour long speech was devoted to mourning his own failure.

The other aspect missed by all others was Mr Brown's very obvious firing of the starting gun in the impending leadership race. Everyone hails a speech by a future Prime Minister, even though apparently no such vacancy exists. The speech was treacherous and should have sparked all manner of in fighting. It would be serious if it weren't for the fact that Mr Brown simultaneously fired the gun and staged a false start. If you were one of Gordon's adversary's tonight, you'd be pretty naffed off.

By all accounts, the next General Election is going to be a bit heavy on the relish!

Mr Broon

2006-09-25T09:07:00.000Z

There is no more frightening sight in British politics than a smiling Mr Brown on a charm offensive.
The real fight for the British political soul starts today; and it is a fight that we cannot afford to lose.

Beat the BBC

2006-09-24T21:38:00.000Z

I thought I would complete my thoughts on Top Gear with a simple message of defiance.
This article by Jeremy Clarkson is frankly frightening in the way it reveals the deep seated hatred within the BBC.

If the BBC were to win this battle and force Top Gear off air, I will refuse to pay my TV Tax, sorry Licence Fee.

Wonderful Darren Clarke

2006-09-24T20:32:00.000Z

Only miserable news reporting by ITN has marred what has been a fantastic 3 days of golf.

(The European Team dressed to collect their trophy in the resplendent pink of a Breast Cancer charity and thus in honour of Heather Clarke, recently deceased wife of the victorious Darren Clarke, and the ITN reporter describes it as a "dubious choice of colour for their jackets...".)

In what is the epitomy of individual sports, the Ryder Cup offers the most amazing spectacle. Suddenly, what appear to be deeply selfish and driven sportsmen are thrown together to win or lose as a team, and to be honest, only the Europeans looked as though they meant it.

So many names to congratulate. Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Paul Casey, Colin Montgomerie all played fabulously well. The Irish contingent had a good week on home turf. Harrington average, McGinley terrific. But Darren Clarke was quite simply sublime.

This is his Ryder Cup, and it is a tale of tragedy and amazing strength of character. Having lost his wife to cancer just a month ago, he displayed huge talent to remain undefeated in all his matches. He was carried by the enormous support of the partisan Irish crowd but he delivered through skill rather than sympathy.

I watched the end in tears of admiration for his courage and determination. It was very moving to see someone receive such genuine displays of love and appreciation from teammates and adversaries alike. I am certain, however, that whatever the wonders of winning the Cup, he would give it all up to have his wife back.

Top Programme

2006-09-21T20:18:00.000Z

I am happy to put on record that I adore Top Gear. No matter how much people try to besmirch its outstanding performance under Clarkson's guidance, it remains one of the few shows that I will run dash home to watch.

It is a wonder that the BBC host it. They clearly wish they didn't but their money-men win the day. It is so successful that the BBC has no choice but to hold its nose and press play. This article on the BBC website sums up why I like it.

What Clarkson, Hammond and May appreciate is that we all sit in our cars driving around at 15mph fantasising about what would happen if...They know that we see cars on the road that inspire ridicule and derision. They know that we compare and contrast and they know that we judge.

So they do it for us in glorious technicolour. They tell us when cars are average, what it feels like to drive with the needle off the scale, and just how far you can actually push a vehicle on four wheels. They tell it how it is, they live our fantasies, they have the fun we dream about when we are stuck in another traffic jam on the M25.

I loved their attempt to destroy a Toyota pick-up, their contests between cars and Apaches/Tanks/Infantry/bobsleigh's/skateboarders/pony tailed climber dudes. I cheer everytime a caravan dies. Most of all I enjoyed the moment when Stephen Ladyman MP, Minister for Transport, left Clarkson with nowhere to go -

Clarkson - "These speed cameras are just a cynical method of raising revenue aren't they?"
Ladyman - "Listen, Jeremy, we paint them yellow, we put up huge signs to warn you where they are, we even publish maps with them marked up. If you are still getting caught by speed cameras, there really is only one person to blame."
Clarkson - "Yeh, well...um...maybe you've got a point. Moving on...how was your lap in our reasonably priced car?"

While their are boys with cars and TV's, there will always be a need for Top Gear (whatever the Health and Safety Executive may say).

UPDATE: I am thrilled that the above mentioned Minister has come out in public support of the programme. Well, done you Stephen. (Not so sure about your "car booster seat" legislation though!!)

Living life on the edge

2006-09-21T12:35:00.000Z

Best wishes to Richard Hammond for a successful and speedy recovery.
If he puts into surviving even half the energy he puts into living, he'll be back up and running in a couple of weeks. There can be few people who love life so evidently as he.

Save Hinchingbrooke Hospital

2006-09-20T09:47:00.000Z

I am 35 and as yet I have never been on a protest march. I very nearly went on the Countryside March in London but something happened. I have marshalled a few in Northern Ireland, however!

Anyway, on 7 October I shall lose my protest march virginity and I shall march in Huntingdon to save our hospital from closure.

I do so with one clear aim in mind - to help focus people's minds on the fact that this present New Labour Government have squandered, lost and criminally mis-spent inconceivable quantities of taxpayers money.

Health spending over the last decade has doubled at least and lest we forget, is as high as it has ever been. SO WHY THE F**K IS OUR HOSPITAL UNDER THREAT? HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY SPEND ALL THAT MONEY AND STILL HAVE TO CUT SERVICES AND CLOSE HOSPITALS?

The most amazing irony is that Hinchingbrooke Hospital was built by the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and is now threatened with closure under Blair and Brown's Labour! What sort of a world do we live in when a socialist party can't even get state services right.

The Save Hinchingbrooke Hospital March is on 7th October 2006 at 11:30. The assembly point will be Riverside Park; we walk up Riverside Road then along the High Street, George Street, Brampton Road to the Hospital where the route ends with speakers to address the rally.

I'll have my say in public too if I get half a chance.

Be there too, please.

P.S. Sorry, I should off course register my interest. My wife Lara works there as a midwife.

The Morning Rant

2006-09-20T08:44:00.000Z

A new daily viewspaper on the blogosphere....

Corruption in football is of not of the slightest importance to Government and the Minister should not waste another ounce of breathe or time concerning himself with it. The people for whom this is a matter of concern are the football fans who ultimately fund it all. So the real answer to stopping this, is for the fans to stop paying ludicrous prices to see and wear football. Make these overpaid tossers play in silence to empty grandstands for the month of November and they will soon get the message.

Can someone please tell me what exactly is wrong with having to sell your home when you move into care and why it should be a matter of concern that the proceeds would pay for that care? It occurs to me that this situation exists because increasingly children do not look after their parents. So someone has to and that someone must be paid. What you do not do for yourself, you must pay for - that is called choice, and no, it is not the responsibility of the state to spoon feed everyone. So either let your parents pay for their own care to whatever standard they choose through whatever means they have and accept the fact that your inheritance is spent - or do it yourself and keep the cash. Simple really.

I am frankly disappointed by the Tories new logo. I loved the tree idea, especially a detailed tree that looked like an Oak. It carries such immediate ideas of stability, protection, environmental stewardship, growth. I also loved that it had been selected and designed by the blogosphere community, the freshest and most vibrant political body in existence in this country today. Sadly, however, instead of just going with the idea and thus cementing their relationship with these people, Cameron and 'Mad' Maude had to give it to a pricey consultant who completely lost the plot. At the very moment when everything about you must scream detail, clarity and distinctiveness, we Tories create a shoddy scribble that seems to say "oh that'll do!". Well it won't. Your policies need detail and so does your logo. Please sack 'mad' Maude. He is like an embarrassing Dad trying to dance at your school disco. He is trying too hard to be cool, and getting it all hopelessly wrong.

Reaping what you sow

2006-09-16T22:58:00.000Z

Some small part of me (well, maybe not so small) genuinely hopes that Mrs Bliar is spitting mad at being investigated by the police for "motioning to slap" a 17 yr old lad who made bunny ears behind her.

That a couple of Scottish officials from the Child Protection in Sport Unit (or 'political correctness police' as such people are more commonly known) reported her to the real police is true justice.

I hope she is storming round Chequers, seething with anger. What could Tony possibly say to calm her down??!!

All good things....

2006-09-16T19:43:00.000Z

...come to those who wait.

I am well aware that family, work, politics and cricket have been getting in the way of quality blogging these past few months but thankfully the immense Iain Dale has still found room for me at Number 29 in his Top 100 Tory Blogs.

The weight of expectation bears down upon my shoulders but I promise to deprive my family of more of my time so that you can enjoy more of my poorly spelt ramblings.

Actually, it won't have to quite so harsh. My wife, the newly appointed Mrs Lara Bailey BA (Hons) Midwifery RM, finally starts work at the ill-fated Hinchingbrooke Hospital (another story) next week, so I will be able to blog without guilt when she is pulling babies out on a late shift!! When she is on a night shift, I won't even have to go to bed. I can just blog until I fall asleep in my chair!!!

The Chancellor's Lament

2006-09-11T21:36:00.000Z

Labour have proved themselves incapable of organising pretty much everything and cost us all a pretty penny in the process. Now, to really underline their ineptitude, they are making a dog's breakfast of a fairly simple operation to depose a weak and discredited has-been.

It beggars's belief that anyone should want Brown as their Prime Minister after last week's performance. Such spinelessness and cowardice and indecision. Such a complete lack of authority and belief. The Prime Minister can even leave the country for a week and still he dithers.

Brown's chances of the premiership fade with everyday that passes and you sense that he knows it. He has almost always been destined to return to Scotland empty handed. Poems and long droning bagpipe piobroch's (laments) will be written in his honour and his legend will be passed down throught the generations in the magnificent Kingdom of Fife.

Brown's most natural and effective role - that of morose, penny pinching, monastic chancellor - has been displayed so long and with such personal conviction, that no amount of smiling and cheerleading can now turn him into the People's Champion. He will undoubtedly thrash and writhe a little more but he has entered the politically treacherous waters of the Corryvreckan, and with every choreographed smile and hateful, half-hearted coup attempt, he whirls closer to his own agonising demise.

Worry not, you Scots, however. Every cloud has a silver lining. He shall have his booby prize. Holyrood becons and with it the warped joy of bearing a grudge to his dying day and making life hell for Prime Ministers to come.

Sometimes, just sometimes...

2006-08-30T22:41:00.000Z

... I want to say what I think without having to justify it with endless, worthy argument. It's dangerous to do that, of course, in this day and age. We are all supposed to be reasoned and reasonable. Everyone has rights and they are to be respected whether or not they impinge on the rights of others.
Well, for the avoidance of doubt, I have reasoned arguments behind everyone of the following topical statements, available on request:

If your life choice is to weigh more than is medically recommended, you do not have the right to expect IVF treatment at tax payers expense which is proven to be markedly less effective. Lose some weight.

If your sexual imperative is to form a relationship with one of your own, thus biologically ruling out procreation, you cannot then claim that your lifelong desire is to have children and that the tax payer should inseminate you. Make your mind up. You are either gay or you want children.

If you commit murder, you cannot then claim insanity. That you may be insane can and may be medically diagnosed, but if the fact that your deliberate actions killed someone is proven in a court of law, justice must be served undiluted. Your condition, once identified, must be treated with kindness and sympathy. The latter, however, does not mitigate the former. Which ever way you look at it, the life of an innocent person has been snuffed out, so you are either a murderer or you are mentally unstable with a proven capacity for killing. Remorseful or not, the public require to be protected from you and most probably you need to be protected from yourself.

(Source: Admission Impossible, Channel 4, 9pm, Wed 30 Aug) If you place your child in the most exhausting and emotionally draining private school selection process, and that child then achieves a place at the school of her (and your) dreams through hard work and dedication, and achieving you a massive 40% means tested fees bursary to boot, do not then tell her you can't afford it. Figure it out first.

Everyone of us is born different (thank god) which therefore means that we all have different skills, talents and aptitudes which in turn result in differing levels of personal achievement. By any measure, these differences rule out any prospect of equality. True and pure equality cannot and does not exist. Get over it and stop trying to pretend it does. And stop trying to enforce your 'rights' as some sort of compensation for your shortcomings.

That's me done for now. As I say, reasoned argument is available on request for any of the above issues. (Only requests from Tommy G will be ignored!!)

Could have told us, Wolfgang

2006-08-29T21:59:00.000Z

I mentioned last night that Lara and I had a positively average trip to Vienna in Austria (with the exception of the 2hr long Robbie Williams concert). I have been wanting to write some thoughts down since we returned but have been a bit busy.

Anyway, if you are Austrian, or even German for that matter, you might want to scroll on down and save yourself some heartache. I am not entirely sure I can do this without being intemperate - what with our weekend being ruined and all that.

Lara and I are respectful travellers. We eat the food, we try to speak the language, we do some homework and we enjoy new customs. In return, we hope only that our hosts will acknowledge in some small way that we are trying, that we are different to the many inconsiderate tourists and that they might offer us the hand of friendship and help.

Our main gripe therefore is that pretty much everyone we came across was so damnably rude, and unhelpful. Throughout our three day stay, we came across only ONE polite and pleasant Austrian - a waiter at Cafe Mozart (quaint, I know!!). Our hotel room was dire. A Travelodge room is cleaner and more presentable. The reaction of our Receptionist was complete indifference. She eventually showed us some other rooms and with no other options, we took one. Shop keepers, ticket inspectors, waiters and even the tourist attraction attendants - unpleasant, impatient and rude.

The icing on the cake came as we tried to balance our cultural diet and attend a recital of Mozart's best bits. The tickets were sold to us on the clear understanding that a glass of champagne in the interval was included (you can see where this is going, eh!). So we stepped out into the bar at the interval, having enjoyed the music of the first half very much, only to be confronted by glasses of champagne on sale for 4 euros.

Well, on top of the rudeness of its residents, Vienna is horrifically expensive. No matter how hard we tried, and I promise we did, money just seeped out our wallet. Even washing your hands in a public loo cost 50 cents.

So, having endured two days of handing over vast quantities of money for overpriced services to unpleasant people, I kind of blew my top at the servile little creep who demanded more money for something I had already paid. Sadly that old Anglo-German battle of wills came to the fore, and they stood their ground. I demanded the manager (like a good little Englishman!) and roundly berated her for the entire interval.

I had ruined the evening and Lara was not pleased. The second half was less enjoyable and for my part, I spent it trying to figure out how to get revenge on the way out! In the event, I did nothing save telling her what I thought of her. I think I called her a "vile Austrian cheat", or something like that.

I'm not proud of myself and I regret it hugely. It soured our trip and didn't exactly enamour me to my wife, which of course got me even more irate. I had just had enough.

Another gripe concerns their complete disinterest in tourism and tourists. Their main antiquities are unkempt by any standards. There is little effort to create atmosphere or drama. The lawns of the Hapsburg Palace are just rough areas of grass. It is all just pretty crap really.

Worst of all, this is a major year for Vienna. It is the 250 anniversary of Mozart's birth. Thousands more people than normal are in town to celebrate that fact, and indeed it was a factor in my choosing Vienna in the first place. Vienna is on show more than ever but nothing is evident that shows Vienna cares. The airport is a building site, St Stephen's Cathedral is encased in scaffolding, the Belvedere was a mess and undergoing works, and absolutely nowhere will you see any acknowledgement that Mozart even existed, let alone that he makes the single biggest contribution to Vienna's notoriety and global reputation. Everything about the place, just shouted, "We don't care!"

All of which brings me to the final analysis. Why are the Austrians so bloody miserable and rude?

I sense a real issue over their German neighbours. One gets the feeling they think they are the posh bit of Germany. It either has to be an inferioirity complex or a superiority complex. What ever it is, it cannot be much fun being Austrian but speaking German. A nation should have its own language, no?

Also, as someone who has travelled in Eastern Europe relatively extensively, I found it notable that I required constantly to remind myself that I was in Vienna, and not much further East. Perhaps, that is the point, though. Maybe their heart is further East.

Austria's contribution to history makes fascinating reading, and now having met a few of them, I can see why. For the avoidance of doubt, they are less the benign, Alpine, strudel eating, opera lovers we think they are. They are a grumpy bunch with a bad attitude.

So save your time and money. St Petersburg, Prague, Berlin and Budapest are all more attractive, more friendly and less expensive and listening to Mozart in Vienna is just the same as listening to him at home.

Footnote: We arrived at Vienna airport as early as we dared on the way out. We checked in over 2 hours before the flight - only to discover that more than 100 people had beaten us to the door!! Ant and Dec were on our flight too!

Robbie

2006-08-28T23:49:00.000Z

As a special treat, I took my wife Lara to see Robbie Williams live in concert. Wishing to make a weekend of it, I was keen to go somewhere slightly more exotic than Milton Keynes.

Our first choice was Berlin, the city in which we met and fell in love, but the dates clashed with Lara's exams, so we settled on Vienna.

Our weekend was dominated by a fairly average experience of a City that really doesn't seem to give a shit, but Robbie was as good as you would expect.

I have to take a deep breathe before admitting to liking Robbie, but like him I / we do. He plays great pop music, he is an outstanding show man and entertainer and, now that he is more settled and mature, he is extending himself to a broader range of exciting musical genre. If Freddie Mercury can sing Radio Gaga and Barcelona in the same gig then Robbie can sing Angels and a Frank Sinatra classic.

He was a real star and it was a great concert - next time we might just go to Milton Keynes though!

Full Term

2006-08-28T22:16:00.000Z

St Neots Town Crier 25 August 2006.

Four years hard work finally came to its finale this summer, culminating in a 2:1 Degree pass for my wonderful (mid)wife and a job offer at the local hospital in Huntingdon.

I have the utmost respect for anyone who goes back to academic study after 12 years. But for Lara it was a very natural and highly motivated move. She had harboured an instinct for nursing for a great many years (and you can keep your "she'd need to marrying you, Bailey" comments to yourself!), but having our own children established the real direction she wanted to go.

Naturally gifted though she clearly is, it is an exceptional achievement. She has worked very hard over the past four years, balancing study with work on the ward and her family. The medical and academic study appeared to come easily (although she insists it did not) but the apprenticeship on the labour ward was obviously the most satisfying and rewarding.

Securing (we hope) a job at Hinchingbrook Hospital is no mean feat, especially as the Hospital goes through serious financial restructuring and losses in staff, but that is another story and another post on the diabolical state of our health service today.

30 years or so of varying shifts and on-call duties stretch ahead but we boys (Ollie, Jasper and I) are old enough now to look after ourselves. We love you very much, Lara, and we are immensely proud of you and what you have achieved.

Lara deserves her success and her job and the women of Huntingdonshire deserve Lara.

Proper grown-up music

2006-08-28T20:42:00.000Z

I listened to a Top 100 Albums poll this afternoon, as voted for by the self selecting audience of Radio 2. Not all Albums qualified. Albums had to have been Number one in the Album chart at some point in history. So, no Dark Side of the Moon, no Bat out of Hell, no Eagles, no Beach Boys.
Anyway, notwithstanding the vaguaries of these sorts of polls, I found it interesting that of this Top 100, 47 were shared amongst only 9 acts:

The Beatles 12 Albums (incl. one solo album each for Paul, John and George)
U2 6 Albums
Madonna 6 Albums
Robbie Williams 5 Albums
Led Zeppelin 4 Albums
Queen 4 Albums
David Bowie 4 Albums
Coldplay 3 Albums
Michael Jackson 3 Albums

Add another 8 acts, including Pink Floyd, REM, Dire Straits, Oasis, Paul Simon and the Rolling Stones, with two albums each in the chart, and you account for 63 out of 100 albums with just 17 acts.

The only reason I mention any of this is because, for the first time, I feel in the mainstream. My music collection is dominated by pretty much everyone of these groups. These are my favourite artists (apart from Michael Jackson). Just a bit of fun.

Football above the law?

2006-08-25T11:56:00.000Z

However, the [Manchester] City manager, Stuart Pearce, does not believe Greater Manchester Police should become involved (re. the assault / tackle by Ben Thatcher on Portsmouth's Paulo Mendes).

"Anything that happens on a football pitch should be governed by the FA and Fifa," Pearce said.

"Once you start involving the police, the floodgates can open and you could end up with a situation where players are arrested during a game."

Couldn't agree more, Stuart. Fancy that. Footballers being required to play 90mins of football without breaking the law of the land. Since when did the referees whistle or the white lines on a football pitch secure immunity from the law.

Any pitchside policeman who witnessed that assault on Wednesday night, should have walked onto the pitch and arrested Mr Thatcher there and then.

Good and bad in everything!

2006-08-24T15:58:00.000Z

Click here to see a 4min 52sec challenge to my assertion (below) that football has never been the beautiful game!

His name is Ryan Giggs and over the past 15 years, his choice to play for Wales has cost England at least one major global trophy. He is the devastating player/winger of his generation and in my humble opinion one of the most agile and elegant players ever.

(I have found You Tube!!)

Criminal Assault

2006-08-24T13:39:00.000Z

I don't know how to post the actual You Tube video on screen as others do, but click here to see Manchester City's defender Ben Thatcher playing the "beautiful game".

Replace the green field with a city centre street and the referee with a policeman and Mr Thatcher would have been in front of a Magistrate by now and would be back in custody facing a Crown Court appearance and a jail sentence.

That the FA sits on its hands and claims that the referee's decision is final just compounds an already contemptable situation.

Football is not, has never been and, until such time as proper control is taken of the thugs/players, it will never be the "Beautiful Game".

The flow of the game must now necessarily be compromised to allow another referee behind a video screen to support the one on the pitch. The alternative, and the one I would prefer, is to allow the police to walk onto a pitch at any stage of teh game and arrest any player they witness assaulting another.

If soldiers can be arrested, prosecuted and jailed for crossing the line on the battlefield, I am damn sure footballers can be prosecuted for assault on a football pitch.

Anonamongs

2006-07-25T16:11:00.000Z

People who offer comments anonymously and who simply hurl abuse without the courtesy of arguing their case, will not, from this moment forward, see their comments posted.

Just for the purposes of clarity, this, offered just a short time ago, is the sort of thing I mean:

"You really are a ***** **** aren't you Richard. Oh, and why do you use a picture of Steve Davies?" Anonymous.

Brave and clever little boy, aren't you, Anonamong. You are actually the first to offer me such mindless abuse, and, whilst I doubt you will be the last, yours will be the only one to be held up to ridicule.

Who is 'Steve Davies' by the way? I mean, you say it as if we should all know this person. Have you mispelt the word? Do you mean the world famous snooker player, perhaps?

Now fuck off back to whichever little stone you crawled out from under, you servile little creep. If I want your opinion in future, I'll give it to you.

Ever the sound-bite politician

2006-07-20T23:26:00.000Z

Gordon Brown - "I love being a father; it's such fun.... and I am sure the two boys will get on very well."

Bet they bloody don't, Gordon!

It's the birth of your child, and you sound as though you are announcing a new schools policy or something. You think it is your destiny to be Prime Minister. Me too - the shortest serving PM in British political history.

Oh, and by the way, your chinos were at least two inches too short.

Lord Levy reveals NuLabour's true legacy

2006-07-12T23:11:00.000Z

Lord Levy, the personal friend, fund raiser and envoy of the Prime Minister, has been arrested today and questioned as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into "Loans for Peerages".

For the avoidance of doubt "loans for peerages" essentially means that rich people could physically buy their way into a position from which to rule the country if they made a donation to the Labour Party.

This is far more serious than simple Party fund raising. I couldn't care less who or how people are convinced to give money to political parties. A seat at the table of power, however, must be earned not bought. People must see and hear what you stand for and must be as easily able to sack you from office as they were to elect you.

Let us also be clear that Lord Levy is joined at the hip with the Prime Minister in this situation. The PM takes full responsibility for anything that Lord Levy did. More significantly, it is unlikely that Lord Levy did anything without Blair's personal sanction.

In 1995, the calamitous "Cash for questions" affair blew up around a failing Tory government. An unfathomably stupid man by the name of Hamilton was alleged to have taken money in return for asking questions in the House of Commons. The media went beserk and, rightly, the death knell rang out for the Government and the reputation for sleaze was embedded for ever.

Cash for questions pales into insignificance when compared to loans for peerages. Firstly, it involved only a lowly minister. It reached no higher than that. And secondly, the questions did little more than reveal dull and specific information. They certainly carried no lasting or significant impact.

Now, however, we have a political fraud that reaches right to the pinnacle of our political system and is serious enough to merit police investigation and arrest; we have a political fraud that was sanctioned from the very top and was designed to leave a lasting and embedded impact on the future political landscape.

Our Prime Minister actually expects to be interviewed without coffee by the police. We have truly descended into the mire of corruption and deceit that we have long associated with basket case democracies. It is a day to be sad, angry and humiliated.

So what then is this legacy? Well for certain it is revealed in the timid and cowering approach being taken by the media. The most devastating story in British politics lies unprobed and untold whilst a full scale police investigation unfolds. All level of political reporter pleads ignorance and a lack of information. None surge forward to demand answers. Chief pundits play it down and pretend it is nothing.

Ten years of media bullying. That is the legacy to which I refer. A decade of bullying which leaves us with an impotent and shallow media. What hold does Blair have on these people? The 4th estate have sold out. But they should know that when the walls come down, anyone too close gets crushed.

Nulabour has been a lie and a sham from day one. It has been corrupt and sleazy from conception to old age.

It is ironic that this Government effectively legislated to put to sleep hundreds of loyal, hard working hunting hounds. Can there be any more appropriate an analogy?

Don't knock the police - it really is not their fault

2006-07-10T22:14:00.000Z

I have been to our meeting, and quite interesting it was too. (You may have read the post below first! Sorry they are both long. Please stick with it. It makes sense in the end!))

What came out? Well the poor police sergeant took a bit of heat. He was regaled (well, harangued really) with story after story of incidents of a) inability to report crime to a human being (always the centralised voice mail) b) the lack of response when crime was successfully reported and c) the complete failure to do anything meaningful or effective to those known to be the culprits.

The Sergeant asked for us to help to provide evidence, to stand up and be counted, but then confirmed that photographing or videoing anti social behaviour or crime was of no help. He asks the village to provide a statement and "expose" themselves (metaphorically) to the culprits but then admits that nothing ever happens. The evidence won't stand up, the CPS won't touch it, and the ASBO kids remain free to wreek their revenge in the full knowledge that the cycle will repeat itself, whatever they do.

Buckden is full of people who would dearly love to provide evidence and deal with these people effectively. They know exactly who the ten or so young people are in the village who most need to be dealt with severely and effectively. They know exactly where and when things happen and in a great many cases they know exactly who is doing it.

But when they try to inform the police in real time via the "centralised answering service" (for which they must have the obligatory "targets for customer service") nobody answers; if they do get through nobody comes; and if they do come they prove to be impotent without the "right sort of evidence" to bring a prosecution. In such circumstances, it is easy to see why people give up.

Ultimately, the system, over which our lowly Sergeant has absolutely no control, does not want to pursue this sort of ASB or low level crime and harrassment. Under the current rules of evidence, it is simply too hard to achieve a conviction, so the resources afforded to trying are frankly wasted. They are forced to police by "targets" and "customer satisfaction levels". But we are not customers. We are citizens, just like them.

Unable to prosecute and punish, they try instead to tackle matters by deterrence and engagement. It is pretty much all that is left to them, but the vandalism, harrassment and verbal abuse is left unchecked. These people are mobile enough to avoid deterrence and are the last people to engage. As I eventually said, engagement is my problem, as Councillor. We can engage all we like, however, but only if he delivers the firmer policing that must accompany it.

What is missing is that level of policing that used to exist just underneath the legal radar. Real policing that used to know communities inside out and knew exactly who to go to when something happened. Moreover it was robust policing that knew exactly how far to go to make sure that their discipline was effective in keeping a tight lid on ASB. It made the odd mistake but on the whole it steered generations of kids through the joys of adolescence with a firm hand, with the support of the community (including their parents) but without criminalising them.

This policing existed right up until the mid Nineties, when a certain person deliberately commissioned a report to undermine the a national institution that would best reflect the dawn of a new style of government.

Macpherson delivered and the police were destroyed in a single day. Every community has paid the price ever since.

I was wrong, in my post below, to look look for a problem spanning twenty years and I was wrong to search among the youth and their parents. The problem lies in the government and their attitude, the Human Rights Act that protects the perpetrators of crime at the expense of the general public and a police force who are made to serve us with both arms and legs tied behind their backs.

Hug a hoodie??

2006-07-10T16:44:00.000Z

David Cameron has had his say on the issue of youthful behaviour and I have mine in a couple of hours - at a village meeting, organised to debate the all too continuous levels of anti social behaviour in the village. This is the jist of what I intend to say....

In the last 15 to 20 years things have gone terribly wrong. 20 years ago I was 15 and, along with other 15 year olds, we knew pretty much where we stood in the community. As I approach the moment when my own children need three hands to count their age, I discover that teenagers still know where they stand, but it is absolutely not the same place.

Why is it then that a generation of kids born in the mid to late Eighties, of parents themselves born in the early sixties, have turned the entire adult - child relationship on its head? Unless I am very much mistaken, adults now fear teenagers in the way teenagers used to fear adults.

Why is it that villages and communities like my own, allow their lives and desires to be dictated by the threat from teenagers. We can't put up cricket nets or renovate the 5 a side court because "the youth will trash it". We can't do anything in the village because the kids will wreck it, threaten us and ruin the village. Trouble is, we are having this meeting because the youth are wrecking things, threatening us and ruining the village anyway.

So the kids trash the village for want of something more constructive to do, but we can't give them anything more constructive in case they wreck it. How does a cycle of negativity like that start, but much more importantly, how does it end?

The clamour is for more and better policing. I agree wholeheartedly. I wish that policing had a more robust character. But police are just citizens empowered by citizens to uphold the law. They reflect society because they are society. So if we adults all sit in our homes refusing to confront the youth who threaten us or avoiding people and places for fear that they might pick on us, we can't expect the police to be much different. Community policing draws its confidence and character from the community it serves. Apathy and ambivalence will be met with apathy and ambivalence. If we look round for someone else to solve our problems, then so will they.

Anyway, let us for a moment imagine that we got our dream. A village Bobby dedicated night and day to the safety and good order of Buckden. Within weeks, we would have a person employed, to all intent and purpose, to chase the same group of youth round the village in a game of cat and mouse.

In that same time, you can guarantee that the first thing he or she will do is stand in front of the Parish and Village Hall committees and beg for us to do more for the kids. He will tell us that with more facilities and amenities and without more involvement from parents and elders alike, he stands no chance of guiding the teenagers into more constructive activity and preventing the younger ones from following the current example of their older brothers.

So the point is that which ever way up you turn this problem, the answer is for us, the grown ups, to be the adults in this situation. We have to be the ones to break the cycle, we have to be the ones who give first, we have to endure the initial contempt and failure but we have to persevere and prevent the next generation from following suit.

We have to dominate our village, support our police, provide the evidence and stand up and be counted. For whilst the youth think that we are not interested and not going to confront behaviour which they know to be unacceptable, they will not change and we continue to suffer.

I ask you all - we must do more to provide more for the youth. We must lead the way and set the example, so that those who sit on the side lines abbrogating their responsibilities feel unwelcome and out of place.

There are a great many kids who stay at home for fear that they will be tarred with the same brush. We need to get them out and into the village so that we all dominate the village and repel those who have nor respect, no care and no thought for others.

I have said before and I say again, we must do three things - encourage firmer policing, provide better amenities and educate the youngster in our primary school - and we must do them together.

Mad Maude really tries my patience

2006-06-30T08:12:00.000Z

It really is a bit much to go on TV, claim that the Liberals have fought a nasty personal campaign (which they did) that underlines why people are switched off politics, and then make a preposterously stupid statement that switches people off politics.

Apparently, when you lose 12,000 votes in a seat as safe as houses, it means that the voters were telling you to change more.

The Tories have lost 12,000 votes in Bromley in exactly the time that David Cameron and his change crusade has been in operation. Please don't insult our intelligence. The people of Bromley were clearly screaming for the change to stop rather than surge ahead. To claim as much makes you look dim and deceitful. I believe we must change but we must do so openly and honestly.

Look at the results and the real story is spelled out. A mere 2,500 of our loss voted elsewhere, but 9,500 people STAYED AT HOME.

The Lib Dem vote rose by only 1,600 votes. Pathetic. And yet, Maude's pathetic, unintelligent line is allowing Simon Hughes and his revolting party to get away with spinning bullshit all over the media. The was no Lib Dem surge, there was no Tory desertion to the Lib Dems.

Eric Forth was a huge right wing national and local political figure. Bob Neill is clearly an uninspiring replacement and a political badge collector. Bromley themselves failed to pick the right candidate for the job - and the job was to replace Eric.

Conservatives in Bromley are a typical Thatcherite fortress into which David Cameron's new style has not yet broken. They have simply told Cameron that they are not yet convinced. They are precisely the sort of Conservative voter who will only march behind Cameron when the polls consistently show that he is going to deliver power.

I had precisely this sort of rebellion in my local election back in May. At least 50 hard line Tories in the village did not vote. They believe they can stop the change and return us to purist but unpopular politics. They would rather lose than change.

Cameron does have to keep the change moving and prove that we can win without these recalcitrant voters. They need time. They will rejoin the party soon enough.

So from here on Maude, try this:

"The Lib Dems gained nothing. They are the nastiest party in this country by a mile.
"Voters in Bromley have enjoyed the representation of Eric Forth, one of our most energetic and vociferous Parliamentarians, for many years.
"Nearly 10,000 Conservative voters stayed at home yesterday. The clear message to us is that core Thatcherite heartlands are not yet convinced that the changes Cameron is introducing will deliver victory.
"We have seen this sort of behaviour before in the local elections, but we will continue to change because nationally the polls are showing that we are making huge progress.
"Our most loyal supporters are our most ardent critics, but we will win their support as we are winning the support of many, many others."

The Lib Dems get me pretty annoyed but it is our incompetent handling of them that really pisses me off.

Politics - Lesson One

2006-06-29T11:24:00.000Z

There are two types of politician and politics and over the past 25 years we have had them demonstrated as beautifully as could be imagined.

The first type is the one which says "This is who and what I am. This is what I stand for and what I will do. Vote for me and I will do it." Margaret Thatcher, most especially in her second and third terms, was the finest exponent of this form of politics and with devastating effect.

The second type is the one that says "I will be who and whatever you want me to be. I stand for what you tell me to stand for. Vote for me and I will do what you want me to do." Tony Blair and New Labour are the epitomy of this form of politics, and I would suggest with equally devatating effect.

The first form is based on confidence, leadership, clear thinking, vision and determination. It derives its mandate from the election result and delivers knowing that some elements of the process will be unpopular but necessary and will leave a lasting acid taste for some people.

The second form is based on popularity and the simple attainment of power for its own sake. Indeed, that's it! It has no leadership, vision or clear thinking. It can't. It is taking its orders on a daily basis and making policy on the basis of monthly ratings. It is being driven by events rather than driving them. It can be, and regularly is, pushed about in pursuit of popularity.

In both forms, things (and people) get broken in the drive to change and make things better, but in the first form they get fixed and improvement is tangible. In the second, the mess is left lying on the floor, like broken toys on Christmas Day.

The first form is almost invariably right of centre and the second is left.

The conclusion - well that's simple really. Time and again the electorate votes for the Government they need and then the one they want. They know the difference. Ten years of Blair has been the Government people wanted - liberal, largely uninterfering in their daily lives, all talk and no action.

The swing to the Conservatives indicates that people are getting ready to vote for the Government they need. It is becoming increasingly difficult to get to the sofa without standing on another broken mess on the floor. It is becoming less and less possible to get through our daily lives without feeling the consequences of a directionless and thoughtless government.

Thatcher is loved and hated in equal measure. She did things and she achieved. There were winners and losers (actually there were only winners. The losers just can't bring themselves to admit that they are better off now despite the hardship they suffered in the process). She made a difference.

Blair is about to realise that he is pretty much universally hated. He did lots, but achieved little and pissed most people off in the process. He will leave office with the state of politics at an all time low, deceit expected in all aspects of government (even the declaration of war), our constitution and institutions lying broken on the floor and our social fabric torn to shreds by a politically correct liberal philosophy that fundamentally misunderstood society.

Its nearly over.

Sign of the Times

2006-06-29T10:56:00.000Z

England is in the grip of a real crisis of confidence and appears to suffering a gargantuan sense of humour failure.

The Scots don't want you to win the World Cup and quite a number of them have said so when questioned in public. So what??

The rivalry and competition between the English and Scots has been the enduring cement in holding together the most effective and successful political union in history. The products of this rivalry are and have always been most evident on the battlefield. As an ex Army officer, formerly of a Scottish Regiment (kilts and all!), I know well that we excel as a nation because a little healthy competition drives us on to achieve bigger and better things. And yes, I unashamedly derive great satisfaction and pride in the history and achievements of this fabulous nation, especially as I have contributed in a small but direct way myself.

The trouble is that, over the past decade or so, competition has been all but stamped out of our society. It is an embarrassment to beat others, and woe betide if you appear to revel in it when it happens. An entire generation has grown up with no understanding of winning and losing and none of the experience of expressing those emotions. No wonder we fear hooliganism.

I am genuinely a mixture of all our national entities in birth, blood and upbringing. I am as British as they come and I am highly competitive.

I sympathtise with the Scots. They can't stand the thought of the English going on about it for a decade if you win!! They are miserable because the glory days of Souness and Dagleish are long gone. And they are your greatest rivals. They want you to lose.

So England, stop weeping and moaning and stop reading the Race Relations Act to each other and waving writs. Recover your sense of humour, recover your competitive spirit, pride and reputation and bloody well get on and win the thing. That'll shut them up (begrudgingly!).

3 months just has to be long enough

2006-06-22T23:21:00.000Z

Forgive me for courting controversy but I must nail my colours to the mast with regard to the debate on abortion.

I am in complete favour of a substantial reduction in the time limits for abortion. I believe 12 weeks is ideal but I would settle for 14 weeks if pressed.

My flexibility will give you some idea of my reasoning. I do believe that abortion should be legal and available to women. I do not believe that the timing of abortion should depend on science's ability to keep premature babies alive.

My position lies in the belief that it is time we presumed a desire for abortions at the earliest opportunity rather than leaving the door open as long as we dare. The statistics actually speak for themselves. Clearly women agree. Afterall 80% of all abortions in this country are sought and performed within 12 weeks of conception.

I simply believe that women should be asked to take the onset of pregnancy with the utmost seriousness. My wife and I have two children. We know that at the moment of realisation your instincts tell you how you feel. It does not take six months to decide if you want to keep it. It takes 6 seconds.

It is beyond my personal belief that a woman can reach 24 weeks without knowing she is pregnant, but I am told it really happens. Surely to God, however, that same woman knew that she had had penetrative unprotected sex. I am sorry to be so gratuitous, but that is my point. You have to notice when a man enters your body and it is at that point that you should take an interest in the physical consequences.

Even on grounds of genetic disease, I see no reason for an extended abortion time limit. When a baby is conceived and wanted, parental love must be unconditional. To place a law on statute that effectively allows parents to reserve judgement on that question undermines the human soul and should not be tolerated.

So stupidity is not a reason to prolong the time limits on abortion; nor is changing your mind; nor is science in any of its forms. That we have to have abortion available to us is sad but a reality to be dealt with. It is bad enough that some children have to put up with some awful parents who do want them, but no child should have to put up with those who really don't.

If my argument has a weakness, it is one of degree. I don't mind killing an indistinguishable collection of cells, but I object most thoroughly to killing a developed and recognisable human being. I would want time limits set to ensure that all abortions are chemical rather than surgical.

The fact of the matter is that no consideration is given in law to the unborn child. The time limit is currently set for the convenience of the mother and yet ironically, in circumstances where the full time limits are used, it is the mother who suffers most grievously.

The killing of the baby is the easy bit. At anything over 18 weeks, a woman must physically deliver the dead baby as part of the abortion process. At anything over 24 weeks, the foetus must be cut up inside the womb and then delivered by the woman piece by piece. It is truly hideous and made me cry when I first discovered it.

Aborting a child must be a truly debilitating and scarring experience for the mother and I am quite certain that in 90% of cases it absolutely is treated with unparalleled seriousness.

We must reduce the time limit to 3 months which is ample time to realise, decide and act. And if, for some genuine reason it is not, then an Appeals process can be implemented to hear the individual case and decide on its merit.

Legal abortion can and should exist, but not at the expense of the presumption of life.

Just look at yourself in the Mirror

2006-06-22T22:45:00.000Z

Boris Johnson has written well in today's Telegraph regarding trial by tabloid newspaper. Read it here. It reminded me however, of my fury at listening to the Jeremy Vine show a week or so ago as I drove round the M25.

The story under discussion was the failure to prosecute Kate Moss for her alleged drug taking. It was pointed out repeatedly that pictures of someone appearing to take drugs does not constitute evidence sufficient to prosecute.

Caller after caller rang in to condemn the police for not prosecuting anyway, after all "what more evidence do you need. She's guilty. Lock her up." What ever happened to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Bugger that - she hangs about with dope head Doherty, she's a junkie, string her up.

Everyone missed the point.

The pictures were acquired by and published in the Daily Mirror - that bastion of truth and honesty. The time delay between one and the next must have been in the region of 8 - 12 hours. So what did the police do during this time? Why did they not arrest her on suspision and take blood samples?

The police did nothing because they didn't know anything. The Daily Mirror put sales and headlines ahead of law and order. They conspired to withhold evidence and as such should take the entire blame for the failure to bring a successful prosecution.

The police saw the pictures over breakfast like everyone else by which time the subject is clean. All Kate has to do is say nothing, and she gets away with it, no matter how distasteful and objectionable that is to the good people of Radio 2's Vine-world.

I've said enough. Don't scream at the police, don't fume and call for the death penalty and stop insisting that Moss is some sort of role-model to your children. Try telling your children that she is an obsene, conceited, drug taking, bag of skin and bone. You are allowed to guide your own children, you know.

As for the Mirror, well they are making something of a name for themselves as the most irresponsible and arrogant of media outlets. Just ask Piers Morgan!

Tired old Tory

2006-06-21T12:59:00.000Z

David Cameron really riled the Prime Minister at PMQ's today. He poked and prodded on the issue of the Home Office and the PM got angry and very strident in his defence. He knows it's a gaping sore in his administration but he just can't keep his cool and brush the criticism off.

Sadly, all Cameron's good work was lost right at the end, when some tired old moron of a Tory MP (Mackay, I think) stood up and asked the mother of all stupid questions:

"Why has it taken the Prime Minister 9 years to realise that the Home Office needs an overhaul?"

The Prime Minister lost no time in accepting the invitation to turn the question on its head and draw attention to the obvious implication that the Home Office was in a shambolic state when they took it over in 1997. Under pressure he moved quickly to contrast them and us.

Under less pressure and from the comfort of my office chair, I answered the question for Mr Blair more succinctly ("A Tory who finally admits how shambolic things were when we swept you away in '97! Mr Cameron will be so pleased.") and with a number of contemptuous expletives directed at the questioner.

Might I remind any Tory MP's who might drift past this blog post, that PMQ's should be used to humiliate the other side, not your own.

It must be so disheartening to sit amongst such mindless people who have both the right and inclination to open their mouths without permission.

You looked like a complete prat, Mackay, and you undid everything that your Leader had just done. Thank god for the A List and the proper screening of Tory candidates. Perhaps we can prevent such brainlessness in future generations.

What would Ferguson have said at half time!!?

2006-06-15T20:22:00.000Z

I consider myself predominantly Scottish when it comes to sport, but unlike many of my compatriotes North of the Border I am supporting England unreservedly. At least, I am trying very hard to support them.

The trouble is they have made me sit through two REALLY dull matches so far and I suddenly found myself wanting T&T to score a goal just to liven things up.

It took us 83 mins to beat them. 83 of the most boring minutes I have lived through. "Slouch" (as we call him) was pretty awful. Please tell me that is not it. Please tell me there is more than that.

Enlgand aren't the only team who have so far failed to turn up to this competition. Brazil, France, Argentina, Italy all look pretty off colour to me.

When our World Class players are on fire, Lampard, Gerrard, Owen, Beckham, Terry, Rooney and Cole are a pleasure to watch. Strike the match, someone.

p.s. English football is more dominant in this World Cup than any other before it, in terms of numbers of players from our national leagues. I understand the Premiership has the highest number of players in Germany of any national league. Is anyone promoting that? Can you find the stats? Sadly not. A wasted opportunity.

2 + 2 = 3

2006-06-13T09:27:00.000Z

Today we have a Cabinet row between the Home Secretary and the Attorney General, over the (woefully soft) sentencing of a paedophile, which exposes the rot at the heart of New Labour.

The Government no longer knows which way is up. Their flagship policy direction has failed. The public are no longer willing to put up with it. Cabinet Ministers start clutching at straws and then attacking each other.

More than anything, it is their weak, ineffective and complacent attitude to the law for which this Government will be remembered most. "Education, Education, Education" and "24hrs to save the NHS" are positively funny compared to "Tough on crime. Tough on the causes of crime".

Blair and his gawping wife have always been wonderfully well endowed with general electability but the sting in their collective tail has been their premeditated assault on our Justice system. Their approach to Government as a whole and justice in particular has been so childishly rebellious.

The Human Rights Act is pernicious. If needed at all, such an Act should only need to exist in emerging democracies. The HRA was never needed in this country because we invented Common Law and there were no Human Rights at risk. The only consequences were correctly predicted at the time - the guilty and the conceited will abuse it and society will suffer.

Law abiding people desperately want someone to stand up and protect them from the explosion of crime and anti social behaviour that hides behind the real legacies of New Labour - Human Rights and political correctness.

The Conservatives must learn quickly that no social policy will ever work until crime and punishment are tackled without compromise and life means life.

Our new baby...

2006-06-12T23:33:00.000Z

...dog.

Thimba has arrived and is becoming right at home, thank you very much!

Time to recover, think, oh yes, and work!

2006-06-12T23:22:00.000Z

I have been remiss in neither posting nor explaining my absence over the past month.

To be honest, I was just a bit exhausted and jaded after my election and needed to recharge. It sounds a bit pathetic but even a local election really takes it out of you, physically and emotionally. I hope I will take it more in my stride in future.

Most importantly, however, I needed to repay some very understanding clients with a bit of work.

Right, that's enough grovelling - put me back in your favourites, add me to your list of Top Ten blogs and lets get on with it.

RPA (Rampant Prescottian Antics)

2006-06-12T22:35:00.000Z

You may be wondering where I have been and what can possibly have prompted my return.

Big Brother, the World Cup, our failing government? Well, to be fair they will all get their moment of attention in the coming days and weeks, but no it is this little ditty on the BBC news tonight that has really got me riled.

Farmers all across the land are facing bankruptcy because the Government's new Rural Payments Agency can't organise a piss up in a brewery. Now we discover why payments are a year behind schedule. Instead of working night and day to pay farmers, they are all following the new Prescott codes of office conduct and have in fact actually been trying to organise a piss up in brewery and prove us all wrong.

This Government hates the countryside and its occupants and they should hate it back. But don't worry, the woman who designed this fiasco is now designing our exit strategy from Iraq.

Thank you, Buckden

2006-05-05T00:56:00.000Z

Just before I go to bed, I thought I would post the results of the Buckden Ward election today.

Myself (Con) 745
Rainer (Lib Dem) 516
Labour 51

Many thanks to everyone in Buckden, Diddington and Southoe who voted for me today.
I will do my very best for everyone in the Ward.

I will give you a more detailed analysis later tomorrow (sorry, today!!)

Fooling none of the people, all of the time

2006-05-03T08:46:00.000Z

Got it in one, DT! Today's leader in the Telegraph hits the spot.

"Yet again, Tony Blair has made an error of taste by seeking to trivialise grave failings by his colleagues. "Nine days' headlines," he told a union conference yesterday, "should not obscure nine years of achievements." Today's headline - about the link between undeported dangerous criminals and the murder of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky - shows why he cannot play down these mistakes.

"Yesterday was, indeed, the ninth anniversary of his entry into Downing Street, immediately after a campaign in which he had pledged his administration would be "whiter than white, purer than pure" after years of "Tory sleaze". Enter Prescott, stage left: sic transit gloria mundi.

The burden of taxation has increased on everybody since then.
The public services for which this is paying have not markedly improved.
Our schools continue to turn out school-leavers who are functionally innumerate and illiterate after 11 years of full-time education.
Young people pass examinations at school - and even at some universities - only because the pass mark has been lowered to insulting levels.
The NHS is laying off doctors and nurses, and hospitals are threatened with closure.
Britain is in the grip of a crime wave.
The prisons are overflowing.
There are scant controls on immigration.
The last two points are linked in the 1,000 or so serious criminals at large in this country who should be facing deportation.
Devolution has broken up the United Kingdom, put new burdens on taxpayers, undermined the national identity and done nothing to improve government.
Our foreign policy is incoherent and impotent.
Our armed forces are underfunded and overstretched, and put in lethal danger in a war from which there is still no obvious exit.
As well as more than 100 servicemen and women, at least one distinguished public servant - Dr David Kelly - has died as a result of the Government's shabby handling of this issue.
Our farming industry is near to collapse, not least because the system of paying subsidies to our farmers is a shambles.
Many months of parliamentary time were wasted abolishing foxhunting, which continues anyway.
The House of Lords has suffered an incomplete reform, losing many of its best people, and is in the process of being turned into a rubber-stamp for the fiats of the executive.
A police investigation is under way to establish whether places in the Upper House have in effect been sold to willing customers to benefit Labour Party funds.
Attempts to reform local government have expensively failed.
Several cabinet ministers have already departed because of sexual or financial improprieties: more seem certain to follow.

"Nine years of achievement? Unfair headlines? We think not, Prime Minister."

Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgggggghhhhh

2006-05-03T08:11:00.000Z

The Home Office admitted last night that it had allowed Mustaf Jama, 25, a Somalian refugee, to remain despite being a persistent offender who had served several jail terms.

In this one sentence, I sum up the malaise at the core of this Government. The administration of this country, politicians and civil servants alike, can not and will not place its own citizens at the forefront of its thinking and action.

I heard Rita Chakrabati, head of the campaign group Liberty, on the BBC this morning. She claimed that it was morally wrong to deport people who may face torture or persecution.

On a scale of one to ten, how much more "morally wrong" is it for the British Government to expose British citizens to a known criminal threat. 10! That's how much.

10 days into a scandal that would have brought down any government in the days when we had integrity, the Home Secretary has the gall to demand "tougher deportation rules" as if he had just thought of it, and the supine media (BBC) conspire to give him coverage. (The PC Beshenivsky story is still buried in the general coverage).

This Government has not and does not place the security of its own people first. Many of us have known this for many years and have correctly understood the impact of the "human rights" culture on our society. It is finally being writ large for all to see.

This government does not put us first, so why should we put them first?

BBC take ultimate gamble

2006-05-02T21:27:00.000Z

If you visit the Times and Telegraph newspaper websites right now (10.29pm 02 May), you will find leading stories on todays development concerning the Somali suspected of the murder of PC Sharon Beschenivsky.

If you visit the BBC website, you will find no mention of it. Even on their News at 10 there coverage of the issue was decidedly tame and understated.

It is clear that there remain questions over both the precise involvement of the man in the murder and whether or not he features on the list of foreign criminals released without deportation and subsequently lost.

The BBC are taking a big gamble. Rarely are such stories cover so differently by the broadsheets and serious broadcast media.

What really made me write this post, however, was the inference given in their TV news report, that no-one could ever, under any circumstances be considered for deportation to Somalia, as their human rights would be compromised.

I think I can be clear in my post when I say that I believe anyone foreign national convicted and incarcerated in the United Kingdom has betrayed the trust afforded them and should be deported immediately and without concern for their security beyond our borders.

If this man, who served a sentence for robbery and was, allegedly, not considered for deportation, went on to kill a British policewoman, time will be up for Clarke and Blair and the BBC will have made an horrific mistake.

The real fall-out from this story will be felt in the polling stations on Thursday in Bradford, the scene of the killing, and in the number of votes cast for the BNP.

On the Doorstep

2006-05-02T11:20:00.000Z

I had some wonderful help canvassing over the weekend from fellow blogger, Ellie Seymour.
She has posted her thoughts here, and once again Ellie - many thanks.

The campaign once again proves to be challenging and very enjoyable. Buckden demands much from its candidates and doesn't part with its vote without good reason. I hope that my positive message and desire to do something constructive with and for the teenage group is coming across well.

I will post an eve of poll message tomorrow.

The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze

2006-05-02T11:11:00.000Z

I host a link here to a fabulous idea for a 9th Birthday present for New Labour, conceived and created by Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes.
Iain recently posted a list of the 50 greatest Labour scandals and obviously got thinking!
I am hoping that Iain will let me write the summary of the David Kelly scandal, since I was the press office who organised the entire media operation for the Hutton Inquiry.
We will see.
Well done guys.

Miscellaneous

2006-05-02T10:47:00.000Z

I apologise for these exteded periods of absence. I am flat out campaigning for election on Thursday and this leaves little time for blogging. I have time for just a few brief mentions.

Prescott.
I am unable to conjure any sympathy for this man. He led the charge against Tory sleaze in the 90's and finally the depths of his hypocrisy unravel. I care not whether he goes or stays. In fact on balance I would rather he remained in office so that we are constantly reminded of the con act we keep falling for.

Clarke.
I am slightly sorry for Clarke. This problem is actually Blunkett's fault. He was the last Home Secretary and wholly responsible for sowing the seeds of this problem. He tenure at the Home Office has gone down in legend as being one of the most self-serving and headline driven periods of control ever seen.
Understandably, when a problem like this hits you broadside, anyone would spend a short time just seeing what options and solutions are available. I think that Clarke will go but sadly no one man is responsible for a catastrophe like this. It is indicative of this entire Government and actually, it is Blair who must ultimately pay.
Bad luck, Charles, you stand alone in the number of New Labour Ministers that I like.

Defence.
Very briefly. This story today about RAF pilots being refused fuel tank foam to prevent explosions contrasts beautifully with an observation my wife made the other evening.
We were watching Sharpe or something, when during the adverts we are given information of an Army expedition to Everest and the website through which you can watch the climb etc.
"Where did the budget for all that come from?" she asked. "How much is all that costing?"
Anyway, for the avoidance of doubt, the MOD clearly prefers spending money sending its personnel climbing and advertising on prime time TV, rather than on protecting its personnel properly on operations.
I wish someone would ask a PQ in the House and find out how much money is being spent on this rubbish.

Chickens...home...roost

2006-04-26T09:51:00.000Z

I wonder if you can guess who said these words:

"They are up to their necks in sleaze. Can you believe that this lot is in charge? Morality is measured in more than just money. It's about right and wrong. We are a party of principle. We will earn the trust of the British people. We've had enough lies. Enough sleaze."

That's right - John Prescott in his 1996 Labour Conference speech. The stench of hyprocrisy is overpowering and if this is another of those dreadful New Labour attempts to drown out their own worse news (Charles Clarke and the vanishing criminals), it will not work.

It is only inevitable that they should evolve from finding opportunities to "bury bad news" to actually doing the burying.

What else can the Home Office possibly be for?

2006-04-25T21:57:00.000Z

This government has been vain, incompetent, deceitful, pernicious, sleazy and shallow but never have we seen quite such a scandal define EVERYTHING that is wrong.

That 1023 foreign criminals were permitted access to this country highlights the Government's astonishing disregard for the security of our borders.

That they will inevitably have committed crime in this country highlights the government's neutering of our police force.

That they passed through our courts and received recommendations for deportation without action highlights our Government's lax and toothless legal system.

And that they have since been released to roam our streets and continue to perpetrate crime says quite literally everything you need to know about the priorities of our Government. You, the honest, decent, law abiding, hard working, community minded "citizen" come a very poor last.

The Home Office, and its various agencies, exists only to protect society from those who would do it harm. In this one incident, every single aspect of its purpose has unambiguously failed.

I am sorry that dear old Charles Clarke must carry the can, but carry it he must. I hope he feels free to take with him the Permanent Secretary, and any number of staggeringly incompetent civil servants, who are more directly responsible for this disgrace, and who otherwise will collect a very healthy tax funded pension for their indescribably paultry efforts.

No doubt we will discover that at the heart of this outrage lies the Human Rights Act, the very same Act that was put on the statute books by those now wriggling so hard and which has left us at the mercy of those most offensive to civil society.

I continue to despise this Government.

10 good reasons to vote...for me

2006-04-19T11:09:00.000Z

My final leaflet has gone to the printers today and will be distributed next week in the run up to polling day.
Here is a sneak preview! Click on the image to enlarge.

YOUTH. Richard believes that our communities and the police must work together confidently to prevent and solve the problems of anti social behaviour. Preventing dereliction and providing better youth and community facilities is crucial to that process. Richard thinks that we can achieve here in Buckden (left) what Catworth (right) has achieved. He has presented an outline plan to the VHT and has offered to do the work.

ROADS. Richard understands that the A1 has a strong dominance on many of our lives. Highways is mainly a County Council matter but he especially wants to help our County Councillor and the residents of Diddington and Southoe achieve the necessary alterations to their A1 junctions so that they are safe both for them and for all users of this essential road. He is also already helping to reduce the problems of speeding along the length of Mill Road.

PLANNING. Richard knows how strongly how people feel about planning matters, such as protecting the village envelope and providing affordable housing. Richard believes that if development is wanted and needed, it must be properly designed, communicated and consulted, must offer real benefits to the village and must be fully planned to ensure that supporting infrastructure and local services are accounted for.

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T09:59:00.000Z

We're off to spend the day with my 88 yr old grandmother in Oxford.
I shall be back on the campaign and blogging trail on Tues.

Conservatives blog

2006-04-12T10:22:00.000Z

I am delighted to host a link to the Inaugural Conservative Movement Awards which have been launched by Tim Montgomerie, Editor of Conservative Home.

More generally Tim and Conservative Home are to be recommended and congratulated for their ambition in leading the use of blogs and the net to spread valuable political debate. The other parties trail pathetically in his wake.

His kinda people

2006-04-10T09:54:00.000Z

Hands up who'd like Ken Livingstone to stay in Beijing?

In Touch (Side Two)

2006-04-10T09:50:00.000Z

In Touch (Side One)

2006-04-10T09:44:00.000Z

My latest campaign leaflet has been delivered in my Ward (almost). Click on the image to enlarge and read.

Were all doomed!! Still!

2006-04-09T09:09:00.000Z

Sorry to continue my environmental theme (albeit my son Jasper has no problems - we talk endlessly about all the things we should be doing) but I have just read this article in the Telegraph and needed to comment. To be honest I am getting as sick of the constant anti-environmental articles in the Telegraph as the Diana stories in the Express, but that is another matter.

The article is all about the perfectly reasonable belief that in fact global warming and cooling is perfectly natural and has been going on for years. All very proper and correct. The author's conclusion is that "global warming" is probably a politically manufactured catastrophe created for some dodgy purpose.

The most peculiar thing about this article is that nowhere does it mention the words "ozone layer". Not once does it examine the impact of the damage CO2 emissions HAVE done to this crucial protection. I'll come back to that.

At this point, I draw comparisons with the Iraq War. There were perfectly good reasons for going to war and toppling Saddam but to the politicians promoting the cause, they just didn't amount to enough. So they manufactured the whole WMD idea to frighten us out of our socks.
I never believed it for a moment, and consequently hate the fact that we went to war on that basis. Odd though it may seem, I would have prefered to have known that UK forces were being used in a raid solely to topple Saddam's regime. After all attacking your own people with mustard gas is good enough reason in my book to exclude you from government. [And if Mugabe kills any more of his countrymen, black or white, I would be happy to see him removed too.]

Anyway, the point is this. Global warming may well be a false argument harnessed by Govenments across the world to galvanise action. But its loss as an argument should do nothing to dampen desire for a green revolution. There are still good enough reasons to do it.

First, the fact that there are now massive holes in the protective ozone screen above us should be as horrifying as any prospect of global warming. Exposure to the damaging aspects of the sun's energy spells a painful death for any who ignore it. How much of an increase in skin cancer deaths do we accept before we take notice? When I was a child, I never bought or wore sun cream unless we were going abroad. Now I burn badly if I fail to wear it whilst mowing the lawn in my own garden.

Then of course there is the real reason we should be doing something green. The black stuff IS GOING TO RUN OUT. Opinions vary over exactly when. Some say we have 30 years supply left at current usage, others say 50. Nowhere can I find a serious prediction of over 60 years. I'm only 35. This means that it is going to happen in my lifetime (that is if the ozone impact doesn't get me first.)

As I said in my last post, just contemplate for a moment the impact to your life if the tap runs dry right this very second. It doesn't bear thinking about. We would effectively return to Victorian times in a trice. Exactly why is it so ridiculous to start preparing for the post oil period? Why should anyone need any more excuse than that to make a start on finding the range of alternatives needed to replace black gold?

Oh and don't just shout Nuclear at me. You may wonder just how violent the world is going to get when we start competing for those last 5 million barrels of oil. How delightful it will be to replace those battles with ones concerning the right to have nuclear energy, such as we are seeing in Iran today.

It will be cheaper by far, in the long run, to invest in becoming energy self sufficient than it will be to pump billions into the military expeditions required to cling on to the supply routes for oil.

Nearly there. Once more please, Sir.

2006-04-06T13:39:00.000Z

I do apologise but they don't like your answer - can you try again please.

Ever such a cunning ruse by Mr Pierre Mandelson.

This "keep voting till you get it right" approach to the EU Constitution is the very thing to get people like me jumping up and down and demanding that the Tories commit to pulling us out of Europe for good.

It is Cameron's and the Tories' weak spot you see and, oh look, they are tweaking our nipples and provoking in-fighting just ahead of local elections.

Walk away, boys and girls, he's not worth it!

No time to give up, Iain. Time to get revolutionary.

2006-04-05T16:37:00.000Z

I am grateful indeed for the time Iain Dale spent reading and commenting on my renewable energy post, but the result is simply to drive me on to make the case more strongly.

Iain is partly right. We have thrown an amount of money at the problem – but that’s all we’ve done, and like so many other problems this Govt has tackled, throwing money DOESN’T WORK. What the Govt have not done is encourage a market that makes sense of that investment and drives it on to advance the technology until it becomes universal.

Let’s put to rest Iain’s primary argument – that wind power cannot make any impact on our CO2 emissions. The fact of the matter is simple, if I place two houses side by side, one fuelled by domestic oil and the other by a domestic wind turbine, funnily enough the wind powered house WILL EMIT LESS CO2.

If I have two villages and one is powered by the oil and coal fired national grid and the other is powered by a neatly concealed biomass plant, the renewable energy village WILL EMIT LESS CO2.

If I have two cars sitting side by side and one is fuelled by petrol and the other by bio-diesel or hydrogen fuel, the renewable energy powered car WILL EMIT LESS CO2.

These are irrefutable facts. The issue is simply about scale.

The question we must ask, and this is where Iain and I part company, is not ‘Will the technology work?’ (Iain) But ‘How do we make the technology work?’ (Richard). Iain argues that you cannot achieve the scale to make the contribution worthwhile, but I argue that the contribution is undeniable and that we haven’t even tried to achieve the scale.

I’m picking on Iain a bit here, but his attitude is defeatist and arrogant. He says we have tried, it didn’t work, so we’ll stop and give up. It is rather like suggesting that when the first bloke built a computer the size of a house, everyone thought “Give it up mate, that’ll never work. It costs too much and look, it’s huge.” Or when Clive Sinclair brought out his fabulous ZX Spectrum which could just about make a small blob bounce across the screen, everyone thought “This’ll never catch on. What are these things ever going to do for us?” The initial investments and outlays are comparable. The difference is that the market place dragged computers forward.

So how do we get the renewable energy off the ground (and renewable energy does not simply equal wind):

1. Start with cars. The vast majority of drivers would actively and immediately seek to change their cars if they saw biodiesel for sale beside their unleaded for 15p a litre. The Govt must just get it there and the market will start lifting. The revenue raised by those prepared to take the hit in their car's performance will drive the technology forward to create cars that perform better. There is a 'way', you just the need the economically driven 'will'.

2. Next our houses. If big wind turbines were accompanied by free power for those in their wake, opposition would evaporate thus allowing more to be built and more power to be generated. Then we would start to make wind power a net contributor. People would excuse them willingly and the phrase “they’re much better than those hideous pylon lines” would spring into common parlance.

3. Biomass energy stations can be introduced to the mix so easily and be discretely placed on the outskirts of most small towns and landscaped the same way as waste treatment plants for example. Agriculture would get a great boost by having an energy market to feed and again those receiving such renewable energy would have it at a very much reduced rate.

4. Once you’ve started this process, the money will start to feed back and drive the technology towards smaller domestic wind turbines, which can become no more or less a part of our lives than our satellite dishes. It is quite possible that a few big turbines would be replaced by lots of smaller ones over time. Big turbines could have 10 year licenses to ensure that their existence was continually questioned and reviewed. They can be taken down as well, you know!

The Govt has to incentive and penalize. You reduce the cost of renewable energy so that it becomes irresistible (and everyone has their price) and you raise the cost of fossil fuels so that they are painful. Faced with the choice of wiping 2/3rds off my combined car and home fuel bills or increasing it by 2/3rds – well I know what I and millions of other people are doing.

Indeed, none of this is costed and sure it will cost money. I do however point out that any subsidising you make to get the market off the ground can be weaned out within 10 years. So lets think, spend billions on a pointless and illegal war designed to increase our dependence on oil or spend billions replacing oil? Spend billions giving me a second passport, or spend billions subsidising renewable energy and reducing my living costs? It’s a toughie!

Last brief point. Many finally argue that our efforts are pointless whilst the rest of the world belch out fumes in pursuit of either world dominance (USA) or national development (China). Sure, in 2006 our efforts would be entirely self serving and fairly inconsequential on a global scale. But the advances in technology made here serving our market would be very quickly exported to these developing and developed countries once they realised how bloody simple it all is and how much cost can be wiped off the price of development. China and India are not stupid, they just can’t afford to be clean in their perfectly acceptable race to catch us up industrially. If we do the donkey work and bring the technology into a favourable price bracket they will happily install it. Oh and guess who gets the contracts – that right, us.

Please lets stop being so defeatist. Going renewable will be no greater a step that covering our beautiful landscapes in 100ft steel pylons and in fact can probably be done much more sympathetically.

Just remember – oil will run out one day soon (probably within the next 100 years, i.e. probably within my children’s lifetime). This is also an irrefutable fact. That fact that we will almost certainly fight the 3rd World War over the final supplies is incidental.

Just contemplate for one brief moment what actual impact to your daily life would occur if the oil tap were to dry up RIGHT NOW. This is not the moment to give up – it is the moment to become revolutionary.

Life begins at 40.

2006-04-05T09:54:00.000Z

Many congratulations to my darling wife, Lara, on making to it to 40. It is an amazing achievement considering all she has been through. The privations of sanctions during her childhood in South Africa, a mother who persuaded her away from her chosen career route, meeting me and falling in love, tolerating the Army and then bringing two small boys into the world and meeting their every need (and mine) without complaint (sort of) and with an eternal stamina and love.

You are probably wondering by now what on earth I talking about. That is certainly no way to greet you wife’s 40th birthday. But of course, I’m not.

The 40 I refer to is the magic number of deliveries which must be reached before she can qualify as a fully trained midwife. The end of a long four years study, determinedly commenced, determinedly maintained and excellently fulfilled, draws near.

Watching someone you love find their natural professional home is a pleasure and a joy. She has taken to it so easily and works so hard to do it as perfectly as she can. She does 10 hours on her feet without so much as a cup of tea on some days but still comes home happy and fulfilled.

There is a little less time for us boys now, but we are all hugely proud of what she is achieving and are in awe of the determination with which she has done it. Well done, sweetheart.

"Be wicked, act shamelessly.”

2006-04-05T09:52:00.000Z

Thus words from the Liberal Democrat electioneering handbook of 2003.

Well they have followed their own advice in producing a new 2006 version which the Tories have today condemned. Liberal Democrats in local elections in 2006 are urged to:

“…proceed pied piper like round the Estate doling out badges and sweeties and leaflets.”

Now I am not averse to using my own children to help deliver leaflets but the whole concept of rounding up strange children on a housing estate and bribing them to help you is vile. It is possibly at bit much to suggest that it is deliberately leading children astray but it is hardly responsible to advocate luring children into activity on the basis of accepting sweets from a stranger. At any rate, I suspect your going to need a darn sight more than toffees to persuade today’s kids to do anything these days!

The Lib Dems take being out of touch into an art form!

“Fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists.”

2006-04-05T09:51:00.000Z

The Tories reserve their strongest words of the day for UKIP, the self appointed “respectable” party of the hard right. These are people who have singularly resisted the various charms of successive Tory leaders to urge the Party into being a little more reasonable and realistic. They have been given a real boost by the advent of David Cameron who is testing resolve like no other. They have been described by some as “the BNP for the Posh”.

UKIP have clearly concluded that if they, UKIP, can make enough noise and threaten the Tories enough electorally, they, The Tories, will come rushing back to the Right and start banging all those offensive drums again.

Thankfully we have joined the rest of the population in 2006 and realise that leading the country today requires rather more than lighting daily candles at Lady Thatcher’s alter, rebuilding the gun emplacements around the coast of East Anglia and deporting anyone we don’t like. Leading Britain today means understanding and responding to Britain as it is today. It is about time these people understood that Britain is as it is today because Thatcherism happened, not because Thatcherism stopped.

The great irony is, of course, that by doing what they are doing, they are actually advancing the very things they most want to prevent, EU integration, ID cards, unfettered immigration etc. If UKIP had just voted Tory at the last election, New Labour would have 30 fewer seats and an unmanageable majority of just 21 and the landscape would be looking very different. Not an ounce of political sense between them. Just those most attractive of qualities – belligerence and dogmatism.

Sadly however, Cameron was misguided to mock them in this way. It’s been tried before and it didn’t work then. The Party has a little more changing to do before those particular stones make it out of our glasshouse without the sound of shattering.

It's not rocket science

2006-03-29T00:22:00.000Z

Something puzzles me.

Way back when in “olde” times, did the marauding masses troop belligerently to the planning office to object when the honourable representatives of our good Lord started whacking up 100ft church steeples? Did they moan about the terrible blight on the landscape? Did they claim that birds would fly straight into them and die in a terrible mess of bells and ropes?

When, a little later in the development of the world, people started to create horrid chimneys protruding from their houses, did the masses rise up and again storm the planning offices to complain about the offensiveness of such filthy protrusions? Did they argue that they looked awful in their nice village conservation areas? Did they complain about how much pollution was being pumped into the atmosphere? Did they claim that England’s green and pleasant land would be ruined forever?

And even later in our journey to greatness – have we summoned the harbingers of doom to bring death and destruction on those who erect TV aerials on their homes, or worse still, Satellite dishes? Have we placed in stocks those who erect electricity pylons or massive TV masts in our beauty spots? Where were the Kite Flying lobby groups back then to stir up mass hysteria over the number of children who would be fried by the evil pylons?

The answer of course is a thumping great NO!

The fact of the matter is that all of the examples I cite (apart from church steeples) have been accepted into our hearts because they make our lives easier and better. They deliver energy and entertainment into our homes and we like that – no matter the cost.

So why, oh why do we have protest groups springing up left, right and centre to prevent the widespread adoption of wind power and other renewable energies to fuel our homes?

Why should wind turbines be seen as any more of a nuisance to beauty than the ubiquitous church steeple or electricity pylon? Why should domestic turbines be seen as any more protruding and offensive than a satellite dish or a chimney? For in all cases, the wind turbine brings good to our environment and with practically none of the costs of our current energy sources.

For centuries, our chimneys enabled us to bring energy into our homes for heating and cooking. Wind turbines would do the same only without the pollution. Electricity pylons bring energy from far away cutting swathes through our woods and pastures. A wind turbine brings energy from 30ft above your head for free.

We complain endlessly that our consumption of fossil fuels endangers our environment through the effects of global warming, yet we object to turbines (big and small) because they don’t look very nice and they will spoil our views. It’s the hypocrisy that gets me, you see. How can we justify pylons and all manner of energy production that harms our planet and then object to harnessing wind at no relative cost to either ourselves or our beloved countryside.

So what’s the solution?

Well if I were David Cameron, I would be promising to divert all the wads of cash currently heading to wards ID cards and a new generation of nuclear power stations, and I would commence the biggest community wind and solar energy creation and delivery programme this country has seen since the national grid.

Localised community energy is the way forward. Schemes combining the resources of wind, solar and biomass that would serve each communities needs. A village might have domestic turbines and solar panels only. A town might need that and a couple of big turbines and perhaps a small biomass generator as well.

Cities are a bigger challenge, but again please tell me how wind turbines dotted around our metropolitan areas makes them any less beautiful than they are already? High rise flats and tower blocks contribute sod all, but we are happy enough with them.

For a modicum of effort, you could have most of rural England weaned off the grid pretty quickly and the rest would follow in quick time. There is a space just 50ft above our heads that goes completely to waste and yet which could bring considerably benefit to our lives if only we used it properly.

And here’s how you sell it – you tell people that if they accept these renewable energy supplies in their communities, they can have the energy FOR FREE. That’s right. No more electricity or gas bills, no more heating oil bills, no more red letters. Just energy delivered for free from the twirly thing above your house and those panels stuck to your roof. I would commit tax payers money to changing the way we produce and deliver the energy that makes our lives so lovely and easy.

I have to come out and say it – our objections to renewable energy power are spurious, hypocritical and incredulous. How can we possibly argue any longer that energy derived from burning irreplaceable fossil fuels & pumping CO2 into the atmosphere and then delivered through a network of hideously unsightly pylons is better than energy derived from a constant source of wind, sun and bio-waste that causes no harm to anything and is delivered from a distance of 30ft.

Purer than pure update

2006-03-21T12:58:00.000Z

No sooner than I post my thoughts, do I discover that my own Party is advocating state funded political parties. I am incandescent with rage.

I am supporter of Cameron but his judgement here has been flawed. Surely the Tories can see that this is a scandal cooked up by Brown to wound Blair. Nobody invited us to this party. Shut up and get on with something more constructive like stopping the regionalisation of our police forces or stopping more young men from murdering young girls whilst on probation.

If you are caught with your finger in the till but avoid detection by standing behind someone very large - surely to god, you keep quiet. Not our boys, though.

Worse than their misjudgement, however, is their grasp at the taxpayers millions. Labour believes that the State is the answer to the ills of the world - Conservatives DO NOT.

[How fascinating today's NEC inquiry has been. Brown clearly thought the flames were dying down before they had done enough damage. So he arranges for some parrafin to be applied!!]

Aqualung

2006-03-21T12:45:00.000Z

The UK swimmers have been a real inspiration all week. The Commonwealth does not always provide genuine world class competition, but in a pool filled with Australians and South Africans it really is a test of metal.
A performance that brings a combined medal haul of 38, of which 15 gold, is very much something to be excited by. The depth of talent is phenomenal. No reliance on the individual dominantion of a Thorpe or Hackett for us. Some 16 or so different people won those medals.
Well done to you all.

I would love to know, based entirely on times, how many of those medals would have converted to success at the last Olympics. But that is hardly the point.

The real question is how many of these medals will convert into success at the next Olympics? Just imagine if we won 38 medals in the pool in Beijing.

So please tell me that these men and women are coming home to a national swimming academy, where they will be free to develop stronger and feed from each others success and confidence. Please tell me that we have the commitment to give them the support they need to step up from empire champions to Olympians.

Only time will tell, but we'll all be watching.

What - the whole world?

2006-03-21T12:40:00.000Z

I have just discovered, late in life, that the UK number one single on the day of my birth was "Joy to the World". Indeed!!
Click here to see how appropriately your arrival was greeted.

Purer than pure. Whiter than white.

2006-03-20T17:54:00.000Z

What disgusts me about this Government most is a the way they break something and then constantly get away with taking credit for pretending that they have fixed it.

The current political loan debacle (not scandal) is just the latest in the incidence of political vandalism rife in New Labour and of this recovery phenomenon for which I have yet to find a suitable name.

The Prime Minister has deliberately flouted the rules to allow rich men to fund his craving for power. That it has all been done under cover makes the stench of sleaze all the more pungent but of course the Government fires off flares to defect attention from that act by claiming that the issue is actually about party funding. It is nothing of the sort. It is about men in power committing fraud on a monumental scale.

Peerages have been bought for decades, its just the level of subtlety that has changed. Indeed the entire hereditary House of Lords was created on the basis of who did what favours for the King or Queen of the day.

Under no circumstances whatsoever must this Government be allowed to assert that the answer is state funded politics. No Party has the right to exist and taxes must NEVER be raised or used to funds political parties. That constitutes a tax on the very system which draws such cynicism and derision. Parties should exist because people want them to and are prepared to fund them. I would go to jail rather than pay tax to fund political parties whose existence I deplore.

[More evidence that Blair is near the end - Brown's fingerprints are all over the revealing of this. He knew this was all going to come to light eventually and he has forced it out before he takes the reigns. See how the man at the heart of all Labour's election campaigns stays unfeasably silent. See how his agents in the Party make amazing statements that FOURTEEN MILLION POUNDS slips through the books without anyone knowing. Its incredulous.]

The real solution comes in two parts.

First we must remove all possible connection between Party funding and the Legislature. This is very simple - the House of Lords must become an elected chamber. Then rich people can throw as much money at politics as they like but entry to the Lords will still require them to do a little more. It is symbolic of the situation we are in that Blair is the totem of opposition to this solution.

The second part requires an understanding of when and how sleaze takes hold. In almost all cases money starts to take hold when an administration starts to cling to power. Politicians on the way out are more corruptable. They have nothing to lose and only a little time to make gains.

The answer therefore is to copy the ONE good thing about the American system, and place a constitutional cap on the length of time any one person spends at 10 Downing Street. This step alone would prevent the sort of behaviour that has marred British politics during my lifetime and might even restore faith in the value of elections.

For the avoidance of doubt - I despise Blair with every ounce of my body.