Clegg on thin ice with ID card claim

The leadership battle for the Lib Dems just got a little more interesting. But just a little.

Nick Clegg has taken a bold step in claiming that he will defy the law and encourage others to do likewise. I am deeply opposed to ID cards on a number of levels and I will do everything that I can to ensure that they never come into force.

But.

You can't just choose to ignore laws, and elected representatives cannot incite people to do so. Where would this end? Ignoring laws on speeding? Paying tax? Murder?

We have a democratic system, not perfect I know, but it does exist. The results of legislation passed within that system have to be adhered to. If these cards are brought in the answer will be to elect another government and make sure that they scrap them.

The Lib Dems are famous for their hollow gesture politics but this statement is a big step too far and shows that Clegg is totally unsuitable to lead a political party, even the Lib Dems.

Election horror

Gove on Brown

I snuck off for an early lunch today to listen to Michael Gove talk about Gordon Brown. I was very interested to see how this speech would pan out, it was clearly going to be a very personal "attack" on the PM and these can sometimes go down very badly.

The attack on Brown was devastating, not because of it's ferocity or aggression, indeed Gove's delivery was very calm, scholarly even. The speech was a body Blow to brown because it was so deeply based in analysis and fact.

Rather than just throw out insults, Gove focused in on why Brown centralises and the effect it has on the public services. He spoke about Brown's lack of trust and his unwillingness to reach outside of his core team despite the claims of "big tent" politics.

At over 6,000 words it was no shallow overview it was a detailed dissection of the failings of the current administration. You can read the full speech here.

England, Scotland and voting

If you set fire to your house, you can't blame the firemen for getting your carpet wet when the try to put it out.

Labour's attempts to divide and conquer have left us with an appalling political mish-mash. Our relationship with Scotland is becoming increasingly strained, somehow both the Scots and the English feel hard done by and the sibling rivalry could ultimately become attempted fratricide.

All these things were predicted and warnings were given yet Brown and Blair ploughed on regardless, putting party political advantage ahead of political integrity, no doubt. Rather than ring fence their Celtic political advantage Labour gave a huge boost to the Scottish and Welsh nationalists and penalised the English in the process.

It is not enough to bury your head in the sand, as Labour are doing, and just hoping it will all sort itself out. Ultimately the job of sorting out this mess will fall to the Conservatives. We are a unionist party and the underlying principle will always be to keep the UK together.

To have Labour accuse us of "risking the Union" would be laughable if it were not so insulting. We do not have a time machine, we cannot undo devolution, but we can look at ways of ensuring that all parts of the UK get a fair deal. It will probably not be a neat, tidy or easy solution but it will need to be found.

As I have said before, when it comes to sorting out the post devolution relationship, "I wouldn't start from here!"

Too many people or too few houses?

Have a look at this article on the BBC about housing pressure.

I'm genuinely interested on your views about this because it looks as though it could be the issue of the next decade.

Do we have too many people? Too few houses? Enough room but an unwillingness to build?

Is this some kind of sick joke?

Wounded British soldiers to be deported? I say British soldiers because, although they were born overseas, they have fought under the flag of the British Army and in my mind that is more than enough of an indication of their dedication to this country.

I get very hot under the collar when I hear that people who have shown the most dedication and loyalty to the UK get shafted by the system. Why play fair when it is so much easier to abuse the system?

The Home office is "looking into the situation", why does it take this news hitting the headlines for them to look into it?

Scotland as a political football?

I know that, as a Conservative, I have to be a little careful about commenting on Scotland and Scottish issues. We didn't win many friends rolling the poll tax out in Scotland.

But.

Labour is making a worse mistake in the way that it is treating the Scottish. The damning report on the Scottish elections show the Labour party at its worst, manipulative, uncaring about true democracy and willing to take Scottish votes for granted. This is a dangerous move because it is undermining the good will that Labour have built up in defending a deeply unfair funding formula.

At this point I have to declare an interest. I love Scotland and I love the Scots. That said even I am starting to become resentful of the abuse of funds perpetuated by Labour under the Barnett Formula.

I do not blame the Scottish executive for wanting to push things like free prescriptions, free care for the elderly, better drugs on the NHS etc. But all these things cost money and that money comes in large part from English tax payers.

The situation is made worse by the imbalance in political power brought about by a badly thought through devolution plan.

Brown is pissing off the Scots by taking them for granted and pissing off the English by..... well taking them for granted too.

Young Nigerian shows some get up and go!

Have you ever wanted to impress your friends by turning up at an event in a helicopter? No, me neither, but some people do.

This young lad from Nigeria has used scrap car parts, and crash salvage to build his own helicopter!!!!!!! Would you fly in it? No me neither.

What a crap weekend of sport!

I'm not a happy bunny, not by a long chalk.

Second in the rugby, second in F1. The only consolation is fact that we have done better that anyone expected at the start of their respective campaigns.

Huge congratulations to Lewis Hamilton who will clearly be the man to beat next season.

World cup final

I've just finished watching the world cup final with the Freddy and Rupert. Rupert made it to the five minute point before falling asleep Freddy made it to the middle of the second half.

In the end the Boks deserved it, they always looked the more dangerous. If the England try in the corner had been given it could have been a very different ending but ultimately who would have believed that we could have provided such a competitive opposition after the result against South Africa last month?

Well done to South Africa who deserve the win but a huge well done to England for putting the early match behind them and taking the fight to the Springboks.

Crime & Antisocial behaviour in Sidcup

Almost half the lefties think Gordon will lose the election

Just in case you can't see the words, it says:

Online Poll

Last week's question was;
Will Gordon Brown be PM after the next election?
You said:
Yes: 53%
No: 47%

You would have thought that they could have drummed up a little more confidence in the Great Leader.

Knocked off the bike

Well, ten months of cycling to work and today saw my first "proper" accident. It wasn't even a bendy bus (I'm very off message) but it was a white van.

I was heading to work this morning and had passed the Oval coming towards the Vauxhall one way system. This is always the most dangerous section of the journey and the strange mish-mash of on-road and on-pavement cycle lanes is worse than useless.

As I turned left into the system a van overtook me and cut the corner rather tightly, he may have been watching Lewis Hamilton steering the racing line and tried to emulate him! The result was that I suddenly had no road to ride on. Sharp tug on the brakes followed by a gentle clip by the van and then a close inspection of the road.

A passer by took down the name of the company that owned the van and I called them once I got to work. I was ready for a bit of righteous anger but the guy was so sincere in his apology and desire to "see me right" that it all washed away.

I won't embarrass the company by naming them because the MD and the driver of the van were both clearly good at heart and neither I or the bike suffered any major damage. I'm sure the driver will be that bit more careful next time. As will I.

Can I be less excited?

I was pretty disinterested in the last Lib Dem leadership fight. It got a bit more interesting towards the end when the various camps started leaking stories and knifing each other. The actual result was far less impressive than the in fighting the preceded it.

I really couldn't care less who gets it this time. If I were a Lib Dem MP I wouldn't go near the job with a 10 foot barge pole, just look at what they have done to the last two. Also the reason the Lib Dems are in such a sorry state in the polls is that they are increasingly becoming an irrelevance.

The last time they commanded (if that's the right word) a decent proportion of the polls was when Labour was seen to be in a state of near collapse in the 1980's. Then there was a very powerful government and an opposition that many didn't feel could take them on. The same could be said of the last ten years.

Now that the Conservatives are very much in the running again why would anyone pay the Lib Dems much attention? The only thing that I can think of is to see how nasty they get during this leadership election and how long it takes them to knife the new leader in the back.

My Haiku for Ming Campbell's resignation

In what is becoming a regular series of poems on party leaders' resignations, please feast your minds on my haiku for Ming.

------------------------------------------------------------
And so Ming goes off

Not a bang but a whimper

A jump or a push?
------------------------------------------------------------

Please feel free to add your own Haiku poems about Ming. Remember they need to be three lines of 5-7-5 syllables each.

Ashcroft and political donations

Gordon Brown is coming under pressure to change the rules on political donations because Lord Ashcroft's contributions to marginal constituencies could swing the next election.

I would prefer that parties got large numbers of small donations from a large number of people, but I have absolutely no problem with Lord Ashcroft spending his money how he sees fit. There are all sorts of rumours about a "party within a party" and alternative power bases etc. These are all rubbish, I have spoken with Lord Ashcroft in the past (at a party rather than a formal meeting) and it is clear to me that all he wants for his money is to see the back of this Labour government.

If you think that giving the Conservative party money buys you influence you might want to think back to the political donors who have withdrawn their support recently. Those on the left like to parade this as some terrible internal rift, I think it is a good thing, if they are frustrated and walking away it is clear that their money wasn't buying influence.

Lord Ashcroft's donations come out of his own pockets. Labour receives millions of pounds from the union movement, they in return receive millions of pounds from the Labour government in the form of the Union Modernisation Fund. That is your tax money.

Just in case that isn't clear, here it is again. The Labour government gives public money to the unions, the unions then give a comparable sum of money to the Labour Party. Cut out the middleman and what you effectively get is the Labour government giving millions of pounds of public money each year to the Labour party.

So, Mr Brown, before you start bleating about Lord Ashcroft remove the mote in your own eye.

Big thanks to Guido for the image.

Dinner with Ken

No not that one!!!!!

Ken Clarke was the Guest of Honour at the Bromley and Chislehurst Conservative Association dinner on Wednesday evening. As you can imagine the room was in buoyant mood after what was an awful PMQs for Gordon Brown. Bob Neill got a great round of applause when he entered the room after scoring a direct hit with his "bottle bank" line.

Ken Clarke was on good form, even though he got a bit of a hard time over his views on the EU.

Copy cat tax proposals on marriage

Gordon Brown has spent ten years as the head of the Treasury. You would have thought that in that time he would have come up with a few ideas of his own. Apparently not.

After a week of stealing tax plans which he and his team had in the past rubbished (and facing the backlash in the Commons and the media), you would have thought that he would have shied away from doing it again. Apparently not.

Brown is losing credibility by the second. My only worry is that voters will just assume that we are all the same and abandon politics completely.

Bendy bus fatality

I hear from the Londonist blog that a young man was dragged to his death by a bendy bus. It really is time we got rid of these intrusive monstrosities.

I cycle every day and have a run in with these on a regular basis, the drivers can see so little of bus that accidents are inevitable.

Bob Neill praises Bromley's recycling record at PMQs

Bob Neill used his question at Prime Minister's Questions to highlight Bromley Council's excellent record on recycling. He also invited the PM to visit one of the borough's many bottle banks now that he had "bottled out of calling an election".

Top marks Bob!

Also posted on Bexley and Bromley Conservatives .

A pale imitation

I don't think that anyone will be fooled by Alister Darling's attempts to steal our ideas on inheritance tax.

Brown has done more damage with his trip to Iraq than he could possible imagine, he managed in one day to completely blow his image of integrity. That trip has caused waves of distrust that have washed over all his cabinet colleagues, people will now look with a great deal of cynicism at everything that Labour ministers say.

When the Chancellor promises an extra £400 million of forces funding(which is a drop in the Ocean, by the way) we all ask ourselves if half of that money has already been allocated and a quarter of it has already been spent.

Darling didn't help himself by rolling out a very poor set of plans against the backdrop of a faltering economy. George Osborne tore him apart and justly so.

Me on Blogger TV

Last night I was on 18 Doughty Street's Blogger TV. Good fun as usual.

On the sofa with me were the irrepressible Chris Mounsey of Devil's Kitchen, Paul Newman of Newmania and Gavin Whenman of the Whiskey Priest.

Watch it here

The day Gordon Brown lost the next election.

Somehow I missed the announcement that Andrew Marr had been appointed as the Number 10 media spokesman! The section where he "explains" the visit to Iraq and the troop announcements is particularly cringeworthy.

Thanks to Biased BBC for the video

Gordon Brown runs scared

I should have put money on this. As anyone that I spoke to at conference will confirm I have been saying that Brown would bottle it for the last few weeks.

The question that I am asking myself is "Was it David's speech or the media reaction to the Iraq trip?". Like most things in life it was probably an element of both but I think that Iraq was the more significant.

I am more confident of a Conservative victory now than at any point in the last ten years. I say this because Brown has managed to blow all the elements of the power image that he has tried to create.

Strong in a crisis? Clearly not! Clever strategist? No! Principled conviction politician? Don't make me laugh!

He has also blown his relationship with the media, this will hang around his neck for a long time. He is running scared and probably knows that he has damaged his own electoral chances.

Brown is now damaged goods.

Great news from party conference

I got to meet Tony Hadley!!!!!



OK sad I know but Spandau Ballet were huge when I was a teenager, HUGE. I couldn't pass up an opportunity to get a picture with Tony. And before you ask he was incredibly approachable, good as gold in fact, he was very easy to talk to and not at all highly strung. It's true that some celebs are up themselves but he was great.

To cut a long story short, I was acting a bit like a teenager but it's only when you leave that you realise that you might have been a bit embarrassing. There are times when you wonder if it is worth the long wait in the cold with your security pass just to get through the barricade but meeting Tony Hadley made it all worthwhile!

Not very PC

There is an energy drink in Germany. I won't repeat the name on this blog but when I stumbled across this site I almost wet myself laughing.

German Energy drink website.

Mayor injures woman dressed as tomato

There is a lesson for us all here! Don't.

Conservative party conference day 3

Today I was well and truly off brief, almost no London stuff at all. I had a quick get together with the Bexley and Bromley team that are up here. Other than that I focused my attention on defence matters.

Dr Fox was on good form, I think that Labour's attitude towards the armed forces has been totally unacceptable and it is about time we said so load and clear. The Royal British Legion fringe meeting was well attended and very moving, their Honour the Covenant campaign hits the nail on the head.

I had dinner with Syed Kamall MEP in an Italian restaurant, it was comic. How long to seven pizzas take? I'll give you a clue, more than an hour and a quarter less than two. But only just less than two. Also the pantomime that was the some puddings was a joy to behold, we all ordered and waited only to be told that they only had three bread and butter puddings. "That's OK we only want two", "no, no" he replied "we only have three bread and butter puddings....... in the restaurant". "Oh... OK we'll have those then!".

Nothing better than a hearty fire

Except when it is on a bus.

A spokesman from TFL says that the bendy bus which spontaneously caught fire was burning for a completely different reason to the other bendy buses that have spontaneously caught fire in the past.

So that's all right then!

Brown, what a "biff"

Gordon Brown cannot be trusted! I mean this in every sense of the phrase.

Nick Robinson has an interesting piece about how Brown has both failed to be bold or decisive over military plans and also renege on a firm commitment to make announcements in the House of Commons.

I heard one party supporter with military background say of this issue "Wow both spineless and clueless, the lads out there are gonna be f**ked!". Liam Fox was spot on when he said that the visit was cynical pre-election PR stunt and that it would leave "a bad taste in most people's mouths".

Conservative party conference day 2

Clearly the big news of the day was George Osborne's commitment to ease the tax burden on first time buyers and push the inheritance tax threshold up to reflect the huge increase in property values.

The left, and some on the right, will no doubt see this as a lurch to the right, I think it is just a long overdue recognition that tax shouldn't be so unfairly focused on the lower and middle income groups in Britain. Getting on the property ladder is hard enough as it is and it's getting harder. Taking away some of the financial pressure is a sensible and fair step and because these plans are both threshold increases they will help the less well off first and most.

I went to fewer platform speeches than on day one and more fringe events. One of the highlights was the London Conservatives "What should a Conservative mayor of London do in the first 100 days" fringe event. There were plenty of ideas about reducing waste, reducing the number of political appointees and slashing the army of press officers, all good stuff. Boris Johnson also said that it would be good to scrap the Londoner newspaper and use the money to plant more trees "sending the paper back to whence it came". I remember at his launch event to described the Londoner as being like a 1960s edition of Pravda.

The line that drew the biggest cheer was when Boris said if Brown doesn't call a General Election he was a "big girl's blouse".

I ended the evening at a reception hosted by the Telegraph, lots and lots of journalists, lots and lots of drink and lots and lots Conservative activists, a potential recipe for disaster? Very much so, but I've not seen any stories in the media yet that anyone would regret.

Conservative party conference day 1

After the well publicised technical error at the start of the conference (I know all about those) William Hague gave a storming speech taking the fight to Brown.

Tarzan showed that despite getting on a little he still has plenty of umph in him when he spoke about our commitment to inner cities and how Labour, for all the words, has failed.

Boris spoke passionately about the role of London Mayor and his ideas for the job. I thought it was a very good speech and countered the critics who claim that he can't muster serious when needed.

Micheal Bloomberg spoke about how fiscal restraint and sound governance had transformed New York. It is clear that he comes from a business background as the tone of his speech was much less tub-thumping that the others.

I gravitated to a number of London related fringe events in the afternoon and then off for a few drinks. Walking from the conference venue to the hotel I passed a strip club (which I absolutely, definitely, totally didn't go into, honest!), now that the strippers can't smoke in their dressing room (is it still a dressing room if you are preparing to get undressed?) the were sitting on the front step of the club in fluffy pink dressing gowns having a fag. Classy!!!!!

The mood here is interesting, upbeat and positive. If there are doubts about Cameron they are being kept buttoned rather than being paraded in from of the media. There doesn't seem to be an "about to fight an election" mood here, the consensus is that there are too many "events" that could go against Brown, Foot and Mouth, Blue Tounge, Iraq and Afghanistan casualties, fuel prices etc. etc.

I just don't think he has the guts.