Rules of Political Life #76 - Never get on a Segway

If you ever needed proof that blogging Labour MP Tom Watson was a bit of a pillock then look no further...

Well it didn't do Lembit any harm... Oh wait.

A spineless party...

As some of you may know three years ago Boris Johnson stood for Rector of Edinburgh University. All was looking good until Labour Students and the People and Planet trots who controlled the student council broke with the 200 years tradition and charity laws by using student union funds to campaign against Boris to the tune of thousands of pounds for the "Don't wake up with a dumb blonde campaign." These funds were justified apparently because of Boris's pro top up fees stance. Fast forward to this years campaign and last night's student council meeting where the idea of funding a campaign was rejected. Details can be found

here

but what really tickled TB was who was leading the charge against using union funds? Labour Students of course!

Their candidate this year is Lord George Foulkes famous for being in various parliaments for twenty five years yet seemingly unable to hold down a front bench job despite having one of the most loyal party voting records ever. Punching people didn't do John Prescott any harm but seems Foulkes was forced to fall on his sword after his little

hiccup

. He has voted in favour of top up fees on more than one occasion and yet despite their seemingly unwavering devotion to NUS and apparent anti top up fees stance Labour Students have decided to throw the full weight of their once very effective election machine behind Foulkes. They used the student council for financial gain against Boris and they used it last night to make sure the same treatment wasn't given to them. The levels of their opportunism is staggering and they have as much spine as the government they represent.

Now don't get TB wrong, he doesn't think that student unions should be spending students money on such matters but he chose to abstain last night because as much as he would have liked to see LS left with mud on their faces when the union conducted an anti-Foulkes campaign, he is not a hypocrite and has been one of the most vocal opponents to such action being taken. Labour Students are not the force they once were on campus and after 12 years of this rotten government the brand is very tainted. TB gets on personally rather well with some members, especially some of the more right-wing ones, but it's times like these where their true political colours come through and their unwavering tribal devotion that really irritates him. Even in the face of moral dilemmas and looking like hypocrites they will still always go with the option that apparently best helps their party.

They are the perfect microcosm of the higher echelons of the Labour Party and seemingly have no shame...

Make some noise...

It's rare that TB and his blogging flatmate end up sharing a story but

Noise Porn

, an underground repetative beat mongering site has an interesting call to arms today:

"It has been brought to our attention that the UK government wants to make it a legal requirement in the new tax year to introduce laws insisting anyone applying or re-applying for an entertainment license must have a noise control device fitted to their venue. This will be the final nail in the coffin for clubs (and live music venues too), as the level at which these devices cut off is pretty low, suspected to be 93dB.

If you like to hear music the way it’s meant to be heard and you believe that the government has now place to tell us otherwise, sign this petition now!"

Get involved.

Freedom isn't free...

He's a long way from the Scilly Isles now! CF deputy Chairman and YBF operator Christian May was yesterday awarded the Freedom of the City of London. Entitled now to herd his goats across London Bridge and be put in a taxi by an officer of the law if he is caught drunk in town amongst other things, Mr May looks rather pleased with himself:

Talk the talk...

Thanks to the brilliant website blogtalkradio, which enables you to basically host your own radio shows and podcasts, Donal Blaney now has a US style conservative talk radio show every night at eight. Though TB has been a busy bear these past few evenings he has managed to have catch up and have a listen this afternoon.

It's good stuff

and especially like the music!

Piss off.

Whoever it is that is signing up Tory Bear's personal email address to gay dating sites and darker subservient sex clubs pack it in.

Not very subtle to threaten someone one day and then take steps to smear them the next now is it?

Ridiculously busy day sorting out life at university and assorted hackery but back to normal tomorrow.

London ladies...

They may be the official face of the glamorous party but now Serene Richards (right) and Liza Chantelle(above) are rapidly working their way up the ladder. They have both been appointed to the new London CF committee, Serene responsible for universities and Liza as the social action officer.

London CF is launching on the 15th with some mystery big guest speakers and with chairman Clare Hilley just being selected to fight a safe council seat, it's going to be a double celebration...

Lunatic Left put up Galloway

Tory Bear got wind of the rumour this morning that George Galloway was planning on a bid for the Rector of Edinburgh University and now

HackWatch

(an Edinburgh student politics gossip blog run by a Labour PPC,) got the story first.

This could get interesting.

TB is looking forward to what will no doubt become a pitched campus battle...

Dolly and friends...

TB has been taking a look at the new

Labourlist website

that has launched in a preview mode. It's the brainchild of Derek Draper and represents Labour's top down attempt to fight the grassroots movement that ConservativeHome represents, an almost perfect analogy of the Lab/Con view on how the country should be run. It lists who it's contributors will be and he was rather surprised to see

Sarah Mulholland

included. She is the Chairman of Labour Students and generic Unite drone but doesn't exactly strike it big on the blogosphere...

Indeed she hasn't even updated her riveting

Labour Student's blog

for over six months... The CF online presence is updated multiple times a week.

Dolly is going have to try harder than this...

Seems Adrian McMenamin's bosses at the CBI have got the better of his not so secret alliances though. He is very absent from the list.

Let the games begin...

Tory Bear is about to get on a plane back up to Scotland (sorry Lily,) so will follow this up later but it according to

The Guardian

it seems Dolly Draper is about to launch his much anticipated attack on the right wing blogosphere:

"Now Labour is fighting back in the battle of the blogs, with a new website to be launched this week aimed at sparking an online debate among what it calls "Labour-minded" people over thinking inside the movement. It forms part of Labour plans to "take the fight to the web", with ministers fielding questions in online forums, such as the price comparison website moneysupermarket.com and "virals" - internet spoofs designed to be emailed between friends - increasingly sitting alongside conventional party political broadcasts.

LabourList.org was controversial even before it was born, with established Labour bloggers complaining at being left out, and Tory bloggers warning that it would be so heavily censored as to be little more than party propaganda."

Load... Aim...

Tory Bear silenced... well sort of.

Talking to a friend who is spending a year in China Tory Bear was asked about how his day had been. When he replied "busy!" and sent her the link to today's fun and games, did it load?

Hell no... seems the esteemed communist internet censors have deemed Tory Bear's musings to be too much for the Chinese audience. He is officially banned...

He would be insulted if it was any other way!

The last word...

So it's been quite a day and Tory Bear expected to take some flak for his actions in effectively blowing the whistle on the inappropriate behaviour of certain people. 98% of CF members and readers of this blog so far seem to be reasonable people who, like TB, have been repulsed by anyone who would dress up as Madeleine McCann or Baby P. However there are those that would rather shoot the messenger. Tory Bear firmly believes that although today has given those that already hate the Tories a excuse to have a go at us, the actions of the Party have proven TB's original point and reasons behind publishing - that sick people like this are not welcome in out tent. Readers of this blog will know that TB isn't one of these molly coddling social conservatives who believes in preaching right and wrong but a line was very very much crossed here.

Not only was the actions of Matt Lewis and co hugely inappropriate they were also extremely foolish. TB believes that it is best in the long run that they were outed now, rather than allowing people who can show such lack of compassion and intelligence to progress up the greasy pole. This story isn't Tory Bear attacking the Conservatives as some of you have suggested, it is in fact a blessing in disguise. Members like this shouldn't be brushed away under the carpet or covered up but tackled head on. The Party really has changed and those elements that earned us the reputation as the nasty party are no longer welcome.

As TB said earlier, it takes a lot to have a crack at your own side and the decision wasn't taken lightly, however if we want to create the Britain that the Conservative Party says it can and wants to see, then there will be causalities on the way. The lack of respect for other people and base humour this incident has shown is symptomatic of the broken society that we live in.

CF has today lost one of it's new Regional Coordinators in Richard Lowe, a branch Chairman (Keele CF) Flick Cox and a former Area Chairman Matt Lewis. Matt has apologised and now it's time to move on. To defend the actions of these people and blame the media (and/or TB,) will only drag this out further. The right course of action has been taken and let's get back to work in changing this country for the better.

An apology from Matt Lewis

The Matt Lewis story has gone nuclear and the BBC Six O'Clock news and Sky have both featured it. Third biggest story on the BBC, no doubt because it contains the word Tory:

The PA wire is thankfully now carrying this apology from Matt Lewis:

"I unreservedly apologise to Mr and Mrs McCann for my actions. I completely regret my behaviour that night and since, and cannot express how sorry I am for the incredible hurt I have caused. Whilst my actions were not meant to be malicious, I fully understand the pain they have brought."

UPDATE:

This statement from CF Chairman Michael Rock has just been 

released

:

"As you may know, a young member of Conservative Future has been expelled from the party today. We have also seen two other people expelled due to association with this incident.

The person concerned made a serious error of judgement, behaving in a completely unacceptable manner that was both shocking and offensive. There is clearly no place for this in the Party. We should all remember that actions have consequences. Representing the Party, at any level, is a privilege and a great responsibility. I know that he deeply regrets his behaviour, and especially regrets any hurt he has caused the McCann family.

It is important for us to remember, though, that the vast, vast majority of CF members give up their time and effort because they want to change this country for the better. The vital thing is for all of us to learn from this, draw a line under it and refocus our efforts on representing the values and ideas of our Party."

+++PA: Statement from the McCann Family+++

The PA wire has a statement from the McCann Family:

Clarence Mitchell, the spokesman for Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, demanded an apology from Mr Lewis.

He said: "The offensiveness of this activist's actions is almost beyond belief.

"I know Gerry and Kate will be grateful that the Tory Party has taken swift and appropriate action by ejecting him from the party.

"His actions are not only disgraceful in themselves, they will also cause great hurt to Kate and Gerry. I feel it is appropriate that he now apologises both privately and publicly to them.

"It is a complete disgrace that Madeleine's name and image should be made fun of in this way."

The swift action by the Party was exactly the right thing to do.

More on this from the

BBC

and

Sky

.

+++Matt Lewis booted out of CF+++

According to a

The Sun

Matt Lewis has been expelled from the Conservative Party. They have picked up on TB's story from yesterday...

It is always a tough decision to attack your own side but TB firmly believes that over the last three years the party has done an fantastic job at cleaning up it's image, not just superficially but really making sure people such as this know that they are not welcome. Tory Bear was set up to hold Conservative Future to account, as well as inject a little bit of humour but this sort of behaviour is anything but funny.

UPDATE 15.24:

The Independent

and the

Mail

are also going with the story.

15.34: As is

The Guardian

16.08:

Sky News

just featured the story in their News on the Hour.

Lily not locked up.

It seems that Lily Kember and her bunch of nut-job climate-change public school hippies have avoided the prison sentence they deserved. The Evening Standard is

reporting tonight

that the Plane Stupid climate protesters have got a slap on the wrist from the law for the chaos they caused when they invaded Stansted Airport in last month. Tory Bear wonders what would have happened if a group of Muslim men had stormed an airport in this fashion - no doubt they would still be locked up in Paddington Green Police station desperately seeking a trial.

The community service that these idiots got is not good enough and they even had the audacity to suggest that the punishment was too severe. So now for the good news...Apparently RyanAir is considering suing the protesters for £2million in the civil courts. Tory Bear hopes they really go for it and teach these jumped up morons a lesson.

People need to learn that they are responsible for their actions and the perfect irony of making this lot pay back the millions they owe RyanAir would be glorious!

Sick.

Matt Lewis resigned on Boxing Day as the Conservative Future Area Chairman for Staffordshire. Having clearly spent Christmas drafting his resignation letter that cited the Rock reforms as the reason for quitting, it was his behaviour over the New Year that has made TB glad to see the back of Mr Lewis:

On his Facebook page Lewis has divulged the sickening details of dressing up for a party as Madeleine McCann. What sort of sick bastards would find this funny?

To add insult to injury Lewis then went on to proudly boast about these antics to fellow CFers:

Have these people lost their minds as well as developed abysmal poor taste? If he hadn't already quit Tory Bear would be calling for resignations over this. The Conservative Party has no room for this sort of appalling behaviour and warped individuals.

TB wonders how Matt can be 100% sure there are no photos...

Campus Tories choose to fight real election...

Edinburgh University Conservative Association

will not be fielding a candidate for this year's Rectorial Elections at Edinburgh University. Speaking to Tory Bear their Chairman Harry Cole said "EdConservatives have decided the best way they can help the students of Edinburgh University is to see a Conservative Member of Parliament elected in the Edinburgh South constituency. Our candidate Neil Hudson is a member of staff at the university and instead of wasting resources engaging in internal elections EdConservatives will focus on seeing Neil and the other local candidates returned to Westminster where they can represent our student population much more effectively than chairing the University Court"

Guess Boris won't be avenged after all! He hasn't done too badly since he lost three years ago though...

Guess who's back...

After two weeks of rum and lobsters Tory Bear has returned from his factfinding trip to Cuba. TB had a wicked time and although he is mourning the loss of his BB Storm (don't ask,) there is lots to catch up on and normal service will resume tomorrow.

In the meantime TB is out on the town

tonight

getting his now daily fix of state sanctioned entertainment.

See you there...

So long... Farewell...

Tory Bear is off for two weeks of sunshine, rum and cigars on a beach in Cuba. The phone will be off and email checking will be sporadic to non-existent. It will take a pretty massive story to get TB to blog again until the 6th of Jan.

TB hopes to see lots of you at the YBF Russian New Year bash upon his return but in the mean time Merry Christmas to everyone and thank you so much for making this blog so successful in just six months.

Has Mrs Cameron been reading Tory Bear?

Tory Bear was taking his annual stroll down Bond Street, shopping for Mummy and Sister Bears. He decided to pop into

Smythson

to see what

Creative Director

Sam Cam had on offer this Christmas...

He couldn't help but wonder if he had inspired this year's blue bear stationery collection?

He's making a list...

For some reason this went into Tory Bear's spam folder so he's only just seen this years festive prank from CF:

Santa Claus has this year placed Gordon Brown on the naughty list, and thus the Prime Minister will not be receiving any presents. Conservative Future has obtained a

leaked document

showing that the Prime Minister has been moved to the naughty list in reaction to the large debt he is placing on future generations.The leaked document, from Lapland's Department of Poetic Justice, shows that other prominent politicians have also been added to the naughty list:

Alistair Darling – for his part in saddling the future generation with huge debt and tax increases.

Michael Martin - for not teaching the Sergeant at Arms that the Police need a warrant before searching a premises/Parliamentary office.

Jacqui Smith - for her bullying students to get an ID card in order to obtain student loans.

Rock said "This story has a serious message at its centre; the politicians who are on the list have performed a grave disservice to young people of this country.The people on this list have eroded democracy, scored cheap political points, recklessly borrowed for electoral gain and, just for good measure, have footed the next generation with a huge bill in a vain attempt to remedy the follies of the last eleven years."

Very witty.

London leading the way...

Another video from

London Conservative Future

inviting to their launch party. London Lib Dem Yoof had Nick Clegg at theirs... big name expecteced for the tories.

Watch this space.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery...

Having posted the previous story about Foulkes, TB decided to google the Rectorial candidate and found his newly

launched website

, complete with video:



Watching various students be asked questions about something they should know the answer to, such as what does their Rector do, TB was sure he had seen the excellent concept used very effectively before. He just couldn't think where... and then it came to him. In the last lot of Edinburgh University student elections a certain Tory

candidate

caused a bit of upset by suggesting no one knew what the union was, or what they did:



Once again Labour shamelessly ripping off the Tories. But the plot thickens...

The Foulkes campaign is being run by the university's Labour club and the site is

registered

to one Matt McPherson. Lets have a look at Mr McPherson's Facebook page:

A gentle search led TB to discover that he has apparently been George Foulke's Parliamentary Assistant since February of this year, though strangely Foulkes doesn't mention this in his

declaration of interests

. Is McPherson being paid to be his researcher, or paid to run Foulkes's campaign? He is a first year student and therefore can't exactly be a full time assistant, so what exactly is McPherson doing other than securing Foulke's legacy?

Foulkes is standing down from Holyrood at the next election after a very long parliamentary career and what a greater position to retire into than the esteemed role of Rector of Edinburgh University, in the path of some of the country's best politicians and err Gordon Brown. Worth paying a young hack to make it happen?

TB wouldn't put it past him.

Bad news for Foulkes...

TB is never normally one to agree with anything that the SNP say but one of their bloggers asks an

interesting question

- what is the point of George Foulkes? Foulkes drains the taxpayer of thousands of pounds every year in rather

dubious circumstances

and in return all he seems to do is ask pretty pointless questions in Holyrood and make crap YouTube

videos

. This doesn't bode well for his bid to take the esteemed position of Rector of Edinburgh University. TB can't remember anyone asking what the point of Churchill, Lloyd George or Gladstone was!

No other candidates are yet to declare in the race, but TB happens to know of one and will reveal their identity in the new year... Let's just say it's going to be an entertaining race.

More speculation...

Interesting to note that since TB first pointed out that Rudy Giuliani has a JoinRudy2012 site up and running, it has subsequently been

taken down

...

Should be noted that

Palin2012

is "Under Construction" too.

Thanks to

ConservativeLiberty

for pointing this out. While lots of blogs will be shutting down this Christmas CL will apparently be going strong.

Ten Lords a-leaping...

With prices like that TB can't help but be jealous of Mandy and co...

There is an "I" in Liberal after all!

Seems someone got round to fixing the little hiccup on the Lib Dem Yoof

website

...

TB is happy to have been of service!

Rules are there for a reason...

Although he isn't Obama's biggest fan TB does see the benefits of a change in the White House and believes the Bush administration has some serious questions to answer. The American press over the last few weeks has offered a glimpse of a man seemingly

desperate to leave

and having heard the

shouts of his people

, Bush is doing everything he can to aid Obama and make the transition as

smooth as possible

. This is a far cry from the behaviour of the outgoing Clinton staff in 2000 who vandalised government property by removing all the Ws from the White House keyboards. The world is waiting with baited breath for the golden child to assume office, and TB can understand why, but he can't help feeling disappointed by the bitterness of the left. Rahter than just being happy with their victory,  true to their typical style, they want to rub Bush's nose in it. This sentiment can be seen from the highest profile commentators in the USA, down to humble Student Unions in this country.

TB has just received this

pathetic invitation

:

With a tear in their eye and a song in their heart

Edinburgh University Students Association

will be hosting a massive party to celebrate Bush leaving office:

"After Eight years of planning and waiting patiently, the day has finally come for Teviot to light a candle of hope in the highest turret, in celebration of George W Bush leaving the Oval Office. On Tuesday 20th January 2009 Teviot will open its doors from 8pm and invite Edinburgh Students to join in the celebration with top comedians, DJs and drinks promos."

At best TB hopes this is just the entrepreneurial spirit of those in charge of EUSA shining through and hoping to generate some serious bar revenues are tapping into the sentiment felt on campus, however he knows deep down that this is wishful thinking. No once again this is the left showing just how bitter they can be. If they want to do this sort of thing in the privacy of their own home then fine, but it seems once again EUSA's casual disregard for the Charity Commission rules that they are meant to abide is shining through. No doubt there is a more detailed clause that outlaws these sort of event from taking place but allow TB to draw your attention to Section B1 of CC9 - the Charity Commission guide to Political Activity:

"In the political arena, a charity must stress its independence and ensure that any involvement it has with political parties is balanced. A charity must not give support or funding to a political party, nor to a candidate or politician."

No doubt TB will be called all sorts of names under the sun for highlighting this, but these rules are there for a damn reason, and that is to stop abuses of power such as the left wing's domination of Student Unions around the country. Why not have an inauguration party celebrating the changeover, rather than this orgie of hatred? Sure everyone who goes will be Obama lovers but it will fall within the rules. These rules need to be upheld at every level to avoid the slow disintegration of respect for their mandates that many student unions in this country suffer from.

This may seem petty but TB won't be letting this one go.

What do they know that we don't?

PoliticsHome

has become an incredibly useful website, and not just for the times that TB has been in an a hurry and hasn't had time to catch up with the day's news and blogs properly. He is, however, again forced to wonder exactly who it is that makes up their panel of top 100 political insiders. The site's claim to fame is that the people-in-the-know are polled on the day's big issues and offer the inside view. There have, however, been a couple of mildly embarrassing hiccups along the way. It's that time of year again where we all end up reflecting on the last twelve months, not just personally, but in terms of the year's news. TB was going to put together some of his own heroes and zeros of the last year but it seems

PoliticsHome

have beaten him to it. However TB has been left gobsmacked at who

these awards

have been given to...

Bear in mind when you look at who has been praised that this is, supposedly, the view of the 100 most eminent Westminster experts...

We'll start with pretty much the only award that TB agrees with - Rising Star of the year - awarded to Michael Gove with James Purnell as runner up. This is a fairly obvious choice, both men have the potential to lead their respective parties in the future. Purnell is one TB's favourite Labour politicians mainly for the fact he is basically a tory. Gove is a fantastic mind, writer and parliamentary performer.

However the sanity quickly falls away...

Gaffe of the year was awarded to George Osborne for letting slip that Mandy had "dripped pure poison" to him about Brown on their chance encounter in Corfu. Of course the revenge led to Gids being dragged into the whole world of pain that had the BBC and left wing press panting for a few weeks this autumn, but was this really the biggest gaffe of the year? Yes it caused a bit of hiccup for Team Dave, but at the end of the day George survived and the fact he survived a round in the ring with the Dark Lord Mandelson can only make him stronger. Surely the biggest gaffes of the year are the ones that have left serious and lasting damage to those concerned? Take, for example, the Labour class based campaign in the Crewe by-election, that not only upset both sides of the chamber but was wholeheartedly rejected by the electorate. Or what about Alex Salmond's cock-up at Glenrothes, where he went about Obama-like declaring victory and then got thumped, damaging not only his credibility but that of his entire cause. What about Peter Hain and Wendy Alexander both lying about campaign donations? What about Nick Clegg and the thirty odd notches on his bedpost, making him the laughing stock of Westminster!?

Backbencher of the year was awarded to Frank Field. TB has a lot of time for this closet tory who has embarrassed Gordon on many occasions this year, none more so than over the 10p tax band scandal that nearly bought the Brown government down. However ask someone outside of the village who Frank Field is and you will be met with a blank stare. David Davis was awarded the runner up spot, however ask your average joe who DD is and they are more than likely to say one word - freedom. DD sacrificed the chance of potentially being the next Home Secretary in order to stand up for the civil liberties and freedoms of not just his constituents, but every citizen of this nation, and yet is pushed into second place by a member who is merely disillusioned by the fact they realised they joined the wrong party and has gobbed off about this fact.

What are these so called insiders thinking?

Next we have speech of the year. TB must confess he hadn't heard Diane Abbot's

speech

about 42 day's before he saw it included in these awards and thankfully this passionate and astute defence of liberty is a long distance from the nonsense she normally spouts on This Week. Other contenders that immediately come to mind are Nadine Dorries on lowering the abortion limit (can't find the link,) or Dave's rousing conference

war cry

- "My god this has got to stop!!" but who did the eminent Westminster experts pick? Gordon Brown's fascinating hour and half diatribe on the intricacy's of watching paint dry, that was his conference speech. TB has fond memories of taking part in Guido's live blog of the event and this was not a master piece of oratory. The only interesting thing about that speech was the fact Sarah Brown saved her husband from having rotten turnips thrown at him by the Labour hordes baying for his blood. In comparison to some of the greatest conference speeches of the past (Cameron 05, 08,

Thatcher 75

, many of Blair's etc,) Gordon's tractor-statistic fuelled ramble was an embarrassment and if it wasn't for the global economic downturn it would have been the last Labour conference he addressed as leader.

For TB this was the

greatest speech

of the last year. OK so it was last December but it still counts.

And so to Journalist of the Year - no objections to the runner up Fraser Nelson who has offered fantastic coverage, not only for his Spectator readership, but hard hitting analysis for the News of the World. But hang on... who does the coveted crown go to? Which journalist had provided fair and balanced, as well as accurate and sensible coverage of the economic downturn? None other than the BBC'c business editor Robert Peston of course. This is where TB's laptop nearly went out the window. TB would die a happy bear if he never had to listen to Peston's irritating nasal tones ever again whining about the fact that the people are too stupid to see that Gordo is the saviour of the universe, or complaining about the German's audacity at attacking Brown, rather than addressing the cause for criticism, or his disgusting rant that real people would be affected by the collapse of Woolworths. Never has the BBC had such a blatantly partisan figure manipulating situations, and peddling titbit's fed to him by his close contacts within the government. This man is a disgrace to his profession and TB is outraged that he could even be considered for any honour, however irrelevant, for his rubbish reporting.

Only two people have profited in terms of personal stock out of this recession, one is Gordon Brown and the other is Robert Peston - both should be ashamed of themselves.

TB doesn't often lose his cool and go on rants of this length but the question must be asked who is more out of touch? Is it the people behind

PoliticsHome

? Have they got their contact lists mixed up with the top 100 window-lickers in the country? Can they really be polling so called Westminster insiders? TB is inclined to believe that yes they are polling the insiders but that opens up a far more scary prospect and adds weight to the argument that politicians and journalists in this country are seriously out of touch. It seems that outside of the Westminster village bubble politicians and their actions receive a very different reaction to that felt by the those apparently in-the-know. It's not

PoliticsHome

that has failed tonight but the insiders.

PoliticsHome

is an interesting project and TB will be intrigued to see how the next year pans out for the site. He has however tonight lost a huge amount of faith in the people that this nation puts their trust in to represent them, and the journalists we pay to keep an eye on it all.

Dancing Queen...

It's being

reported

tonight that Peter Mandelson will be making a surprise guest appearance on tomorrow night's Strictly Come Dancing final. Tony Blair always said his mission was to make the Labour party love the Dark Lord, but it now seems that Gordon is going one step further in allowing Mandy to attempt to ingratiate himself with the nation. In what will no doubt be a cringe worthy performance, TB is glad that one of the highest figures in this government, and essentially the deputy PM is 100% focused on the issues of the day.

So much for Gordon's promise of ending the era of celebrity.