Live in Yorkshire?

TB has just about to give an interview for the Yorkshire ITV evening news about Sahid Malik...

Also doing BBC Radio Leeds in about half an hour.

Anyone up north fancy a laugh should tune in at.

Summer Holiday

Blogging will be light this morning as TB is off to the popular holiday location of Stockwell-on-Sea.

Hmmm something about that isn't right.

What's all that about Chris?

Question Time Live Chat:

+++Shahid Malik reported to Parliamentary Authorities+++

The

Sunlight COPs

are on the case...

You know you want to...

b.crow@rmt.org.uk

Dick head.

H/T-

Donal Blaney

Bob Crow is a...

Just this morning

TB said

he wanted to punch Bob Crow for ruining his good mood.

And now you can

.

+++Michael Howard pulls out of OUCA dinner+++

Michael Howard was meant to be speaking at the Oxford University Conservative Association dinner tonight.

Rather unsurprisingly he has pulled out a direct consequence of today's

Mail allegations

, and rightly so.

When will the day come that people will learn that, if you are an office bearer, however minor, even at a youth level, you are a representative of the Conservative Party.

FFS get a grip.

UPDATE 13.18: Statement from CF chairman Michael Rock "They're not CF."

And they aren't. Thankfully OUCA have always refused to be affiliated with the national organisation.

More trouble with the kids...

Seems the

Evening Standard

don't like Young Labour either...

Exclusive: A Message From Eric Pickles

TB has an exclusive message from the Party Chairman:

“Conference is made by the delegates and this year we have got some great new events laid on by the party. I will be opening the pub quiz on Monday 5th October and hope to see you all there. On the Tuesday Canal Street will be the venue for the first ever Conference Pride event where we will welcome a fantastic key speaker (all hush-hush for now) followed by a night of great dancing. The Party for Change on the Wednesday night will be a fantastic evening and a fun way to close the formal business and celebrate what we have planned as the biggest and best conference yet, ahead of David’s main conference speech on the Thursday. I hope you will all be able to attend one or two of the events and look forward to seeing you!”

So what' s going on?

Monday 5th October: ‘Save the Great British Pub’ Quiz @ the Palace Hotel, Oxford Road Manchester, 6pm – 8pm. This event is sponsored by the ever sound British Beer and Pub Association and word is that deals will keep the booze flowing.Special guests William Roach (Ken Barlow), Party Chairman Eric Pickles and Jeremy Hunt MP so far lined up to deliver the questions – more to be announced soon.

The £10 ticket includes a hog roast, and it's teams of six. TB will be auditioning for spots on his team nearer the time.

Tuesday 6th October: ‘Conference Pride’ at Spirit Bar, Canal Street, Manchester, 9.30pm – 3am Hosted by TV's Iain Dale and Margot James the PPC for Stourbridge. A senior Shadow Cabinet speaker is expected along with a number of MPs, senior party members and Manchester celebs...

With two floors of great music, student bar prices, celebrity raffle, spot prizes on the night, and all for a fiver, it's set to be a good one.

And then there is the big one...

Wednesday 7th October: – ‘Party For Change’ – Last Night Party at PURE, The Old Printworks, Manchester , 9.30pm – 3am

Kicking off the evening TB is very excited about the "Tory Bear Reception from 8pm" - more details of this shindig will follow over the summer, but the fun doesn't stop there. From 9.30 the club will open up to everyone and there will be:

Rock-a-roke (sing with a live band)

Live acts and performances

Celebrity DJ slots – what makes the politicians tap their toes?

Roller Disco

Microsoft Games Room

VIP Lounge (£50 includes cocktails and buffet and exclusive lounge access)

Great music and the best party night of the week

Tickets are only a fiver for students and £10 (before 1st August - £15 after) for other delegates. Do you want to make a bit of cash for your CF branch? Then why not get in touch with the party organisers

HERE

to find out details of how you can sell tickets and get CASHBACK and discounts for your members. Also you don't have to have security clearance for the main conference to attend any the "Party For Change" so if you can't make it for all of conference why not come down for the night?

TB is very tempted by the VIP lounge access for £50 though, shake down some moves with the party chiefs.

The conference hotel bar can get very repetitive after three or four nights of conference so it's great to see CCHQ taking the bull by the horns and sorting out what are set to be some cracking events.

You can book your tickets for any of them

here

.

Watch this space for more info in the next few months.

Why must I always play the clown?

Blogging will be light tonight as TB has managed to blag a ticket to see

Mr Hudson

at the ICA.

Weyhey.

The Bear Necessities – Sara Scarlett

In March Sara Scarlett, 21, unsuccessfully challenged Elaine Bagshaw for the Chairmanship of Liberal Youth, the youth wing of the Liberal Democrats. As Tory Bear reported at the time the elections descended into a bitch-fest like only youth politics can. Since losing the election Sara has been focused on her work with the think tank

Liberal Vision

. Beating The Independent to it, TB got the first interview.

On what had to have been the hottest day in London for a long time, there were few things TB would liked to have done more than sit outside Gordon’s with a bottle of ice cold white and a rather attractive young lady. It became pretty clear before even the first glass was finished that Sara Scarlett is a bit of a trouble maker, though in the very best sense of the word. Every comment that broke the wishy-washy wet Liberal Democrat line was accompanied with a cheeky look that said she knew exactly what the impact of her words would be, and she didn’t care. Starting in an obvious place, TB asked Scarlett why she would agree to talk to the Tory blogger who caused her so much grief in stirring up the Liberal Youth elections; "you don't not talk to a paper because you disagree with it's editorial line" was the blunt reply. Conversation moved quickly on to the said election. Scarlett claims she isn’t pissed off that she lost, arguing that on reflection the changes that the Liberal Youth movement needed couldn’t be implemented by a chairman in a year. It was a messy election and the whole Liberal Youth machine at one point collapsed into leak and counter brief and caused quite a headache for the Liberal Democrat HQ. One of the key moments was Scarlett’s heckle while her opponent was speaking at the Liberal Democrat Spring Forum. It was this moment that she pinpoints as where she lost the election, but cemented her reputation as a self proclaimed “political bad-ass”.

After just five minutes talking, you can’t help but wonder what this feisty, and clearly ambitious young woman is doing in the dead duck party. This proud libertarian has got in to all sorts of trouble with the Lib Dems, who despite their freedom loving veneer, can have a ruthless authoritarian streak, especially amongst the more socialist and lefty wings of the umbrella movement. It is therefore of no surprise that she seemingly doesn’t have much faith in the organisation she tried to lead. When asked what would be a good gauge of success for Liberal Youth in a years time she replied “surviving” without pause while lighting another cigarette. Though there is no love lost with the kids club, Scarlett saves most of her anger for the Cowley Street party HQ. Stressing that they are all “great guys” TB was expecting some wee dig at what Scarlett had previously described as “corporate incompetence”, but he was not expecting quite such a brutal attack; “Cowley St has misassessed [sic.] the entire nature of what a third party should be, we should be saying what the other parties can’t.” And what would Sara do if she was in charge? “Fire the whole press office” she claims they deserve 10% of the press coverage but are incapable of gaining that. “Sell Cowley Street, we're located in the most expensive property in London, when the jobs, except certain departments, could be done in Elephant and Castle.”

It's not just the ineffectual party machine that Scarlett has issue with, "Nick Clegg has been a disappointment, he's never been loud enough on the issue that made me get into politics - personal freedom." She also takes issue with the patronising attitude that the leadership has taken to it's youth wing; "Tuition fees and marijuana, that's all they think we care about. The entire youth and education vote doesn't just boil down to these two issues." Telling the kids what they should care about warranted what is fast becoming the most insulting political jibe going - "it's all very New Labour." TB couldn't help but ask how many Liberal Youth hacks practice what they preach on the pot front and he can't work out if the reply of "not enough" was a joke or not.

While the apparatchiks and sand pitters clearly couldn't handle Scarlett's bluntness and brutal honesty, she has managed to find friends and allies in the "political bad-ass" camp through the newly relaunched think tank Liberal Vision. Headed up by Mark Littlewood, who is another fan of trouble-making - to the extent he was punched by a Lib Dem MP at their conference last year, this band of libertarians are making quite a splash in Lib Dem land. While Liberal Vision are making inroads in trying to influence Lib Dem policy and shift the floundering, cracked coalition to the right, the organisation has one mammoth struggle ahead of it. TB agrees with the notion that "libertarianism is the natural conclusion of classic liberalism" that Scarlett mentioned more than twice, but whether libertarians will ever feel at home in the Liberal Democrats remains to be seen. For someone so young with a lot of energy and passion to give to politics, the decision has to be made soon of whether they want to be a big fish in a small pond or actually make an impact in a party that has the prospect of forming a government anytime soon. Scarlett was quick to dismiss the Conservatives of being any better as a nest for freedom lovers "I'll join the Conservatives when David Cameron legalises heroin... seriously though Cameron won't give civil liberties back" "Cameron and Osborne are very good on TV but they aren't reformers." Evidently not the biggest fan of DC, but then again the next generation of the Party, after twelve years of enslavement by Labour is distinctly more libertarian than those running the show today.

The conversation quickly took a turn for slightly less focused as bottle number two slipped away, but before the notebook went back in the briefcase, TB took the inevitable look to the future. Though Scarlett denies that she wants "her arse on a green bench," TB found this hard to believe. Sara Scarlett has most definitely got the political bug and she isn't going to lose it anytime soon, but what else she has is a much rarer gift - the fact she is a hack who isn't scared to break the party line and say what she really feels. She may want her "arse on a green bench" but whether the Liberal Democrats will want her is a different matter. Liberal Youth looked a gift horse in the mouth in re-electing a socialist, former Labour Student over Scarlett but that election wasn't the last the Liberal Democrats will hear of her.

Osborne rinses Byrne

Mr. George Osborne (Tatton) (Con)

: I know he got off to a shaky start, but let me welcome the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury to his job. He is the fifth Chief Secretary I have faced—and hopefully the last before the general election. I hope he enjoys his move from No. 10 to the Treasury, and that the coffee is up to his exacting standards. At least he knows he will not be hit on the head by a flying mobile phone.

Anyone got video footage?

In Gordon We Trust:

TB should really check his Twitter direct message inbox more often, apologies for those messages he has missed. Also found this little gem:

Thanks to

@nickpickles

for sending it in.

Click here to follow TB on Twitter

.

Hannan weighs in...

Keep Right Online

(keeping TB on his toes once again!) have managed to bag an exclusive interview with Daniel Hannan:

"I hope Nick Griffin’s acceptance speech will finally have driven into the skulls of some BBC reporters that the BNP is not “far Right”. The man barely mentioned immigration; instead, he spent all his time excoriating the privatisation of state industries. His is a far Left party: it believes in nationalisation, higher taxes, state subsidies for factories, massive expenditure on the NHS and state pensions and (although it tends to keep quiet about this one) the abolition of the monarchy.

Not that BBC producers care about any of this, of course. For them, “Right-wing” is a handy synonym for “baddie”. Anyone who is sufficiently odious – from the revolutionary ayatollahs in Tehran to the Stalinist nostalgics in Russia – is “Right-wing” in the idiom of our state broadcaster. Is Griffin a total arse? Yup. Therefore, to your earnest BBC producer, he must be Right-wing."

Vintage.

Martin the Moron.

This is Martin Smith from

Unite Against Fascism

. Martin just embarrassed himself on Newsnight. Badly. Firstly he raved on about how he did not recognise the votes of 900,000 people in this country. Secondly he got into an argument with Simon Hughes who was putting forward some very sensible arguments about mainstream political parties getting together to fight the BNP. Martin the Moron however decided to get into an argument about how it was the Lib Dems fault the BNP got a councillor elected in Tower Hamlets in 1993.

Martin represents everything wrong with UAF and why they cannot be taken seriously. Here we have some creepy little scumbag with very different, but, equally dangerous views as the BNP he so hates. The BNP scum must be stopped, but the behaviour and views of UAF cannot be condoned. As TB

said on Twitter earlier

, the scenes of fascists fight fascists, a left wing civil war so to speak, were as surreal as they were hilarious. No, in fact strike that, they would be funny at the end of some black comedy, but no, both these threats are very real.

Cameron MUST distance himself from the values and practices of UAF that he apparently once condoned. No leader of the Conservative Party can ever support a movement that does not believe in freedom of speech. UAF are an embarrassment to anyone who is genuinely opposed to the BNP on ideological grounds. Firstly the left have brought shame upon themselves by letting their bastard child the BNP get in and don't try argue that the BNP aren't left wing - As someone said elsewhere racism is a dirty form of collectivism, judging not on the individual, but on the group. Secondly UAF have brought shame on the left by openly saying they do not believe in free speech.

But then we knew that all along anyway.

UPDATE 23.12: Just spotted what Martin the Moron was wearing on Newsnight. That's not a Fred Perry jumper is it?

The logo of choice of your 70s northern skinhead?

Surely not?

Quote of the Day

"Of those, six are ministers of state, the rest parliamentary under-secretaries. What's more, five of them are in the Upper House, so with the FLL that means more than half the department's complement are peers. Imagine that: a Labour government - a Labour government - looking like something Lord Salisbury cooked up. Delicious."

-The ever fantastic

Ben Brogan

discussing Mandy's new uber department.

Trouble with the kids

This sure as hell isn't the story TB wanted to be writing, but you might as well have a peek at this picture which made up a small part of a story that turned out to be dud yesterday.

Olivia Bailey is the Vice Chairman of

Young Labour

and was once ultra loyal to the Dear Leader. She even met with Gordon just weeks ago in No10 but it seems she sure as hell ain't going to be window dressing:

Anyone else from Young Labour got something to say?

PS - TB hasn't just put his tin foil hat on, but, can't help but think it's a bit odd that he spoke to the Number10 press office yesterday about Miss Bailey and weirdly

the video

of her talking to Gordon has today been pulled from the No10 website!? Thanks to an anon comment it seems it was TB's browser playing up. Just going to leave this story now. Brings out the very worst conspiracy theory streak in the bear.

Seems the Young Labour website is down though.

Country First.

TB understands that Conservative Future deputy chairman Christian May's weekly column over at

TYC

might make uncomfortable reading for some more senior Tories tomorrow. Here is a little juicy morsal to wet your appitites:

"There are many conservatives out there, including senior members of the conservative movement, who are delighted with the news that Gordon Brown is, for now, staying on as leader. Many speculate that David Cameron himself also breathed a sigh of relief when it looked like Brown had managed to survive Monday's meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party. However, I for one do not take such a view. We must remember the cry, "Country before Party." Keeping Gordon Brown on as PM will certainly mean that the Labour Party will continue to flounder in the polls, but won't somebody please think of the country?"

Bang on in this bear's view. Putting the party before country is why Labour are set to be punished so horrendously at the next election. Check out the rest of the piece

here

tomorrow.

"I can be Brown, I can be blue..."

Via

Dizzy

, TB laughed a lot when he saw this gem from Rory Bremner.

Now you see him..

...and now you don't.

According to

Paul Waugh

; "I'm told by a friend of James Purnell that he certainly won't be at the PLP tonight. "We do want him to actually see his 40th birthday," the pal joked."

Looks like Purnell might just be the Minister for silly walks. Worst coup ever.

UPDATE 18:38: Strike that, potentially - Guido is

reporting

that Purnell will put himself forward as the challenger if no credible candidate comes forward before noon tomorrow.

He who wields the knife never wears the crown.