Good Luck Rascal

Tory Rascal

is off to Afghanistan:

While I take the Queen's shilling, my service is of paramount importance to me and I will have to step back from the blog for a time. Not that I'll be abandoning it altogether, but I'm sure I'll have other things on my mind while I'm in the dustbowl; updates will be less frequent, and I won't have access to many of the news sources I usually make use of so they'll be less focussed on current affairs.

Keep an eye on my Twitter feed - I'll be doing my best to keep people up to date with what I'm up to, as well as continuing to offer a Tory Rascal's view of the world. I'll be back in full swing in July.

Come back safe soon buddy.

He actually thinks he has a chance.

John Bercow has nailed his pathetic colours to the mast in a piece in today's Independent. Given that his campaign has been running for the last few years, there is no surprise that he is the first out of the blocks in any serious way. Fingers crossed he will run out of steam over the next month as people get sick of his swarmy smile, lack of ideology and willingness to say "how high?" before anyone even says "jump".

Bercow told the Independent

: "I have decided to stand for election as Speaker and this article seeks to explain my reasons. Elected in 1997, I came into the Commons to represent my Buckingham constituents and to stand up for Conservative principles." What absolute twoddle.

Fingers crossed the Buckingham Association will begin the deselection process after flicking through

today's Telegraph

: "John Bercow, one of the most heavily tipped Conservative candidates for the Speaker’s chair, faces questions over his expenses claims after he “flipped” his second home from his constituency to a £540,000 flat in London and claimed the maximum possible allowances for it."

Parliament needs a squeaky clean, brave reformer, not some two faced, wet, pocket liner.

A small victory...

A reader has pointed out this picture of a unknown Labour hack sporting what seems to be the official Labour LGBT campaign t-shirts. What a surprise that they use even this opportunity to attack the Tories. Common consensus is that it is pretty rubbish.

Last year's Pride Brighton saw one hell of a float from Brighton and Hove Conservatives and it has to be noted that even on the important issue of LGBT t-shirt design, the Tories are kicking Labour around the block. The "I've come out... as a Tory!" slogan went down very well.

Every so often TB gets contacted by various gay Tories who are sick to the back teeth of being told by Labour members that gay people have a moral duty to vote Labour. This sort of homophobic fear mongering by the left has to stop. Yes ok so maybe the Tories were a little closed minded in the past but Labour's patronising call to arms is based on seriously flawed logic, why should gay people vote on only gay issues? This close minded and naive attitude is yet another reason why Labour can no longer depend on voters that they used to, arrogantly, consider "theirs".

And on a lighter note TB would recommend the Labour hacks check out

these

.

Sister Bear's adventures...

Wish the

Standard would send

TB to Cannes:

SB should really get a blog...

What are you doing tonight?

TB's

flatmate

is putting on what is set to be a massive night at

Caberet Voltaire

in Edinburgh tonight. This former haunt of

DK

's is set to be rammed, so if you are Scotland based come along.

TB will be the sober guy.

Question Time Live Ranting

More Labour Lies.

Well that's the last time that TB puts up a story and then goes out for the afternoon. How charming to return home to being called a liar by none other than Kezia Dugdale, personal assistant to the upstanding and honourable Lord George Foulkes.

TB put a story up earlier that he spotted on the "

Tweet4Labour

" Twitter feed this morning. With a simple

"Welcome! The Chief Whip @nickbrownmp

" Tweet4Labour drew TB's attention to the fact that Nick Brown was supposedly on Twitter. He then took a screen grab of Brown's feed and the rest they say his history. 

So Nick Brown's office have denied it's him which is hardly a surprise yet there seems to be a bit of a discrepancy in Miss Dugdale's logic. She

instantly accuses

TB of foul play: "It's clearly a black op by Tory Bear - perhaps even endorsed by Conservative HQ - and it has largely worked."

Kez, TB knows that working for Foulkes can hardly teach positive moral values and a respect for the law, but that is libel plain and simple and it needs to be retracted. You have made a shoddy assumption and you  have absolutely sod all to back up your claims. 

Woops.

Someone should really sit Labour Chief Whip

Nick Brown

down and explain to him just what all this twitter malarkey is all about. It seems Gordon's enforcer might have made a bit of a first-day-on-twitter-error:

So lets just get this straight. The Chief Whip is using to

Twitter to tell

other Labour MPs when the election is going to be.

Well now we know.

Quote of the Day

TB just spotted this little gem in the first edition of the

Standard

:

“No one should pick up a peerage with his P45 — least of all Mr Martin, who has so damaged our democracy.”

-Liberal Democrat peer Lord Oakeshott

T-Shirt of the Week: Carswell edition.

Does exactly what it says on the tin. Yours for a tenner

here

.

Have you seen this man?

MPs beware if this man approaches you in the corridor. He is dangerous, has previous and will say anything he thinks you want to hear. Tom Harris

says

the race is on, so it must be true, and guess which name he is banding around?

John Bercow must be stopped at all costs in his ridiculous attempt at becoming the Speaker. He's been at it for years, buttering up Labour benches with blatant overtures like this:

Even if it means not having a Tory in the chair, this turncoat and spineless slime ball must be stopped.

Quote of the Day

Foulkes has made a complete arse of himself over the last few days. He should go and spend more time with his three salaries.

-

Iain Dale

Shock: Man has balls to resign.

TB has woken up with another cracking hangover and though he has been milling around the flat whimpering and drinking orange juice for a bit, only just managed to handle SkyNews. And what fantastic news there is. Seems Douglas Carswell needs a medal for ousting the Speaker. No doubt Foulkes will be on television in a minute saying this was a big conspiracy of public school, southern chaps who are just in Parliament for japes and banter and don't like Glasgow riff raff like Michael Martin. What utter bollocks. The Speaker went because he was a crooked thief way out of his element and out of control.

So a man who has lost the support of MPs, his own party, his own officials, the press and the people of Great Britain resigns. How novel!

Over to you Gordon.

The final furlong...

Seems that team Dave and CCHQ have gone into the final stage of opposition. From now on the focus of the Conservative message will be to demand an election at every opportunity. Add your support by signing the petition to call for an election

here

.

The problem with the European polls may be the impact that UKIP has, but to be honest they won't be playing much of a threat in a domestic election. TB can't help but feel that the threat that the BNP pose is being hyped up and certain elements of the Labour party are getting a little too hysterical about it. TB has faith in the British public and maybe he is just being naive when he feels that once people actually get into the voting booth there won't be the feared mass exodus to what is essentially just a racist version of the Labour Party. People are fed up with politicians and fed up with Labour, they have brains though. As far as TB can tell people just aren't going to bother to vote rather than go to the fringes.

As for the local council elections... well the problem comes in the fact that the Conservatives won so many bloody seats last time round that the ones that are up for grabs are strongholds for other parties. Fingers crossed though that we can increase our share of the vote and seats but don't be expecting a landslide.

To use a well hated and cliched phrase, at the end of the day there is only one election that matters and that is the one that Gordon Brown needs to accept is inevitable and have the balls to call. He will go down in history as the one of, if not the worst Prime Ministers in history, yet he still has a chance to leave with a little dignity.

No one likes to kick a man when he's down but Gordon would be a fool to think that this country will stand for another year of his amateur and dangerous shenanigans. He takes decisions on a whim that are only for the benefit of himself, not even his party and err country? What country? Brown needs to get in the car and go see the Queen. He might even retain a scrap of dignity if he did.

Something tells TB that this is going to be messier than that though.

Unbelievable.

TB was out and about but just managed to get to a television in time to see the car crash TV that was Michael Martin's statement. Not only was it clear that he wasn't reading his own words but the questions afterwards were brutal. He had no idea how to handle the debate and had to rely on clerks. Surely he would have known what questions would be coming up and would have at least had a decent answer prepared if he thought he was going to go down with a fight.

The ball is very much in Dave's court. An official nod towards Carswell's motion from DC and it's all over for the Speaker.

Crunch time for the Speaker.

What's Michael Martin saying to Gordo?

Douglas Carswell's motion of no confidence has come from nowhere and now looks as if it could spell the end for Michael Martin, a man to bring shame to the esteemed position he holds. Carswell and Dan Hannan have had a profound effect on British politics in the last few months. The have shown not only the

ideas

but have the balls to put their money where their mouths are.

Isn't it time we started listening to them?

More Labour lies.

Fraser Nelson

hits the nail on the head:

"What David Cameron would do is give £200,000 to 3,000 millionaires." That's a lie, rather than an exaggeration. He's referring to inheritance tax, the "millionaires" he refers to would be (how you say?) dead and rather than "give" money, Cameron would propose that the state would not take it from them. The word "lie" is often overused, so let me put it this way: if this claim were made in a document regulated by the London Stock Exchange, then Mr Brown would go to jail. But this, alas, is the type of person we're dealing with: someone who plotted his way to No10 and who tries to stay in power by spreading lies and smears about his opponents. 

Toast.

Getting laid - Fail.

"A man who tried to hire a prostitute to take his 14-year-old son's virginity as a present was spared jail today.

The Polish national drove the boy to a red-light district in Nottingham, suggesting he pick a woman they saw standing at the roadside.

But the 42-year-old father was arrested because the teenager had chosen an undercover police officer, Nottingham Crown Court

heard

."

Fail.

That bloke off the telly...

TB didn't manage to catch any of these appearances but it seems that Michael Rock, the Conservative Future national chairman has been rather high profile these last couple of days...

Shane Greer better watch his back.

Bilderberg Group meet.

Full conference report tomorrow morning but is

this

why George Osborne had to rush off from Perth yesterday afternoon?