#PMQs

So there have it, the Kelly report is out there. TB was a little annoyed with the constant referral to what the new IPSA quango will be doing but can't complain about the recommendations. Could have gone further but Kelly has essentially been a good egg.

Let's see what the Party leaders and Bercow make of it. TB is busy busy, but will be tweeting away from PMQs.

Follow him on twitter

here

.

+Kelly Report Press Launch Live Blog+

09.28: TB is on his way to the launch.

Will Kelly disappoint or will he offer a bold and radical transformation of Parliament?

Read all about it here first.

10.05 clearly waiting for the headlines to be over on sky etc before starting. Flicking through the report. Good to see receipts for everything and no more mortage claims. Here we go....

10.08 Kelly opening gambit, the leaders agreed then, briefed them. Having a go at leaders for leaking. "The media briefings did not come from me". "Extremely irritating, frustrating for committee and those affected by recommendations that have not been altered at all."

Grumpy!

10.10 Fair and reasonable, not draconian, hmmmm.

10.12 -these measures will not make parliament only accessible to the rich. So don't even try that line Harman, Brown etc.

10.14 - central pay bank for rent and hotels. Cheaper and more effective, MPs can pay the difference if they want somewhere bigger if it meets criteria. Not quite the Olympic village but vast improvement.

10.15- LCA reduced. Sorry Mr McNulty.

10.18 - Kelly puts Harman in her place. Claims she supported the idea of family members not being employed during oral evidence in the summer but not this week.. silly wench.

10.20 Goodbye communication allowance, thank goodness for that. Costs should come out of office budget where it has to compete with other needs. PS MPs must meet the cost of travel home.

Kelly warning leaders not to renege on their promise to implement the recommendations. "leadership and determination" needed "however uncomfortable that may be"

Wants it in place by next parliament. - "if the will and the determination are there" it can be done"

"This committee will be watching."

C4 news get the first question- Kelly bats away issue of pay, fair as it's not in his purview.

Cathy Newman: Rental is more expensive in central London no? Is there a limit on hotel expenses?

Kelly: £120 per night for hotels. Has a dig at Dolphin Sq. City Inn rubbing hands together no doubt.

Nick Robinson is getting highly distressed that he hasn't been allowed to ask a question yet. Kelly clearly very grumpy with BBC leaks. Nothing for Sky yet either... Figures seeing as they both went to town on the report last week.

The Sun got a question, Nick Robinson checking watch.

Kelly says there is a considerable desire to get the expenses scandal behind us, in order to do that, MPs must accept the report as a whole and simply "get on with it".

Michael White praises the Fees Office. Predictably. Now bashing bankers. Seems lost and bewildered, slipped into Russian. Rambling. Drunk? Kelly "Thank you for that."

10.44: Nick Robinson checking his watch continually, still no question, getting grumpy:

10:45 if the HofC wants to bring itself into modern world families can't be employed. They don't do that "Even in Europe" - great line.

10.46: Sky get the question before BBC. Nick Robinson, steaming.

10.48: Michael White is now heckling from the back, defending MPs. Heavy night?

10.49: HAHAHA

Sunlight Centre

get a question before the BBC. Probably something to do with the

Shadow Kelly

report they published.

Ok Robinson nearly there, he's got the microphone in his hand.... is he going to get the last question as a thanks-for-coming-prize? Shame the TV news channels have already cut away. Very embarrassing for BBC.

10.58: Oh it just gets worse. Kelly handed a piece of paper saying ASK NICK ROBINSON A QUESTION. "I'm told you're looking gumpy Nick". Big bluster all very cringe.

Spot the Bear. It's a wrap folks.

The Big Day

Big day. Very big day. First up we have Sir Christopher Kelly reporting his recommendations for reforming Parliament. This is it boys, this is war. There will be tears, there will be tantrums but you can almost guarantee nearly all of what he recommends will come into force eventually. Many hacks are referring to today as the end of the expenses scandal. This is an extremely naive view though in TB's opinion.

Guido

has already reported a glimpse of what we are about to see once the local press get their teeth stuck in to their MPs in the run up to the election. This isn't the end but it will certainly be a landmark. Things in Westminster will never be the same, and for the better TB hopes.

The bear will be live blogging from the press conference so head this way for about 9.45.

Normally the high point of the political week, PMQs will pale in significance today. Will no doubt be a good one though...

Staying in Westminster TB will also be tapping away live at Cameron's speech about Europe that is at 4pm. Kelly will no doubt dominate the news agenda throughout the day and TB would be extremely surprised if DC pushes the story from the top of the bulletins at 10, maybe at 6. What can we expect from Dave then? Well if glimpses can be seen from Hague and Hannan who did the rounds of political slots last night, we might just get some form of referendum one day. There was much talk of renegotiating the UK's relationship with the EU - fantastic news - TB is willing to put money on the fruits of those labours being put to the country. Or at least promised to be by Cameron today.

Brown will get an earful and rightly so. He is the one that got us into this mess in the first place, and for the likes of Campbell, Bradshaw and Miliband to have a cheap shot about u-turns on referendums they can jog right on. Desperation is an understatement.

So it will be a busy day, but the bear is armed with his laptop, blackberry and a mocha-frappachino.

Let the games begin

Brave Sir Boris

TB is late to

this one,

but couldn't pass without comment:

"Boris Johnson has been hailed as a "knight on a shining bicycle" after he rescued a woman being attacked by a group of young girls."

What a legend.

Weep

Labour have done it

again

.

Graph from BOM.

Even the Loon-roots Think Miliband Is Wrong

If you ever want to see the fruitier side of extremism and left-wingery online in the UK just head over to

Liberal Conspiracy

for approximately fourteen seconds. TB couldn't help but notice that even the delectable

Soho-Politico

was scathing about the disgusting smear tactics that Labour and the left, especially those at Lib Con, have used against the Conservative Party and their allies:

Now, MacShane’s attacks on the Tories’ European alliance have not, in my view, been at all effective, and the emailed list of questions is also fundamentally wrong-headed. The questions are intemperate, and each take a ‘When did you stop beating your wife?’ type format, for instance:

4. Does he [Hague] support kaminski’s homophobic language?

6. Will hague be joining his new friends in Latvia when they commemorate the Waffen SS?

10. Does he agree with the Economist that he has created a “shoddy, shameful alliance” with Kaminski and Vile?

This type of non-serious questioning is counter-productive: it only aids the Tory counter-claim that Kaminski and others are the victims of a baseless smear campaign. If interest in the details of the Conservatives’ Euro alliance dies a premature death, or the public and media swing decisively behind the Tories’ narrative, it will be because of misjudged attacks like this.

The rest of the post descends into mindless drivel, a return to normality for it's platform, however it is interesting to note that Labour and Miliband's tactics are being universally derided from the right and the hard left.

At this rate it's just going to be James Macintyre and Miliband D left looking like fools. Shame.

Why I Left the Conservative Party...

No not the Bear, but fellow blogger Benny Austwick of

Cardiff Blogger

fame. Ben was the Chairman of the Conservatives at the University of Wales in Cardiff and has fallen victim of the PC brigade for the use of the apparently "racist term" pikey. So disillusioned with the reaction from the Party, it seems Ben told them where to go.

You can read exactly what happened

here

, but TB caught up with Ben last night and he had this to say: "The Party needs to stop presenting itself as 'squeaky clean'. Nobody believes it and is one reason people still don't trust David Cameron. I have every faith that he'll make a great Prime Minister but making out that he's the second coming of Christ like the press did with Obama is not something voters believe."

TB wishes Ben the very best of luck with his now very much independent blog.

Governor Obama

Didn't know Obama was standing for Governor of New Jersey:

Come on Jersey boys and girls give him a kicking.

Boot out the corrupt Corzine and give Obama one that will hurt.

It Wasn't Me!

Lord Gorbals of Mick in the county of Trough has shamelessly tried to put his hands in the air and

blame the Serjeant at Arms

for allowing the police, without a warrant, to enter Parliament and detain a Member.

"The Metropolitan Police has "strongly refuted" a suggestion that a senior officer tricked a Commons official over the search of a Tory MP's office.

Lord Martin told the committee on policing and Parliament he had been "let down" by Serjeant at Arms Jill Pay who failed to require a warrant for the search.

But he said when he asked her to explain her conduct, her boss Malcolm Jack, the Commons Clerk and chief executive, had stepped in and suggested she had been influenced by the police.

Lord Martin said: "The Clerk of the House intervened to say that Chief Superintendent Bateman had bamboozled the Serjeant and tricked her into keeping the matter from her immediate superiors."

A spokesman for the Met said it was "surprised" by the suggestion"

TB would expect this sort of cowardice from Martin's bestest friend Fatty Foulkes, but once again the man has sunk to new lows in his constant desire to prove to the world his total and utter lack of dignity, intelligence, respect, or grasp of reality. You can just imagine Speaker Lenthall trying the same line:

"May it please Your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and I humbly beg Your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what Your Majesty is pleased to demand of me... Try the Serjeant at Arms though. She's a soft touch."

The man is a disgrace, and enough of a reason to see the House of Lords reformed now.

Quote of the Day

'They make out we're stupid, saying details of her affair were on Google, but no one in Norfolk knows how to use Google.'

- John Mortimer, 62, a member of the Swaffham Conservative Club

talking to the Mail

Sort of vindicates what TB said the other day.

Rocking the Boat

TB wants David Cameron to be Prime Minister. TB wants a Conservative government. A Conservative Party in power because they have earned it, not because they are the lesser of two evils. A Tory government must open up clear blue divides between them and Labour. What is the bloody point of being just as authoritarian, backward looking and untrustworthy as the current thugs? Today has not been a good day for a party that is building an image of change and renewal of hope.

The normally top notch Tory media machine has lost control of the news agenda, and it’s only Monday. Today’s speech on healthcare has gone completely under the radar, and rightly so. There are bigger issues out there that need to be debated and thrashed out right now. When he first read the alleged news that Cameron would be abandoning the promise of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty, TB was raging. Although it is yet to be confirmed, (Cameron charmed his way out of answering

Paul Waugh

’s question on the matter) deep down it didn’t come as a surprise in the current climate and direction David Cameron is taking the Conservative Party.

Now is not the time to be wet, now is the time to be bold and radical and for once can a politician please just keep their bloody word? Clichéd? Yes, but surely the words "cast-iron" are not to be taken lightly? Yes, it seems silly to hold a referendum if the Treaty is already in play, but a referendum was promised. A conversation with the nation about Europe was promised. The news is trickling out that there will after all be a negotiation about Britain’s role within the EU. If this is a manifesto promise, it is a risky one - but then that is just what the Conservative Party should be doing. Taking risks.

So TB managed to refrain tearing up the membership card there and then and getting on the phone to UKIP, but that’s not to say the thought didn’t cross his mind. He calmed down and realised how silly that idea sounds. Things only got worse though.

TB hated the fact that the only person he found himself agreeing with in the emergency question debate between Johnson and Grayling, was Chris Huhne. For most of the vile socialist nonsense the Lib Dems pump out, it was refreshing to hear a genuine streak of liberalism echoing around the hostile and close minded chamber. It is an embarrassment that a party that should represent freedom and true, not spun lies, but true right-wing values of freedom and personal choice can be so authoritarian. It was painful to watch the party he loves look so ignorant and disgustingly stubborn. Even David Davis, previously of "For Freedom" fame, backed the sacking of Nutting.

The

polling today from PoliticsHome

makes for painful reading for any libertarian within the Conservative Party. This is not the time to skulk along hoping to avoid potholes in the road to power, this is not the time to condone the dictatorial, book burning, flat-earther Johnson. This is the time to be radical, to be rational, to be mature and have a long hard look at the thirty year old legislation that dictates our nation’s attitudes towards drugs.

The next generation of the Conservative Party is certainly more libertarian than the current lot and many, many people that TB has spoken to have been equally dismayed and furious, but there has been a casual air of acceptance that TB could just not abide by. As

Ben Brogan argues

, perhaps in the path to power a certain amount of “la la la we can’t hear you” is required from the leadership toward its grass-roots. It may reek of Blairism, but as Brogan says, a seventeen point poll lead can work wonders on party unity. However Cameron must not forget who it is that will run his election machine, who it is that will deliver him to No10, who it is that will be there in the good times and the bad. Cameron must not be afraid to stand up and extol the virtues of individual responsibility, liberty, free choices and fair consequences.

Today was a bad day for the Conservative Party, can some lessons please be learnt from it.

Gordon Brown Be My Angel

Bit late for Halloween, but TB has watched this twice now and is still in a state of shock:



Do not watch this if you are eating or have coffee anywhere near you.

I'm Harriet Harman!

This one

is hotting up...

Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman has been questioned by police for allegedly leaving the scene of a traffic accident and driving while using her mobile phone.
The MP attended a pre-arranged appointment with officers, believed to have taken place in the past fortnight.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman confirmed that lawyers were in discussions with police regarding the case and that they had offered ‘preliminary advice’ – but were awaiting further evidence.

A full police file is expected to be sent to the CPS next month, when a decision will be taken on whether to prosecute Ms Harman.

While it's no Chappaquiddick the killer quote allegation has to be "I’m Harriet Harman... you know where you can get hold of me." If true it's a resigning issue. Or should be, but then what exactly does a Labour woman have to do before she resigns?

No doubt Jacqui and Patricia will advise.

Cough...

TB sees the logic on not having a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty per say if it has already been ratified. Guess it will have to be a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU straight up right? There is going to be the promised referendum still right?

Right...?

Cartoon - Klaus Edition

Vote Blue, Go Green

Why have the Conservatives been so quiet on Alan Johnson's declaration of war on science? For a party that claims to believe in freedom and a desire to defeat the deficit, shouldn't ending prohibition be something actively considered?

Who cares if Cameron smoked up a few years ago, if anything it gives him more authority to discuss these matters than someone who hasn't. Brown's desperate attempts to reach the ARGH "skunk weed" middle England crowd should not be emulated.

Legalise and tax it.

The Angry Mob

AN effigy of the Prime Minister will be burned at the bonfire night and fireworks celebrations in Ripon

next week

.

The organisers, Ripon Gunpowder Plot, decided to make a giant Gordon Brown figure after consulting with sponsors and members of the public about whose face they would like to see on the Guy at the event, which takes place at Hell Wath on Friday, November 6.

Committee member John Richmond said: "Guy Fawkes did want to blow up the Houses of Parliament; it was a political plot, so we wanted to keep a political theme and with the economic situation as it is and an election coming up, Gordon Brown was the perfect choice."

Funnily enough TB is off to see some friends in Ripon for the weekend, he will keep his eyes peeled for the guy. Blogging will be lightish, but will put some stuff up on the train. Toodle doo.

When Will Macintyre Apologise?

Nothing yet from the New Statesman's resident livewire re

this

.

TB can't help but recall a line Mr Macintyre once said to him:

"I think this is more serious than you think. You are young and see politics as a game so that is understandable. But it's not a game any more, so up to you. Now."

"I am a Disgrace" - Jacqui

Question Time last night was

popcorn worthy

for Jacqui fans. Remember what happened to Nick Griffin last week? Well basically everyone's favourite over-promoted trougher had a similar, and equally deserved, pasting:

Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has accepted that she was "disgraced" by the scandal surrounding her expense claims.

Asked on BBC's Question Time, whether the expenses scandal had left her disgraced, Ms Smith said: "Yes, I have been, it’s obvious, and I made an apology to Parliament."

She went on to say;

"I don’t think people who have been disgraced should go to the House of Lords, but more importantly we need to put the system right."

before meekly suggesting that she didn't want to go into the Lords anyway, despite being almost guaranteed to lose her seat at the next election. A bit like muttering "shit party anyway" after a door-whore has made it perfectly clear that your name is very much not on the list and that you are very much not coming in. It was a shame nobody on the panel, or even Dimbleby himself, was quick enough to ask whether she supported the elevation of the disgraced Michael Martin to the Lords. A golden opportunity missed.

Jacqui should be going to prison not the upper chamber. While it is unlikely she will go down, she is most definitely nearly out of all our lives come May. John Sergeant hit the nail on the head with his priceless intervention:

"It is a puzzle to people, when you’re asked where your home was, and you were Home Secretary, and you didn’t seem to give the right answer", he said, provoking cheers from the audience.

He went on: "Was it a complicated question, that you therefore genuinely got wrong and took advice on? When someone says, ‘Where’s your home?’, I can answer that pretty quickly."

Just pay the money back and all this could go away.

Tories Seal the Deal?

When arch Labourite Wes Streeting is sucking up to the Tories you know they must be scared...

NUS WELCOMES CONSERVATIVES' BACKING FOR STUDENT VOICE IN FEES REVIEW

• Willetts warns universities are yet to properly account for £3,000 top-up fees
• Case not made to students and their families for even higher fees
• Shadow Universities Secretary says he would probably oppose higher fees if a vote took place today

Thursday 29 October 2009

The National Union of Students (NUS) today welcomed comments from Shadow Secretary of State for Universities, David Willetts MP, who this morning told an audience of student delegates at NUS’ Higher Education Zone Conference in Manchester that the student voice must be heard in the imminent review of fees.

David Willetts also said that if there was a vote on the fees cap today he would probably not support any increase, as universities had not properly accounted for £3,000 top-up fees or shown the benefits of higher fees to students and their families.

Wes Streeting, NUS President, said:

“I warmly welcome David Willetts' call for the student voice to be heard in the imminent fees review, and his consistent argument that the student experience must be at the heart of the ensuing debate on higher education funding.

“Students are now expected by those in power to contribute significantly to its costs. Therefore, we have a direct and unique interest in a review that will determine the future of fees."

The NUS has spent decades bashing the Tories so the fact that they are so blantently screaming for attention proves they have given up on Labour.

The times they are a'changin'.