Rock makes a splash...

Seems CF Chairman Michael Rock's return to

political blogging

has caused quite a sensation. Iain Dale has the

story

, but it seems the left don't like a taste of their own medicine. 

The Ministry of Sound

Fancy going to be trained by some of the top right leaning organisations in the USA this summer? 

Further details are

here

and registration is now open...

Vowel, another vowel and err a conservative...

Carol Vorderman is

set to lead

DC's new initiative to improve maths teaching across the country. Is the tide of "celebrity" support heading towards the Tories?

TB wonders who will be next to be seen at Dave's party...

Exclusive: Let the games begin.

TB has often said that Conservative Future needs to become more political. 15,000 members is a big chunk of the party and yet internal political debate is virtually non-existent at the moment. Moves such as CF backing No2ID were a good start and now TB understands that the new CF website will play a big part in trying to spark some debate amongst the membership.

As far as TB can tell, an article will be run tomorrow from Chairman Michael Rock that attacks the BNP as a left-wing statist organisation and not right wing as they are incorrectly labelled. Far from the right-wing libertarian streak that currently dominates the ruling factions of the organisation. 

TB is not suggesting we head back to the pitched battles of the FCS but a little more political debate can only be a good thing.

Bored...

TB was bored enough to take one of those political compass quizzes: 

My Political Views
TB is  a far-right social libertarian
Right: 8.69, Libertarian: 6.65

My Foreign Policy Views
Score: 2.04

My Culture War Stance
Score: -1.72

Have a go yourself

here

.

Where it all began...

Tory Bear is having a lovely afternoon watching the Railway Children and exploring some

blogs

from across the pond. He just came across this obscure video from 1981 explaining the strange and new phenomena of reading newspapers on the internet!

TB's favourite line is the bit about not making any money out of this.. Funny given that the mainstream media now depends on their online content and advertising to stay afloat. 

Wonder where things will be in another 30 odd years...

So long Winston...

Barry and Michelle have been decorating their new gaff and it seems they have been throwing a few things out... 

One that caught TB's eye was the bronze bust of Winston Churchill that Blair arranged for Bush to have on display in the West Wing. President Obama has purged the White House of all things Bush related in has arranged for the bust to be sent home. 

Predictably replaced it with Lincoln...

Fancy a flutter?

Tory Bear trusts the

betting markets

far more than the polls...

Sorry Gordon looks like you won't see another Christmas in Downing St...

Bercow4Speaker

TB spotted this one late but it seems John Bercow is continuing his one man crusade to butter up the left in order to launch a bid to become the next Speaker.

This time

he is praising Harman and calling for positive discrimination. TB can't help bit think for every single vote he picks up on the Labour benches he will be losing one on the tory side...

And let's not forget the voters of Buckingham...

Damage Limitation

So the Labour Student shit has hit the metaphorical fan tonight. Tory Bear's last story has caused a flurry of activity in the normally charming and placid, calm and composed world of student politics at Edinburgh University tonight. As far as Tory Bear can tell there has been outrage in Labour Students and a botched witchhunt was undertaken earlier tonight. There has been outrage elsewhere that this election is defiantly not about Labour, but before anyone forgets - about the staff and students of Edinburgh. 

TB first got wind of the story published earlier tonight from an anonymous tip-off and now it seems after an evening of furious activity aimed at one particular member of the university Labour club, the following statement just pinged into TB's inbox. Deep Throat revealed so to speak:

"I would like to apologise unreservedly to both Labour Students and George Foulkes for comments I made to Tory Bear. I spoke out of line, out of context, and inaccurately represented a friendly conversation I had with a Labour student. I can only apologise if I suggested that the member was put under any pressure, and I further apologise for suggesting any lack of support for George Foulkes within Labour students. It was inaccurate to suggest that any individual put pressure on them. What I should in fact have said was that there was inherent pressure for any labour supporter or student to support the Labour candidate. "

Euan Oliphant 

Edinburgh University 

You can all be the judge on this one.

Owned.

He walks right into the trap... classic stuff!

So which Lord is

next

?

Exclusive: "This isn't about George, or you, it's about the Labour Party"

Tory Bear has said it before and will say it again - the Labour Party from the very top, to the grassroots is in a pretty desperate state of affairs. Now you may have noticed that TB has been focusing somewhat on the Rectorial election at Edinburgh in the last few weeks and though some have suggested this isn't exactly high profile news, one campaign in particular has flagged up some fascinating insight into the inner workings of the Scottish Labour Party. Party elder Lord Foulkes has had a colourful career and is now looking to settle into a cosy retirement as a member of the Edinburgh establishment. However things aren't going exactly to plan. Despite being the first candidate to declare, his campaign has got off to a rocky start and has only began clawing back, in terms of impact, in the last couple of days. The campaign team is dominated by members, past and present, of Labour Students but it seems that not all of them have been fully on board from the beginning. TB's sources tell him that it has taken some serious heavy handed techniques from the highest echelons of the party to whip Foulkes's team into shape. It has come to Tory Bear's attention from sources close to the top of the Foulkes campaign that a particular member of the Labour Students was taken aside in the Scottish Parliament and threatened not only by Foulkes but by Iain Gray, the chaotic leader of the Labour Party in Scotland.

TB understands that the individual in question, though a very active member of Labour Students was not happy to support Foulkes as he did not agree with his voting record or outlook on key issues. However Mr Gray can be quiet persuasive it seems: "It'd be a shame if you're career ended here" he apparently said, adding "George is very important in Scotland, and he has a long memory..." The individual in question, for the sake of their career, has now bitten the bullet and is signed up to the campaign under sufferance. No doubt "This isn't about George, or you, it's about the Labour Party" can be a forceful message when whispered in your ear by the Leader of the Party.

As one would expect Gray's not so charming gate keeper denied the story as "nonsense" but there was a slightly more chaotic and nervous reaction from Foulkes's office when TB put this story to them earlier today. (This is what happens when you employ students to run your office, as is seemingly the case with Foulkes's continued employment of Matt McPherson, his campaign manager. If that isn't the case then TB wonders what Mr McPherson is doing answering the phones in an MSPs office.) However both Gray's office and Foulke's henchmen refused go as far as to call TB's source a liar. McPherson stated "I can categorically assure you that no one from within George's Rectorial campaign team has ever issued a threat to anyone." but gave no comment on whether anyone above the level of student team, someone such as Mr Gray had been involved...

Foulkes expected to walk this election for Rector and now that things are not going his way he is calling in favours from his high powered colleagues. The quotes may be dismissed because they are anonymous but Tory Bear is protecting someone who, having been threatened before, isn't too keen on rocking the boat too much. TB is however willing to vouch for the authenticity of the source and has spent the last 24 hours checking out the story. For the leader of the Scottish Labour Party to be putting a bit of stick about, to be bullying members half his age and twice his integrity shows once again just how stale and tired and nasty the Labour Party has become.

He told the BBC that he and his wife were "living the grime scene"

It seems Iain Dale's old North Norfolk rival, Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb is down with the kids. His son is a

music producer

and Lamb has

mortgaged his house

to help out the blossoming career of grime artist "Tinchy Styder"

The scene that is more associated with crack and the odd pistol, rather than MPs turning up to gigs in suits, has been a bit of an eye opener for Norman. Dismissing the criticism of the grime scene he said "Inevitably there's a diversity within grime or urban music. There's stuff that is accessible and there's stuff that's not. Sometimes the lyrics in urban music are quite challenging, but there's other stuff that's really good and clever."

Well that settles it then. Brup.

L is for Labour...

Further to TB's story earlier about Labour spinning the campus newspaper's polling it seems that their cyber team have been

hard at work

:

20 votes in one hour... who are you kidding Kez?

It's funny that the Labour campaign has been picking up today given what Tory Bear has heard about some strong arming going on from the most intriguing of places...

Here's a political hot potato... catch!

Tory Bear has had a busy couple of days, including fun and games yesterday with the Young Britons' Foundation heading up north. As part of their nationwide tour training activists up and down the country, YBF took the Scottish Parliament by storm yesterday afternoon...

With intensive media training, a very sound chat with Murdo Fraser (mid budget negotiations,) and the best dressed activists in the country the day was a great success.

The drinks flowed late into the night and Edinburgh University's Tories are now fully prepared to face the big wide media world. If you would like YBF to come to your campus then TB recommends you get in touch with

YBF

asap. 

How Labour would like polls to be conducted...

The race to become the next Rector of Edinburgh University is hotting, no warming up at a gentle pace. There are still a few weeks to go yet Galloway is out and about at the moment. Last night he led a protest outside the BBC Scotland HQ that TB happened to be next to at the time, more on that later, but it was essentially about twenty people, pretty pitiful really! Today he is doing the rounds of lectures theatres on the hour, pumping his unique brand of vile and disgusting, yet ultimately brilliant oratory into hungover 1st year undergrads barely awake in their 10am lectures.

While Galloway and Foulkes are all set to destroy each other, the more moderate candidate, political pundit,

Iain MacWhirter

seems to be hoovering up support left, right and centre based on the fact he is the only local candidate, living closer to the university than TB and is the only candidate who will actually have the time and commitment to be a working Rector - dealing with the students and staff he is elected to represent. While not everyone may agree with everything MacWhirter is standing for, there is something for everyone in his manifesto and he has been out and about every day rather than the fleeting visits of moonlighting politicians. The fact his name is not George is also helping.

Things aren't looking too good for ol'thumper though. Lord George Foulke's

campaign

is rumoured to be somewhat in disarray and this message, intercepted by TB, from the campaign manager (Foulke's paid Chief of Staff, nice work if you can get it!) to campaigners, shows just how manipulative the old Labour bunch get when they are under pressure:

TB bets that the grown up Labour Party would love to be able to manipulate the polls like this lot, but sadly that's not how the real world works now is it! Surely it would be more useful for the Foulkes team to stop and think about why they are so far behind in the polls (Foulkes's pro-war, pro-tuition fees, pro-Labour brown nosing and criminal record isn't resonating too well with the students,) instead of trying to spin their way into looking more successful than they really are.


In the end they are only kidding themselves and TB has a feeling the name association and painful yet true celeb appeal of Galloway, coupled with the genuine appeal of MacWhirter could force old folksy Foulkes into a dismal third place...

The joke is over...

This report

has been bouncing around blogs all morning but TB can't quite believe that Gordon was apparently in tears when he was begging his backbenchers to vote with him on Heathrow expansion yesterday. Along with reports of a

little accident

at a press conference last week, this is really too much. It's not a joke anymore about Gordon's marbles, there is a very real danger that the Prime Minister is not up for the job and his condition is hindering his government.

PMs should lead, not sob in front of their backbenchers...

Scary stuff!

Dolly bleats on...

The LabourList legal statement

says:

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How then does Dolly justify the innuendo and potential slander

this comment

?

He refuses to go into detail and instead hides behind Guido, a man and blog he has often berated. LabourList is a ridiculous website. It claimed it was there to help the Labour Party have an internal conversation but has just turned into a rubbish, badly designed, bitchy, tory hating, Labour love in. Where there is a serious need for somewhere for Labour to discuss just how the hell they are going to attempt to get out of the dire situation they are now in, (as

GoFourth

is proving,) LabourList won't be it while it focuses on the opposition. Instead of being a critical friend to the government it is constantly on the attack. Look in the mirror for heaven's sake! Gordon Brown is now behaving as if he is leader of the opposition and refusing to defend his own record, merely attacking DC and co and is seems Dolly is only too keen to help him do that.

If you have something to say about Lord Strathclyde and his actions in the House of Lords then say it Dolly, if not then don't drag him into your party's horrible sleazy quagmire...

Lib Dems getting desperate?

Labour are heading for electoral disaster and as much as the Lib Dems would like to hoover up some of the disillusioned voters, they are thank fully heading straight for Dave. However desperate they are getting though, invoking the conflict in Gaza for election literature in a London Borough by-election shows just how low the Lib Dems are willing to stoop...

Hat-Tip

Harry Phibbs

A lesson in DJ wizardry...

Cheeky sod

Machiavelli

has been raving about the Faye Lawson Mash-Up of DJ Tata's Spring Breeze that samples Obama since New Year's Eve. Ever the fan of a mash up, in every sense of the word, he has now managed to track it down, apparently to show TB how these things are really done...



Perfect way to start your Monday morning...