PMQs Thoughts - Clegg Getting Good

After his dreadful first outing at PMQs, Clegg has grown into the role. It wasn't as if his opponent was up to scratch though. Straw was slow and sluggish and wasted six questions on one vague accusation from drug addled, booze soaked, hack with an axe to grind.

Though clearly wanting nothing to do with the Coulson stuff, fate interceded and Clegg found himself slamming the party of "the dodgy dossier, cash for honours and Damian McBride" It was a cutting and well delivered put down. One line that was clearly being saved for Dave was the fact that Brown had called Coulson the day he resigned from the News of the World to tell him he had done the honorable thing and had told him he would go on to great things. The Labour front bench were suddenly quiet and could do nothing but shrug. Funny how quickly their opportunist fit has unravelled.

Nice to have PMQs back and as entertaining as the ding dong was, we learnt nothing. Labour wasted their one chance this week to hold No10 to account, instead deciding to waste it on political point scoring and hysterical rants. Some have said Labour have realised they are in opposition this week and they better get used to it. With a performance like that they are going to be there for a very long time.

Clegg 5 Straw 1

CCHQ's Fax Pas

There was some confusion last night about Oliver Cooper. Well more than ususal levels at least. Rumour spread that he had nominated himself for Chairman of Conservative Future at the eleventh hour and this true gossip quickly spread. However when the nominations were published last night it seems he missed the deadline. As thought CCHQ...

Though after a mild fuss and documentary evidence that the papers had been faxed well before the cut off of noon yesterday was presented, it seems there was a change of heart and the nomination was accepted.

And what was the cause of the problem?

Well it seems someone at the slick, well oiled, election winning operation, had forgotten to put any paper in the fax machine... 

The election results will be announced on the 27th September once a suitable brewery has been found for the celebrations.

Hilley Running for Deputy

TBG

got to scoop.

Full list published at 5pm apparently.

Cooper Seeks Keys to Office

Currently going for deputy

but sees an opening. He will split the rights vote if he continues his key message that he is sound. Good news for Cameroon Howlett.

Cox Statement

TB seems to have kicked things into action. These statements were meant to be coming out tomorrow morning apparently:

Today it has been announced that my former opponent, Simon Cavalier Jones, has pulled out of the race to be the next CF Chairman. In addition, it gives me great pleasure to note that he is throwing the whole weight of his campaign team behind Cox2010.

Firstly, I would like to thank Simon for really contributing to the debate about CF's future. He has shown himself to be truly committed to the future of our party and the election campaign so far has been a testament to this. Work for anyone in the current climate must be a priority and I think, though being a difficult decision, Simon has shown great maturity in coming to his conclusion and I wish him the best of luck in his new job.

The fact that Simon has chosen to support me means that one thing is absolutely clear: Cox2010 is the best choice for CF. It has the right values in which to shape CF, it has the determination to succeed, and it has the support to match to act as.

CF is no longer purely in the mindset of winning elections. The Conservative Party is now in government. As a result, as I have said all along, we need to act as an effective pressure group within the party to make sure that we are listened to seriously. That means taking a firm line in opposing the AV referendum, avoiding at all costs the introduction of a grad tax, supporting young people starting up businesses, and making sure CF is a force to be reckoned with.

We must not forget that CF is also a body that needs to foster a sense of fun, and we must be clear that we are all young people. Although politics is important, we must always remember that CF is a place to meet new people, make new friends and have some decent banter. Cox2010 has always encouraged this mindset, and, tempered with my experiences at Nottingham, CF will continue to offer the best there is.

Simon Cavalier Jones has now supported my campaign to become the next Chairman of CF. He, and his campaign team, are now fully on board and helping Cox2010 in anyway they can. I urge you all to follow Simon's lead and support the only campaign that has the experience, dedication and values to make CF an even better organisation. That campaign is Cox2010.

It will be interesting to see how Howlett plays this. He can't ignore it and the SCJ backing brings a northern team and infrastructure to the London based Cox campaign. If Cox wants to take advantage of it, this could be just the shot in the arm that his campaign, and this race, so desperately needed. And that's meant with no offence to Simon. TB wishes him well in the new job. Oh and thanks for lunch.

SCJ Statement: Slams Howlett

In short.. "New job, no time, Ben played dirty, I like Cox"

Long version:

"Over the past few weeks I have been contemplating withdrawing from the race for CF Chairman. Sadly this is not due to any scandal or interesting revelations in my private life, but due to my starting a new job with a Hedge Fund. Unfortunately this role will mean I have less time available to be involved in political activity. As such I feel the only appropriate thing for me to do is withdraw from the race.

I would like to thank all the people who have helped with my campaign and supporter's, who have shown that CF is in rude health and with the right leadership can only prosper. My sole aim in running was to continue the good work of Michael Rock and see CF develop into a proper organisation, one with unity, purpose and above all a sense of fun.

I will not be seeking any role with the new administration, but I like all true Conservatives do care about the Party and its future. For that reason alone I am backing the only candidate in this race who has proven he has the skills, maturity and strength of character to assume the mantle. That candidate is Craig Cox.

We need a Chairman with the right values, the right sense of direction and somebody with a sense of fun. CF is a Volunteer organisation, it depend's on hard working individuals on the ground not just a central executive. The executive should exist to focus on national issues such as funding, proper communications, training and national events. We can not afford to pander to the pointless bureaucracy advocated by the Howlett camp. CF needs focus and this can only be delivered by Craig Cox.

One of the biggest factor's in my support of Craig is his strength of character. During this campaign, Craig has behaved like a true gent, he has been honest and respectful to all comers. I will not say too much about the other candidate, but I do not believe he has the strength of character or integrity to lead.

I am proud to say that East Midlands and Yorkshire CF are moving across to back Craig, and I urge anybody who was supporting me to do the same."

All to play for...

Simon Cavalier Jones Out of CF Race, Backs Cox

Expect a statement from Downing Street imminently, great distraction from the old Coulson nonsense.

Unite Against Fashionistas!

Don't Panic on the English Defence League:



Brilliant. And brave!

Labour Lackies Leap to Lines

Yes TB is meant to be on holiday but while having a cursory look over Google Reader he did have to chuckle when he read the same story on two of Labour's leading blogs published just minutes apart.

During the election, the left made a huge hoo haa about coordinated attacks from the right and suggested that just because Tory bloggers had a beer together meant that it was all a big right-wing inside conspiracy and we all took orders from CCHQ. Which is bollocks, and why half of them don't return TB's calls anymore.

Over the last few weeks its becoming increasingly clear that the left are guilty of the very thing the riled against. Look at what

Political Scrapbook

had to say a moment ago, quickly followed by

Tom Harris

, (a man TB thought above following zee orders):

Coincidence? Perhaps, but given it happens so often, TB would be intrigued to see that email (with the link to the

PR Week story

they have both cribbed) that inevitably floated around the lefties... Any minute now Left Foot Forward will claim the scoop.

Staycation

If you hadn't guessed already by the silence TB is on his holidays...Still

tweeting

though.

AWOL

Lots of stuff to catch up with when TB has a moment, but in the mean time you can read an interview with him by the charming Jess Freeman from Total Politics

here

.

Errrr

Hi, My name is Martha and I'm one of torybear.com readers.

I'd like to thank you for the excellent information I've found
on torybear.com, it's one of my favorite readings on the web.

I live in Globe, Arizona where I have the passion to share
with family and friends some tips to increase awareness on
healthy eating and its impact on the environment.

I figured you might be interested in including a guest article
for torybear.com about a new research from the United Nations (UN) that
suggests a correlation between climate change and meat consumption.

Article in form of a little guide with a sample vegetarian recipe
to help your readers experiencing with this topic and perhaps
discuss the topic at hand.

Please, take a minute to consider this; it would be a pleasure
and honor to contribute!

With your support we can educate the public about the dangers of
excessive meat consumption and hopefully contribute save our environment.

Either way, thanks for reading and keep posting your excellent
information on torybear.com.

Hope you a good week.
Sincerely
Martha Volz

FFS.

Something For the Weekend

TB is off to deepest darkest Hackney, well Victoria Park rather to see Tiesto tonight... something he has wanted to do for a long time, not least of all because of this little video:



Will try ask the man himself what he thinks...

A Day at the Races

After a week of side swipes and bitching it's nice to see at least two of the candidates coming out today with some policy ideas.

First this morning we had Craig Cox flexing his sound muscles with

a call

for young members to back Gove's school reforms and push for the bill to allow Free Schools to make a profit:

"If a restaurant knew for sure that no matter what it did, it would always get 100 customers a day and make enough money to pay its overheads, what incentive would it ever have to make a nicer soup or update the furniture? None. And it's exactly the same with schools."

This afternoon has also seen Ben Howlett release the first batch of his manifesto commitments:



It's heavy on campaigning and pledges to fight AV. The first of ten such documents apparently. Intriguingly a lot of what was discussed by all the candidates at the hustings has made its way into the document, but fair play if you are first out of the block with getting it on paper. The downside is you give your opponents the ammo with which to pelt you with. Hopefully the fight will remain on these issues rather than getting bogged down in bitching as last week did.

A rumour hit TB's phone earlier. A good point raised - nominations haven't even opened yet. Have we seen all the declared candidates...?

Left Hand, Right Hand

Eric Pickles

writes

today:

"I’ve set about abolishing all the Rs. Regional Spatial Strategies, regional housing targets, Regional Assemblies, Government Offices for the Regions and Regional Development Agencies. We’ve said our goodbyes. The arbitrary regional tier of government administration and bureaucracy was unpopular, ineffective and inefficient. So it’s the end of regional government: we need a new era of localism. Nowhere is that more important than in the economy."

In other news, the Conservative Party youth wing has locked in a complete regional restructuring in their new constitution. Regional tiers of bureaucracy.

New CF Consitution Sprung on Members- NME stripped to 4

Just in time for the election a new CF constitution. TB hasn't read it as he has better things to do, but he imagines someone out there will want to:



Let him know if there is anything interesting in it.

CF - News in Briefs

See The Blue Guerilla's

"Where is the Love?"

UPDATE: With regards to the email bitch-fight between Muheed Jeeran and Alexandra Swann that is referenced in

tBg's story

, Cavalier Jones writes:

"I would like to make it very clear that the only people authorised speak on behalf of my team are, myself and the joint campaign directors: Hamish Stewart and Philip Smith. No other individual has the authority to speak on behalf of the team."

That should end this email nonsense.

Cox says Hiya

Following the

news

that general legend Andy Stephenson MP has been made Vice Chairman of the Party, one candidate has been quick off the mark:



Maybe Stephenson should swing by a hustings if he is looking for inspiration about what needs to be done...

CF News In Briefs

Compare and Contrast

"I have come to your country in a spirit of humility. I know that Britain cannot rely on sentiment and shared history for a place in India's future. Your country has the whole world beating a path to its door. But I believe Britain should be India's partner of choice in the years ahead. Starting this week, that is what we are determined to deliver." - David Cameron in

The Hindu

today

V

"David Miliband was beginning to look as accident-prone as Mr Bean last night after yet another adventure backfired. After ruining his chance of the Labour leadership by gurning at the cameras while brandishing a banana, the Foreign Secretary's visit to India last week was labelled a "disaster" by the country's leading politicians." - 

The Indy

Jan 2009

IPSA Rage

TB's bag-carrying amigo is raging. The £6.5m omnishambles that is the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has been forced to extend the deadline for MP’s first claims. Initially the organisation had insisted all claims had to be submitted within 90 days, but MP’s are so bemused by the system that most of them are yet to make a claim.

So far just 279 out of 650 MPs have claimed expenses, whereas the rest have funded office equipment, travel and hotels out of their own pockets. The deadline for their claims would be 7th August onwards but IPSA has rushed out a note to say that MP’s will have until 1st October for these first claims.

While TB has little sympathy with many Members, the fact that they can't even run an office is a joke. There is a difference between lining their pockets and actually doing their job. The staffer told him earlier; “We all agree with the new expenses rules, but IPSA itself is an expensive shambles. Anyone wanting to go into parliament today would need at least £10,000 in cash to cover IPSA’s inadequacies. The fact is that the system is confusing and bureaucratic. They need to abolish IPSA asap.”

Sounds like a plan. They should just give them all debit cards from Parliament bank account. Statement published monthly. Simples. 

CF News in Briefs

Howzat?

Ben Howlett launched his website this morning:

He's also managed to pick up backing of CF stalwart and once blogger

Caroline Hunt

. Check out his site

here

.

CF News In Briefs

Mandatory Self-Promoting Post

Given TB has dropped from sixth to the twenties on Wikio in the last few months he isn't expecting great things from this year's Total Politics poll. Traffic peaked in the run up to the election with well over a 100,000 pages views every month but obviously the traffic has dropped off with the rate of posting. Either way if you have enjoyed swinging by here then please do vote for TB in the poll... rules below!

Cheers!

It's that time of year again, when Total Politics asks you to vote for your Top 10 favourite blogs. This is the fifth year of the poll. The votes will be compiled and included in the forthcoming book, the Total Politics Guide to Blogging 2010-11, which will be published in September. For the second year running, the poll is being promoted/sponsored by LabourList and LibDemVoice as well as this blog, and that of our publisher, Iain Dale.

The rules are simple.

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to

toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com

5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.

A Comment on Comments

TB knows that lots of campaigners are all very excited about the CF elections, but such a battle will not be won by bitching about each other in the comments of this site.

Over the weekend one IP address attempted to post 30 comments in favour of one candidate and presented  some pretty spurious and libelous allegations. You know who are. If you want to end up in the High Court, go get your own blog.

Moderation is going to be a lot tighter now and repeated offenders will be blocked. TB is all up for hosting a forum for debate, but when it descends into smearing from one camp pretending to be another, save your breath, the comments won't get though.

Here endeth the bollocking. Sorry to get all Tim Ireland on your for a moment.

CF - News in Briefs

CF - News in Briefs

As you may have guest TB doesn't quite have the time to blog here like he used to. However in loyalty to those who have been readers from the beginning he is keeping an eye on the growing Tory-bun fight that is brewing over the internal Conservative Future elections. Without time to write vast analysis he will be trying each day to do a News in Briefs about the campaign. If you have any ideas for a good quick forty word hit, then do ping him an email.

Had to start somewhere...

"Would You Like A Chicken Supper Benny H?"

And so to Mahiki last night for the first of the Conservative Future chairman hustings that was piggy-backing on the Young Britons' Foundation Summer Party. Cocktails were flowing, though compared to years passed it was a relatively sober bout.

That wasn't to stop a howler though...

Questions began with an in-depth discussion on Europe. The floor probed the candidates far deeper than David Cameron was on the issue on the election campaign. Answers ranged from "No" to "Maybe" to "sort of in and out?" Other questions on reform were all rather dull and the usual lines about communications were pushed out.

It wasn't until a cheeky grenade was lobbed in that there was the night's only shocking incident. Candidates were asked "Which politician do you most relate to and respect... in Northern Ireland?"

Given that he was speaking in a room of Thatcherite right-wingers, Ben Howlett's attempt at getting the Fenian vote look spectacularly inappropriate. He cited Gerry Adams as "a conviction politician". Some were left speechless that Howlett, who had used a photo opportunity just 48 hours previously with Lady Thatcher to promote his campaign, endorsed the man who chaired the IRA Army Council that sanctioned the assassination attempt on her at the 1984 Conservative Party Conference in Brighton that left senior Tories dead and disabled for life.

After that the rest of the hustings seemed a little subdued and low-key. TB liked Cox's "Policy not Petrol" sound-bite and Cavalier-Jones did well to hold his own outside of his northern comfort zone and bloc.

Howlett has the chance to try to redeem himself tonight as the candidates will come together again for 

another hustings

at the Barley Mow on the Horseferry Road at 7pm. The event is in aid of Help the Heroes. Once again questions in the comments if you can't make it.  

Memo to Howlett - tread carefully. 

PMQs Thoughts - Amateur Hour

Well that was slow, messy, and amateur. Interruptions meant it never really got going but there wasn't exactly much to work with in the first place. It makes you realise just how far Dave has moulded PMQs to his own style and uses it to bash with ease. Clegg's opening joke was cheap and crashed. Not sure about the dissertation line either...

Straw isn't exactly suited to the combat style of PMQs and its pretty embarrassing when you make Harman look good at this. He started too quietly and by the end of his questions he was bellowing and came across rather dreadfully and gruff. Bit jumbled on the substance as well. Think Clegg would benefit from a bit of "practice" at this too despite his scathing put down.

Clegg warmed up once the questions were thrown open to the Backbenches, but the duel is really what mattered. His defence of the coalition at the end was very good, hit the Labour record hard too despite the best efforts of the Speaker.

Once again another piss poor performance from Bercow. Funny he never interrupted Gordon when he went on with reams of tractor stats and obscure defences of Labour's record. Who knows what point Clegg was going to make? He then completely cocked up the fact that Straw had only had five questions, it looked like it was his first time too. And once again he went with the "shut-up because people are watching" line. The public don't hate PMQs battles. Maybe Bercow could explain why it's the only Commons session that people watch? Every week. And enjoy?

CLEGG 3 BERCOW 0 STRAW 2

VERDICT: Dull, amateur, pretty much a draw.

Cox out the Blocks

Craig Cox

has launched this video this morning outlining his supporters and ideas:



"Sound ideology" is quite the dog whistle and intriguing to see a candidate pledging to go up against the government.

While Cox is a late starter, Ben Howlett is still on his nationwide tour, last seen somewhere outside of Scunthorpe "listening". Just kidding, but it looks like he did have an intriguing chat

last night

.  

Simon Cavalier Jones

is picking up endorsments of branches, but whether they will all fall into line outside of his northern heartland block remains to be seen. Cox's entry has raised the bar for the rest and they need to get their web and media stuff up to scratch quickly, especially Howlett.

There is a hustings tomorrrow. If you can't make it leave your questions in the comments below and TB will see what he can do.

Spot the Tory Mole

Ed Balls is showing off his London campaign team in a new

video

:

Not sure who the young Gekko is on the left? He doesn't look too progressive though...

What was that great line? "When I get a hold of the son of a bitch who leaked this, I'm gonna tear his eyeballs out and I'm gonna suck his f***ing skull."

Is Balls training a minion?

UPDATE: Has CCHQ spinner and CF darling Richard Jackson gone rogue?

Drinkies

Just a quick reminder about next week's YBF summer party:

Date: Thursday, 22 July 2010, 8.00pm
Venue: Mahiki, 1 Dover Street, London W1S 4LD
FREE Mahiki Cocktails – but get there early!
Entry: £20 (£10 for full-time students and graduates)

There is a CF hustings before at 7pm, which as TB is apparently not allowed to chair he will instead ask awkward questions from the back at. All the details and tickets

here

.

Things will be quiet around here as TB is off to Russia. Back at the weekend...

Simon Says...

...please chill out.

TB wasn't sure what Simon Cavalier Jones was expecting in this race but:

"It's shocking how tribal and petty these elections have become. Elections should be fun, ideas should be banded about, people should be lobbying candidates and drinking with them. It's amazing the amount of rubbish talked about these Elections and the smearing.

CF should be fun, we after all are the Young Generation, it should be about meeting friends, politics and party's. Not spouting off arrogant nonsense and accusing people of things they have not done. Sadly this behaviour is what drives people away from us and it must stop.

Most people outside of CF see us as about as progressive as Cliff Richard! We need to show that as a Party, we are normal young people and the tone of these elections is not helping. Let's have some fun, have some laughs and reduce the amount of pomp involved. I for one promise to buy a beer for the funniest comment below (for or against me)."

Has that cold feeling of "what have I done?" dawned one of the candidates? Oh well.. will hold him to the beers.

Cometh the Hour, Cometh the Cox

So the CF bandwagon rolls on.

London Spin

is putting TB to shame with the coverage though there have been complaints about the accuracy of all the details...

Howlett is racking up the miles, and the bartabs apparently. Activists were left unimpressed when he told an hustings crowd he was going to "feed the parking meter" before attempting to drive to another campaign event elsewhere. "Forgetting" to pay his bill on the way out...

Simon Cavalier Jones has locked in the north if their reactions to visits from Howlett are concerned. His team are picking up momentum. Given the rate of bitchy emails flying about TB would say SCJ is gaining on Howlett who is still the frontrunner mainly on name association. Nothing like a bit of mudslinging to amuse TB.

But that is all set to change as it becomes clear that the rumours are true - Craig Cox, student politics supremo and NUS conversation starter, staffer to various MPs and bit of a lad, is due to throw his hat into the ring.

Cox who has reduced lefties to tears with philibustering NUS debates and adding (literally) hundreds of amendments. He could and probably should write a book on how to piss off student unions. He's not shy of a fight and whilst this is still unconfirmed, Cox's candidacy would certainly liven things up.

CCHQ  and the other candidates are going to love the rumour that the slogan is the rather harsh "Cox not Cocks."