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'.

Something blue...

TB couldn't help a chuckle when the news reached him of a certain clash of dates. Two couples, consisting of various Conservative Future darlings have ended up organising their weddings on the same day. Young tories have already started falling into brunette and blonde camps as both brides are refusing to budge. This could get vicious.

Someone get the popcorn.

Video - Did Dave Tell Gordon to F'off?

To those who moan at TB for swearing please go be illiberal somewhere else. There was much discussion during PMQs of whether Cameron mouthed fuck off to Gordon. Deservedly so, he could even have sealed that elusive and very much mythical deal if he had said what most of the nation wants to say to Gordon as soon as possible.

Well thanks to the technical wizardry of anonymous commenter Calais TB can bring you the video for you to decide:



What do you reckon?

PMQs

Well that was more like it. No wonder the benches were left crying "more, more" after Cameron and Brown's duel. The Prime Minister was rattled from the outset and ended up repeating his condolences for fallen soldiers twice in an horrendous attempt to buy time before answering Cameron's question on the TA u-turn. He was reduced to buzzwords and begging Bercow "nooo no, noo Mr Speaker they were wrong." If that is all he can say then it is no surprise that even Mandelson appears to have given up on him.

Dave went in for the kill and Brown's new line that the Conservatives were wrong on recession and wrong on recovery was batted away by a simple list produced by Cameron of all those countries that are back in growth. It utterly destroyed Brown's line that Britain was leading the world out of recession. Nick Clegg also said something about climate change. Brown was flustered and cack-handed and looked exhausted. How long can he go on?

TB is trying to track down the footage now but there was some speculation that Dave might have mouthed something that every single hard working British citizen would like to say to Gordon's face...

Watch this space.

Normal For Norfolk

Congratulations to Norfolk for once again proving what a joke shop it is. TB isn't surprised that they haven't quite grasped the power of Google yet given that they still point at aeroplanes up there.

Perhaps they would have been

more accepting

of Liz Truss if it had been her cousin she had the affair with.

AWS Row Rumbles On

Two more constituencies have upset the central party by rejecting the undemocratic and backward idea of All Women Shortlists. Party members in Wigan and Makerfield are furious at the moves and have started petioning.

"What we want is a really good choice across the board, not just women. We want men as well so we can pick the best, literally the best for our area."

TB couldn't agree more.

But hold on,

what's this

?

Kelly! Kelly! Kelly!

The

BBC

seem to have been extremely well briefed last night, do they have the whole report per chance?

MPs will be banned from claiming the cost of mortgage interest payments on second homes under proposals being put forward, sources have told the BBC.
It is understood the Kelly committee, which has been reviewing MPs' expenses, will recommend MPs will only be able to rent second homes in future.

The committee is also expected to recommend MPs will not be able to employ family members in the future.

It is understood the changes will be phased in over five years.

So far so good, while the phasing in could perhaps be done slightly quicker, TB isn't complaining, yet. This better not however be an early splurge of the boldest parts of the report. While these changes are very welcome, it must not be forgotten that Parliament's problems go a lot deeper than family members and mortgages. The entire expenses culture needs up-rooting. The

Sunlight Centre's

Disinfecting Parliament, a shadow Kelly report has set the bench mark for what needs to be done.

Have a read

. Kelly cannot afford to cock this up.

Lets hope he got to see one of those copies requested by the committee.

Brown Backs Blair - Scorched Earth Begins

PoliticsHome

is

reporting

"PM to actively campaign for Tony Blair to become EU president." And so it begins. How the mighty fall. For every waking hour for over a decade Brown plotted and spewed bile in an attempt to end the career of Blair and yet now he is in enough of a rut to turn to him in a dark hour. No doubt a deal has been cut for Blair to come back and campaign for Gordon, if Gordon is in power in May (Which incidentally is looking increasingly unlikely.)

When his arm was twisted this morning Cameron said he would work with Blair if he absolutely had to, but was less than happy about the idea of President Blair. This is a cheap political shot by Brown. He knows he is down and out and knows it will be Cameron that would actually have to work with Blair, something Brown no doubt could not fathom ever happening again.



The timing of the announcement is equally cynical too. Nice distraction from Brown's massive u-turn on cutting the TA spending budget. It also shows just how little respect Brown, Blair and other Euro-extremists have for the process of the Lisbon Treaty. Lest it be forgotten that it has not yet been ratified and the Czechs might yet throw one massive spanner in the Blair machine by destroying the job he so desperately wants. TB has to smirk at what Gordon's blessing will do for the Blair campaign though.

Jonah doesn't exactly have a particularly good track record for endorsements.

Consultation Fail

In yet another sign that this government is descending into farce, the Home Office have written to the Leader of the Opposition to pick his brains about how best they can improve the service they provide:

(Click to read the letter)

If Civil Servants wants to know what Dave wants to do for this country then they should bloody well tell Brown to call an election. TB recommends Dave replies with contact details for Chris Grayling, who has a few ideas about where to take the Home Office!

TB is finding himself saying it a lot recently, but seriously, you couldn't make it up.

Mandelson Briefing Against Brown?

According to Tory "just call him scoop" Rascal, who has it on good authority from a senior, backbench Labour MP, Mandelson is back on the dark art crack. There is some gold in the Rascal's post and the whole this is definitely

worth a read

:

"According to the MP, even some of the Prime Minister’s keenest supporters seem to be resigned to his having to stand aside. ”A few of us think there’s a good chance he’ll walk away, and now even some of his friends are nodding at the dissenters. It would break him, which would be a terrible shame – he feels that if he does walk away, his life to date will have been wasted. I’ve known Gordon for years, and I think it’s a shame it’s come to this – but the party has to get through.

The man’s an absolute gift to the other side. Tory MPs are shitting themselves about the idea that Gordon might not lead us into the election. Without him, Cameron knows we’re in with a fighting chance.”

Asked what had brought the PM to this point, the MP was adamant that the “beginning of the end” was Brown’s ill-received YouTube video on MPs’ expenses. “As soon as we saw that,” he said, “we knew Gordon was in trouble. What f**k-wit would look at that video and let it go online? Gordon is surrounded by sycophants who lack the guts to be honest to him when he needs it most.

Whatever people think about Tony, he was always willing to listen to criticism. No one dares to speak out to Gordon. They’re all too bloody frightened to just say, ‘Gordon, this is shit. You look like a maniac.’""

Explosive stuff.