Err wrong campus?

So say you were were running in an election for an esteemed position, one awarded to someone who has shown their loyalty and commitment to an institution. An institution who in return will proclaim you their chief. In order to win this election it would be recommended that you reach out to as many students and staff as possible, rather than focusing on a tiny clique. So it comes to the weekend before the election at Edinburgh University for the new Rector...

And what does Lord George Foulkes

do

? 

He spends it at the Glasgow University Union of course, as guest of honour at... Yes, you guessed it again - the Scottish Labour Students Burn's Night Supper.

It's almost as if his entire campaign is either a pisstake, or just horrendously managed.

Wounder...

Word is reaching Tory Bear tonight from deepest darkest Hampshire. Dan Hannan MEP, recently selected for the safest seat in the country - #1 on the Euro Election South East list, was speaking to a flock of his most loyal fans at a dinner tonight. TB is surprised anyone made it though, as the flyer he received for the event when he was last in London failed to include the date or even the location.  While the more metropolitan Tories who did make the journey down weren't too impressed with what was described as "a airport travel lodge on a council estate," it was, however, Conservative Future national campaigns chief Patrick Sullivan who has been left permanently scarred by his venture from SW3. Details are sketchy, and obviously Mr Sullivan isn't answering his phone, but apparently the combination of a mad dash for a taxi and some ice has left him with a shattered shoulder and elbow and he might be staying in Hampshire for the foreseeable future. Patrick's leafleting and campaigning skills may suffer as he is apparently currently having his arm pinned back together...

Ouch.

Owned...

Resign.

I am not, nor have I ever been an Abba Fan.

Hilarious little

story

doing the rounds today about Putin denying he flew an Abba tribute band to a secret gig in the Motherland. One of the band members reports that there was dancing and much fun had by all.

TB recommends she avoids sushi resturants for awhile.

AC has a sense of humour...

Some of you may know that TB has a lot of time for Alastair Campbell, and he's pleased to see that he, or at least the person moderating his

blog,

has a sense of humour. What a relieve compared to other prominent, David Brent like, Labour bloggers. TB decided to see what could get through the moderation process and it does indeed seem that...

"2009-02-06 16:38:58 is it true you have the Burnley FC logo tattooed on your bottom?"

...is just fine! Also a bit odd that AC has included the footage of Mandy resigning in one of his videos that goes through the glory days of New Labour. How odd.

Comment away!

More spin and lies...

So Tory Bear is really beginning to enjoy this Rector election that is going on around him at Edinburgh while he is busy with his dissertation. Blogging has taken a hit in the last couple of weeks as he is a very busy bear. For those of you who are not particularly interested in what is essentially a campus election only have another few more days, so panic not.

This election is showing just how tired Labour Students have become. What was once a forceful and tight campaigning unit have become stale and old, as the video they have put together for the Foulkes campaign shows:

Instead of showing their candidate out and about talking to real students and staff, actual members of the electorate if you will, they instead chose to stage the whole thing with... yep you've guessed it... members of Labour Students.

It starts out rather tame... Just a little chat with the Chairman of Scottish Labour Students, must have bumped into him completely randomly on the steps of the Union:

Next we have the classic meet and greet shot...

Something tells TB that George might know this bunch though...

Firstly we have Matt McPherson, the campaign manager. Then Dean the Chair of SLS again, next up it's Laura Jayne Baker a former Womans Officer of the Labour club and finally Naomi Hunter, Vice President of the Students Association and member of the Labour Party.

Finally it seems George has bumped into a random student and is having a chat:

On closer look though it just so happens to be the chief writer of The Journal, a campus newspaper,

Paris Gourtsoyannis

... Hardly a random stranger. The only person missing seems to be

Kez Dugdale

, Foulkes's chief of staff and chief campaigner... Then TB wondered who was holding the camera...

The whole thing is a sham.

Great video from ConservativeHome...

And then there were two...

George Galloway has

pulled out

of the race to become the Rector of Edinburgh University. He claims that he doesn't have the time to fully commit to the role. While this may be true (he's barely been around to campaign,) it is more likely that he realised he didn't have a hope in hell of winning as most students either start meowing at the thought of him winning, or get genuinely angry about the hatred he has been spreading around through his stump speeches.

So it's a straight fight now between Foulkes and MacWhirter. Labour vs every other political party. A candidate in it for the prestige vs. a candidate who actually wants to help students.

Should be an easy choice now for the staff and students.

BFF

Barry and Tony didn't invite Gordon to their party...

Christian May goes after beaver...

Not as smutty as the headline but CF deputy chairman has gone after the LSE student rag... 

Read all about it.

NUS has money to burn...

Great piece over at

Students for Freedom

that TB reckons is worth reproducing in full:

The NUS advertises for a new regional organiser for the South West 

in the best place to find well-paid non-jobs: GuardianJobs.

£29k AND a car?! Compare that to the average university lecturer, who earns £31,840 a year, and obviously no car (duh!).  For the £29k of students’ and universities’ money that the NUS is throwing at its representatives, universities could pay for 700 hours of teaching at that pay grade 

at the suggested £41.23 an hour

.  Each of my eight courses has 100 or so students, and has forty hours of ‘teacher-student interface’ time a year.  That is to say, for the cost of the NUS hiring a regional coordinator to peddle its trash to the South West of England, 219 more students could have been taught for a year. Thanks for standing up for students’ interests once again, NUS!

Something tells TB that Oli Cooper won't be standing for an NUS position anytime soon.

Turning a blind eye?

Further to Tory Bear's story that Adrian McMenamin, the CBI's head of campaigns was writing for LabourList, TB got in touch with the CBI press office...

After an hour or two they got back to TB with... "No comment!" 

Special Ties... and special suits.

David Miliband represents the United Kingdom on the world stage. As he proved yesterday he

meets some

 of the most powerful people in the world, yet TB can't help but wonder if he is the worst dressed Foreign Secretary ever...

While meeting with the Obama administration, a President who is

famed

for his soft spot for very good suits, BananaMan Miliband rocked up in creased and very cheaply cut, dreadfully high lapel shocker. Now Tory Bear knows that the recession is taking it's bite but surely David, as the face of the best dressed nation in the world, can fork out more than £79 for his shiny

Moss Bros number:

He should look like our representative on the world stage rather than a Phones4U salesman...

Quote of the day... or week even.

TB doesn't mean to have a bit of an

Iain Dale

lovin' session this morning but has to highlight this from his interview with the new

CF website

: 

Why should people get involved with organisations like Conservative Future?

For the sex. Pure and simple. What other reason could there possibly be? OK, I can think of one. Because you want to do something to save your country. And by joining CF you will be joining an organization which is going to do its utmost to help candidates in marginal seats beat their opponents on June 4 2010.

The new website is very good and TB hopes the traffic is reflecting that. Well done to Richard Jackson who has been working hard in making this happen.

Worth the wait and beats the other parties youth websites by a mile.

TB warms to JP

John Prescott has fully embraced

blogging

.. he's even got himself a Blackberry. Now TB would have been happy to see the back of JP a couple of weeks ago but his blog is gaining force as his

banter fueled retaliation

to Iain Dale shows:

Classic stuff... Could it be Lord Prescott of the Blogosphere next?

McMenamin crosses the line.

After he set up various tory hate sites and attended the Derek Draper/Number 10 blogging love in, Adrian McMenamin went under the radar as his bosses at the CBI told him to pack the partisan politics in and focus on his job. At first McMenamin was a notable absence but it now seems however that Mr Hate My Tory Dot Com is back and is a fully signed up member of the

LabourList crew

:

What is it going to take before the CBI wake up and realise that one of their

employees

is taking the piss and making a mockery of their impartiality?

Writing for a LABOUR supporting website, having already been warned, must be too far?

For Foulkes sake...

Apologies for the lack of blogging. TB has been snowed under (haha,) with work and debating the Student SNP last night. Edinburgh University

Student Newspaper

have given George Foulkes

two barrels

this morning with a piece about his involvement with the firm Evershed and cash for access corruption. Once again however Foulkes is using his paid staff, who rather than dealing with the concerns of his constituents as an MSP are instead using their paid time to issue retractions to campaign staff to push around campus today

This message was sent in the middle of the day, solid proof of what everyone has known - Foulkes and Labour can't win without having paid staffers run his campaign. Here is what the message said:

If you come across a copy of Student Newspaper today - you'll see the Headline "Foulkes in Cash for Access Controversy." The story is written by one Liz Rawlings.
The basic gist of the story is that an unnamed academic has written a letter of complaint to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner about George's involvement with a law firm called Eversheds.
This unnamed complainant has asked the commissioner to investigate whether George has breached the Members Code of Conduct under section 5.1.6
In April 2008, an SNP activist called Andrew Harlick wrote to the Standards Commissioner on the exact same issue with the exact same complaint. After a 6 week investigation, the Standards Commissioner threw the complaint out entirely.
- There wasn't just insufficient evidence. There was no evidence whatsoever to substantiate the complainants' allegations.
George wants you to know that his work with Eversheds is completely above board and he has never tabled any motions or questions on behalf of a client. Such a practice turns his stomach as much as it does yours.
All this information was given to the Sunday Herald (who originally broke the story) by George. The Sunday Herald – the same paper which Iain MacWhirter writes for – chose not to publish it.
Student, and in particular Liz Rawlings - whose facebook picture sees her side by side with Alex Salmond – lifted the story directly from the Sunday Herald.
George phoned the Standards Commissioner this morning – whose office is yet to receive a letter of complaint about George from anyone.
Read into this set of events what you will – but George was keen for you, as members of the campaign to have the full facts at your disposal. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to get in touch.

George is on campus this afternoon continuing to proudly campaign for the rectorship which he cares so much about.

Best wishes,
Kez

There was a rumour afoot after Foulkes failed to show up to a debate last night that he is seriously considering dropping out of the race rather than face the humiliation of a dismal third.

Yet another Pyongyang style retraction from an increasingly desperate campaign.

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...