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...

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:

Legal policy

We remove comments in line with our moderation and comments policy but anyone who wants to report anything they deem to be offensive or a potential libel or copyright infringement should contact us immediately and the relevant comment or post will be reviewed for removal.

All content is viewed and used by you at your own risk and we do not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of any of the information. The views expressed are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of LabourList.

Legal Advisers: Schillings

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...

Carlsberg don't do Parliamentry sleaze, but if they did...

Just when Gordon's weekend couldn't get any worse, the news

has broken

in the last hour of yet more personal data losses. So the Labour government is incompetent as well as corrupt. The fact that a few shady Tory MPs took a couple of dirty twenty pound notes in brown envelopes for asking the odd question in the dying days of the Major government, while inexcusable, has been eclipsed by the news that Labour Peers are accepting hundreds of thousands of pounds to physically CHANGE THE LAW in the interests of their clients.

Labour don't do sleaze in half measures. It's never some crumpled fivers slipped under the table its eye-watering sums in return for absolute pure corruption. Under Labour you can donate a million quid and be exempt from advertising laws, donate to some education policy and get a peerage and a ladyship for the Mrs... and now the news that if you want to change the law, sod lobbying the Commons - just bung a old Peer anything from 30 to 120k and bob's your uncle...

When a Tory does his job and exposes the government for lying he gets his home and office searched and is arrested... These Labour peers should have exactly the same done to them. The Green treatment should be invoked by the Met first thing tomorrow morning. These Peers should be dragged kicking and screaming from the Parliamentry Estate by their overfilled boots.

This government is corrupt to the very core. The Labour Party, from the grass roots to the very top, stinks of greed and lacks an ounce of the morality and equality that name once apparently stood for.

Shame on them.

People 1: Government 0

You wouldn't know it if you relied on the BBC website as the source of all your news but fall out from the global economic downturn has brought down it's first government. The normally placid people of Iceland, a country that has just a hundred people in prison, 700 police officers and the most notorious bankers in the world, have

risen up

against their government forcing resignations at the very top. As

other bloggers

have highlighted, this isn't your usual lefty rent-a-mob protesters but desperate citizens rising up against the state. They weren't trashing Starbucks or private businesses but instead targeting government institutions and the police.

Despite the BBC and co attempting to stop the people of Britain getting any ideas, these riots have spread across Europe. TB wonders just how long before the frustration and pain the British people feel will turn to anger...

People shouldn't be afraid of their governments... you know the rest.

The curious case of Carla Jones...

A few weeks ago TB got a Facebook friend request from someone he had never heard of, this isn't unusual as most of his readers that add him are people he has never met. However the fact that Miss Carla Jones had no photos, no interests other than than Party related groups and was only friends with a plethora of tory PPCs led this bear to be rather suspicious. Other members raised their concerns about this mysterious woman who no one had heard of yet was adding everyone. Well to cut a long story short, this morning the CCHQ press office had a tip off that Carla Jones was in fact a not so elaborate ploy to sniff out dirt on tories from their Facebook profiles. Who was behind all this? Well the Daily Mirror of course.

Luckily it seems most people now have rather sensibly updated their security settings and think twice now about what they post on Facebook for the world to see. Not long ago the Mirror attempted to infiltrate CCHQ but got busted with IP addresses being traced and it seems their underhanded tactics have back fired once again.

The whole affair smacks of desperation.

More on that NUS stuff...

After the fun and games at the the NUS conference on Tuesday, most people are once again reminded what a useless waste of time the National Union of Students really is. With the hard left storming the stage and generally making a tit out of themselves in an anti-Israel protest the Labour Student leaders and other factions (who are funded and supported the

Union of Jewish Students

,) were quick to attempt to stamp out the trouble.

The World of JR

, though a little too pro-NUS for TB's taste, has more. 

However despite the Conservative Future national executive rejecting plans to lead an escalation in coordinated CF involvement with the NUS, it seems some of the more pro-members are looking to get more involved. TB has been chatting to KCL tory and blogger

Benjamin Gray

about his bid to get elected onto the NUS block of 15 at the main conference in April.

Benjamin said: " I feel the National Union of Students has for too long distracted itself from the real issues affecting students. Students risk being clamped in a pincer of recession and uncapped fees, and it is imperative that the NUS lead the way in supporting those students most at risk.  Spending hours debating the blunter points of foreign policy is a luxury we can no longer afford.  Where once it was an annoyance, at moments like these it is utterly irresponsible.

I am running to oppose those who would see our union derailed and divided in petty campaigns to stir up tensions on campus. I am running to help rebuild a national union that can both campaign in public and lobby in private, wielding real influence and commanding authority. I am running for an NUS that offers real leadership, not empty rhetoric and tired slogans.  I want to be part of an NUS at the heart of education policy, engaging with students at all levels, rather than just talking to itself."

TB is not entirely sure what one man can do and without a couple of grand and a coordinated strategy to stand in all the posistions TB can't see CF making much of a dent on the NUS - especially now that the passed Governance Review has basically muted minority parties, but he wishes Benjamin and any other tories planning on standing the best of luck.

Detail of how to nominate Benjamin can be found

here.

Obomber

It is being

reported

Obama has taken part in his first military action. An unmanned drone bomber killed 7 people on the Pakistan/Afghan border. The fact that the attack was on the the Pakistani side of the border means it has to have been an executive order from the Commander in Chief. 

TB wonders if President Obama might be rather hawkish after all...

Farewell Credit Crunch

So there it is

, the official news that the Pope is a Catholic and the British economy has entered into a recession. Now before you have a go at TB and jump on him in the comments for celebrating this fact, there is a just one silver lining to this latest development. The ridiculous expression "Credit Crunch" can now be consigned to the dustbin of history. Invented by a journo and irritatingly overheard on buses, in Starbucks, class rooms and trade floors across the world for the last eighteen months, it has become the most ridiculous buzz word that everyone knew secretly meant the R word. 

Thank goodness we can just call it by it's real name now.

Free Douglas

The Standard

and

Iain Dale

are reporting this lunchtime that the rights' answer to Michael Moore, Douglas Murray, the author of

"Neo-Conservatism: Why We Need It

" and chief of the

Centre for Social Cohesion

has been banned from speaking at LSE. Douglas has been a big hit on Question Time and campuses around the country and can often be found entertaining young tories in the Carlton late into the night. His refreshing style and fearless attitude has got him into trouble before but for a university to attempt to gag him with the classic line about public safety is deeply concerning.

Tory Bear has lots of eyes and ears around LSE who have been reporting in the last year or so about just how eye-watering the extremism of the left is becoming on campus, but this is a step too far. He was meant to be chairing a debate on the merits of Liberalism against Islam and it seems the LSE has pandered to the hard left in stopping things kicking off in what was likely to be a lively evening...