Friday, 23 January 2009

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.Italic

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...

Fact Checking...

ConservativeHome are running a series of posts at the moment discussing possible candidates to be given peerages under a tory government. It seems the

excellent suggestion
of National Convention head honcho Don Porter has given a certain elected CF official the perfect excuse for a bit of brown nosing...
Might want to check your facts though Owen. Don Porter is not and has never been an MP- did you even read the post?

Thursday, 22 January 2009

Champagne Swampies

You may remember Tory Bear going after the PlaneStupid eco-rahs a while back. Now Sister Bear has given them two barrels in a this week's Spectator. My Lords, Ladies and Gentleman welcome to the age of the

Champagne Swampies
...

"Chief among the Champagne Swampies is Tamsin Omond (Westminster, Cambridge, daughter of a baronet), the Heathrow protest pin-up and founder of Plane Stupid. In her wake follow other equally glamorous Swampies: actresses like Miranda Richardson and Emma Thompson; then the pop-star contingent headed by Chrissie Hynde.

They’re the rich, often famous or aristocratic eco-activists who found a purpose in life saving the world from global warming, and as the recession eats away at less affluent people’s green resolutions, they’re becoming ever more noticeable."

Wednesday, 21 January 2009

Rhythm of the night...

Now TB has taken a lot of stick in the last year for not being Obama's biggest fan but he can't resist one more crack at him. Now this isn't an ideological thing, or an unwarranted attack but TB just wants to throw this out there...

He really cannot dance.

The British public rejects socialism.

Trot thug Tommy Sheridan has failed to win yet another election. Tommy was tonight booted off "celebrity" Big Brother... Shame.
The boos that greeted Tommy as he left were fantastic.

Most compelling evidence yet...

Tory Bear has often wondered why Obama had his Superman complex but the fact yesterday he was indeed bullet proof must be his best claim to the title yet.
He was
apparently
wearing a custom made bullet proof suit made by the Colombian designer Miguel Caballero. The fabric is seven times more flexible than a Kevlar vest and can stop a shot from a 9mm revolver.

That is pretty cool!

Tuesday, 20 January 2009

NUS shambles.

He would happily have chewed of his paw than have to sit through another NUS extraordinary conference in Wolverhampton, but word is reaching Tory Bear from various hacks that today's conference has been hijacked by Student Respect. They have have taken over the stage in a protest about Gaza and are apparently refusing to sit down and generally being very naughty.

Update: Apparently the trots went wild and stormed the stage, bringing procedings to a somewhat aprupt end. The Governance Review vote was pushed forward and passed. NUS reform is finally done.

Thanks to
Benjamin Gray
for the photo.


+++ Developing +++

Barry's big day...

Obama trounced McCain. It was inevitable and Tory Bear is over it. Regardless of his own political beliefs the inauguration of Barack Obama will be a pretty incredible thing to watch and TB has a six back of Bud cooling in the fridge. Washington is preparing for its $170 million party and the world is waiting with baited breath.

Just in case anyone thought it was all inauguration balls and dancing in the streets today, from Noon there, 5pm here Obama is the leader of the free world and let's take a peak at some of things he promised in order to get himself through the door:

  • Close Guantanamo Bay -
    June 2007
  • “Unrestricted rights” regarding travel and money remittances to Cuba -
    August 2007
  • Stand firm against CAFTA -
    August 2007
  • Remove all troops from Iraq -
    October 2007
    - Broken
    December 2008
  • Face-to-face talks with Iran -
    November 2007
  • Amend NAFTA -
    December 2007
  • No action against Iran without Congressional approval -
    December 2007
  • Get our troops out by end of 2009 -
    January 2008
  • No permanent bases in Iraq -
    January 2008
  • Unshakable support for Israel -
    May 2008
  • Giving Israel $30 billion in aid -
    June 2008
  • Switching focus to Pakistan -
    July 2008
  • Switching focus to Afghanistan -
    July 2008
  • Universal health care by end of first term -
    May 2007
  • Ethics reform (restrictions on lobbying) -
    June 2007
  • Merit pay for teachers -
    July 2007
  • Sign Freedom of Choice Act -
    July 2007
  • Net neutrality -
    October 2007
  • Lobbyists “won’t work in my White House” -
    December 2007
    - Broken
    November 2008
  • Health care benefits for vets -
    December 2007
  • Financial aid to homeowners ($10 billion) -
    January 2008
  • Credit card bill of rights -
    January 2008
  • Will create searchable earmarks website -
    February 2008
  • No public financing -
    February 2008
    - Broken
    October 2008
  • Small business support -
    February 2008
  • Gay employment bill -
    April 2008
  • Raise cap on payroll tax for 3% of earners over $102,000 -
    April 2008
  • Raise $97K cap on payroll tax exempting earnings under $250K -
    April 2008
  • Roll back Bush tax cuts -
    April 2008
    - In jeopardy
    November 2008
  • Regulating oil industry (Enron loop) -
    June 2008
  • Helping college student loans (a $4,000 tax credit to help pay tuition and fees in exchange for 100 hours of community service. The campaign said the program would cost $10 billion a year) -
    June 2008
  • $10 billion for early childhood education -
    June 2008
  • 10% “universal mortgage credit” to homeowners who don’t itemize on their tax return -
    June 2008
  • $150 billion a year for ten years to reduce dependency on foreign oil -
    June 2008
  • Give American mayors more spending (”National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank” at a cost of $60 billion over 10 years) -
    June 2008
  • Windfall profits tax -
    July 2008
    - Broken
    December 2008
  • No NASA cuts -
    August 2008
  • 1 Million Plug-in Hybrids by 2015 -
    August 2008
  • Shuttle after 2010 -
    August 2008
  • $1000 energy rebates -
    August 2008
  • Will go line by line to check for unnecessary spending -
    September 2008
  • Tax cuts for 95% of Americans, anyone under $75,000
    October 2008
  • Not a single tax increase for Americans making under $250,000 -
    October 2008
  • Raise minimum wage to $9.50 -
    November 2008
  • 2.5 million jobs by January 2011 -
    November 2008
  • Appoint Republicans to Cabinet -
    November 2008
    - Kept
    December 2008
  • No smoking in White House -
    December 2008
  • Taxes done in less than five minutes -
    No date
Better get to work straight away Mr President...

Hat-Tip to the
allamericanblogger
for keeping the list updated.


Liberal? Democrat

Most of the younger Liberal Democrats Tory Bear comes across are normally quite decent people who are basically tories but can't seem to stomach going blue - far from the bearded and sandal wearing grassroots image of a Lib Dem activist. Every so often, however, he comes across a real odious little "liberal" bastard that makes the most cringe worthy of tory boys seem like Cameroonian miniatures. It's even more wounding when they decide it would be a good idea to take up video-blogging...

James Harrison proudly
boasts
he is the vice-chairman of Glasgow University Liberal Democrats and the campaigns and publicity officer for Liberal Youth Scotland. Well he is not doing a very good PR job in the bigoted and ignorant rant below. He opens with a corker about the two things that annoy him - gay Conservatives and the SNP...



James, or Jammy as he is apparently known to his friends, goes on to slag off LGBTory - the Conservatives official gay rights movement that has been personally endorsed by DC, Boris and other shadow cabinet big wigs, (TB will get round to writing about the reshuffle as some point FYI.) The organisation has over 300 members and plenty more supporters within the party and as Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, its head honcho, said when TB ran this video past her a moment ago - "I don't remember seeing any representation from the Scottish Lib Dems at last years Pride Scotia, or even the Lib Dems at Pride London. LGBTory exists not to create further divisions but to remind people you do not need to be gay to fight homophobia."

While it may seem like a good idea to bash the Tories again and again over Section 28, maybe "Jammy" should get his own house in order first. It's fair to say that LGBTory is the only gay movement within any of the political parties that is actually doing anything and actually registering on the radar with young members of the LGBT community. James asks "Why would you be a Conservative and gay? They hate you!" well Jammy, TB has news for you, Conservatives believe in freedom and right to live the life you want to lead, so it makes perfect sense that the Party is the natural home for anyone who wants to subscribe to that ideal.

As for his borderline homophobic comments well TB will let you be the judges on that one. Gay Christians also come under fire in his close minded little world... Wait for the classic at the end where he claims because he is a liberal he won't just slag you off because he disagrees with you politically. Hang on a sec, if this isn't Jammy slagging something off then hell hath no fury if you really piss him off!

What a horrible little man.

conservativefuture.com

TB has been a busy bear in the last week so apologies for the lack of blogging. Just catching up on emails and it seems a shiny new Conservative Future
website
has now gone live. This has been in the pipeline for awhile now and congratulations to Richard Jackson for chasing CCHQ to give the website address back to CF and for over seeing the new site.

Monday, 19 January 2009

Another old Face(book)

They must be taking this whole let's get online thing very seriously over in the red camp. Which old face has suddenly appeared on Facebook in the last couple of days?


Well if it isn't the King of Spin himself! His wall says he is planning on attending the European elections in May.

TB wonders in what capacity!?

Sunday, 18 January 2009

Tony Hart 1925 - 2009

Having been away from the computer for most of the weekend Tory Bear was saddened to hear the news that Tony Hart had died. Smart Hart is one of the iconic children's television programs of this bear's generation and Hart's career spanned more than fifty years.

Who could forget this cheeky mashup:



Image: B3ta

Saturday, 17 January 2009

Reach for the Stars...

Student hack Oliver Mundell (son of the Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland,) is a big force on campus and is branching out in new ways to help students.

Here he is discussing how to cut the cost of student life with Bradley from S-Club 7 who played in the Edinburgh Union last night. Given that Bradley is still touring as S-Club 3 and even stole his glass from the bar he is clearly a man who knows how to deal with living on a tight budget.

Friday, 16 January 2009

London launches with a bang...

TB is rather annoyed he couldn't make it to last night's launch of

London Conservative Future
... By all accounts it was a wicked night with over 200 people coming along and high profile guests Eric Pickles, Mark Field, Andrew Rosindell, Liam Fox and Ed Hallam entertaining the crowds.





Take note Lib Dems
. This is how you launch a movement and throw a damn good party.


Want to ask Dave a question?

In a new inititve DC will be taking questions at the first ever online policy launch. Head over

here
at 1.30 to check it out...

Won't get that on LabourList!

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Do you suffer from B.B.C?

Do not click

here
if you are of a nervous disposition, are eating or drinking, are easily offended, intellectually insecure or live in Hastings.

TB smells bacon.

It was billed as the students of Scotland rising up against the the tyranny of Israel. The socialists were there, as were the hippies, as were two very sinister looking chaps dressed up in full Hamas gear, but in the end the Edinburgh University on campus Gaza protest was a bit of a damp squid. 60-80 unwashed hippies turned out with some pretty half hearted chanting, meanwhile streams of students poured past the protest barely batting an eyelid and in doing so gave their tacit consent to Israel's quest for a sustainable peace in the middle east.

Eight police vans and a mobile CCTV unit, as well as the press, nearly out numbered the students. Instead of removing illegal masks or dealing with the menacing behaviour of said Hamas clad activists, who was it that came the closest to being collared by the law? Well the tiny minority of pro-Israeli students that were quietly watching. TB and a few friends stood quietly on the sidelines as the mentalists raged against a global Jewish conspiracy and when one person chose to display a simple but effective Palestinian flag with the words "Fuck Hamas" written on it, the police had a hissy fit. Grassed in to the law by the guy running George Galloway's rector campaign an argument about free speech soon erupted between TB and co and some very gruff coppers. Apparently it was this that was breaching the peace and not the hoard of terrorist loving scumbags that were yelling outside a library.

Lothian and Borders police should be ashamed of themselves. In response to TB's suggestion that freedom of expression was apparently still alive and well in this country, PC plod replied - "well I don't like swearing." Since when was the law in this country determined by the will of an individual copper?

Pathetic answer.