Farringdonstreet

2003-10-13T10:37:00.000-07:00

Deckchairs on Titanic

No one will have noticed, indeed no one will give a cheese eating surrender monkey that the Lib dems have reshuffled their frontbench team. Still the someone's got to cover the minutiae of politics.

Personally I like the bit where Matthew Taylor says he hasn't been demoted and will be "key to the strategy". I suspect he will be about as key as a week old raspberry pavlova is to the reproduction of your average Tibetan yak.

2003-10-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Dynasty

Well done to Hilary Benn for becoming a cabinet minister at the department for international development only 4 years after becoming an MP. It isn't to suprising as both his father and grand father have been cabinet ministers before him but then they didn't have the handicap of a girls name.

As politics becomes increasingly the preserve of an ever smaller cadre of political hacks expect more of this. A large number of whom will happen to be republicans.

2003-10-04T06:20:00.000-07:00

Conference Cold

Thought I escaped this virilent disease but a sniffle on the inevitably delayed train (no driver!) home turned into a full blown case at work yesterday and now I'm knackered just as my to do list is as long as ever.

That said can't wait till Brighton next year.

2003-10-01T00:44:00.000-07:00

Confernece latest

Due to organisation difficulties, like booking accommodation at the last minute, had to sleep on a friend's floor last night which was fine except at 4:30 in the morning he started snorring like an elephant with a nasel infection. But hey beggers (bloggers ?) cant be choosers. Will enjoy having my own room tonight.

I was in the conference hall for Blair's speech. Is it just me or does anyone else find the spontaneuos adulation and
standing ovation before he's begun slightly embarrassing. This isn't a point about Blair rather the nature of party conferences and political leaders. Not sure the position of politics is raised in the eyes of the public when political activists behave like a school of superbly trained clapping sealions.

Haven't written as much as I would like as the internet cafes here at conference in Bournmouth tend to be open when the conference is on during the day which is where I am stewarding on the doors. But it presents great opportunities for people spotting. Paxman, Blunkett, Hutton ... ops no name dropping is a bad habit.

2003-09-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

Paul Richards

Met paul richards of the thinker last night at the london reception. The man who wrote How to win an election is for the first time since 1997 not contesting a seat. Bad Omen?

2003-09-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Blog at Bournmouth

Found out today that i'm going to be stewarding in the conference hall from Sunday morning. Also found out that Elinor Goodman political editor of Channel 4 is wearing new marks and spencer gear. Btw some guy with a big curely haircut and a dodgy blue patterned jumper just walked past, think he was the prime ministers chief of staff. Off to a reception...

2003-09-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

Beating about the bush

I culled this from a left wing email list

"Bush is to play a four day state visit to London in November. There is only one response to this - The TUC must call a stoppage of work
to coincide with the visit"

Somehow I suspect that not all trade unionists let alone all workers would want to lose a day's pay because Bush will be coming to London. The left's faith in human nature is incredible.

2003-09-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

Answer

I managed to crash and burn as expected.

2003-09-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Crash and Burn?

Politics is a funny old game. Nothing is ever all it seems not least in selections. Manchester Labour Party is deciding it's candidates for next June's elections
and there seems to be a marked reluctance for those who have their best days behind them (to put it kindly) to stand down.

So it came as a big surprise when one of the more elderly members announced, I hear, at his reselection meeting that he didn't want to carry on. This put the ward Labour party in something of a difficult position of finding a replacement candidate. Usually people have someone in mind and the personal statements that all people on the panel have to prepare are a waste of paper. But in this instance they appear to have got a bit carried away as seemingly anyone who could be bothered to write more than 250 words is on the shortlist for the vacant seat.

This happens to include me and 8 others apart from the sitting councillors. The final selection meeting is in a couple of days when there are going to be a lot of dissapointed would be candidates.

So if air traffic control lose anything from the radar next Tuesday night it'll probably be me crashing and burning.

2003-09-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

Pointing the way

I know that tom watson doesn't like it but I think compass will be useful in pushing the government in a less timid direction. Personally the bit I don't get is the £30 joining fee (waged) £15 (unwaged) is that the action of an egalitarian organisation? And they wonder why politics is increasingly a middle class pursuit.

2003-08-30T04:55:00.000-07:00

Deep in thought

One of the more highly charged shock troops of New Labour has set up a blog. Paul Richards is now sharing his thoughts with the world via the thinker where he, despite professing never trying to get himself in the guardian diary, lists his favourite LBJ quotes including:

"I don't want loyalty. I want loyalty. I want him to kiss my ass in Macy's window at high noon and tell me it smells like roses."

You would never have guessed that the man himself used to work for the Labour party.

2003-08-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

Plogging
The backbencher at the guardian has renamed political blogging "plogging". Sounds like a pogoing pensioner with leaky incontinence pads to me. Not sure I entirely approve...ummmm.

2003-08-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Would you like a quote with that

Just started a new job today. On the plus side the hours are good mon-fri 9-5, the location's good central manchester. On the minus side the pay's crap and I haven't heard about a pension which is slightly ironic as its working for a big pensions company.

2003-08-23T04:09:00.000-07:00

Conference

If any fellow bloggers are going to conference this year and want to meet up drop us line as I shall be stewarding. When I went as a delegate in 2000 there were some computers there that could be blagged for a bit of blogging, hopefully it'll be the same this year.

2003-08-23T03:54:00.000-07:00

Honesty is the best policy

In the email today had one of those dodgy ones about a business deal in a far off country no doubt a request for my bank details is on the way. But at least they were honest about their intentions. As the guy's concluding sentence says "Besides, I promised that you will not spend any of your money"

2003-08-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

New Weapon In Terror War?

A key characteristic of all fundamentalism is not only that they are at least slightly mental but also the absence of humor. So I am pleased to see the new MI6 weapon in the war on terrorism get a bit of coverage in the guardian today. Shazia Mirza is a female muslim stand-up comic believe it or not (and US immigration didn't). Lets face it, she's going to be cheaper and more effective than invading Iraq.

2003-08-21T03:36:00.000-07:00

Top Secret

After listening to the Today programme this morning with it's piece on the evidence from the Hutton Inquiry i've just had a quick look at the site. It's literally the second document i've look at but Dr Kelly's security clearence is fascinating for three reasons. One it refers to an international defence organisation. Is this echelon or something else? second it says that certain access is subject to indoctrination. What is this indoctrination? How does the government go about this? Third what is Codeword?

2003-08-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

Cowell not the quiet man

Simon Cowell is getting his waxwork done at Madame Tussauds. The Pop Idol judge's model will be able to sling out effective putdowns to the pain loving people who try and inflict their less than dulcet tones on other visitors to the waxwork morgue. Quite why people want to put themselves through that particular experience is beyond me but no doubt they will in there thousands.

This reminds me a little while back Iain Duncan Smith was considered to be immortalised in wax but was rejected as "as too boring for a waxwork" which if you think that most waxworks don't say anything or even move must be a very, very high level of boredom. Personally I rather like IDS, an absolutely splendid chap but then I really don't want the conservatives to win the next election, which they could well do, even with the assistance of the quiet man.

I think that it says something about modern society when the leader of one of the two main political parties can't get a ruddy waxwork made of himself.
Politics has always been the province of the political elite. I remember in my GV 100 course in my first year at Uni when they coloured the areas of the globe that were run as democracies with a slide covering 100 years of history and it took many, many slides before even relatively small areas of the globe were covered. The point is that democracy is a very precious and rare commodity. We may have grown up used to it but in historical perspective and in many parts of the world today it is a rarity. I think that we may be moving into a political era of low participation where for the most part the public don't engage in the political process except they will take direct action over problems that they see as affecting them. The models are the fuel protests and the stop the war movement and the mainstream political parties risk becoming the target of political activism rather than the method by which it is carried out. Such a situation will not, I suspect, lead to the overthrow of democracy in this or most other countries but rather to the marginalisation of politics from the national life. We risk having plenty of politicians to address the masses but they will all be at home, no doubt watching Pop Idol.

2003-08-19T03:16:00.000-07:00

statesmanorskatesman

This is a great site but what most concerned me was the really terrible handwriting displayed by some of the people who have been running the country. I mean not just bad like mine but virtually unreadable.

2003-08-19T02:53:00.000-07:00

Gotcha

Noel Edmunds is trying to revive his flagging career with a bit of mea culpa media coverage but I think he is being a bit hard on himself. I have fond memories of Noel's house party. The gotcha's, the gunge, Mr Blobby, really it is all you could want in family entertainment. It has been nearly a decade since it first appeared on our screens and I think if it reappeared today it would be cheap and tacky, such is progress. Perhaps it could go to cable, perhaps it's already on cable. At the time I thought it was great TV but I also liked Beef and Tomato Pot Noodle back then when I was a lad.

2003-08-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Questions...

Andrew Stevens of Blairista says if you want to see a Lib Dem animated -- ask them if they're a Labour Lib Dem, or more of a Tory Lib Dem. I suppose the animation comes from the poor Lib Dem having to know what day of the week it is and what part of the country he's in so he can give a correct answer. The worry must be unbearable.

Shit happens

Alas Hobart the industrial dishwasher has departed and I now have about the worst job i've ever had working in the laundrette of an old peoples home. Thankfully there are only nine more days.

2003-08-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

Hobart

Presently i'm getting friendly with an industrial diswasher called Hobart so I'm not sure whether I'll be posting until Saturday. Anyway shouldn't you be on holiday?

2003-08-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

Day Dreaming

It's fourty years ago this month that Martin Luther King made his famous "I have a dream" speech. I have been rereading it recently from Penguin's book of historic speeches and I think it's the best of the lot. It was quite simply a defining moment in politics. It's also one of the best written speeches I can think of, indeed it's quite beautiful so I thought I would take a liberty and copy it here so you can take a peak.

I HAVE A DREAM

Dr. Martin L. King Jr.

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed; we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream,

that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream,

that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream,

that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring

from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that.

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside,

let freedom ring! And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."

2003-08-11T03:58:00.000-07:00

New Model Conservatives: I think not

Peter Cuthbertson was having a gloat over on his blog about the fact that the tories have edged ahead in the polls. Shock news indeed. But the best bit I thought was in the comment section. When a guy called Ron posted his thoughts on modern Conservatism

To my mind there have been 3 distinct phases in the Tories over the last generation.

"A" is the Thatcher-based steamroller that won 3 General Elections on the trot and was never defeated by the public;

"B" is the disaster when Clarke, Heseltine and the rest of the europhiles were running the show (5 million votes lost in one Parliament - how does anyone think that Ken Clarke would reverse it as leader?);

"C" is the poor sods trying to clean up the mess after 1997.

So in Ron's opinion what do they need to do to fully restore Conservative fortunes?

So, to my mind, the best way of returning to power is to bring back as many of the successful people from "A" who are not dead or senile

Erm I think that limits it a bit. So who do you have in mind Ron?

"The number one change I would suggest, to really put some kick back into the Tories, would be to dump Theresa May and get Norman Tebbit back as Party Chairman. He's still razor sharp and clear as a bell."

Magic

2003-08-08T05:20:00.000-07:00

Victor in his birthday suit

I was reading the Metro on the bus this morning when a story involving tory councillor Victor Grayson caught my eye. It really is quite tragic that a balding middle age tory councillor thought that some "23 year old women" would email him out of the blue claiming to be on the lookout for an older man. Then I suppose being a councillor could have gone to his head, not every councillor gets to represent a ward called Wildridings.

If you didn't catch the metro far be it from me to stop you knowing about the salacious detail. Our erstwhile tory councillor received an email proportedly from a "Julie Masters" and promptly sent off in reply his sexual fantasies and photos of himslef in nothing but a suspenders belt, tights and his birthday suit. Somehow these were forwarded to every member of Bracknell Forest Borough Council and ol' Victor has had to resign from the Conservative Party.

What I thought was the clever bit was the way the story was turned so the issue was that he had been the victim of a dirty trick rather than his sexual peccadilo, which though very highly embarrasing didn't amount to even a peck on the cheek.

2003-08-06T09:42:00.000-07:00

Ready, Kelly, Go

Prime minister's spokesman Tom Kelly is well up to his eyeball in the stinky stuff with his "Walter Mitty" remark. Rightly too. Speaking ill of the dead may be factually correct, death doesn't bring sainthood only a date with an oven or reincarnation as worm food. But the least that people can do is to put off the traducing of someones character until the're fully six feet under.

While it was the moral crassness which most surprised me I still find it completely amazing that the press operation in Downing st can display such ineptitude. Clearly someone forgot the first thing of lesson one from spin school. Journalists will try and screw you over if they can get a good story out of it, so there is no such thing as off the record. Not even, or rather especially in the high octane world of political journalism.

I fear that this is such a massive howler of a balls up, that like Jo Moore burying bad news it's time to bury Tom Kelly.

2003-08-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

New Kid on the Blairista Block

One Andrew Stevens has taken the plunge and decided to become a gob on a stick with an opinion on anything and everything or as it's known in technical parlance a blogger. Despite calling me a token lefty and Tom Watson MP boring his Blairista is well worth checking out.

2003-08-05T01:33:00.000-07:00

Economics of the mad house

Last Saturday I got an old browning copy of The Great Crash 1929 by J.K. Galbraith. It makes interesting reading though I suspect that it wasn't on the reading list of the speculators who gave us the dot com boom and subsequent bust. It doesn't exactly boost my faith in human nature when we keep repeating the same mistakes.

One of the points it makes was that the highly unequal distribution of wealth made the problems of the depression much worse. The rich having much more ability to stop spending than the poor as the essentials of human survival make up a much smaller proportion of their income. The Metro today has a nice little table of top earners, the most poverty stricken has an income of Â£2,600,000 up a mere 31.2% on the previous year. David Harding of William Hill saw his salary increase by 615.9% to Â£3,400,000. It would be nice to think this was the result of improvements in the businesses they run but these massive increases go on year after year regardless of the economic situation.

There are people around today who argued that the minimum wage was going to be a disaster and cost 250,000 jobs. Clearly they are embarrasingly wrong. But I suspect these are the same kind of people that argue boardroom pay is fine at whatever hugly extravagent level it is set. Personally I wonder at the vision of society these people have. The CEO in the office, taking home that day more than the office cleaner will do in the entire year. Doesn't seem right to me.

2003-08-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

Hubble bubble

Perhaps I watched to much startrek as a kid but I am a big supporter of space exploration so I was saddened to read this story from the bbc. Hubble is to be shut down a year before the new James Webb telescope is to launch in 2011

Two facts are clear in my mind. Hubble could continue to be a useful tool until 2020 when irreplaceable parts such as the mirrors could be expected to degrade and it's said to give Nasa 33% of its results for less than 2% of its budget. Surely it is not beyond the ability of human kind to keep two space telescopes in orbit.

2003-08-01T03:44:00.000-07:00

Up the Gilligan path

Oh dear it looks like its going to end in tears as the sexing up argument rumbles on. Gilligan really put his foot in it when he gave his evidence in private session to the foreign affairs select committee

"He said simply his source had alleged that Mr Campbell was responsible for transforming the dossier, and it was fair to draw the inference that Mr Campbell had been responsible for inserting the 45-minute claim."

"Following further cross-examination, Mr Gilligan said: "We may draw the inference and indeed the committee may reasonably draw the inference, and everyone else has reasonably drawn the inference, that the decision to include the 45-minute claim was a decision made by Mr Campbell. That was the allegation of the source."

That wasn't what he said in the first paragraph. If any elected politician had said such things they would be rightly pilloried as as an equivocating, mealy mouthed lying bastard who was trying to mislead the public and quite rightly hung out to dry. Obviously standards have been slipping in the fourth estate of late.

2003-07-31T04:33:00.000-07:00

Flash Gordon to save the Tories?

I hate to indulge in party point scoring but the Tories really are in a terrible mess. Two friends of mine, one that has great affinity with several English counties because he owns most of them and the other who is quite a bit more right wing than Gengis Khan, are by natural inclination rock solid tory. Yet they have both recently left the tory party in distgust at the hopeless mess it's in.

According to the Conservative historian Andrew Roberts the thing that is going to save them is a Brown Premiership. While it is a bunch of Tory Tosh on two counts that a) there's going to be a Brown premiership and b) it would benefit the Tories, at least its very well written Tory Tosh.

Personally I was intrigued to learn that Conservative PM Andrew Bonar Law represented Glasgow Central.

2003-07-29T04:07:00.000-07:00

Getting friendly with Satan

Now as a confirmed Guardianista, the Daily Mail should only be viewed as the earthly manifestation of Satan himself. It's not said directly but in the mind of every guardian reader is the assumption that those who read the daily mail are the narrow minded, mean spirted hypocrites that may seem nice on the outside but are infact the people who brought you John Major. Not to mention the joyless moral austerity of Melanie Phillips. They are the petty minded members of the "i'm not racist but" brigade that haven't got over the fact that we don't have an empire anymore.

But a terrible thing befell me this morning. An old copy of the Mail was on the kitchen table whether this was placed by an errant housemate or just sent direct from hell i am not to sure. But I had a look at it. It appealled to all the worst intincts, nosiness, purience. I have to say I thought it was a damn good read. Not that I would actually pay money for the stuff but it has the same feeling as reading your best friend's diary. You know you shouldn't read it but you can't help yourself.

2003-07-26T05:42:00.000-07:00

Happy days at the SNP

A wee while ago I was doing some phone canvassing in a very English ward where the slighty dotty women I was calling was a convinced supporter of the SNP. After explaining that the Scottish Nationalist Party has about as much enthusiam for standing a candidate in the land of the sassenachs as I have for pogoing across the Gobi desert backwards she was unmoved but at least her unswerving support for her party leader is more than can be said for many of it's members.

John Swinney (apparently the SNP leader) is being challenged for the job by some political hick who is even more obscure than JS himself. How this effects the future of the nation i'm not to sure but at least its fun to watch.

As one former SNP member says "SNP members are banging their heads agianst a brick wall and there was a lot in infighting and backstabbing." If this was a party of government it would be understandable but to be doing this in opposition, that is impressive.

2003-07-24T04:19:00.000-07:00

The blog gets around

Looking at the IP addresses people have logged in here from:

Australia, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, South Africa, America, Brazil, France,
New Zealand, Greece, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czech Republic.

2003-07-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

James Graham emails!

I asked for people to let me know if the Lib Dems have got someone from the ethnic minorities elected and one James Graham, Organisational Vice Chair of the Green Liberal Democrats and a member of the Federal Executive of the Liberal Democrats no less has replied. Nice one James.

He writes: "Don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming we're perfect by any means. But we are making significant progress." Well that's good to hear. Indeed "the Liberal Democrat President is currently Lord Navnit Dholakia" Good Good.

"And if we're talking about MEPs, then I should point out that Saj Karim is number two on our North West list, and well placed to win." Yes and your preparing for government after the next general election no doubt.

There's more:"The first ever ethnic minority MP elected in the UK was Dadabhai Naoroji - a Liberal who was MP for Finsbury Central in
1892" I know the Lib Dems like to take credit for other peoples achievements but this was over 110 yeas ago and 95 years before the Liberal Democrat party was formed out of the wreckage of the SDP and the tiny Liberal party.

Obviously a career on the frontbench of Lib Dems politics awaits.

As I am fair to a fault and in the interests of impartiality you can read the email he sent me in full as he has posted it on his blog

2003-07-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

Not Parrotting the party line

Geoff Hoon was having a bad day on Saturday and it wasn't helped by my old friend Nick Parrott having a go at him during the national Young Labour weekend. Alas I couldn't be arsed to go as the best bits tend to get repeated in the Guardian diary. So it was no surprise that the cringe making contents of their exchange is reproduce in technicolour detail here.

2003-07-22T02:10:00.000-07:00

Shock News

The Brent East selection went to a white middle class male politico, the MEP Robert Evans. Interestingly the person who is replacing him as an MEP should he get elected is from the back half of the 1999 list and is an asian called Munir Malik.

Thought I should point out that its only the Labour Party that is actually bothered by the issue at all. If anyone can find an ethnic minority member of the Lib Dems who has got themselves elected to something please let me know.

2003-07-22T01:29:00.000-07:00

Dean 4 President

I just got this in my inbox:

The most incredible thing has happened. We've known that Howard Dean has gained momentum and is the only candidate in serious contention to win both Iowa and New Hampshire. Today, however, the latest Field Poll revealed that Howard Dean is now in the lead-- in California, the most populous state in the nation.

These amazing poll results are a testament to the power of the grassroots.

I know that at least 2 lovely Americans read this blog. Go and sign up for Dean at http://www.deanforamerica.com/signup and get yourself a president that the chief chimp in the local zoo can't outwit

2003-07-21T04:40:00.000-07:00

2003-07-21T03:20:00.000-07:00

Jeffery the Jailbird no longer

This day had to come eventually. I wish we could have put it off as long as possible but Jeffrey Archer or rather Lord Archer of Weston Super Mare is being let out in to the big wide world again. Well some one has to do charity auctions. I think the serious point is that the man may have a certain comic value but he shouldn't as a convicted criminal (and not a minor traffic offence either) be allowed to sit in the House of Lords influencing the laws that govern us all . He should be stripped of his peerage forthwith and be left to his book writing. But he last thing people expect of Jeffery Archer is quiet scribing so I suspect we shall be seeing him on our TV screens before to long.

Personally I loved the bit of TV where he was at Tory party conference doing his speech saying something like " I'm supported to be the next conservative mayor of London by Margaret Thatcher the former prime minister. I'm supported by John Major the former prime minister and i'm supported by William Hauge the next prime minister." Oh how they all appluaded.

2003-07-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

Letter from America

"If Tony Blair is half as good a leader as speaker, your nation is truly blessed.
Rod Dunklee
League City, Texas, USA "

Saw this in todays Guardian. Surely a piss take of rootin tootin god fearing Americans? Still i'm glad that we've got Tony and they've got the retarded criminal chimp.

2003-07-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

Greening Tribune

After reading this article on the BBC website I thought I would write a letter to that wonderful bastion of socialism Tribune and being the media whore that I'm posting it here as well.

"The urgent can often hide the important. The announcement by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt of a massive expansion in offshore wind power hasn’t received the coverage it merits. Not only will this increase the use of wind power by 1000% it will also create 20,000 jobs in manufacturing, installation and maintenance. Inadequate on its own, it nonetheless puts us on course to produce 20% of our energy from renewables by 2020.

Increasing use of sustainable energy is a win–win situation. It helps protect the vulnerable in the developing world from the effects of climate change and brings greater security to our energy supplies. Oil from the Gulf and natural gas from Russia and Algeria are not the harbingers of international stability.

As production will diminish over the next decades the era of cheap oil is coming to an end. How we cope with this will have huge effects on our foreign policy, economy and the environment. Fortunately we have a Labour government in power to take the right decisions."

Will Parbury
Manchester

2003-07-18T01:39:00.000-07:00

Sack the Sub

In the words of Kevin himself "i didn't put him round that table!" it was all due to a sub editor whose understanding of the world has been limited to the collected work of GWB. Never trust a man you suspect of having more toiletry products than brain cells be they a Sub editor on the guardian or POTUS.

2003-07-17T05:32:00.000-07:00

Mired in Maguire

Kevin Maguire is one of the few journalists remaining with an interest in the Labour Movement as a whole. Who else gives such informed comment on union elections and the like? I find it shocking to discover a journalist who knows what they are talking about. So I was somewhat disappointed with his latest Union Diary letting the side down despite the excellent story on the NEC being cut down to size.

What was really shocking about Maguire’s usually lovely article was the humdinger of an error in describing Alan Johnson as a cabinet minister in the same piece that describes him as higher education minister. Now either Charles Clarke has been forgotten about or Kevin thinks that Mr Tony has given DfES an extra seat at the cabinet table. Either way someone hasn’t been paying attention. Poor show.

The planting of the most implausible stories does not restore confidence. Apparently “The unlikely figure of trade secretary Patricia Hewitt has emerged as the most anti-war minister during cabinet discussions on Iraq.” Oh really, how convenient. Funny I don’t remember her sprinting out of the Cabinet room before Cook.

This kind of briefing would have nothing to do with the perception that the whole Iraq expedition is going arse over tit and a minister with the potential to go further wants to distance themselves from the mess. Could we be seeing the re-emergence of the Kinnockite Hewitt? Well the next leader of the Labour Party will be to the left of Blair.

2003-07-16T08:01:00.000-07:00

Magic Malik

It must be tough being on the national executive committe of the Labour Party. All those meetings, all those important decisions. At least one of its members has a nice little sideline going. Shahid Malik, apparently not one of the most shy members, appears to have set as a Paul Daniels rival with a superb website detailing his magical exploits.

But I'm not sure about the photos, I distincly do not remember the moustache when I met the man himslef up in Burnley a few weeks ago. Could Shahid be using a body double? Such reticence.

More serious stuff when it gets a bit cooler.

2003-07-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Is this all he gets?

Young Christopher (Christopher Young surely, but that's what it says on the email) from the cabinet office ceremonal secretariat finally replies to my email. Holidays getting longer these days eh.

Apparently his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has the

Knight of the Order of the Thistle
Knight of the Order of the Garter
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Order of Merit

This cannot be allowed to stand a prince with only four honours. What next a palace with no servants? But at least we have one Royalist in the cabinet office. "I hope this is helpful" writes young Christopher. Indeed it is, indeed it is. More tomorrow.

2003-07-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Is this all he gets?

Young Christopher (Christopher Young surely, but that's what it says on the email) from the cabinet office ceremonal secretariat finally replies to my email. Holidays getting longer these days eh.

Apparently his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has the

Knight of the Order of the Thistle
Knight of the Order of the Garter
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Order of Merit

Simply this can't be enough. Something must be done but at least there is one royalist in the Cabinet office.
"I hope this is helpful" adds Young Christopher. Indeed it is, indeed it is. More tomorrow.

2003-07-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

Things can only get ... dumber

By now my irritation with non-voters was reaching breaking point.

‘Hundreds of people have just been murdered in Tiananmen Square because
they wanted the right to vote.’
‘Ah,’ said the non-voter ’But that, young man was in China.’
‘Erm, yes, yes, it was in China, your right there.’
‘And it wouldn’t happen in England, because we already have a democracy.
And that’s my point.’

I didn’t realise it was possible surgically to remove all logic from
someone’s brain. I didn’t try any harder to persuade him to vote because I
decided that the farther this person was kept from a ballot box it would be for
all of us.

John O’Farrell
Things can only get better

2003-07-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

No respect

Recently the Labour party lost one of its own when the MP for Brent East past away. You would have thought this was a time for mourning but obviously no one bothered to tell the local vulture population as I gather that at the recent Parliamentary Panel training event in London, the Regional Director had to stand up at the beginning and make a statement saying that all those people who'd rang/emailed/etc the Regional Office the day Paul Daisley died to ask what the selection timetable was would not be graced with an answer. There are some sick people out there...

2003-07-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

Storm in a ward

Manchester City Council has been at the centre of a storm over council leader Richard Leese’s attack on the Liberal Democrat group. Cllr Liaqat Ali got himself elected at the elections in May for Longsight as a Liberal Democrat but hasn’t got enough English to understand council meetings. So he expects the council to spend £20 per hour for a translator for him on council business. The Labour Group has objected and said the Liberal Democrat Party should pay; they after all got him elected.

The central charge has been put to the Labour Party namely that we’re a bunch of racists, this for the party that introduced the race relations act and set up the commission for racial equality.

Firstly is this attack on the Lib Dems discrimination? No, it absolutely is not. While the opposition have a right to scrutinise the council, the opposition themselves have no special privilege to be exempt from scrutiny themselves. Anyway the situation is completely absurd more than half of his constituents speak only English. Yes many do speak Urdu but most also speak English as well and if politics is about any thing it’s about communication. He is simply unable to do his job as a councillor. The labour councillor he replaced at the election is himself Asian. If you are blind you have no choice in being so, whereas Cllr Ali has plenty of choice. He’s been in the country five years. He has had plenty of time to learn the language.

What people language people speak in their own home is their own business but the national language is English. It would also be hugely damaging for ethnic minority communities to think that they can take their rightful place in British society if they fail to speak English.

Reliance on their own language can only mean the marginalisation of ethnic communities. All of this country's institutions of power, wealth and knowledge operate in English and to cut yourself off from the language relegates those people to the bleakest margins of society. I think that is wrong.

Personally I accept the argument that all the main political parties are in the definition of the McPherson Report institutionally racist. A simple glance of the House of Commons will confirm that but I think the Labour party has the best record out of any of the parties. And considering that the Lib Dems out of their London assembly members, Members of the European parliament and over fifty members at Westminster they can muster not a single ethnic minority representative it’s a bit rich for their supporters in the letter columns to call the Labour party racist. We need to address the issue of representation for the ethnic minorities and the inequalities that are faced by ethnic minority communities, that is the more serious that needs to be address by the press not whether one councillor has a translator or not.

2003-07-05T08:12:00.000-07:00

BLOG RULE

Thought I would post this for those at the right end of the country. A more substantial post will wing its way to the site by teatime on Monday.

Can Weblogs Change Politics?
A VoxPolitics Seminar

14th July, 5:30 - 7.00pm

Portcullis House, Houses of Parliament (room tbc)

Drinks and Food Provided

Speakers
Steven Clift, e-democracy expert
Stephen Pollard, Blogging Journalist,
Pernille Rudlin, Mobile expert
Tom Watson MP, Blogging MP
James Crabtree , Chair

Weblogs (‘blogs’) and associated ‘social software’ tools have been this year’s big news online. But can they be used politically, and if so, how and to what end?

In America, blogging politicians are becoming common. Presidential Candidate Howard Dean, the emerging poster-boy of e-Democracy, is pioneering the use of new technologies to raise money, organise supporters, and get his message out. The forthcoming presidential election will be the first election blogged in real time, both by politicians and observers. In other ways bloggers have begun to affect the mainstream of American politics, with a hand in the resignation of Trent Lott, the sacking of Jason Blair, and the prosecution of the war on Iraq.

A couple of British MPs have also started weblogs, along with a handful of councillors and other activists. But will these new tools, and those who use them, make any difference to mainstream politics? Can they be a useful way for elected representatives to communicate to their constituents and supporters? And can citizens use them to be political, either by running campaigns or scrutinising those in power?
This Voxpolitics seminar will examine these issues, and ensure a lively discussion.

RSVP to blogrule@voxpolitics.com

2003-07-03T01:34:00.000-07:00

Quote of the day

"a successful democracy requires that citizens be involved and active in
politics, informed about politics and influential.

Furthermore, when they make decisions, particularly the important decision
of how to cast their vote, they must make them on the basis of careful
evaluation of evidence and careful weighing of alternatives.

The passive citizen, the non-voter, the poorly informed or apathetic
citizen all indicate a weak democracy" Almond & Verba The Civic Culture 1963

2003-07-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

Is this what I pay my taxes for?

No word as yet from the Cabinet Office... If this shilly shallying continues much longer we can only conclude that the Cabinet Office is staffed by a small cell of politically motivated republican extremists intent on wrecking the nation and bringing such foreign practices as the guillotine to the shores of our blessed isle. Outrageous

Logic need not pass this point

One David Carr of samizdata took umbrage at my post advocating regional devolution. Personally I fail to see why when he him self writes "Britain is a grossly overcentralised country with every decision that matters being made in London and then applied nationwide. We are, in effect, a City-State."

But then I remember as a right wing blog it must be obsessed with the European Union and how there all a bunch of nazi Germans intent on eradicating British fair play. True to form he writes as if its all an evil plan cooked up in Romano Prodi's office. If only the trains were as reliably wrong as this stupid argument.

"The regional assemblies are being created as civilian Gauleiters in order to ensure that the laws and directives of the EU Commission are administered and enforced at local level and to jockey with each for the chunks of redistributed largesse handed out by the various arms of the Euro-state. Their job is not to represent the will of the people to those in power, it is to ensure that the will of those in power is applied to the people."

Quite.

Lib dems are where exactly

Cllr Jenny Kingsley formerly of the conservative and now lib dem persuasion has written a letter published in todayâ€™s Guardian arguing "Many young people are disillusioned with the present government's spin and management of public services, and consider the Conservative party to be out of touch with contemporary culture, and lacking a sense of social responsibility and justice."

This illustrates the central problem facing the Lib Dems namely that they are a party of protest and lack any sort of ideological coherence. It is virtually axiomatic in British politics that they are surrogate tories in one area and labour in another depending on which ever tack gives them most electoral advantage. There may be 2 real Liberal Democrat people in the country but most are people hacked off with the main parties. For instance I went to Essex University in Colchester which is now represented by a Liberal Democrat Bob Russell who just happens to be a former Labour parliamentary candidate.

It's the quiet ones you want to watch

Obviously as this isn't processology no one will have noticed it. But when David Miliband is not screwing up the finding formula he does do some good things.

2003-07-02T02:04:00.000-07:00

Wise words

“At just over £20,000 a year, that half way mark is not high – after tax, national insurance, council tax, rent, as electricity and a full tank of petrol. But the media opinion formers, who themselves earn so much more, develop a convenient social myopia, air brushing out the low earners and most of those below the median.”

Polly Toynbee Hard Work: life in low pay Britain.

2003-07-02T01:40:00.000-07:00

Honour a Prince

As promised earlier more on the heir to the throne. Quite simply I find the attitude of some people to Prince Charles disgraceful. He is quite literally a prince among men, an example to us all and our future leader god willing. We do not appreciate him enough. I intend to put right that grave injustice. So we should start a campaign to get him a honour. He's probably a little shy asking his mother direct so I'm going to help him out. An email to the cabinet office Ceremonial Secretariat that deals with such matters goes this very morning.

Only human

A little technical difficult meant that the following three posts got posted twice. Please forgive. Also apologies to Nick Barlow for not mentioning him below, which is ironic as he's the only one I've met in real life.

2003-07-01T10:02:00.000-07:00

Cleavage is so important

“To my mind there have always been two fundamental cleavages in socialist thought – the cleavage between
revolutionaries and reformists and the cleavage between centralisers and federalists.”

G.D.H Cole quoted in Socialisms old and new by Tony Wright MP

So true, but obviously G.D.H Cole never met Dolly Parton.

Thanks Guys

A big hand to all the lovely people who sent me emails. In particlular to fellow bloggers Tom Watson MP, Harry@harry's placeand Peter Cuthbertson, even though he is a tory.

Royal Progress Delayed

HRH will return tomorrow all being well.

2003-07-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Cleavage is so important

“To my mind there have always been two fundamental cleavages in socialist thought – the cleavage between
revolutionaries and reformists and the cleavage between centralisers and federalists.”

G.D.H Cole quoted in Socialisms old and new by Tony Wright MP

So true, but obviously G.D.H Cole never met Dolly Parton.

Thanks Guys

A big hand to all the lovely people who sent me emails. In particlular to fellow bloggers Tom Watson MP, Harry@harry's place
and Peter Cuthbertson, even though he is a tory.

Royal Progress Delayed

HRH will return tomorrow all being well.

2003-07-01T02:05:00.000-07:00

They do it better down under

Is this the best campaigning idea ever? Last April New Zealand Young Labour came up with the type of original thinking that has been sadly lacking from Young Labour in the UK.

"Young Labour today expressed their deep disappointment at McDonalds franchise ban on the "Tearaway" youth magazine, imposed after the magazine featured an article on lesbian and gay youth, and on Wednesday will hold a "kiss-in" at the McDonalds Head Office (61 Wellington St Freemans Bay) in Auckland as a form of protest."

'"Young People today understand that different sexualities are an important and valid party of New Zealand society,' Young Labour President Michael Wood said."

Not sure it would work in Northern Ireland though. The David Trimble and Ian Paisley snogathon for Unionism somehow doesn't have quite the same appeal.

2003-07-01T01:40:00.000-07:00

Next in line

"Some of my more illuminating conservations have been with vegetables"

Prince Charles quoted in last Saturday's Mirror

How lucky we are in this wonderful country to guided in our national life by the Prince of Wales. This man deserves recognition. More on this later.

2003-06-30T03:34:00.000-07:00

Lets bring democracy home

The northwest is going to have a referendum on a regional assembly. This is a development that should be greeted with alacrity. While its chief protagonist in central government John Prescott hardly has a reputation as a constitutional iconoclast, devolution is vital to the reconstruction of British politics.

Power is to concentrated, the agenda to London centric. The regions especially those furthest from the capital need their own champions. We must increase the sheer amount of political muscle deployable in London and Brussels to advance the regional interest.

The fallacy of centralist government has even been recognised by Whitehall. Administrative necessity has long seen the existence of regional government offices. Why should these not be accountable to the people of the regions they serve?The present system is absurd. For example, take the North West Development Agency. This is run by an unelected board with a part time chairman, at considerable cost, appointed by the Secretary of State at Westminster who's own constituency may be anywhere from Aberdeenshire to Norfolk or Dorset.

So, with a stronger voice for the Northwest we can set about closing the regional economic disparities, which so stunt the life chances of, so many. The North West regional assembly will be an institution predicated in the basis of equality.

Devolution across the country will not only make government more accountable and responsive to local circumstance it will by its very nature promote diversity. This can be harnessed to bring excellence.It has been argued that China's ossified bureaucracy let it fall behind a dynamic and devolved Europe. Whatever the merits of that case may be we should take advantage of the creativity in delivering public services devolution will bring.

There is a clear argument in favour of regional assemblies for democracy, for prosperity and for equality. As well as for responsive public services. But that is not the totality. I do have three principle reservations.

Firstly, I think, as the situation currently stands, the regional assemblies will not draw down enough powers from Westminster. Political reality means that if we are to have a Northwest Assembly in the next 20 years then we must seize the day; win the referendum and work on gaining extra powers in the future.

Secondly, personnel. Unless political parties pull their fingers out we risk be represented only by those on the way up, or on the way down to other things. Even worse we could be left with those unable to do anything else. It may also further favour those best able to work local political networks in search of parliamentary seats, so damaging the goal of a Westminster parliament that looks like the people.But this is a problem for political parties rather than regional government.

Finally we shouldn't take a referendum for granted. Proponents of devolution have a great case to sell and we can win even with the present levels of distrust of politicians amongst the electorate. But we face the three Câ€™s. Cost, Counties and Conservatives.

A regional assembly won't be free but the cost would be relatively small and dwarfed by the money that the assembly could bring into the region. Further single tier local government could save money and would mean fewer but more effective politicians. Counties and districts are confusing and inefficient. We shouldn't decide the shape of our democracy by the personal interests of county councillors. The Conservatives meanwhile will be happily campaigning against. Just as they did in Scotland and Wales, where they now have elected representatives in both devolved bodies. They simply have no credibility. If they ever came to power in Westminster again would they abolish regional assemblies?

Turnout in the referendum will also be an issue. Recent experiments to improve turnout in local government elections have had mixed results but postal voting has been the most effective. This should be adopted for the referendum vote.

The vote is there to be won. The case in favour is strong and it's a great opportunity that we must seize as failure to do so may set back our most deprived regions even further. London already has a regional assembly. How long must the Northwest do without?

2003-06-30T02:14:00.000-07:00

Moore on Dubya

"We do know, George, that you have been arrested three times. Other than some peace-activist friends of mine. I don't personally know anyone who has been arrested three time in their life."

Michael Moore on the President of the United States in his book Stupid White Men

2003-06-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

Ali on 4

It's generally considered a good thing in politics not to act in haste. So I suspect Jon Snow was a little surprised to hear at 7:04 in his earpiece, after a request for an interview had been rejected earlier, that "Alastair Campbell has entered the building." Makes for great TV though.

Jon Snow: And now we are joined by Alastair Campbell - a rare moment - thank you for coming in.

This is row between you and the BBC. Many will see it as a diversionary tactic to prevent people from actually seeing the real issue there, which is that MPs are not getting to the root of whether in fact the intelligence we were provided with was the real intelligence provided by the intelligence services.

Alastair Campbell: Well, if people wish to see it as a diversionary tactic, they may. The media are constantly telling people never to take things at face value.

This is not a row between me and the BBC. This is an attempt by the government to get the BBC to admit that a fundamental attack upon the integrity of the government, the Prime Minister, the intelligence agencies, let alone people the evil spin doctors in the dark who do their dirty works in the minds of the journalists.

Let them just accept for once that they have got it wrong. The allegation, let's just understand what this allegation amounted to.

And these weasel words in Richard Sambrook's letter today that says to me, we didn't make the allegation. We reported a source making the allegation.

What does that say about journalism? You have been in journalism for decades, I was a journalist for quite a long time, I respect a huge number of journalists including many at the BBC, but they now say you can say anything you want on the television because somebody said it to you.

It doesn't matter if it's true. It doesn't matter if you check it. It doesn't matter if it's corroborated. You can say it.

You can corroborate the rest of this interview on the channel 4 website here

2003-06-27T09:22:00.000-07:00

McGivern him a party card ?

According to the Guardian one Andy McGivern of the GMB actually wants to join the Labour Party which is great. Of course there has to be a snag. He lives in Northern Ireland. There is the small matter that Labour organising in Northern Ireland would be encroaching on the territory of our sister party the SDLP.

However I suspect the party views the prospect of campaigning in Northern Ireland with its attendant risks of sod all chance of winning and be blown to smithereens as about as appealing as drinking your average pint of sick.

So the case is going to court. Seriously someone is prepared to go to court to join the Labour party. Top marks for determination if not for sanity. Has he not heard of emigration?

2003-06-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

To govern is to choose

Sometimes I wonder whether the Government is actually serious about joining the Euro. Tony's latest idea to get Britain into the Euro is, wait for it, to set up a cabinet committee. The European Strategy Committee will be chaired by the PM and is meant to iron out not so little problems on the way to entry like reform of the housing market and the development of regional pay bargaining. Six years in to a labour government and we have this. I thought setting up a cabinet committee is what prime ministers did when they don't know what to do.

Public opinion is as stubborn as ever and we have to have a referendum on the issue. Ah but look at what happend at the last referendum is the argument. There is alas an essential difference. Then we were voting on whether to stay in, not whether we should sign up for something extra. Voters in referendums tend to be conservative in nature so if they’re not sure about it they wont buy it

Playing double or quits and linking it to another referendum on whether to stay in the EU would be a very dangerous game but one that would be easier to win. Indeed the only way that Britain is going to join the Euro is with the strongest political and economic lead from government and business. Simply wishing us to join will not work. Yes that does mean kicking the Tory press in the bollocks.

This is part of a wider problem in the government, namely that the government wants to be liked by every one and so ends up pleasing no one. It is simply not possible for any Government to satisfy everyone, as the saying goes "To govern is to choose".

Take tax, the top earners who would pay more under an increasingly progressive tax system are not the people who are most likely to vote Labour anyway. So why not use the extra money to take more of the public sector professional vote, which Labour needs, out of the 40% top tax band or spend more on public services which can benefit the worst off in society as well.

This is not such a radical idea when one considers that even in the United States of Inequality, according to Mark Seddon, that the top tax rate there is 47%.

It doesn't matter if 30% of the people really hate you as long as you can get your just over forty % to the polls your in for a landslide as Thatcher found out in the 1980's. This Labour government is entering uncharted territory and will only be sustained by a strong electoral coalition. We must be clear who is outside it so when government makes its choices it knows who to target.

2003-06-27T05:10:00.000-07:00

In the beginning there was...

Far to many blogs are written by those on the right. As Renton says in Trainspotting "It's a shite state of affairs and all the fresh air in the world will not make any fucking difference." But more people from the left writing blogs will so I thought that I would have a go.