£70 million for imams!

Hazel Blears has got a sweet way about her. Now she is on a charm offensive and the mosques of Britain are in her sights. Little Miss Dynamite's on her way!

What I don't follow is why it is necessary for the state to shell out all this cash to "train imams to communicate more effectively" and other such stuff. Is she going to test them after training? Is she going to hang around each mosque on a Friday checking up on the content of the sermon? Will the imams have to speak English?

Basically, is it any business of hers what goes on in a mosque? I can fully appreciate why she is doing this but doesn't it show a calamitous failure on behalf of so-called moderate Muslim organisations that they haven't picked up on the need to do something before now?

Last night on Channel 4, an official from the Muslim Council of Britain was quite happy to say that Saudi backed publishing of extremist material, such as beheading people, was OK for distribution in the Regents Park Mosque! Really? What planet is he from?

And if the Muslim "community" is to get £70 million, what if disfunctional Christian, Jewish or any other bodies were identified as being in need of rectifying grants? Would they get it?

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Apology Time!

Sometimes in the blogging world things get said that shouldn't be said. Actually, that applies pretty well to most situations. In my post about the EU Treaty I said that Nick Harvey MP was going on about "anti-Europeans" and I was miffed about this. My problem was I didn't check over the piece I wrote and got him mixed up with Stephen Ladyman MP who was challenged for his seat by none other than Nigel Farage, Leader of UKIP.

Stephen Ladyman was the one who was talking of anti-Europeans and being generally denigratory. Nick Harvey on the other hand is well-known for having had a less that fulsome enthusiasm for everything EU. Now, quite a lot of LibDem MPs and party members do use the epithet anti-European when they know they should say anti-EU, but, hand on my heart, I have never heard Nick Harvey say that, or have I read it!

So - bottom line is this! Sorry Nick Harvey for the mistake.

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CPS? What are they really for?

The Crown Prosecution Service is a proper outfit of weasel wordsmiths. Elton John gets a picture looked over to see if it is "indecent". The picture in question had been on display in several art galleries. I wonder if the CPS are art experts or did they bring in a bevvy of critics headed by the likes of Brian Sewell? If they ever could follow such advice on art would they be any the wiser?

The picture, actually a photo, is called Klara and Edda Belly Dancing by the American artist Nan Goldin. It was taken from Gateshead's Baltic gallery by Northumbria Police on 20 September. It was withdrawn the day before it was due to go on display.

The CPS had first considered the image of two naked young girls in 2001, but it was then deemed not to be indecent. Kerrie Bell, head of the CPS Northumbria South Unit, said the CPS had to consider whether "standards of propriety" had changed since 2001. Didn't she know? Good heavens, we've had civil partnerships, gay adoptions, and John Prescott on the floor of his office since then! New Labour is all about changing the "standards of propriety"!

Then she has the gall to say that their is "insufficient" evidence. Meaning that there is a teeny-weeny bit of evidence, but not enough to shake the stupour of a jury? It's all a waste of public money.

If she is that bothered, how come Blair's not being prosecuted for causing John Yates' enquiry to go pear-shaped? Was the CPS lent on? Yates more or less told the Commons committee that he had a case. "Insufficient evidence" no doubt.

I think all this is a bit like the CPS trying to win an ITV phone-in game. They want easy questions and for the answer to be that they can win every time. Are they now judge and jury?

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Miami Dolphins and New York Giants in London

Who'd have thought it? The NFL is staging a proper regular-season game for the first time outside the United States. The clash of the titans will be on Sunday and is playing to a full house. Ex-pat Americans, as well as British fans, can get all the fun at the new Wembley Stadium. True to their word, the bosses of this long-awaited sports arena are making sure that events in the stadium are not just left to the soccer successfuls.

Wembley will, I'm sure, prove a real boost for the future prospects of American Football in the UK and Europe as a whole. This will be a REAL game in that it will be played for real, and not as an exhibition or friendly match.

Whilst most American Footballers don't have cauliflower ears, broken noses, or puffy eyelids, they do carry a load of muscle on them. Maybe we will get on-pitch microphones to hear all the action as with the Rugby World Cup. The padding and headgear keeps the NFL players relatively bruise free. What a difference with those Rugby players last weekend! And neither the NFL types or the Rugby lot would pass the strictures of the government's BMI (Body Mass Index) code. One quick measuring would blow that medical mystery into touch very quickly.

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Shifty wifty ways of the three bad bears!!

I think all three major parties are behaving like cheats and spinners on the matter of the EU Treaty/Constitution.

The Conservatives airily suggest that they will vote for a referendum on the EU Treaty but will not support the idea of unravelling all this mess if they get to government. They also have little or no response worth considering on their refusal to have a referendum on Maastricht.

The New Labour lot under Brown talk of red lines and that they will not countenance ANY MORE integration for ten years. This prattish policy does not say what they will do after 10 years. The red lines only last for five years, so all Brown's puffy huffing is baloney. His policy will fall apart.

The LibDems creepily talk about a vote on the concept of Europe but refuse a referendum on the Treaty.

They should all stand in the corner for a week!

The British public basically does not what interference or coercion from outside. They do want a free and enterprising Europe, for unrestricted travel and business activity. But the EU is like a maiden aunt checking up on teenage hanky-panky. Brussels can't help but listen at the door to hear what's going on!

And yes, most of us who are anti-EU are NOT anti-European. This is a petty accusation that dimwits like Nick Harvey MP keep saying. “This issue could be overstated, but should not be dismissed out of hand.” He said that if UKIP were to stage a revival and campaigned hard on the issue, it could swing some votes. He went on to say that those for a referendum were anti-European.

Maybe he's anti-British. How do I know? Probably he would say he was anti-British government as portrayed by New Labour.

So easy to be misunderstood, eh Nicky, old boy!!!!!

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New Labour Democracy!

That part-time MP, little Dougie Alexander, who thought he was doing a favour for another part-time MP who doubles up as Prime Minister, has had to apologise for his eager-beaver approach to Scottish democracy. During Prime Minister's Questions today, David Cameron sought to obtain answers, after a report by eminent Canadian election expert Ron Gould was published.

David Cameron - "The independent report on the Scottish elections was published yesterday. It found that the Labour Government put party interest before voters’ interests in conducting those elections. Will the Prime Minister now offer his own personal apology for the unacceptable conduct of Ministers?"
The Prime Minister - "I do not accept that at all. What the Gould report said was that some decisions about the elections could have been better made. These decisions were supported by the Conservative party. The Conservative spokesman on Scottish affairs, the hon. Member for
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell), said: “I accept that the Scottish Conservatives acceded to a single Scottish Parliament ballot paper". That was the first decision that was made. The Gould report does not put the blame on any individual or any institution. What it says is that all political parties must take their share of responsibility for what happened.
Mr. Cameron - "How can the right hon. Gentleman possibly deny that that report says that Ministers put political interests ahead of voters’ interests? I thought that politics was going to be different under this Prime Minister. [Interruption.] The report says that Ministers in the Scotland Office—[Interruption.] Let us just listen to what the report said. It said that Ministers in the Scotland Office “frequently focused on partisan political interests, overlooking” voter interests. In a democracy, that is a complete scandal. The right hon. Member who was responsible for this fiasco as Secretary of State for Scotland is now the International Development Secretary and the Government’s election co-ordinator. How can he possibly go around the world lecturing other countries about probity in their elections?
The Prime Minister - "Because the right hon. Gentleman is misleading people about the conclusions of the report. Let me actually—[Interruption]. I will be temperate by quoting from the report itself - “Throughout the review…we have had no intention of—and in fact have
scrupulously sought to avoid—assigning blame to individuals and institutions or questioning the legitimacy”. The Gould report conclusion refers to the good intentions of those involved in assembling and conducting the elections. He then says in the interviews he has done that
“Party self-interest’…is not necessarily related to one party”. He does not assign blame to one party or one institution. What he is saying is that the political system must change, and
that is why we have accepted his recommendations.
Mr. Cameron: I do not know how the Prime Minister has the gall to accuse me of misleading anybody. He should take a look at page 17 of the report, which says that there “was a notable level of party self interest evident in Ministerial decision-making”. Is not the least we deserve that the Minister who took the decisions explains himself to the House of Commons and is stripped of his responsibility for elections? The Prime Minister promised us a new type of
politics. He said that he would be more open and honest. He said that he would be frank about problems. He said that he would be candid about the dilemmas. That is what he said in his leadership speech of 100 days ago. After his performance today, does that not feel like 100 years ago?
The Prime Minister: All the decisions were agreed by—[Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker: Order.
The Prime Minister: They were agreed after a long process of consultation involving all the parties. I have just quoted the Scottish Conservative leader saying that he supported the single ballot paper, and let me quote Mr. Gould again. He says, “I don’t think I would absolve any party” and “Party self-interest’ in this context is not necessarily related to one party.” This was not a failure of one party or one institution; it was to do with decisions that we should have made together and with decisions that we have now made to change the system.

I would think Douglas Alexander would have to button his lip on visits abroad now, especially to dodgy regimes with an electorally malfunctioning executive. When in Edinburgh do as Alexander?

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The Burning Bush

George Bush has declared California a major disaster area after four days of relentless wildfires which has seen the biggest US evacuation since Hurricane Katrina. The estimated cost is so far set at $1 billion. 1500 homes have literally gone up in smoke. One wonders how much more the American people can take. One week it's a natural disaster, the next it's a man-made gun-crazed disaster. All the while, the tax dollars are whirring around, some going to the needy, quite a lot going to the "experts" and "consultants".

It's a long time since I was in California, but the image we get of the place today is one of tinderdry conditions. Just a broken piece of glass in the sun can be potentially lethal. The current arid landscape may or may not be down to global warming, but it all adds up to governments trying to do something well after the proverbial horse has bolted. I never thought, when wandering around Sacramento, that the heavily-accented Austrian who was a feature of UK talk shows and had far-fetched films to his credits, would end up as Governor of California. If he had told Michael Parkinson that "I vont to be ze governor of California and help ze ozone layer, ze people and ze planet" I would have been as incredulous as the next person. But Arnold Schwarzenegger is proving to be a popular proponent of the green agenda conservatism that British Tory leader David Cameron espouses.

Maybe when George Bush visits California tomorrow he may well see how the lives of most Americans today are really affected by such disasters. The costs incurred, in lost homes, jobs, and businesses, could in part be alleviated by the billions of dollars now going towards the almost futile involvement in exporting democracy to Iraq.

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Veritas keeps on going.......

Small parties have to plug themselves a bit like record producers plugging a new artiste. I'm not taken with Veritas myself, but they do have a desire to soldier on. Perhaps that's because Patrick Eston, the current leader, used to be a soldier. Listen here to his TalkSport outing a year ago. I just found this gem. I don't suppose much has changed since, but it does all go to give the voter choice. Pity the Abstentionists keeping winning every election.

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Weasel words from Vaz!

Listen to this! What a wonderful weaseler that Vaz is. He knows diddly squat about immigration, apart from his own, but comes on spouting New Labour gobblygook about whatever the Government is up to.

Any wonder politicians are thought to be running their own agendas? The majority of the public what to know if this country is going to be able to cope with such an increase in the population. It isn't racist, it is'nt opportunist, it is just plain common sense. People from all backgrounds what to know what the government is up to. If they pussyfoot, it will only be to the advantage of those with a less desirable political message.

On "The Daily Politics" Keith Vaz weaseled wonderfully on the topic of immigration. Unlike Brian Hanrahan who "counted them all out and I counted them all back" during the Falklands War, New Labour CANNOT count any immigrant. They know nothing but say loads of rubbish.

Watch it and weep!

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Murphy's Law?

Jim Murphy, the Europe Minister, seems to be working on a battery based energy system. He's wired up to go on autospeak whenever the EU Treaty/Constitution is mentioned. His deadpan delivery could wear down even the most ardent eurosceptic. He could bore the pants off anybody. Even George Galloway would end up frustrated. A garrulous talkative Scot outvoiced by a lugubrious monotoned Scot. Wow!

Murphy could take on the brief that a red herring was in fact a white elephant. It would all sound extremely plausible. Any gainsaying of the fact that the two are in no way the same would be dismissed as political pointscoring or opportunism. We'd be long dead from mental torture listening to this drone.

Murphy must be the most prized kind of politician for any devious Prime Minister. Brown gets a fellow part-time MP (Scots have devolution, don't you know!), who has all the right memory skills, to run around TV and radio studios delivering his memorised texts. He's worse than a ventriloquist's dummy! At least with the dummy the vent can be put off his stride. This is more like a doll that has a string to be pulled at the back.

"The EU treaty is not like the constitution. It is something completely diffferent. It is no worse than Maastrict. I like it. You don't. I'm Jim Murphy!"

Let's pull the string again. Oh! Please no, we've all had enough.

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The Milk of Human Kindness?

Apparently there was a rumour that DEFRA was considering banning the sale of fresh milk in the UK and forcing us to consume either UHT or LongLife milk. What a ghastly thought! UHT milk has all the taste of blandness and as for LongLife, well it has a stringy taste, a bit like an old goat passed it!

If you drink tea with LongLife it permeates the drink and, well, it's awful. Only a soulless civil servant with nothing better to do on a Friday afternoon could come up with such a suggestion.

Thankfully DEFRA has denied such a move. It has to be kicked well into the long grass where cows can produce decent milk and not have the ignominy of having something natural turned into something so ghastly.

If DEFRA wants to cut down on greenhouse gasses why not start with the number of lighbulbs they use and amount of heating belting out from their offices.

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Fixed Terms?

The Liberal Democrats have suddenly decided to promote the idea of fixed term parliaments after Gordon Brown's election dithering. The idea seems to be finding favour with certain quarters, but I would suggest that it is not a good idea.

In Britain we elect Members of Parliament in single-member constituencies. These members are representatives not delegates. Even if they are elected for a particular party, they still have the right of switching sides, or crossing the floor. Also, there may be times when a government has a small majority and, after a period in office, that government loses the confidence of the House.

It may also be that the government of the day wishes to embark on a legislative programme that is extremely controversial. The new agenda may be brought in due to international circumstances or a domestic crisis of whatever nature. To insist that the government continues on regardless could mitigate against the interests of the electorate.

It is easy for the Liberal Democrats to suggest this. They are unlikely to be running off to the Queen to seek approval for such legislation. Harriet Harman thinks the House of Commons should decide whether or not an election is called. Sounds nice, but with each side having whips to consider, it is unlikely to be a free vote.

Just think what it would be like if Gordon Brown went to the House of Commons and said he wanted an election. I'm assuming the MPs would be allowed a debate. What if, like this time, the Conservatives suddenly shot up in the opinion polls. Are Labour MPs in marginal seats going to vote for an election. Hardly! The same goes for MPs of other parties who may have doubts about the election.

No, it's all best left as it is. We have a parliament for a maximum of five years. That's good enough for our democracy.

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Ron Paul for America

This is Ron Paul launching his campaign -

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A Field of Nine....and more

The Republican Party in the USA is just getting into gear for next year's Presidential election. A veritable bunch they are, the candidates that is. Some on a second or third time round, like John McCain, others just in for a couple of weeks, like Fred Thompson. I watched a bit of it and wondered which I thought I liked best. After all, this election isn't just for Americans, it matters to lots of other people too! Not for nothing British troops are slogging along in Iraq.

Some of the answers on Iraq were risible. Fred Thompson still has thoughts about WMD. John McCain said the war was not about oil then later implied it was. Guilani implied that Osama Bin Laden represented a nation (which one I'm not sure - probably Hidincaveistan!) so the US were OK going after him wherever. And there was a bit of flakiness over the debt crisis.

I listened to Ron Paul. I thought he was quite good. Of all the candidates he addressed the problems that Americans face today and he seems keen to try to solve them. If I had a vote I'd vote for him. Americans need someone to look after their problems not sell them fake patriotism and false hope.

I liked this little exchange. Fred Thompson was the target of a joke by Mitt Romney, who likened the former actor's late entry into the Republican presidential contest to Law & Order. "It has a huge cast. The series seems to go on forever. And Fred Thompson shows up at the end," Mr Romney said. "And to think I was going to be the best actor on the stage," Mr Thompson retorted.

It can only get better, folks!

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Cameron says Brown 'looks phoney'

Conservative leader David Cameron has said Gordon Brown looks like "a phoney" as they went head-to-head in their first Commons battle since July. I watched, and thought Brown looked very uneasy at the jibes, but he did fight back, so he's not a total "feartie from Fife" as Alex Salmond would say.

However, he is still trying to give the impression that he has somehow come good over the summer floods and the foot-and-mouth outbreak. On both issues he is sadly misinformed on what is going on. Yes, £800 million is on its way for flood prevention, but are we confident it will be spent wisely and can the various agencies deliver? Up until now the answer has to be NO!

Today the insurance companies are saying that flood insurance may become difficult to obtain or impossible. With the farmers they cannot get insurance against foot-and-mouth. So they have to cope on what the government dishes out by way of compensation.

This is a nice piece from Hansard. Lord Rooker was effectively saying that the Pirbright institution caused the outbreak. But it was this from the Countess of Mar that shows how well the Government has handled it all - with a complacency of stratospheric proportions!

The Countess of Mar: My Lords, the Minister has just mentioned making decisions based on science. Could he explain why Pirbright itself was not made the first infected premises? We knew that no animals were leaving Pirbright and that therefore it would depend on humans and vehicle movements. If Pirbright had been treated as the first IP, the protection and surveillance zone boundaries would have been different and we would not have had the second outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

Lord Rooker: My Lords, I cannot answer precisely the initial question asked by the noble Countess with regard to Pirbright and the control zone, but I assure her that when I was telephoned on Friday—and I was not in the country at the time—I was informed that the location of that first outbreak was incredibly close to Pirbright. In other words, the connection had been made virtually as the analysis was being done. Even then, that may well have been locking the stable door. I have not previously referred to this, but when the foot and mouth disease came back again in a third, fourth and fifth outbreak, it is clear from all the evidence that we have that the fifth was not in fact the fifth but at least the third—and it may have been earlier than that. The disease was not reported and the lesions were up to four weeks old in some cases. The chronology is still being worked on by epidemiologists.

Well, well, all very vague. I hope the noble Countess keeps on with her good work! We need to know how long these epidemiologists are going to take. It can't be that difficult to ascertain the last ONE PERCENT of evidence needed to conclude that it was DEFRA wot did it!

Full report in Hansard on Foot and Mouth Disease and Bluetongue.

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FSA? Fully Signed-up A......s!!

The FSA should be the regulatory body for examining the business practices of the financial industry of the UK. However, it appears to be just like any other quango. Make sure the jobs of the staff are safe and satisfactory and then maybe enquire about the moneymakers and what they are getting up to.

Michael Fallon is a Conservative MP on the Treasury Select Committee. He is not best pleased with the present antics in the City. He asked a question to Hector Sants, the Chief Executive of the FSA, who was before the committee. He said, "You are dealing with a bank (Northern Rock) whose lending has quadrupled from £25bn to £100bn - it was taking one in five mortgages - and you were not doing a full assessment for three years." Whereupon Sants replied, "I think there are lessons to be learned here with regard to our supervisory practice and I do think we need to look at our engagement with this company."

Not exactly a fulsome response. Indeed it epitomises the problem with people like Sants. They take on the role of running these regulatory outfits, but when push comes to shove and they get asked questions about their performance, it has all the hallmarks of dismal failure to be pro-active in avoiding such financial disasters.

The FSA should be the watchdog organisation we want it to be, not like some rottweiler with dodgy teeth and gum disease!

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A Constitutional Cock-up!

Are we governed by morons? Seems like it. A piece of paper, once called the EU Constitution and now called the EU Constitutional Treaty, is, apparently, a bit like an old 45 rpm record. This one's got a double-A side.

The European scrutiny committee of the House of Commons says the treaty is "substantially equivalent" to the EU Constitution thrown out by Dutch and French voters in 2005. The Government says it is "substantially" different.

Do you like being governed by such weasel wordsmiths?

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Cowboys and Mortgage Lenders!

Panorama on BBC1 has exposed the rotten way the so-called "sub-prime" mortgage business has invaded the UK housing market. From salesmen no better than suited crooks to the turkeys running the FSA and the Council of Mortgage Lenders. In fact, the guy put up to respond to the way companies are offering mortgages seemed to suggest nothing was wrong. Ostriches can get jobs in Britain today, it seems.

One company, Home and County Mortgages, appears to be well and truly offering trees bearing money! The boss pays himself over £1 million but does a runner when a TV reporter arrives at his office. Home and County get their lawyers to respond. No mention of the alleged document shredding!

The whole thing stinks. It seems every bank in Britain has a subsidiary swilling around in this cesspit of monopoly money. And if, as Panorama suggested, large sections of the housing market where these mortages exist collapse, then we ALL suffer. Well, those with ordinary lives to lead. The cowboys will have left town!

The Panorama programme tonight. It's a depressing exposure of financial tomfoolery!

The Home and County response to the BBC

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£1,000 for a nurse's shift!

Yes, that's what one crazy outfit masquerading as an NHS Trust has done! North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple recruited a specialist paediatric nurse at £115.65 an hour. It paid £983 for an eight-and-a-half hour shift on New Year's Eve. How do we know. Because of the Freedom of Information Act. This piece of legislation is probably one of the few that New Labour can be proud of. The funny thing is that this very act is helping to disclose the folly of much of the mismanagement going on today in the Health Service and elsewhere.

But before we get carried away thinking the nurse got much of this money, we should remember it nearly all goes into the pockets of the agency bosses. As the Taxpayers' Alliance says, "This data confirms the financial folly of employing agency staff rather than permanent staff. This strategy always looks like it will save money but actually ends up costing more."

What sort of accountant recommends this nonsense? Not one working for the public interest, that's certain!

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Bottled Vision - A Vintage?

Gordon Brown burbled some message to Andrew Marr along the lines that he had "a vision" for the country. Perhaps he might start with the freaky behaviour of the police, who seem to think they are doing the bidding of the New Labour Thought Police.

Down in Bournemouth during the Labour Party conference, the boys in blue were hyped up pretty good! They were taking no chances with the locals, let alone any terrorist suspect. In fact, according to Bournemouth Police terrorist suspects AND the locals are very much the same.

Bob Hamlen, 47, and Michael Burbidge, 31, were stunned when they were surrounded by uniformed officers as they sat on a bench outside the Westcliff Tavern in West Cliff Road, Bournemouth. Why were the police interested in them? Because apparently they had been "watching" some officers. Well blow me down! I think if I was sitting outside a pub and the Labour Party conference was in full swing opposite I might be intrigued with the goings on.

Michael is partially paralysed in the legs. Ideal terrorist material! Instead of coming over to talk with the two men, the over-zealous cops got them down to the station for a 45-minute grilling and then did their flats over.

Do the police today ever stop to think before they act? If this is the level of service we are getting, then Gordon Brown should get Jacqui Smith in tomorrow morning and get her to weed out all this nonsense, once and for all!

These guys were arrested under the Terrorism Act. Their names will go now onto the police database indefinitely. What an outrage in a so-called democratic society.

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Over In A Flash Gordon!

What can happen in one day? Quite a lot, if politics is your thing! Only yesterday, the "pundits" were predicting Brown would somehow confuse or confound the electorate and win a fantastic victory in a November poll. Now all that talk has gone in a flash.

David Cameron sees victory in his grasp. Brown bottles it basically. He will be seen tomorrow on the Andrew Marr Show in a less than mesmerising performance!

MARR: Right Prime Minister, let's start with what I suppose is the bleeding obvious: Are you going to call a General Election?
BROWN: I'll not be calling an Election and let me explain why: I have a vision for change in Britain and I want to show people how in Government we are implementing it. And over the summer months we have had to deal with crisis, we have had to deal with foot-andmouth, we have had terrorism, we have had floods, we have had financial crisis - and, yes, we could have had an Election on competence and I hope people will have understood that we have acted confidently. But what I want to do is show people the vision we have for the future of this country, in housing, in health, in education. And I want the chance in the next phase of my premiership to develop and show people the policies that will . . . are going to make a huge difference and show the change in the country itself.
MARR: Two weeks ago when the polls looked very good for Labour you were clearly thinking about the General Election and you were moving events forward and so on and now when the polls are not good for Labour you have changed your mind.
BROWN: Well I think we would win an Election now, sooner or later and I've no doubt about that, but . . .
MARR: The polls in the marginal constituencies tomorrow and in today's papers are going to show . . .
BROWN: Yeah but . . .
MARR: . . . six points ahead for the Tories in the key marginals, three points ahead across the country . . .
BROWN: The polls go up and down, I've got no doubt we'd win an Election. I would relish the chance, obviously, to scrutinise and examine and forensically show how the Conservatives' policies would bring economic disarray to this country. But, you know, as Prime Minister you have got a power and you have got a responsibility. Your power is that you alone make a decision about Election. The responsibility, however, is to listen to people and to exercise that power with responsibility. So yes, I think I had a responsibility to consider it, to listen to what people were saying, to listen to what the opposition parties were saying, to listen to what people in my own party wanting an Election were saying, to listen to the public, I believe the public, the priority was not an Election but . . .
BROWN: But having made the decision I made it for the reasons I am saying. I want the chance to show the country that we have a vision for the future of this country and yes I could have a mandate or want a mandate for competence; but I want a mandate to show the vision of the country that I have is being implemented and practised.
MARR: Two weeks ago, apart from being ahead in the polls, what was the case for a General Election?
MARR: But . . .
BROWN: You've got to consider what the people put to you, as I say you have got a power as Prime Minister and all Prime Ministers have that power but you cannot exercise that power without listening to people, without considering what they have to say.
MARR: But your advisers were suggesting you went.
BROWN: Erm, there were people saying that you should go, there were people saying you shouldn't go. But you know, I made the decision for a different reason. The decision I have made is because I want to get on with the job of change in this country and I believe I have got to show people that we are implementing the changes in practice and I believe that what we are really talking about now in Britain is the rising aspirations of British people.

And so the ramblings run on.

I do like his assertion that he's sorted the foot and mouth debacle. Has he brought the professor to task over that leaky pipe? After all it WAS a Government outfit that let the wretched virus out in the first place, albeit accidently. If the arguments over who should foot a £50,000 bill for mending the pipe in the first place had been settled, then the farmers of Surrey would not now be in such a sorry state.

I think Brown owes the farming community some answers, so let's see the "vision for change in Britain" start with compensating the farmers. There's a long list of people behind the farmers, so he better get a move on!

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The Chicken didn't come home to roost!

So no autumn election. Doesn't surprise me. However, it makes it all that much easier to get rid of this New Labour lot further down the line. Not that I wish ill on the country, but the economic forecasts are not good.

Brown let it be dripfed into the political arena that he was contemplating an election. Contemplation over. We're not having one. But it was him, Balls and the various whatsits all whispering away as usual. He has made himself look more like a cunning fox than a canny Scot.

Let him sort out the pensions mess, the NHS woes, the political correctness invading the police and other institutions, and admit to the stealth taxes. Then have an election!

Oh, and admit that HIPS has been a disaster for the housing market.

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Nice work if you can get it?

Moira Stuart has finally been sacked from the BBC. No reprieve, even though colleagues, MPs and the like protested about it. But she need not feel so bad. Some in the BBC are saying "She should be OK. Now she can be a freelance and get as much as those already fronting the newscasts".

In my wife's business of consulting that's exactly the same. Stop being employed - go freelance - get double the money! Does it sound like crazy economics? Does to me.

Apparently advertising, computing........any business, in fact, carries on like this. No doubt some accountant will say it all makes sense, but my guess is that's why we pay so much for NHS "consultants", for "surveys" and endless "reports"!

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Trust me, I'm a doctor!

Some wag has posted this on Iain Dale's Diary!

Anonymous said...
Why do you persist in calling him DOCTOR Paisley. He has an honorary Mickey Mouse doctorate conferred on him by a non-accredited institution run by one of his friends.

In fact it was from the Bob Jones University of South Carolina and the honorary degree was conferred on Paisley by the late Bob Jones himself. The University is a haven for fundamentalist Bible page-turning types who have a view of Catholic Christendom that could well be hotter than anything Satan and his chums in Hades could come up with!

Ian Paisley isn't all bad from my personal point of view. Most people have indulged him in his "doctorate" self-styling. Some organisations do and some don't.

The Northern Ireland Assembly calls him - Ian Paisley

The Northern Ireland Executive - The Rt Hon Dr Ian R K Paisley MP MLA

The BBC - variously Mr. Paisley or Ian Paisley

Parliament - Rt Hon Ian Paisley MP

But he himself definitely describes his title as Dr Ian Paisley.

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Not Right, eh?

Ed Balls has just said on BBC2's The Daily Politics that the Country trusts this New Labour Government!

Is he for real?

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Not Wrong, eh?

Well, I wasn't that far out. Blair comes in at #10 on the list of The Right's 100 Most Influential! The Telegraph seems surprised. Can't think why, as Blair has done all he can to water down socialism to such a point that it is barely legal for the Labour Party to exist!

Apopletic fits from all and sundry in the Old Labour heartlands. Blair is a Tory, or more accurately a Right-Wing Opportunist. He could have been a High Church High Tory like Lord Halifax, a previous Foreign Secretary, except Blair is far too machievellian for that.

The rest on the list appear fairly much as you'd expect. Ian Paisley is definitely of the Right. My main thought is - are these people influential with each other or with the voting public? Boris Johnson, I suppose, is both. It seems hard to see Lord Ashcroft as being anywhere near influential with the public. Lord Who? they will say!

Some of the comments about those that get on the list are a bit...well, influenced!

48. NIGEL FARAGE MEP Leader, United Kingdom Independence Party
Charismatic and unfailingly ebullient, Farage was seen as the man to take UKIP onto the next stage. Instead, he’s presided over a Party that has leaked members, is virtually bankrupt and failed in its stated aim to attract large numbers of Tories disaffected by Cameron’s soft approach to hard core issues.

If Farage was doing well, he’d be in the top thirty on this list.

If the Telegraph thinks he should be in the Top Thirty what does it say about all the hapless ones below him on the list? This is all a bit of fun, but not terribly important. It's no more indicative of influence than the Eurovision Song Contest is on songwriting!

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Great Stuff, Boris!

Boris Johnson told it as it is. Gordon Brown's holed up in a back room at No.10, no doubt with Ed Balls whispering into his ear like some demented servant, and his thoughts are on whether he could be the prime minister with shortest period in office or riding in triumph to Buckingham Palace. At the moment there is a sort of febrile dithering, if such a condition exists.

Johnson told the Conservative Party conference that Gordon Brown would be accused of being a “quivering jelly of indecision” over the timing of the next General Election. “If he fails to call it now then what will we say? We will say he’s wimped out, we will say he’s a big girl’s blouse. He’s sat so long on the fence that the iron has entered his soul.”

Great stuff! Let's see what happens next.

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Move Over Darling!

Alistair Darling sounds all sweet reasonableness when it comes to soothing the furrowed brows of Northern Rock investors. But he is up to his old tricks as a New Labour man. Didn't he say that investors' money would be safe up to £100,000? He kept telling all and sundry that the Government was going to do good for the investing public by increasing the sum. Guaranteed, it was going to be. Sounded all very good. But it isn't quite as it seems now.

The old guarantee was that up £2,000 was 100% safe and the next amount one had in the coffers was £33,000 at 90% guaranteed. Darling is only guaranteeing £35,000 at 100% it now appears. Not much of an increase there! So much for his garrulous talk of £100,000! Maybe he muddled up his 100's thinking in thousands but meaning to say percent?

All this will lead to more cynical belief that New Labour spins a good web. Darling also has the cheek to suggest that the Northern Rock board goes because "it will send a message that mistakes and recklessness will be punished". That's other people's mistakes he has in mind, because in the fantastical world of New Labour their own mistakes and recklessness get rewarded.

Not that Northern Rock did as badly out of the crisis. According to the Independent on Sunday they made an estimated £100 million on charging the panicking customers hefty penalty fees for withdrawing money early from their savings accounts. I wonder in all the customers' desire to get in through the doors before they thought the money would run out, they were ever told that they were going to be stiffed to the tune of £100 million. There we go again, another hundred coming into play.

Perhaps Alistair Darling should enquire about the Chiltern Hundreds?

Bring on the election, I say, so we can get rid of this minority government (from a voter support aspect!) and choose a set of new brooms for the country.

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The Right's 100 Most Influential: 75-51

The next 25 names in the list came out in the Daily Telegraph today. No great surprises, but my musings about Blair may not be so wide of the mark. Being "of the Right" includes all sorts of non-Tories. David Laws, the LibDem MP finds himself in at #66. Could be he will demand George Osborn's job in any Lib/Con coalition of the future.

Samantha Cameron comes in at #52, but I think it is journalistic licence to describe her as "whispering sweet nothings" when in fact she has probably just as much value to the debate as the others on the list.

Norman Tebbit's star doesn't fade away much. He can hold his own with the modernisers! He might just be the ballast needed to keep the "activists" from believing everything the Daily Mirror is currently dreaming up.

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