We will remember them

This morning I will be laying wreaths at the war memorial and at Canadian Corner, a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Orpington. This afternoon I will be a a service of remembrance in Welling.

Heron wing opening at Feltham YOI

Today has been a very exciting day for me. I have spent a great deal of time over the last year working on a range of projects to reduce the drivers towards youth crime, the details of these plans can be read here.

One of the most complicated, ambitious and exciting of these plans was called Project Daedalus, this is our plan to introduce a new regime for young offenders' institutions and reduce the levels of youth re-offending.

I described this plan as complicated because its delivery involves a range of organisations, different levels of government and significant up from expenditure. I have worked closely with the Met Police, the Prison Service, Youth Justice Board, National Offender Management Service, Probation Service, local councils, London Development Agency and a number of voluntary sector organisations to put the plan in place. This morning we launched the plan.

Kit Malthouse, Pam Chesters and I joined Boris to officially open Heron Wing, the pilot for our new regime. Oh Jack Straw was there too.

Referendum on the Lisbon treaty

Before anyone "goes off on one" over the position we now find ourselves in, there are a few points I think we should consider.

We are not the bad guys here!

While it is very flattering for the Conservatives to be talked about as if we are already in government, we're not. Gordon Brown is the Prime Minister at the moment and Labour are in government. They are the ones who made a promise of a referendum and could have delivered on that promise. They didn't.

It is no longer possible to have a referendum on the ratification of the Lisbon treaty.

The treaty has already been ratified, while I don't like that fact at all, it is the truth. If we were to have a referendum on Lisbon what would the question be? We can't ask if the UK should ratify the treaty in the future tense, and if we ask "should the UK have ratified the treaty?" what would we do with the answer?

As Conservatives we should not base our future actions on our opponents' version of history.

The left are trying to paint David Cameron as going back on a "cast iron pledge" to hold a referendum whatever happened. Only he never said that. As you can see from this contemporary report David Cameron has broken no promise at all:

He said a referendum could take place "absolutely no problem at all" while it was still being discussed in Europe. But he admitted it was more difficult if there was no general election until 2010 and if all member states had ratified it without holding a referendum.

We are, both as a country and as a party, in a crappy position, not of our making. Gordon Brown has stitched us all up and David Cameron is going to have to come up with a plan of action. I think it is worth waiting and listening to what he has got to say before helping the left damage our election chances.

Seize the day

I've just got back from watching Kwame Kwei-Armah's new play at the Tricycle theatre. Seize The Day is about a black TV celebrity's attempts to become mayor of London.

I was there to review the play for the guys at Total Politics, I don't want to steal my own thunder so I'll say no more tonight, but I will link the review as soon as it's up.

Gordon Brown’s U-turn shows how little Labour understands the TA

I've written a post for the Conservative party's in house blog about the TA funding announcement and subsequent U-turn.

You can read it here

Brown jinxes Blair

Guido Fawkes has a long running series of posts about Gordon Brown's unnerving ability to jinx the things he supports. From football teams to small businesses a Gordon Brown indorsement is like the black spot from Treasure Island.

Tony Blair must have held his head in his hand when he heard Gordon lavish praise on him, and rightly so. With regard to the presidency of the European Council Tony has gone from "front runner" to "also ran" in less than 24 hours.

Then again, maybe that was Gordon's plan!

The Kelly report

I've not seen the report in full, just the information currently doing the rounds in the media. As someone outside parliament but close enough to understand it, I'd like to put my reactions and ideas forward.

Here are the main proposals and my reactions to them:

* MPs to rent second homes only.
I think that the current system is untenable. MPs who represent constituencies outside central London can make a fortune when they sell their publicly funded second home, this has to stop. There must be provision for MPs who want to have their families with them in London during the week to rent larger properties. (I have written about MPs accommodation here)

* Ban on MPs employing family members on Commons payroll.
I think this proposal is misguided. I see nothing wrong with MPs having family working for them, MPs work funny hours and need staff that they can completely trust. Having family on the team helps in both these areas.

The abuse comes when those family members are not doing a proper job, this
could be dealt with by ensuring that all parliamentary staff are employed by
parliament rather than the MP. All the issues about remuneration, hours,
qualifications etc would be independently verified. Easy!

*Ban on MPs close to London claiming second home allowance.
This makes complete sense, the challenge will be defining who is "close to
London".

*Allowances for inner London MPs to be reduced.
I have always assumed that this allowance was to part compensate inner
London MPs for not making money on their second home, as this perk will be going
there is less (no) need for this allowance.

*Scrapping the communications allowance
I think this should go, indeed I never agreed with it coming in, as you can see here.

*Scrapping of the resettlement allowance.
I think this would be rather unfair. There should be a discussion about the size of this payment but a couple of month's salary wouldn't bee seen as a fair redundancy payment elsewhere.

There are a number of points which I have a great deal of sympathy with, there are other elements which I feel miss the mark. The problem that MPs have is that the current public mood makes it almost impossible for them to have a sensible discussion about these recommendations.

Order, counter-order, disorder

"Order, counter-order, disorder" is an old saying in the army, you only really understand its significance when you are put into a position of command are are trying to get soldiers to the right place, at the right time, with the right kit. If you keep changing their instructions chaos will ensue.

This is a lesson the current government could do with learning. The TA have been told to train more and support the regular army. They did just that. Then they were told to stop training for six months. Then just as that order was being disseminated they were told to start training again but not as much as before.

Talking to TA soldiers and their officers there is a great deal of confusion. Are they valued? Are they needed? Will the TA continue? What should we tell the soldiers?

I was at a briefing of London's reserve forces last week. The General commanding London explained the problem, the limitations that he was working within and his plan to make the best of the situation. By the start of this week the government's U-turn made all his plans obsolete.

Labour's ineptitude is undermining soldiers, both regular and TA, at every level. It has to stop.