Brize Norton

I took a trip up to the Armed Forces' equivalent of Heathrow, RAF Brize Norton. I was there to welcome back some more of the soldiers from Iraq. They were less tanned than I thought they would be, although they had the same tired faces as all international travellers. I would imagine baggage reclaim could be quite challenging, everyone had large camouflage rucksacks.

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The shopkeepers near Hither Green station have got together and started planning some activities and improvements, the name for this group is FUSS (friends and users of Staplehurst shops). Their plans look very interesting, I will keep you updated as I find out more.

Dinner with John Redwood

Last night John Redwood addressed the Bow Group, he comes across much better face to face than he does on TV. The Bow Group still has some heavyweight thinkers and some of the question put to him were pretty tough, he handled them well.

After the presentation a number of us had dinner together and had a chance to grill John in a lot more detail, if was very interesting to get a very frank account of what it was like to be in a Conservative government through the Thatcher and Major years. John was very open about the mistakes that were made but also very proud of the achievements as well. It is very easy to forget what was achieved through the 80s and 90s by the Conservatives, bringing income tax down to a realistic level, forcing the unions to grow up, letting council tenants buy there own homes. None of these things have been rescinded by Labour because they know that that they were good for the country.

Still not sleeping

Despite Susie's best efforts Rupert is still not getting the hang of the whole sleeping thing. My understanding was that babies need lots of sleep, Rupert seems to be ignoring this golden rule. He only sleeps when either Susie or I hold him, but we can't hold him for 18 hours a day. I know that I will probably be inviting a tidal wave of advice by posting this and I thank you in advance but I would be surprised if anyone comes up with anything that we have not already tried.

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I hear from the news that the Black Watch are heading north today to assist in the American controlled sector of Iraq. God speed and best wishes.

I hope that this proves to the public that our soldiers (especially our infantry) are highly professional, highly flexible and absolutely essential. The fact that Geoff Hoon wants to scrap so much of the infantry is therefore ludicrous. People are focused on home matters and public services, and rightly so, but we should also remember that this government is betraying our armed forces and should be punished at the next elections.

Is it just me?

There seems to be a real gloom in the news at the moment. Most of our guys are back from the Gulf but I am still very worried about the future there, the use of the British Armed Forces as political tools is not new but using them as a political tool in someone else's election is really scraping the barrel. There are over 100,000 American Troops in Iraq at the moment so I cannot believe that 850 Jocks from the Black Watch will make any difference other than on the political level.

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You can tell that there is an election looming, the Government are casting around for headline grabbing policies that will go down well with "middle England" and then can be quietly dropped after the election, if they get back in. The latest of these is the disclosure of a defendants past convictions, this may seem like a good idea but it creates a very dangerous president. It makes it almost impossible for someone to turn over a new leaf, let me give you an example.

Mr. X. was found guilty of theft in his early twenties. A few years later after serving his punishment he is arrested for theft again, there is no tangible evidence against him other than the testimony of one of his past associates (who hate him for ditching them and going on the straight and narrow). He is in court and his past conviction is read out and influence the jury, he is found guilty again despite the lack of evidence. This would now indicate a pattern of crime and make it increasingly difficult to live a life without crime. Like so many other things the government is going for what they think of as the easy fix rather than sorting out the core problem.

The problem is not that juries that are too lenient, the problem is that we are not catching enough criminals in the first place, that would be solved by having more police and letting them get on with their jobs.

The British legal system is very old and a lot of the potential contradictions and problems have been sorted out over time, governments should be very careful before changing things as fundamental as this.

Welcome Home

I apologise to anyone who visits this site regularly (there does seem to be a few) for not updating much this month, as you probably know Susie and I have had the arrival of Rupert to deal with as well as looking after Freddy and the dog. I had forgotten just how disruptive a new born baby can be!

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The soldiers from my regiment that have been in the Gulf for the last 7 months are starting to come back to the UK and after a short post deployment leave they will be returning to their civilian jobs. We have been lucky so far, no fatalities, no serious injuries and only one near miss.

The next big challenge will be to see how well they can get back into the swing of work and how well their employers welcome them back. I was thinking of using this website to "name and shame" any employers that try to shirk their responsibilities but I would probably prejudice any employment tribunal so I won't.

Conservative Party Conference 2004

Bit of a quiet one for me this year, the recent arrival of Rupert meant that I wasn't down in Bournemouth very much.

There were some significant differences this year compared to last, firstly the mood of the conference was very upbeat and the focus of everyone's attention was very much on the probable general election next year. I don't know if it was because of the weather or because of the confidence of the party.

There were lots of candidates around and it was good fun talking to people about their seats, their campaigns and their ideas. There was very much a first week at University feel to all these conversations, freshers' week is full of "What school did you go to?" and "What grades did you get?" at conference it is full of "What seat have you got?" and "What majority are you fighting?".

I was planning to give a day by day brief but realised that it would be very boring for me to write and even more boring for you to read so here are some edited highlights.

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Lord Saatchi lays down the law. Satisfaction = Performance - expectation.

The advertising guru and party co-chairman talk us through the difficulty that the Labour government has created for itself by over promising and under delivering. He also reminded us that the governments target culture is not new, in fact it is an idea lifted from early communist Russia. The big difference is that in 1928 the Supreme Soviet had 50 targets to govern the whole of Russia and we have 400 in the NHS alone.

The Labour party have shown that they have not improved social justice as promised, they have increased the tax burden on lower income families and they have replaced income generating jobs with an explosion of "back room" public sector jobs which cost the economy £millions each year.

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Dr Fox and Elvis. A little less conversation a little more action.

Those who are more interested in Pop Idol than in Conservative politics (and admittedly there are many) sometimes confuse Dr Liam Fox (Conservative Party Co-Chairman) and "Dr" Neil Fox (Top DJ and TV talent show judge). Some say that they even look a little alike, you might think that I couldn't possibly comment.

Dr L Fox (the Tory) has now made life harder by being intimately associated with the up-beat and catchy Elvis tune "A little less conversation". Luckily Dr N Fox (the DJ) has not started to make political speeches.

Our Foxy made the point that the current Labour government were all talk and no action. All talk on education but then causing a funding crisis that cost teaching jobs. All talk on defence and security then cutting the armed forces. All talk on crime reduction then watching violent crime spiral out of control.

I felt that one particular sentence summed up pretty well the direction that the party will take when in government. "Cleaner hospitals, discipline in schools, an end to political correctness, police on the beat, support for our armed forces, control of our borders and the British people controlling their own future in Europe."

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Michael Howard. Straight talking

Michael Howard broke with tradition and spoke both early in the week and again at the end of the conference, both were very strong speeches. In the first he conceded that all governments have been to keen to promise what the cannot deliver, the current Labour government had taken this to new heights. The new Conservative government will deliver on its promises, he set out a timetable of action and made it very clear that if Ministers did not match up to the job they would be replaced. Not good news for ministers, excellent news for everyone else.

Michael finished his opening speech with a ten word pledge "School discipline. More police. Cleaner hospitals. Lower taxes. Controlled immigration." and a reminder of why he is so passionate about making Britain great.

He closed the conference with a speech reminding us of our responsibility to the people of this country and committing to deliver on what we promise and only to promise what we can deliver.