"You do not know your arse from your elbow, you bastard."

Do you know your:

From your:

When are children adults?

David Cameron is pushing for age laws to be homogenised and for young people to earn the title adult rather than just hitting an arbitrary age point.

Youth and young adults are very much on politicians minds at the moment. Both Gordon Brown and David Cameron are putting plans in place for young adults. Both think that some form of community based group activity is good. Both think that the state sector is not the best vehicle for this.

However.

Gordon Brown thinks that "someone" should do something about it. David Cameron is doing something about it. Gordon Brown is in government, David Cameron is not. Shouldn't it have been Gordon who was in a better position to "do something"?

I am pleased that DC has looked to the charitable sector to run with this, supported by but not run by the Conservative party, this is very much in keeping with the ideas that I put forward here. At this rate all my ideas will become Conservative policy, eventually.

You pay for my cock up

Tony McNulty gets a raw deal. Whenever there is a Home Office cocks-up (which is worryingly often) he gets sent out to explain away.

The latest is the aborted police merger plans. Labour wanted it, no one else did. Labour pushed it through and the police started making arrangements, the arrangements cost them money. Labour pulled the plug on the idea leaving the police financially out of pocket. Labout cocked- up the police had to pay for it! Literally.

This is money that could have been spent on extra PCSOs, extra technology, more patrol cars or even . . . . . . . .more police officers. If the home office were a brewery and you got an invitation to a rowdy drinks party how confident would you be that it would go without a hitch?

Should ministers answer the question?

This is an interesting little article. Lib Dem MP John Hemming has asked the courts to force government ministers to answer the questions put to them, it seems that they have habit of not doing so. Heaven forbid!

John has a good point but is barking up the wrong tree, the courts have little (or no) authority over the House of Commons. The Speaker is supposed to keep order and direct the actions of the members, he does his best, poor thing.

I have thought about this a fair bit, how straight talking can MPs really be? Everyone says that they want politic ans to be more honest (blunt) but the media tend to crucify them if they do. I think that speaking what you think is the best way forward, it's one of the reasons why I have a blog, but I'm well aware that something I have written will be thrown back at me in years to come. So be it.

If people want straight talking politicians they will also have to accept that just like their mates and colleagues they will sometimes put their feet in their mouths. This shouldn't be the trigger for a witch hunt.

Let's see what happens.

Can I have the bill please

This is a great, cross party, campaign designed to get a climate change bill into the Queen's Speech. It is well worth a visit.

Sorry for the lack of posts

I like to put something up on the site every day but I have been hugely busy work getting our new site up and running (if you're interested in small business you can look at it here), this has taken up much of my lunchtimes and evenings, my usual blogging periods.

Last night Susie and I had a night out together which is why there was nothing posted yesterday at all. We went to the Braintree Conservative Association's annual dinner (God I know how to impress a lady!), I was asked Malcolm Dunn, a regular contributor on ConservativeHome who also works in the publishing industry. These events tend to be OK but bad food and cheap wine are generally the order of the day.

Last night was completely different, the event was held at the Lian Chinese Restaurant, wow.

The food was fantastic, I was very pleasantly surprised. What is less surprising is that the restaurant is very popular locally. Lian doesn't have a website (or rather I couldn't find it on Google) so here are the contact details, if you are in or around Witham check it out.

Polls, damn polls and statistics

A few days ago I questioned the result of a Mori poll which put Gordon Brown ahead if David Cameron, it just didn't fit with anything that I am hearing on the doorstep.

It seems from this Guardian poll I wasn't wrong.

English Parliament, tattoo removal and gangs of kids

I was on Iain's Vox Politics show last night. Iain, Zoe, Christine Constable (of the English Democrats) and myself discussed a number of issues including youth anti social behaviour, health rationing and and English parliament.

If you want to watch again you can. Click here to watch Vox Politics 24-10-06

I also did the End of Day Show with Tim Montgomerie. Click here to watch the End of Day Show 24-10-06

Exiled to Canada

I sit next to a Canadian guy (hello Dan), this morning he told me that there was widespread outrage because a paedophile had been exiled to Canada. I was more than a little sceptical.

But it's true. Read it here.

Apparently he was given the choice of three years in prison or three years in Canada, he chose Canada. I don't know why our northern cousins are so peeved, imagine the story if he had chosen to be locked up for three years!

18 Doughty Street tonight

I'm on interwebtelly with Iain Dale this evening. I am on with Iain, Zoe and Christine Constable of the English Democrats discussing an English parliament, English votes for English issues, English flags, England expects etc. etc.

This is already a big issue and will only grow if Gordon Brown becomes PM. Let me know what you think, either here or on the 18 Doughty Street site.

Is Milburn trying to out Tory David Cameron?

Patients' passports were an element of the 2005 Conservative manifesto. We didn't win and the plan was dropped when DC became party leader, Alan Milburn has resurrected it. Blair loyalists have form when it comes to picking up Conservative ideas and saying how good they would be.

Milburn has about as much influence over future Labour policy as I have and these comments cannot be part of a leadership pitch (unless he plans to lead the Conservatives) so why do them? I think that they could be a way of stirring up a row amongst Tories.

The comments on inheritance could have set the cat amongst the pigeons and there is still some support for passports within the party. Coming so soon after David Cameron's NHS promise I can't help but think that there is more to this than meets the eye.

I am not passing this on

I got an email this morning, one of those "pass it on" type emails. Having scrolled down to the bottom, there were some romantic pictures of soldiers and this.




I always delete these, always. One reason why I delete these is that they tend to scatter email addresses far and wide and that leads to spam, I hate spam.

Because of the military theme a lot of email addresses are military and there are also a number of signature blocks with telephone numbers and postal addresses of military people. That is not good for security.

I am not surprised by this, when I was at Junior Staff College there was a huge folder on "Service Writing", this is the art of writing military letters. The folder must have had about a hundred pages of which perhaps five were given over to email.

So to the various members of RAF, army and MOD staff (including a Squadron Leader at Cranwell and staff at MOD main building), please think before you pass these on.

Not nearly nerdy enough!

This isn't as good news as it looks.

I am the head of online for a publishing company, I should be e bit nerdier than this.

Luckily for me I have couple of people who I know who are nerdy enough to help out, Paulipoos being one, Dizzy being the other.

Would you rather have Brown or Cameron?

I find this poll result very interesting, mainly because it goes completely against all the personal feedback that I have been getting.

I don't claim to be as scientific as Populus, they are a professional polling company and I am..... well I am not.

But I spend a lot of time talking to people about politics, many of them (most of them?) are not dyed in the wool Conservatives. The story that I get from them is that Brown is very much tared with the same brush as Tony Blair, I think that the image makeover people in Labour HQ will find it very hard to redefine Brown as not being instrumental in the Nu Labour project.

The recent attempt to distance him from the Iraq war fell flat, and his cringe inducing smiles during Tony Blair Manchester speech were caught on film for us all to see. I would love for Brown to take over as leader of the Labour party, they saw why in 1994.

Trafalgar Day

For the second year running I Susie and I hosted a Trafalgar evening at house.

We had the usual fare for a Conservative drinks evening, wine, dips, cocktail sausages etc. John Horam MP (Orpington) was kind enough to give a speech.

I don't normally write about these kind of events but I thought that I would this time because John spoke about how David Cameron's approach mirrored that of Nelson's at Trafalgar. It was a very good speech and John is very much supportive of the direction that DC is taking the party. This was a contrast to the speaker we had last year, Eric Forth.

Eric was a great speaker and like John spent a great deal of time chatting to our guests and answering their questions. It seems such a short time ago that Eric was in our living room with his "individual" taste in ties and soft Scottish accent.

Claire's off

As noted by Guido and Dizzy at lunchtime, "left wing firebrand" Claire Short MP has resigned the Labour whip. This was inevitable and makes almost no difference to anyone.

Who do you seek advice from

If you want advice on running a small business would you seek advice from someone who has never run one?

Well the DTI seem to think that it is perfectly sensible for career civil servants who have never worked in the commercial world to give out advice. I don't agree.

What should we do about tax?

What should happen to taxes
	Cut them, even if it means cutting public spending
	Cut them but only if public spending levels can be maintained
	Keep them about the same
	They need to rise
Free polls from Pollhost.com

There is no such thing as a poor farmer

Or so the joke went, well there are plenty of them now.

The government's ignorance of (and I'm being generous here) the countryside and the rural economy is disgusting! I lived in the Highlands for a year and served in the TA in rural Norfolk for five years so I know lots of people involved in agriculture and they are suffering.

Their biggest problem is that Labour don't believe that there are any votes for them in the countryside, they are probably right. We have already seen that the government plan to punish rural Conservative constituencies via the removal of health provision, so this should come as no surprise.

Control orders are all over the place

The news that two terrorist suspects have “escaped” from the provision of their control orders has highlighted the stupidity of the situation.

First we are told that these people are so dangerous that we have to throw away centuries of legal history and lock them up indefinitely without trial.

Then we are told that they cannot be brought to trial because the evidence against them is too sensitive to enter the public domain.

Then we hear that the monthly Home Office report on these control orders forgot to mention that one has been on the run for the last few months.

Now we are told that despite being a huge threat to our national security the absconders are in fact are “not threats to security in Britain”. ?!?!?!?

This is turning into a farce. If these people have broken the law, bring them to trial and put them in prison. If we suspect they are going to break the law, put them under surveillance and arrest them as soon as they do (and remember conspiracy to commit murder is a crime, we do not have to wait until they actually kill someone). If they are no threat at all, leave them alone!

Blair's video spoof backfires

Massive well done and hat tip to The Spine

Has Blunkett gone bonkers?

I haven't read Blunkett's diaries so I can't really comment on how scathing he has been, that said the responses from colleagues and subordinates implies that the book is sensational stuff.

And that's a problem.

As a serving MP should Blunkett really be trying to cause a sensation? Does Blunkett see himself as a politician or a celeb? Is he focused on helping to govern the country or driving up sales of his book?

I think that the answers to all of the above are clear. What is less clear is why, does he just not care any more or has he just lost it?

EU birthday logo

Is it just me or is this logo absolutely rubbish?

I had a small discussion about logos when the new Conservative one came out, I think that logos can be important. Get it right and people don't really notice but get it wrong and everyone knows.

I think that the tree was a good move, this mish-mash of letters does not work at all. It steals the multi coloured text idea from google, the mixed fonts implies disunity and not everyone has been in the EU since 1957.

Other than that it's great.

One day in history

Who had the idea of asking me to talk about what I did for a day "no mater how boring it might seem".

These people did. And the great thing is that you can too. Go on, you know you want to.

And here's one I prepared earlier

I was helping people set up blogs at the Conservative conference this year, Paul Charlson was one of the those that I helped.

It is great to see people getting involved like this and having a pool of subject experts to balance the banality of mainstream media coverage can only be a good thing.


Well done, keep up the good work. And remember link, link, link.

"Tom's a propper computer blogger"

Sion Simon says that Tom Watson is a “proper computer blogger” who is “committed to the medium” where as David Cameron is “nakedly shallow” and cynically using it to pursue his own agenda.

Well let’s look at just how “committed” Tom Watson is to blogging shall we. In the seven months before his resignation letter he managed to produce the mammoth total of 37 posts. That an average of 5.3 per month. WOW!

Since his wayward political torpedo he has managed to post 47 entries, in six weeks. Self serving and cynical use of the medium? Shome mishtake shurely.

Cynical hospital closure plan

I am sickened, angry and disappionted but not at all surprised.

Last month reports came to light of a Health Department meeting where hospital closures were discussed. Allegedly the talk was of keeping closures in Labour marginals to a minimum and focusing on hospitals in Conservative constituencies.

Well, it seems as though they have gone ahead with the plan despite being caught red handed. Blair, Hewitt and the rest have clearly done a risk/reward analysis and have decided that there is more to be gained than to be lost.

They are probably right. This move makes Labour look deceitful, cynical and desperate, no change their then; nothing lost. Keeping closures out of their key marginals may save them a few seats at the next general election, so in their minds this is a net gain.

I hope that voters in those very same marginal seats think hard before voting Labour again.

Sion Simon just doesn't get it

He made the video and his mate Tom stuck it on the Internet. They both realised what twits the whole thing had made them look and then they said sorry and tried to undo the whole mess.

Unlucky boys, it doesn't work like that.

Once the genie is out of the bottle you can't just shove it back in again. Sion decided to take the video down, not because it caused offence but because it was public evidence of what a fool he is. The people behind the biased BBC blog have helpfully put it back up for him.

Sion, do you get it yet?

Sion criticised DC for using a new means of communication and yet he showed that he had no idea at all about how it works. Sion, this will not go away. I predict a small flurry of Sion Spoof videos, in fact please feel free to send them to me and I will post the best on this site.

Sion, do you get it yet?

Guard dogs not lapdogs

A lot of soldiers that I know have been keen for someone senior to put their side of events into the public domain.

Sir Richard has put himself into the political firing line by talking about overstretch in the armed forces and I applaud his decision to do so. Troops need to feel that their chain of command make military decisions not political ones.

It almost doesn't matter whether you agree or disagree with Sir Richard the fact is he has said what he believes to be the truth about our military commitments. He is a soldier and his loyalty is to the Monarch, the country and his troops, not to the Labour party or the MOD.

I listened to Sir Richard on the Today program on Radio 4 this morning, it was a masterclass in how not to be pushed around by an interviewer.

UPDATE: 15.21 - 13-10-06

A very interesting comment has been made on Nick Robinson's BBC News blog. Read it here

Sion Simon, what a fool

Click here to see David Cameron's original video.

Click here to see Sion Simon's spoof video.

Click here to see the same Sion Simon make a complete and utter fool of himself on national TV.

PS.

Sion, your "job" as a Labour MP is to represent your constituency in the commons. You might want to have a think about that.

Hat tip to Guido for the link

Rotherham 4 London 1

Lee Rotherham is going for the top political job in London. I know Lee and he is excellent value, very sharp and very focused on highlighting the levels of waste in Ken Livingstone's Mayoralty and stamping it out.

Have a look at Lee's new site New Start for London.

Welcome home 3 Para

The 3 Para battlegroup is now now coming home.

The hot weather specialists are handing over to the cold weather specialists of 42 Commando Royal Marines and their affliated units, best of luck.

Tories furious/shrug off (delete as appropriate) spoof video

As they say it doesn't matter what they write about you as long as they get your name right, the modern equivalent is a video spoof.

Some Conservatives are not at all happy, some are just laughing it off.

Me?

I think that it is typical of Labour to try to discredit David Cameron (unsuccessfully) rather than put their own house in order. I did chuckle a little bit though!

Ooops!

Richard springs into the bloggersphere

Richard Spring(s) geddit?

Very poor joke I know but it is more interesting a headline than "Suffolk MP start a blog". Although thinking about it, the fact that one of our more "senior" MPs in one of our safest seats is embracing this interaction is very significant.

This move shows that opening up a dialogue with constituents is becoming part of the political mainstream and over the next few years I predict that blogging, forums, online discussions etc. will be as common as leaflets and door knocking.

Well done Richard.

Not a bad first night

I watched a fair bit of 18 Doughty street this evening (last night now) I thought it went rather well.

Keep up the good work.

At last, some support for our troops

It has been a long, long time coming but finally the government has seen the light and is giving our troops some of the support that they deserve.

I will resist all my natural urges to be cynical and just say thank you.

18 Doughty Street

Tonight at 8 pm there could either be a revolution in political broadcasting or an embarrassing cock up involving two Conservative bloggers. Either way it will be well worth watching.

For what it's worth I think that this will go well. Both Iain and Tim have a track record of success when it comes to political communications and the fact that political blogs dominate the "top of the blog pops" shows that there is a real demand for unfiltered, unsanitised political discussion.

Still, a little glitch wouldn't go a miss. Just so there is something for Dennis Norden to put on his show next Christmas.

A free Ferrari for every reader

I could promise a top of the range sports car for every reader but what would be the point. I don't have the money to keep the promise and even if I did there would be other things that I would need to spend it on.

The PM's promise to provide the troops in Afghanistan with "whatever they need", is just a hollow statement. Can he provide a fully supported brigade? No, we don't have one to spare. Can he flood the region with helicopters? No, we don't have enough.

I can't help but think that this is just another example of an announcement designed to grab a headline and make the government look tough. I will keep an eye on this situation and see whether Blair makes good on his promise.

If I can offer Tony Blair a word of advice, don't promise the Earth, just find out what they really need make sure they are given that. Also this should have happened six months ago when British troops first headed south.

I like Kate Hoey

Kate is probably a Labour MP that most Conservatives would be happy to welcome onto our side. She has stood up to Blair and the Nu Labour establishment on a number of points and has become a bit of a thorn in their side.

It looks as though she has not limited herself to annoying just the government of this country.

This story about her and the Zimbabwean security forces makes me smile. Anyone who pisses off the current Harare government can't be at all bad.

Labour's greatest achievement - didn't work

Tony Blair has conceded that "Labour's greatest achievement" has been a failure.

"Sure Start is one of the Government's greatest achievements." - Tony Blair, October 2006

"When we started Sure Start - I was always a bit sceptical that in the end that we could do this - there was an idea it would lift all the boats on a rising tide. It has not worked like that." - Tony Blair, May 2006

Big hat tip to Dizzy

Jack Straw to present "What not to Wear"?

Gallantry Medal for the Royal Irish Regiment

I have a huge amount of respect for the Royal Irish Regiment, they are a really tough bunch and whenever I have had any dealings with them their huge reserves of humour have also been in evidence.

Elements of the regiment have been on front line duty continuously for the last 36 years. In addition to the home service battalions working in Northern Ireland they have heavily involved in both the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They are well deserving of the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross that they received from the Queen.

Why is Labour so keen for us to announce policies?

People like David Cameron.

His personal approval ratings are much higher than either Tony Blair or Gordon Brown and their attacks on his posh upbringing have been seen for what they were, spiteful and irrelevant. Labour is clearly looking for a chink in the Cameron armour and they think that our lack of hard policy commitments is it.

David Cameron has made it clear that we need a complete and thorough review of our policies and that we will not be rushed. I think that this is a very sensible way approaching politics and I will give you a few examples of why.

We have been long terms critics of Labour’s policy on the hoof, remember night courts and yobs being marched to cash point machines? Neither actually worked. Poorly thought through, headline grabbing initiatives seldom do.

Secondly, policy is not everything. As Samuel L Jackson said in the pig discussion scene of Pulp Fiction “personality counts for a lot”. The “personality” of the party is important and that is what we are working on at the moment. Regaining trust and credibility are precursors to any policy announcements. As a party we have to win back the right to be listened to.

Blair is keen for us to rush into announcements because it will give him ideas to nick; he also knows from experience that rushed announcements trip up politicians in the future. He also knows that over the next 12 months we will start putting the major themes and policies in place, by calling for us to do so now he can claim that he “forced the Conservatives into announcing policies”, I don’t think anyone other than the die hard Labour supports will believe it for a minute.

Things that Labour didn't see coming but everyone else did. Number 93

Add this to the list.

Prison population growing, number of prison places remaining static. Result? Not enough prison places. Labour didn't see it coming, everyone else did.

Here are some others:
Number 27
Make the tax credit system impossibly complicated, claw back over payments from the most financially vulnerable people in the country. Result? Appalling hardship for many low paid families. Labour didn't see it coming, everyone else did.

Number 4
Send a small, lightly armed and armoured military force into one of the harshest environments in the world against a highly motivated and experienced enemy. Result? Unacceptably high levels of casualties and fatalities. Labour didn't see it coming, everyone else did.

Please feel free to let me know about any others.

Poor old Tony

He has written in the Guardian in an attempt to offset some of David Cameron's post conference exposure.

The Guardian should be safe, surely! Left of centre but not too far. Lots of liberal family readers and teachers. Perfect place to use the "Sure Start" program to attack Cameron with.

Wrong.

Not only did the commentators go straight on the attack over things like Iraq and civil liberties they pulled him apart over his obsession with Tory bashing nearly a decade after becoming PM.

I don't think that the "Vote Labour or let the Tories in" line will cut any ice at the next general election.

Hands up who believes them

Labour say that they are looking to use the Internet to spread the good news. This means that they don't need a spring conference any more. Rubbish.

They are struggling financially. All political parties are having to look at the money in and the money out and making some tough choices.

I just wish they would be honest about it.

Ian Blair should stamp this out at once

The Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group is tasked with protecting foreign diplomats from criminal activity while in the UK. The unwillingness of one of its officers to do this is inexcusable.

The officer was Muslim and the embassy was Israeli but this is absolutely no excuse, the implicit message is that he would have been unwilling to do his duty because he disagrees/dislikes Israel's policies. The police cannot pick and choose who they defend against crime.

I can understand why the officer requested to be moved, he should have been told no. What amazes me is that Ian Blair did not immediately say that this action was inappropriate.

Images from the 2006 Bournemouth Conference

This was my view of the huge queue of people waiting to get their passes. Only most of them didn't get them for many hours. This was taken mid afternoon on Monday.

And here is an example of the resourcefulness and altruism which are the hallmarks of Conservatism!

People making the most of the "down time" made available to us through the slow issuing of passes.

I got got bored and wandered around Bournemouth looking for interesting things to photograph. This was the best that I could come up with.

Inside at last. This is the view from the "bloggers' corner".


And here are the bloggers in that corner. Sam Cotes (Dept. Ed of ConservativeHome) is standing up, Tim Montgomerie (Ed of ConservativeHome) smiling widely, Iain Dale looking sagely at his laptop and Greg Hands MP hiding behind the literature. Guido was off somewhere up to no good.



Great to see that the childish "amendments" are still popular. This is a cardboard cut out by the way, in case you were wondering.




Here are two great friends from SE London. Rebbecca Stevens on the left and Karen Allen on the right, taken at about two in the morning. How do they both manage to look so sharp when everyone else (me included) looked like a dog's dinner?



The media packing up and going home. As was I.

Nick on police reform

Nick Herbert MP, the Shadow Minister for Police Reform, talks exclusively to Me, me, me all me.

Not Con Home or Iain Dale or the Telegraph ME.

I'm in

At last I am able to wander around the stands talk to colleagues, discuss ideas, listen to speeches and do all the other things that I come to conference to do.

That atmosphere is very upbeat and even the internal debates over things like tax cuts and candidate section are friendly and positive.

Once I have had a chance to bed in I will report back and I will post a photo roundup of the bits of the conference that I have seen

Blogging in a queue, in the rain

For some reason there has been a big delay in processing the security element of many conference applications. For this reason I am currently standing in the rain tapping into a blackberry with a couple of hundred other Conservatives.

Not the best start. It also means that I am likely to miss the launch of blogging stand with Iain Dale, Tim Montgomerie and Jonathan Shepperd.