Cameron on Newsnight

 

I have only just got round to watching the Newsnight panel interview with David Cameron, I was getting drunk with my father when it was on air.

I don't intend to say much because much has already been said on Guido, ConHome, Iain Dale, Dizzy etc.  I thought that Cameron handled the grilling well enough but what really interested me was the way that a few answers were amplified in the subsequent media reports.

If I had not watched the video and just relied on the news reports I would have thought that Cameron spoke of nothing but stopping immigration and tough jail sentences.  The truth is of course a million miles away from what was reported.

Why am I surprised?

At least you can't see his shirt

I'm glad that Nelson Mandela has a permanent statue and I'm particularly glad his shirt isn't in colour.

Prison strike

I have some sympathy with the Prison Officers.  I bet you didn't expect to hear that from a Conservative about a group of people on strike!

Prison officers do a very demanding job made worse by the appalling levels of overcrowding in our prisons.  That said I don't feel that the snap strike that was called was justified, indeed I feel very uncomfortable about prison officers striking at all.  Service personnel and police officers can't strike so why should prison officers, firemen etc be allowed to put lives at risk in this way?

The problem that Brown now has is that public sector pay awards will keep coming in below the recipients expectations because Brown has wasted so much of the huge tax take.  Some will just bite their lips but some will strike, then more will, then more.

Brown cannot blame anyone else for this, it is his tax and waste policies that have been in place for the last ten years.  Tony has been a bit of a scape goat but in this case the buck stops with Brown.  Sorry for the mixed metaphors.

The saddest thing

I got this message from St Crispin who is in Afghanistan at the moment.  Nothing really needs to be added.

I just watched about 40 R Anglian guys practicing for the ramp ceremony with three empty coffins on a bare arsed piece of spare ground. Going through their drills over & over again.

F**king sad to watch. I didn't have the heart to take picture.

Lies, damn lies and statistics

I was thinking about what to say in response to the ludicrous claims made by the Home Secretary about the levels of gun crime. David Davis has done it better than I could:

Extract from letter by David Davis, shadow home secretary, to Jacqui Smith, home
secretary, August 24, 2007

Dear Jacqui, We are all concerned at the rising tide of violent crime that has manifested itself this week in a spate of shocking killings, including the tragic death of young Rhys Jones. You told GMTV this morning that “statistics aren’t a help but gun crime is down”. That is an extraordinary claim.

According to Home Office figures, gun crime (excluding air weapons) has
almost doubled since Labour took office. The annual crime figures, released by
the Home Office in July, suggest a 13% decrease on the previous year, which
neglects the 18% increase in firearm homicides.

However, perhaps most telling is the massive increase in gun violence, disclosed on 25 January of this year (Homicides, Firearm Offences and Intimate Violence 2005-06, Home Office). Buried at page 36 we find gun-related killings and injuries (excluding airguns) have increased by over fourfold since 1998.

In light of this information, your claim that gun crime is down is both inaccurate and misleading. One clear fact on gun-related violence is that if you don’t count it, you won’t be able to tackle it. Your predecessors opted for spin over substance. I hope that is a path you will avoid and would be grateful for an explanation of what action you plan.

Yours sincerely, David Davis

This is why Davis and his Shadow Home Office team have dispatched so many incompetent Home Secretaries. I wonder how long Smith will last?

By the way does anyone think after the failure of numerous gun amnesties that the new plan for gun drop off centres will work?

Will forces funding be an issue at the next election?

While Iraq was an issue at the last election it was more to do with the integrity of the government and our relationship with America, rather than on spending, commitments and the duty to service people.

Gordon Brown has been quite good at setting himself apart from the political fallout of the decision to go to war although, as second most senior member of the cabinet, he was just as much a part of the decision as Blair.

The big difference now is that people are now seeing that the front line armed forces have been starved of funding while public money was be squandered by Brown. Requests from the forces for equipment, troops and improved conditions were met with a "they would say that wouldn't they" attitude from the government. Yet at the same time £ billions were being wasted on legions of QANGOs.

Forces funding (as % of GDP) is now the lowest since before WWII yet we are seeing an intensity of conflict and casualty rates not experienced in since Korea.

My views on Des Browne are well known but it should never be forgotten that Gordon Brown's attempt to do more with less has cost the live of British service people.

Watching Rev Jesse Jackson speak

I was up in Manchester yesterday evening at the invitation of George Osbourne and Operation Black Vote to hear Rev Jesse Jackson speak. I thought that I had travelled a long way until I saw Wilfred Emmanuel Jones there who had come up from Chippenham.

I have heard some good speeches in my time but is is something else to watch someone who grew up in the passionate oratory tradition of the baptist church and civil rights movement. It was a masterclass.

What struck me was that someone who would be defined and probably defines himself as being on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Conservative party said many things which echo or feelings towards family and social responsibility. Self reliance, responsibility, the importance of education and the family were are core to his speech.

It also became clear to me that the history of slavery has left much deeper scares in black American society than here in the UK, his speech was interwoven with references to slavery and he clearly felt that much of what is wrong in black society both in the USA and here is a direct result of slavery. I felt that there was still an undercurrent of "us vs them" in the speech.

I don't nesesarilly agree with everything the Jesse Jackson said in his speech but there was a great deal that I did. And I would finish by saying that if you get the chance to see him speak, jump at it, it's an experience.

Weekend Warriors

Col (Rt) Bob Stewart has written a very interesting article in the Telegraph about the TA soldiers who have been called up for active service in Afghanistan and Iraq.  It is well worth a read.

He will be on Channel 4 tomorrow night at 7.30 fronting a program about the TA called 'The Insider: Army on the Cheap'.  As you will probably know, this is an issue close to my heart and on which I have written many times.

When everyone says that you're wrong, you might just be wrong

Gordon Brown's honeymoon my be brought to a close by the chorus of disapproval regarding his refusal to fulfill Labour's manifesto commitment.

The fact that the Conservatives, UKIP and the right of centre media are calling for a referendum has been written off by Brown as a "they would say that" situation. Now that the Unions are joining in it will be a lot harder for Brown to write this off as the obsession of opposition political parties.

Brown needs to agree to a referendum and then try to win it, this ongoing refusal will reinforce the image that he is detached, deceitful and controlling.

How did it come to this?

We were once thought of as one of the best armies in the world. Now we are not even taken seriously by one of our closest allies.

How did our international standing fall so far so quickly? Well according to this report in the Telegraph it is because Labour have created an army of bureaucrats which dwarf the real armed forces.

If it were me in the Des Browne hot seat I would do two things. Firstly I wouldn't do it as a part time job and secondly I would make sure the forces had what they needed to do a professional job. And that includes having enough people.

A bad idea introduced slowly is still a bad idea

HIPs.

A bad idea.

Everyone involved could see that they were a bad idea. Mortgage lenders saw that they were a bad idea, the House of Lords saw they were a bad idea, we saw that they were a bad idea, but the government plowed on regardless.

They couldn't launch the scheme on time because they didn't have enough assessors and even when they did it was limited to four bedroom houses, but not three bedroom houses with "large study".

While HIPs are not likely to be the biggest issue going into the next election they are symptomatic of what is wrong with this government: They see a problem and quickly come up with what they are sure is the best answer. They ignore any and all voices which disagree with them, including impartial experts with no political axe to grind. They force their plan through, regardless of the fact that is does not make things better and indeed is counterproductive.

If it weren't for the fact that this pattern is repeated in areas of government that people's lives depend it would be funny. However in both health and defence peoples lives are being lost because of this government's arrogant attitude.

Evelyn Suna Cleverly

Today I will be attending my mother's funeral.

She was born Evelyn Suna Auber on the 24th of June 1940 in Bo, Sierra Leone and died on the 22nd July 2007 in Lewisham Hospital, London.

My mother initially qualified as a teacher in Sierra Leone but then decided to pursue a career in nursing. She came to England in 1960 and trained as a nurse at Redhill Teaching Hospital then went on to qualify as a midwife in 1965.

She first worked in west London but spent most of her working life at Lewisham Hospital. It was while at Lewisham Hospital that she met my father, Philip, who was working at a local estate agency while qualifying to become a surveyor.

Although neither had large incomes they took full advantage of the "Swinging Sixties", both loved to dance and spent many nights listening and dancing to bands which have now become household names.

My mother became a nursing manager in the Maternity unit at Lewisham Hospital and helped to train a generation of midwives. The midwife who attended at the deliveries of both Freddy and Rupert trained under her.

In her later life she suffered from a series of health problems including a stroke in 2001, breast cancer in 2005 and ongoing high blood pressure. Although she recovered from both the stroke and cancer it was clear that they had taken their toll on her strength.

As both my parents had health difficulties we decided to move in together as a family so that Susie and I could help them if need be. This meant that my mother spent a lot of time with her two grandsons and we were able to spend much more time with her than would otherwise have been the case. In January 2007 my parents visited Sierra Leone for an extended holiday.

My mother's elder brother died in mid July and it was while visiting his family that the cough that she had had for weeks became much worse and she found breathing difficult. She was taken to Lewisham Hospital and put on antibiotics. Unfortunately, having been weakened by illness, she was unable to fight the infection and died a 10.25 AM on the 22nd July. Her funeral had to be delayed because many of her family had arranged to fly to Sierra Leone to attend her brother's funeral.

Like all mother and son relationships we had our ups and downs, I won't pretend that my teenage years went smoothly and when we argued they were blazing rows. As I matured I saw my mother in a different light, she was always opinionated but I also saw that she was fiercely loyal and passionate about her friends and family. She was incredibly proud of Susie and I and doted over the boys.

Despite her health problems she never complained, she never said "why me" and she never let it get her down.

I loved living with her again over the last few years and I will miss her deeply.

My mother in the mid 1960s

It doesn't matter what they say about you ........

....... as long as they spell your name right. Unfortunately Hugh Muir, writing in the Guardian, manages to spell my name wrong four times. The fact that he can't spell my name indicates that he probably didn't read the blog post about which he writes.

He seems to have a problem with my decision not to delete an unpleasant comment left on my recent post about Doreen Lawrence. I decided not to take it down because, while I found the comment distasteful, I do believe in free speech. Hugh ridicules this.

Funny how so many on the left claim to believe in and support free speech while demanding censorship of any and all views that they don't like. For the record, I have left comments up on this site which have been very insulting towards me and my family, I am well aware that free speech is a two edge sword.

When the British Legion get angry, it's time to listen

The Royal British Legion is one of those organisations which is fiercely non political. They are most famous for the poppy appeal and could not be accused of anything other than having a despite to look after service people and their families.

So when they accuse the government of failing in its duty of care towards service people it is time to sit up and take note. Des (part timer) Browne has to do something about this soon, we are running out of non-partisan organisations left to condemn the government's attitude.

I know that I am starting to sound like a broken record but I have just received some first hand accounts of the situation in Afghanistan and it made me want to weep. This is a hugely important issue, it is not just about the casualty figures, it is about Gordon Brown's unwillingness to properly support the troops who help maintain his position on the world stage.

Gagging the forces won't work

Soldiers mustn't speak out because some sailors sold their stories to the press. How does that work?

Maintaining operational security should always outweigh other considerations. Giving away intentions, strengths and capabilities to the enemy costs lives, most soldiers are well aware of this and despite email, blogs, discussion forums, mobile phones and text messaging we have maintained a good track record in this area.

However, without Youtube we may never have found out that the army was being equipped with sub-standard 50 cal ammunition. We might not have found out what a dire state their accommodation was in back home.

The government is letting our soldiers down, badly, it was embarrassed by the sale of the Navy hostages' stories and now it wants to put a lid on all this embarrassment. It won't work. The genie is out of the bottle and if the stories dry up over night, the media will just start looking for them.

If the government wants to dry up the flow of military bad news, they should stop making such crass and ineffectual decisions and start taking these conflicts seriously.

Nottingham Triathlon

Well I've done it now. I said that I would do a triathlon and now I have.

On Sunday I completed the Nottingham Sprint Triathlon. A 750m swim, 20k bike ride and 5k run in 1 hour 38 minutes and 48 seconds.

It was great fun and the weather was almost perfect, although a slightly lighter headwind for the last mile and a half of the run would have been nice. I now have a target time to aim for and I hope to get a place in next year's London Triathlon.

I would also like to say thank you for all the support that I have got especially from my virtual team mates at Tritalk.co.uk.

Iraqi interpreters

Once again we see immigrants who are playing by the rules getting screwed over by the government.  Is it any wonder that so many use traffickers, forged documents and lies to get into the country when risking your life in the service of the Crown gets you no where.

Brown has heeded Conservative calls to re-examine this decision.   Not a minute too soon either.

If the children are driving you mad over the Summer holidays.......

Just spare a thought for the guys and gals roasting in Iraq.

The draw down of troops, which was spun by the government as being because of a better security situation, has had exactly the effect that I predicted. British troops are now clustered in a smaller number of locations and have been more heavily targeted than at any time since the initial conflict (Telic 1).

It needn't have been like this.  The politicisation of this conflict has been disgusting, from Blair's desire to hide his intention to go to war to the current despite not to let reality get in the way of a "good news" story.  I have no doubt that service lives have been lost because of this government's desire to been seen in a good light by the left wing and their own back benchers.

Shame.

South Park Cleverly

Ooooops, I nearly didn't blog about this. Daily Referendum has knocked up some South Park characters of well known bloggers, and me.

Check it!

Disgraced Lib Dem councillor fails to show

Sera Kentman, who was elected as a Liberal Democrat to represent the Whitefoot ward in Lewisham, has failed to attend council meetings for the last six months and has therefore triggered a by-election.

There are a string of allegations against Ms Kentman including; failing to disclose her debts as a councillor, having four false identities, a £9,000 overpayment of housing benefit on a house she part-owned and outstanding council tax payments back dating more than a year.

This proved to be a huge embarrassment to the local Lib Dems who were forced to expel her from the party earlier this year.

The election will be held on the 13th of September.

Brown and Bush on Iraq collision course?

This is a subject I covered over on the Ghost Cabinet blog a few days ago, good to see the national press catching up.

Brown would love to win a PR coupe by announcing that British troops are pulling out of Iraq, it would also enable him to put some extra troops into Afghanistan. The Army would love to have fewer commitments and the soldiers in Basra who are getting mortared almost not stop wouldn't mind going home either.

So all's well then.

Except that the US don't want us to leave just yet, because if we do they are going to have to take up the slack. So..... Who is Brown going to disappoint, the UK or the USA?

Let's watch and see.

EU Treaty in plain English

At some point Gordon Brown may make good on the Labour party's election promise and hold a referendum on the EU Constitution Treaty.  If he has the guts to do so you might want to know what you are voting on.  Well here it is in plain English.

London Triathlon

Susie, Freddy, Rupert and I spent the afternoon at the London Triathlon. What a great day.

I felt more than a little sorry for the competitors because it was scorching hot, the mountains of bottled water were definitely needed. The whole event struck me as being very well organised and having the transition area and the finish line in amongst the exhibition stands worked brilliantly.

The boys were fascinated by the whole event and Freddy kept pointing to Lycra clad athletes and asking me "do you know him daddy?". Unfortunately I didn't, although we all shouted support at random strangers to help them along.

I even had a go on a very smart Trek bicycle attached to a turbo trainer on a virtual one mile sprint course. I did it in a fairly respectable 2 minutes 18 seconds, only six seconds slower that the twenty year old racing snake on the bike next to me. Unfortunately the fastest time was a good thirty seconds quicker so I won't be winning the bike, which was the prize for the fastest time. Ironically I did get a free bottle of beer from the sponsors of the event.

I will be putting in my application for the 2008 event on Monday.

Doreen Lawrence's remarks are unfair and unjustified

Boris Johnson is clearly the highest profile of the the Conservative Mayoral hopefuls. As such he is going to get the larger proportion of sticks and brickbats that are thrown at our line up. Livingstone's gibe earlier this week was just the first of many attacks by Labour politicians on our team in general and Boris in particular.

What surprises and disappoints me is that someone who I thought highly of has waded into party politics, having said that she wouldn't. She has every right to comment on political matters but it is the nature and timing of her intervention that disappoints me most.

The comments that Doreen Lawrence made about Boris Johnson yesterday are deeply unfair. She implies an attitude towards the Macpherson report which is just not born out by the facts, her words are clearly designed to taint Boris with a whiff of racism and to claim that "there is no way he is going to get the support of any people in the black community" is ridiculous.

That she used exactly the same phases as elements of Livingstone's recent remarks and mirrors his line of attack reduces the credibility of her comments even further. She didn't criticise Boris at the time he wrote the articles, she didn't criticise him when he became an MP, she didn't criticise him when he was promoted to the shadow front bench, she didn't even say anything when he put himself forward to be our candidate. So why now?

Her intervention has given a few of Labour's usual suspects the green light to fling around allegations of racism too. It saddens me to see Dawn Butler and Diane Abbott using the racist label when they both know it not to be true. The article they use to prove his "racism" was clearly written in an Alf Garnettesque style to parody the patronising, racist attitude that he is being accused of. Even the Guardian conceded that the phrase was used "presumably for stylistic effect".

I look at my own two boys and try to imagine the pain that Doreen Lawrence must have felt in losing her son. I have great admiration for the campaigning work that she has done over the last decade and a half and I can even imagine that she has grown to like and respect the current mayor. None of these things justify the deeply unfair and inaccurate comments about one of our candidates.

Mole Valley District Council doing the right thing

I am really pleased that Mole Valley District Council have not bowed to pressure from a small number of small minded people and approved an application to convert a house in Ashtead to accommodate families visiting injured service personnel at the Headley Court rehabilitation centre.

I cannot believe that 83 people thought that this was something that they should object to. Do they expect the visitors to be noisy? Drug takers? Graffitists? Even if the conversion and usage causes some disruption could they not see that this is a small price to pay towards the huge debt that we all owe injured service people?

Top marks to MVDC and back of the class for Ashtead NIMBYs.