We can point and laugh or we can look and learn

Gordon Brown has screwed it!

He has spent the last 15 years wanting to be Prime Minister and now he has the job everything has gone wrong. The Conservative party could sit back and hold its sides laughing, it is tempting so to do. It would also be disastrous.

I spent some time as the recruiting officer for my regiment, part of this job was talking to people who wanted to become officers. I would always ask the same question, "Do you want to get a commission or do you want to be an officer?". I was often met with blank faces, I would go on to explain that getting a commission ended the day you leave Sandhurst at exactly the point where being an officer started.

Brown's greatest failing was to mistake the journey with the destination. He wanted to become Prime Minister not be Prime Minister.

Few people now believe that Labour win the next General Election, so we must have a clear and practical plan for government. When Boris became Mayor he did so with a list of things to implement immediately, indeed his first implementation meeting was on the Saturday of the signing in. This meeting directly led to the funding and deployment of over 400 police officers and PCSOs on the transport network. Brown surrounded himself with yes-men and nobodies, a cabinet of Pygmies. Boris has got some of the most effective names from local government and business working with him.

By the next General Election people will want change, not just a change of party but a change in the style and substance of government. David Cameron must continue to put plans in place now so that there will not be a pregnant pause after the election and must get the team in place to make sure they happen.

Brown had his chance a squandered it, we owe it to ourselves and the country not to do likewise.

Mugabe sworn in

Robert Mugabe has been sworn in for his 6th term as president, I expect that the murders and beatings may subside a little bit. I hope that the international community does not now lose interest in Zimbabwe or file it under "just too difficult".

Mugabe is an evil man and has destroyed the country, the fact that international ineffectiveness has allowed him to remain president should be a lesson to us all.

Congratulations to John Howell

John and the Henley Conservatives have romped home with a majority of over 10,000 and an increased share of the vote.

It was a bad night for Labour, slipping into fifth place and losing their deposit. Oooops!

John Howell: Conservative 19,796
Stephen Kearney: Lib Dems 9,680
Mark Stevenson: Green 1,321
Timothy Rait: BNP 1,243
Richard McKenzie:Labour 1,066
Chris Adams: UKIP 843

Positive discrimination is still discrimination

I believe that everyone should have a fair chance, to that end I feel that there is much in the unified equalities bill that I agree with.

But I don't like the idea that sex or skin colour should in itself give a candidate an advantage. I am black, my wife is a woman (clearly), we both agree that wherever we get to in life we get on merit. At the London Assembly I can look at any of the other members and know that I got there without any unfair advantage. In the commercial world it is even more important for people to be recruited and promoted only on merit.

These plans are stupid, unworkable and seek to tackle a problem decades too late.

African leaders need to show leadership

The African leaders who drove independence from colonial powers have a rather mythical status in much of Africa.

Fact and detail is lost and their faults are ignored, in most of Africa this is of little importance as those leaders are now historic figures. In the case of Zimbabwe this near mythical status has help keep Mugabe in power. Many of those voting for Zanu-PF will have done so because of what Mugabe was in the 1970s and 1980s.

For too long there has been an unwillingness within African governments to criticise Mugabe and his actions. The recent period of violence and intimidation has been so extreme that this unwillingness has begun to crumble.

The ANC have said they are "dismayed" by the recent actions, although Mbeki has publicly defended Mugabe in the recent past. Jose Eduardo dos Santos, of Angola urged him to "embrace a spirit of tolerance", this is not good enough. Powerful voices in Africa must publicly and unambiguously condemn Mugabe and his regime. A failure to do so will be seen as culpability in the evilness that he is perpetrating.

African governance has a chance to show some maturity, I pray that it is not an opportunity missed.

James McGrath was stupid to say what he did

I know and have worked with James McGrath. He is a hard working and straight talking guy, as such I would imagine that he would describe his comments as stupid, or knowing him in stronger terms than that.

Darcus Howe's comments were provocative and ridiculous, as was Marc Wadsworth's question. James let himself be provoked.

His off hand statement has caused embarrassment and has handed our political opponents an opportunity to pick the scab off allegations of racism. These allegations were damaging and distracting during the campaign and this episode is damaging and distracting now.

Like it or not, this has been caused by James' remarks. James is not a racist and his remarks were not racist but they were insensitive

James resigned and Boris accepted his resignation, I understand both of their actions. It is difficult for me to say what I would have done because I haven't had to deal with the mountain of unfair criticism that Boris has had over the last 10 months.

Boris made a tough judgement call and agree with it or not it was a decision forced on him by the answer that James gave. I find it ironic that some of Boris' most passionate critics demand forgiveness and loyalty from Boris while displaying little towards him themselves.

My interview with Dave Hill

Dave Hill, chronicler of Mayoral elections and the hardest working man in media, came to city hall on Wednesday to cover Mayor's Questions. Afterwards he popped upstairs to have a chat with me.

Here is my take on me, Bexley and Bromley, the Labour party and my first month at City Hall.

And here is a taste of Dave's other output.

Guardian Comment: http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dave_hill/
Clapton Pond blog: http://davehill.typepad.com/claptonian/
London Mayor & More:http://davehill.typepad.com/london3ms/
Big Britain blog: http://davehill.typepad.com/bigbritain/
Liberal Conspiracy:http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/
Latest Novel:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adoption-Dave-Hill/dp/0755326326

Have your say on the Lisbon Treaty

Pop along to Guido's place and have your say.

Boris and the police

I was at the Empress State Building in Earls Court this morning at the speech Boris gave to the Met's borough commanders. It was a fairly short speech with a long question and answer session afterwards.

I was very impressed with the police's willingness, desire even, to embrace change. Normally big organisations are very unwilling even to consider there may be a better way of doing things. I half expected Boris to put ideas forward and for them to be met with shakes of the head and furrowed brows. None of it at all.

The police officers in the room were putting forward very interesting ideas in support of community engagement, youth crime prevention, staffing flexibility etc. No sticks in the mud there.

Also congratulations to Sir Paul Stephenson on his recent knighthood.

Fame at last

I had a lovely day at the Hayes fair on Saturday. Sun shine and tombolas, classic cars on display and tandoori chicken wrapped in roti. All in all a great day.

I think the high point was a little boost to the ego when a sweet, silver haired lady caught my eye and said "It is you isn't it?" I was a little lost for words, "I voted for you and so did my son. I'm so glad you got in".

Silly little things like that really do make up for the late nights, cold day and sore feet during the campaign.

The Lisbon Treaty is.......

Dominic Grieve, I told you so

Dominic is one of the nicest yet most effective MPs in the House. He was a great inspiration to me when I first got actively involved in politics and I am glad that he is now very much at the top table.

I now feel vindicated in my prediction of some while ago.

David Davis resigns on principle over 42 days detention

I have a friend who works in the Shadow Home Office team so I know that David Davis was passionate about the issue of 42 days detention. I had no idea he was quite this angry about it.

The Labour bloggesphere is tied in knots over this. They are trying to double guess the motives behind it, their speculation shows why they are a spent force in British politics. While they try to find the media spin angle or the hidden leadership bit they miss the blindingly obvious fact that their actions are wrong. Deeply and dangerously wrong.

The full arguments of this issue need to be put into the wider public domain. This by-election will force people to address what is actually at stake here, the subtle but relentless increase in the power of the state and the erosion of the rights of the individual.

There are many historic examples of what happens when the individual freedoms are discarded because of the amplified threat from elsewhere. Stalinist Russia, China under Mao, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, Germany under Hitler, Cuba under Castro.

The enemy was at various times the Jews, the Bolshivics, the Western Imperialists, the Contra-revolutionist etc. The threat was always much less than the regime painted it to be, the suffering under their own government was always far greater.

As the man behind the Devil's Kitchen blog once said "1984 is a warning, not a f***ing instruction manual."

totalitarianism

42 days detention without charge

I didn't agree with 90 days and I'm still not convinced about 28 days, let alone 42.

The government's argument goes something like this:

Terrorism is complicated, the police has asked us for this, it will help to keep
us safe, it is popular with the electorate.

While these may all sound like compelling reasons none stand up to much scrutiny.

The fact that terrorism uses modern technology does not in it self prove the need for long periods of pre-charge detention. It is just as complicated for the Australians, Spanish, Americans etc. all of whom have suffered at the hands of terrorist and none of whom have detention times as long as we currently have.

I am sure the police and security services would love to have much longer to do their work, wouldn't we all. Their requests shouldn't be ignored but ultimately they are not tasked with balancing their powers with civil liberties. Politicians are.

The "it will keep us safe" argument is a very worrying line to follow. Taken to its natural conclusion it could be argued that locking up every Muslim in the UK would keep us safe. Just in case they turned into a terrorist!

Finally, the popularity of an idea at a specific point in time can be a poor benchmark for good laws. History is littered with truly evil acts that were popular at the time.

Terrorist win by terrorising, this manifests itself in knee jerk actions, throwing away ancient liberties and rushing to pass poorly thought through laws. They lose when we have the courage to defend the fundamentals freedoms of our society.

Follow the money

I am sure the Conservative movement is rocked by the defection of Cllr Les Byrom to the Labour party.

Cllr Byrom said "Great result in Crewe, I picked up the vibes last Friday as Janice and I pounded the streets and council houses, Labour were in for a kicking, but it brings us renewed confidence, the press and establishment are now predicting a Tory Government, there is a buzz about our next administration and we are on the way back."

Oh sorry that was last week, this week he said: “Having been a Conservative for 35 years, this is a truly momentous decision that I have been forced to take.”

In the days to come I am sure that people will look back at this momentous decision and say "Cllr who?"

Hat tip Iain Dale

Jeremy Hunt's new blog

I have just received an email from Jeremy Hunt telling me about his new blog. Unless I'm mistaken he is the first member of the Shadow Cabinet to have a blog, although David Cameron comes came close with WebCameron.

Jeremy has taken the trouble to get a few posts up over the last few months before coming out. I'm really pleased that people at the heart of the future government has embraced open communication and are willing to stand up to the brickbats that will inevitably be thrown.

Well done and keep up the good work.

UPDATE: The eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed my typo, I meant to welcome the fact that Jeremy "embraced" open comms not "embarrassed" open comms. Lesson is don't overly rely on spell checkers.

Not a good weekend for the Conservatives

I spend the weekend getting in some family time and when I check out the news it's full of bad news about Tories and money.

Do I have to keep an eye on everything myself?

I have little doubt that Caroline Spelman will be fine, embarrassed but fine. If your constituency office is at your house it isn't unreasonable to pay someone already in your house to do some work.

The situation with a few of our MEPs looks a little less clean cut.

Oh come on. Put up some kind of fight!!!!!

Make sure you are sitting down when you follow this link. The passion of the Labour candidate in Henley might blow you away.

http://www.henley.labour.co.uk/home

If you know of a less inspiring political campaign site please let me know.

Most improved student

Most improved is always a bit of a double edged sword, it is an award which usually hides more than it reveals.

Luke Akehurst has done some number crunching and has come out with a number of top 10 lists relating to the London elections last month. Here is the list of the top ten improvements in the Conservative vote from 2004:

1. East Wickham, Bexley: +31.96
2. Falconwood and Welling, Bexley: +31.49
3. Biggin Hill, Bromley: +30.79
4. Orpington, Bromley: +30.13
5. Blackfen and Lamorbey, Bexley: +30.03
6. Cray Valley West, Bromley: +29.89
7. Farnborough Common and Crofton, Bromley: +29.53
8. Blendon and Penhill, Bexley: +29.52
9. St. Michael's, Bexley: +28.67
10. Mottingham and Chislehurst North, Bromley: +28.61

Notice anything?

Once again I feel that I (and Boris) need to give the Bexley and Bromley activists a huge thank you.

Insulting, racist drivel

Have a read of this article by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in the Indi.

It is one of the worst researched, insulting, racist pieces of work I have ever read. I cannot believe that she makes a living from this, or that the Indi actually pay her for this drivel.

I was going ti Fisk the article but there was just so much to tear apart I would have been up all night. There are a few points that I would like to address, Ms Alibhai-Brown writes:

"Almost more depressing is the sight of black and Asian Britons following the wind blowing the Tories to victory. Boris has recruited Afro Caribbean "leaders" who believe in physical chastisement and smart young Asians who deny the existence of racism and want an end to political correctness. The more old-fashioned Uncle Toms and their female equivalents are now expediently making themselves known to the Tories and right-wing think tanks."

The truth is that I and the other black and Asian Britons now working with Boris were part of the process and have been working with other Conservatives whether black, white, male, female, straight, gay etc. etc. for years to get where we are now. That Yasmin feels that we should be limited in our political options makes me sick.

She calls us authoritarian while her side (as she calls it) floods the streets with CCTV cameras, tries to bring in ID cards and has pushed for 90 days detention without charge.

YAB is angry at the Left for being crap, but flinging insults at black and Asian Tories won't make it any better.

Brian Cooke and London TravelWatch

This morning I attended the Transport Committee of the London Assembly, we were meeting to decide the fate of Brian Cooke, Chairman of London TravelWatch.

Brian had made a statement in a personal capacity supporting Boris Johnson as Mayor. It was made clear that Brian had acted in breach of the guidelines, for which he had already apologised. It was clear that some form of sanction would be required but I was amazed when the Chair of the committee, Valerie Shawcross, indicated that she felt that the most extreme penalty should be used.

Instant dismissal is meant to be used only when the person has brought their position into public disrepute. The fact that there were only two emails of complaint between his statement and the election hardly indicates a widespread lack of confidence in him, let alone bringing his position into disrepute.

During the sitting members from across the political spectrum agreed that Brian had been a fair and effective chairman yet the Labour and Lib Dem members felt that they had to impose the most severe sections on him.The committee could have given him a written warning, asked for a formal apology or even made him step down with three month's notice. The chose to fire him on the spot!

The Conservatives voted against this action but were outnumbered, the whole thing had the stench of a witch hunt about it.

Brian was got rid off for being political and as a punishment for supporting Boris. The unfairness of the situation was highlighted when the Labour Chair of the committee attempted to put a Labour councillor into Brian's now vacant position.

I believe that London TravelWatch should not be filled and chaired by councillors, Labour or otherwise. If you care about transport in London and want a fair deal for passengers, I urge you to apply to join and make sure this body doesn't lose credibility by becoming a Labour party front.

Drunken party proves Boris right

Bob Crow seems to think that the drink fueled trouble on the tube last night is Boris' fault. What a stupid comment.

The policy to prevent drinking on public transport was brought in to make traveling more enjoyable for passengers, reduce drunkenness on the network and help to make working safer for the staff.

For Bob Crow to say that this make life more dangerous for his members is ridiculous. Last night was a one off, I'm sure the bulk of the people involved only wanted to have some fun and make a point. The fact that it turned nasty shows exactly why the ban was brought in and the blame lies with the people who got drunk and aggressive not with Boris.

Bob Crow has so little credibility that his comments aren't ever taken seriously, today's outburst is just one vacuous comment among many.