Leaders debates

The recent Chancellors debate on Channel 4 has got me thinking about the style of questioning, particularly of Nick Clegg.

Many have questioned the legitimacy of having the Lib Dems represented at the debates with the same status as Labour and the Conservatives as there is no real chance that they will form a government. The defence is that there is a very real chance of a hung parliament and in such a case the Lib Dems would be king makers. Fair enough.

But if that is the bases for their inclusion why are they questioned as if they might form a government? Gordon Brown and David Cameron should be asked about their policies and plans in the event of their respective parties winning, but Nick Clegg should be quizzed on what he would do in the event of a hung parliament. People deserve to know what policies they might support, what price would their support command and whether they would form a formal coallition or decide on a vote by vote basis.

If they do not cover these points I really cannot see the justification of having the Lib Dems in the debates at all.

Dismissal of Ali Dizaei

This afternoon I chaired a meeting of the MPA Professional Standards Cases Sub-Committee we received the report of a Tribunal set up to look into the conduct of Commander Ali Dizaei and issued the following statement:

“The MPA’s Professional Standards Cases Sub-committee met today to consider the Tribunal’s report in Commander Dizaei’s case. The Tribunal hearing took place on Friday 26 March 2010.

“The Sub-committee has recorded the Tribunal’s finding that Commander Dizaei failed to meet the appropriate standard of conduct. He was in breach of Code 8 of the Code of Conduct because he was convicted of two serious criminal offences.

“The Tribunal recommended that the only appropriate sanction was dismissal from the service.

“The Sub-committee has accepted the Tribunal’s recommendation and has today dismissed Commander Dizaei from the Metropolitan Police Service with immediate effect.

“As far as the Authority is concerned this is the end of the matter.

“Commander Dizaei has the right to appeal against the MPA’s decision to a Police Appeals Tribunal.”

Interesting but not exciting

I've finally got around to watching the "Chancellors' Debate", let's be honest it wasn't the most gripping TV was it?

I found the dynamic interesting, Cable and Darling very much on one side and Osborne on the other. Could this be the strongest indication yet of where the Lib Dems would sit in a hung parliament?

The media still give Cable a comically easy time and this showed in the program blatantly. As someone who rates Osborne highly I wasn't surprised that he did well Darling was OK too but no one really stole the show.

A bit of a no score draw.

Respect for Darling

Although I said that the budget statement was boring I'm finding myself having more respect for Alistair Darling than I have had in the past. He seems to want to be straight with people about the state of the economy and measures that will have to be taken to address the deficit.

Brown and Balls have been thoroughly dishonest with the public about the bitter medicine that will be needed. Darling, although using coded language, is at least admitting that spending cuts will need to happen and that they will be significant.

Mr Evill

I was out campaigning this morning and delivered an addressed leaflet to a Mr Evill. As someone who has gone through life with the surname Cleverly, I have a degree of sympathy for Mr Evill.

There are certain career choices which are, to a large degree, closed to you. The medical profession for example, who would want to be treated by Dr Evill? I'm guessing that academia could also be off limits, I just can't see the Nobel prize for anything being presented to Professor Evil for the invention of his Evill cancer cure.

I'm in two minds about whether the armed forces would be a good or bad choice, I think there are some soldier who would be happy to serve under a Captain Evill but I would make sure he didn't ever become a military spokesman. Not the image the forces would want.

Looking at the leaflet in my hand I also realised that politics would also be a fairly bad idea, can you imagine the campaign?

Vote for Evill. You know you want to!

The non-event budget

It is clear that Brown and Darling knew they couldn't get away without having a budget and it was clear that they didn't really want a budget before the election either. So they had a non-event budget.

The budget that I just sat through was so lacking in any real content that I almost fell asleep and while I hate to admit it, the best bits were the shamelessly party political attacks. I have to hand it to Darling, the line about tax detail sharing with Belize was one of the high points.

But what did we actually find out? How are we going to address the deficit? What will need to be cut? What taxes will need to rise? We got a few little titbits, a bit of stamp duty here, a few moved civil servants there but nothing of any real substance.

All the headline stuff was lifted from either the Conservatives (stamp duty and tax on extra strong cider) or from budgets of the past. The whole thing was a waste of time, Gordon should have called the election so we can get on with it and hear a new government announce a budget which might actually be implemented.

Leaking budget details

I've woken up to the radio news telling me that Alistair Darling plans to scrap Stamp Duty on all house sales under £250,000. I was under the impression that the details of the budget were meant to remain secret until the actual budget announcement is made. In 1947 the then Chancellor Hugh Dalton resigned because he had let slip a small detail of the budget.

I may sound like some old duffer who just doesn't accept the the modern media is different and more demanding than in the past, but I think that these things are important.

Imagine you are about to exchange contracts on a home which is a little under the £250,000 threshold. On hearing this morning's news you might want to delay to save yourself the Stamp Duty, who would want to spend (soon to be unnecessary) tax? The whole chain could collapse and a number of people could be in reciept of a great deal of cost, inconvenience and stress.

How do you think those people would feel if the actual budget announcement said that the Stamp Duty changes would take place on the 1st of September or after the General Election? Imagine that some other element of the budget linked to house sales was also announced and our home buyers actually found themselves worse off by delaying.

The budget should be announced in one go so that all the elements can be viewed together. This selective and edited leaking of elements is wrong and should be ditched by a future Conservative government.

Easter present from Labour

Labour's "Word of Mouth" Campaign

Labour have launched their election communications strategy, it called "word of mouth". Go and have a look at the YouTube video on the Labour party website (I'm happy to link to it because it's so crap).

Hang on a minute!!! YouTube!?! Website?!?!

Why isn't the Labour party's "word of mouth" campaign being launched through word of mouth? Why is it I first heard about it on the internet and not during a chat about politics in the pub? The irony is just too much

It also strikes me that this uber-clever election strategy may have more to do with the Labour party being just as financially screwed as the country now is after a decade under Labour's financial mismanagement.

Schools' Question Time

Last night I was a panel member at the BBC Schools' Question Time event hosted and organised by the students at Cator Park School in Beckenham.


I'm not usually nervous about speaking events or public meetings but I was a bit worried last night. It wasn't just about my own performance, even though I was up against Vernon Coaker MP, Ben Whittaker (Vice President of the NUS) and Fiona Miller (Alistair Campbell's partner and passionate campaigner for comprehensive only education) but because there was a lot riding on the success of the night.

Schools all over the country take part and two students from each of the top three schools get to work on the production team of the BBC's flagship program. I thought that the evening went extremely well, the students were very professional and the audience asked some testing questions.

I with the team at Cator Park School the best of luck in the competition.

Lib Dems crumble under scrutiny

Prompted by Iain Dale's post I listened to Danny Alexander on Stephen Nolan's Radio5 show. What a car crash.

There are only three possible outcomes to the next General Election a Labour win, a Conservative win or a hung parliament. There is no one who carries any credibility who believes that the Lib Dems can form the next government, talking about what they would do as a stand alone government is futile.

There is a very real chance that they could be the king makers in a hung parliament and it is important to know what they would do if it was the case, if they won't be open about this then why would anyone vote for them?

They also can't maintain a position either, first they say that they'll support the party with the largest electoral mandate. Then Clegg says that they have a shopping list of policies that will be a prerequisite for a deal. Which is it?

I genuinely don't know where they stand or who they might prop up in the event in a hung parliament. It is for this reason that a hung parliament is such a dangerous possibility.

Remember a hung parliament is not a coalition government. Uncertainty, back-room deals and policy deadlocks are not something anyone should be voting for.

Neither fish nor foul nor good red meat

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled their election slogan: "Change that works for you, building a fairer Britain".

Only the Lib Dems could so blatantly pinch the slogans of the two main parties. Labour's slogan is "a future fair for all" and ours is "year for change".

Why not just be honest and have a slogan that says "We will say what Labour voters want to hear and then say what Tory voters want to hear"?

Brown says "it's so unfair"

Thee BBC are reporting that Gordon Brown thinks the criticism of his Afghanistan visit is "unfair". As they say in the Army "dry your eyes princess!"

Brown knew that he would have to spin like a top to come out of the Chilcot enquiry with any dignity and he know the defence chiefs that he'd been screwing over for the last decade would kick off. The Afghan trip was a blatant attempt to divert attention and Brown was rumbled.

If you think I'm being harsh, please remember that Brown has form in this. Don't forget the surprise trip to Iraq in the middle of the Conservative party conference?

Brown's faux admiration for our troops is cynical and transparent and he shouldn't be surprised when he is ridiculed for it.

Conservatives, Labour, Coca-Cola and Pepsi

Danny Finkelstein has written an article today about the image of the Conservative party and about changes in public perception. As part of this he used Coca-Cola as an example, the curved Coca-Cola bottle is iconic, loved and is recognisable even when only a fragment can be viewed, this he says the Conservatives would do well to aspire to.

My advice to Danny is to be very careful about what you use as a metaphor. One of the reasons that the Coke bottle has those timeless characteristics is because it has remain virtually unchanged since its creation in 1915. Not a point which supports Danny's "change is good" message.

It is also worth noting that one of the most damaging periods in Coca-Cola's history was when it changed its flavour to conform more closely to the increasingly successful and sweeter Pepsi Cola. All of Coke's research told them that people wanted change and that they liked the sweeter taste but when the new recipe Coke was launched it bombed. Coca-Cola suffered huge loss of market share and reputational damage, which led the CEO of Pepsi to say "we had been in a staring competition for the last hundred years and suddenly the other guy blinked".

There is a need for political parties to change, to remain in tune with the world as it is and not how it was. It is,however, worth looking at all the lessons that history (even business history) teaches us, not just the ones that conform to our prejudices.

Rape crisis centres - delivered

They say that "no news is good news" it also seems that when it comes to Conservatives delivering on their manifesto that "good news is no news".

Boris promised four rape crisis centres for London (the number having dropped to just one under Livingstone) and had committed a sum of money to deliver them. As budgets were squeezed across government Boris looked into delivering on his promise with less money.

The left went mad, James Macintyre from the New Statesman tried to paint this as "Tory cuts" when it was under a Labour Mayor that two rape crisis centres had closed. He wrote "So, style-over-substance Boris Johnson has broken a mayoral election promise for three centres to look after sufferers of rape and domestic violence in London, delivering one instead" what rubbish.

Boris always made it clear the he would deliver on his promise and that the funding difficulties wouldn't stop him. Today Boris announced the details of all four promised centres and the funding arrangements for them. Funny how the reporting of Boris', so called "betrayal" of London's women got a huge splash in the Evening Standard, the delivery of another manifesto commitment gets a tiny write up, buried in the middle pages with no byline.

The silence from the left is deafening.

Defence spending, the facts

In the comments section of this post, Braveheart stated that defence spending has increased above inflation year after year as a response to my criticism of Gordon Brown. While true it hides a number of important facts.

Standard inflation isn't a relevant measure in the defence sector as the increasingly technological nature of military equipment means that defence inflation runs well above RPI. This means that defence spending has been cut in real terms every year of this government. It has also fallen as a % of total spending as the following chart shows.

It's worth noting that we've had a couple of wars on the go recently as well. Going to war is far more expensive than not going to war and this massive increase in expenditure has not been matched by an increase in funding.

Brown says that he gave the defence chiefs everything that they asked for, they say he didn't. I know who I believe.

Brown's spinning coming apart

As I said yesterday, Brown's statements to the Chilcot enquiry were full of holes and, as this report shows, is coming apart already.

Brown just not credible at the Chilcot enquiry

Brown's attempt to be all things to all people just doesn't cut it. He tried to make out that he was at the heart of government but the failure of planning and lack of equipment wasn't his fault, claiming to have been fully "informed".

INFORMED!!!!!! He was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was the one who had to write the cheques.

My haiku for Michael Foot

I received an email a little earlier today alerting me to the sad news that Michael Foot had died. Michael Foot was the leader of the Labour party just as I started to have an awareness of and interest in politics.


At the time my impression of him was dictated by a fairly cruel media portrayal and Labour's dismal result of the 1983 General Election. Over time I came to realise that Michael Foot was a deeply principled man, a great orator and overwhelmed by the radical change that Conservatives under Margret Thatcher embarked upon.


I feel moved to write a haiku for him to add to my occasional series.

*

Michael Foot is gone

Integrity to the last

But poor taste in clothes

*

On-the-go recycling on Bromley South station

Bemused commuters filed past as the new recycling bins on Bromley South station were unveiled. SouthEastern railways will be rolling these bins out across the network so that the host of free newspapers, tins, drinks bottles and general rubbish can all be sent to their respective homes.

Bromley in one of the top five recycling boroughs in London so this is a great way to add to their success.

(left to right): Graham Duncan, Bromley South Duty Station Manager, Colin Clifton, Southeastern Head of Safety and Environment, Cllr Colin Smith, Environment portfolio holder Bromley Council, Ross Thomson, Metro Newspapers, James Cleverly, Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley, Vince Lucas, Southeastern Director of Service Delivery

I have to now confess to a little concern that I have about my new role. When Ming Campbell (remember him?) was hanging on to the Lib Dem leadership, I am told that he avoided being photoed near exit signs, toilets etc, for fear of the obvious metaphor that the pictures would create.

Over the next few years I'm likely to be photographed next to rubbish, waste, bins etc. Please, please,please get all the gags out of your system now!