Results from first round at Woking

And the result is Jonathan Lord with more than 50% of the vote. ( Which means he will be the new Conservative Candidtae for Woking, subject to formal adoption by the constituency party ).

Congratulations Jonathan.

Sorry the picture's a bit blurred - HTC Hero not too good in poor light !

The room was however packed for a very successful event.Further And a slightly better picture of the chairman ! The HG Wells centre was packed.


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Voted for

Voted for Jonathan Lord.

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About to vote

Lynne Hack clearly has much experience and good Conservative instincts.

Peter Lord was head and shoulders above the rest in terms of presentation and confidence. I have no doubt he will become an MP.

But who to choose ?

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Woking primary

We've had the first two candidates up. Stephen Phillips was very very competent, but you'd expect that of a QC.

Fiona Kemp very passionate.

I'm not going to say anything negative about the candidates as they could all become our candidate, but I will tell you who I vote for !

Right now for the second half.

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Labour are not going to handle defeat very well

We have Gordon trying to storm out of TV interviews only to be held back by his microphone. Peter Madelson is reported to swear at a New International Executive. Harriet Harman makes jokes about briefs on page 3 models and finally nutty Trade Unionist ripping up a copy of The Sun on the stage and Labour supporters run anti-Sun adverts on Google.

If they get this upset about a newspaper endorsement how are they going to handle being thrown out of office ?

Frankly I don't see the good nature of the likes of Michael Portillo in 1997 being repeated by Labour types.

There are going to be a massive series of temper tantrums as all their toys have to be taken away from them, and it won't be pretty.

Off to the Woking open primary tonight

I have to say I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out.

Anyone else going along ? Tickets were apparently 'sold out' on Tuesday.

Will recognisable Lib Dem supporters turn up and try to vote for the weakest candidate ?

The four candidates are described as follows below (lifted from the Woking Conservtaive Web site H/T to Ron ) .

PS Does anyone have any news reports, newspaper articles about any of them etc ( ie stuff other than anon comments about them being wonderful people placed by the candidates mothers and best friends ) ? It would be nice to know a bit more about them all.

---

Dr Lynne Hack

Born in Surrey and lives here with her husband and family. She is a long standing Borough and County Councillor. Lynne has worked in hospitals as a cancer research scientist and lecturer for over 20 years, including 10 years at the Royal Marsden.

Dr Fiona Kemp

A GP with 20 years front-line experience of the NHS who has lived and worked in Surrey for many years. She was a hospital doctor in the Breast Cancer Unit of the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford and obtained a degree in Human Biology at the University of Surrey prior to entering General Practice.

Jonathan Lord

Chairman of Guildford Conservative Association and since June 2009 a Surrey County Councillor. He has a background in media, communications and marketing and is currently a Marketing Consultant helping small and medium size enterprises succeed in the current difficult economic climate.

Stephen Phillips

Grew up on the Goldsworth Park Estate in Woking before reading Law at Oxford. After a short stint in the Welsh Guards and attending Sandhurst he was called to the Bar in 1993 and appointed a QC in 2009. He is Chair of the Governors of the only sign-bilingual school in Britain.

Its the people Gordon Brown can't even bring himself to name who will destroy him

Apparently Labour have just twigged that after destroying education standards, destroying our pensions, selling the country out to the EU, letting our servicemen die due to lack of equipment and till very recently prosecuting them with human rights lawyers may have lost them a little support.

Perhaps selling their children into debt slavery so Labour can have a few more days, and now it is less than 250 days, left in power, has put people off.

Still Gordo would like their votes, but there are two major problems.

1) The Nationalists have eaten Labour's support away in the Celtic heartlands.
2) The people Gordon can't name ( some sort of mental impairment perhaps ) aren't those of middle aspirations, or even middle Britain he so ham fistedly tried to describe yesterday. No, its middle ENGLAND ( the word Brown can hardly bring himself to mention - even if much of his conference speech only impacted the English ).

Middle England has paid for the Scottish Banks, the bloated public sector, suffered as their pensions have been stolen by stealth taxes and been betrayed by Brown's sell out to the EU.

Middle England is going to get its own back - at the ballot box (perhaps after reading the Sun editorial over breakfast on election day ;-) ).

Brown refuses to stop national debt rising

So Labour have used their play on words (in Brown's speech ) to give the impression they will do something about the government's financial crisis by saying they will shrink the "deficit" knowing that most people will assume this means the national debt. It doesn't.

National debt will continue to rise - the interest on it will increase as our credit rating is reduced and even more savage spending cuts will be forced on future generations - all to for fill Gordon's childhood dream of winning an election as PM.

If Labour win in 2010 then the IMF will be in to help drag us out of an Argentine style financial disaster.

The house of Lords is going to be a big problem for the Conservatives

If David Cameron wins power then it will be the house of Lords, where he will lack a majority, that will form the resistance.

Brown knows this and is preparing to make the country ungovernable by removing the last randomly chosen people from its make up.

You'll need a plan to deal with this quickly Dave.

Ongoing reaction to Brown's speech

He has only committed to reduce the deficit in 4 years time.

That means the national debt will sky rocket and keep climbing. He has no plans of paying it back.

The lending market won't stand for it.

The rest of his speech is full of spending commitments combined with internships ( free Labour which is how you get round the min wage these days and make sure only privileged kids get work ).

He also tried to identify himself as working class and middle class at the same time in a shameless grovel for votes.

Not sure I can stand listening to the rest of this DRIVEL ( as Tory Bear said on Guido log ).

Its still lists, misrepresentation and shear dishonest fantasy.

The man has no shame, or lacks the courage to tell people about the spectacular mess he has made of our country.

Labour U turn on 24hr drinking just announced.

I wonder how much of this applies to just England.

Anyway its all too depressing . Of to get some work done - we all have a lot of debt to pay back.

Update: He's just gone for the cowards way out on ID cards. Not cancelling it - or implementing it properly, but a half hearted please don't you let it stop you voting for me ME ME decision. This man makes you sick.

Further: Free personal care for those most likely to vote and keep Gordon in his job. How can this be paid for ? Its all spending committements - no efficiency and no CUTS. ( Even the Lib Dems have firgured out there will have to be cuts ).

A quiet word about Virgin Media

• The phone was answered quickly when I called to report my broadband fault, and I didn't have to navigate multiple layers of options ( maybe there were two - but it did feel bad ).
• I spoke to some one who understood me ( I think she was in India, but she could hear me fine and didn't insist on stupid things like connecting my computer to the cable modem and removing my router before only using Windows XP before being willing to speak to me). She quickly identified that a visit was required from an engineer.
  
• I had a range of appointment dates for an engineer to pop round within two working days the appointment time slot in half a working day.
• The day before I had a txt message reminding me of the appointment
• The engineer turned up when he said he would, fixed the issue in 5 mins and made an appointment for someone to check the local exchange box in the next few weeks.

My broadband now works - and is much faster also ( even the Wife notices ).

So - well done Virgin Media.

This was not always so. Its taken some time to produce this sort of customer service ( and I'm including NTL and Cable Com in this ), but you've arrived and made a loyal customer very happy.

Devolution plan B - demonise the English

I'm just beginning to wonder if there isn't a plan to demonise those who want equivalent recognition of England to the other home countries.

We have Gordon Brown apparently receiving hate mail story on the BBC ( surely most celebrities receive their unfortunate share - and given Mr Brown's record he is a likely lighting conductor for such behaviour ). Not much is know about the sender except they are (shudder) pro-English.

Then we have all the media panic about the English Defence League ( in fairness I have no idea who they are - but all those dishing out the violence seemed to be left-wing counter demonstrators ).

And the announcements from Labour for the NHS and one crime when they mean the English NHS and English laws and English education.

Are we about to get another bout of demonising the English again as a convenient political ploy?

Labour implicitly admits its centrally planned NHS has killed at a rate of about 10,000 per year !!!!

Hold on you say, that isn't the good news message that superman with his socks tucked into his trouser had authorised to have himself personally associated with from New York.

So how do I work this out ?

Well here goes.

This is based on a change of priorities from building to saving peoples lives. It could have been done 10 years ago. Its not the result of new technical advances.

Either the central planned and socialist lead health service was too demented by its monolithic size to make such an adjustment or they just couldn't be bothered.

Who gained politically from lots of new buildings being announced all the time ? Money can only be spent once (well not entirely true due to the multiplier effect - but the value it is traded for can only be used once ).

The spin says GPs support this move - well its a shame GPs couldn't have been empowered to organise it. But that's part of the problem with the NHS.

Brown sees this announcement as part of his fight back - I see it as an admission of his failure and the cost of that failure.

PS My guess is that despite all the smears and mud thrown at Dan Hannan New Labours (save their career at all costs to other people types ) have realised he has a point on cancer survival rates that they can't spin their way out of.

PPS Anyone see the media pointing out that this is an English only initiative ? In the English NHS? ( Update I have seen the BBC use the English prefix on their web site - but not on radio reports of the great news all must rejoice on hearing this morning )

Update: See what the future for the NHS really looks like once all the vote for me iniatives have faded away here.

Super nanny Brown threatens Iranian leader with the naughty step

Yes you'd better believe it.

And to show how serious Nanny is about her authority in the future she's getting rid of one of her last few Ballistic Subs and celebrating the extra diversity of the G20 where people will have to listen to her even less.

Your a very naughty boy Mr Ahmadinejad and if your don't do what Nanny says then she will be really cross and issue even more strong and highly serious sanctions and condemnations ( and perhaps release a few more convicted mass murders and cancel any unfortunate investigations into the cold blooded murder of a policewoman on the streets of London by a terrorist power ).

What is the G20 really becoming ?

Gordon Brown loves the G20.

That alone should eb enough to worry us. His most trusted leutenant is expected to leave the No 10 bunker to do unnecessary voluntary work for it.

Now its reported by the press association that:

Under Mr Brown's proposals, countries would be required to submit their economic policies for review to ensure that they were moving in line with the direction set by the G20.

The summit was also expected to agree that the one trillion dollar "fiscal stimulus" package to support the flagging global economy, which was agreed by the G20 in London last April, would continue until "a durable recovery is secure".

So we get a proto form of World economic government and a strap line for Gordon to hang his lets sacrifice your children and grandchildren to eternal debt slavery so I can stay in office a few more days strategy at the next general election ( assume the coward doesn't stand down first ).

Obama seems very keen on these institutions. Chairing a UN security council session and now pushing for a similar agenda.

The left like the G20 - they like everyone having to do what they are told - they like massive state debt as it ensures in a perverse sort of way the role of the state.

Is it time for a more sceptical view of the suddenly invented G20 from the right ?

Nuclear fantasy is really just insanity

The non-proliferation treaty has failed.

Pretending that key nuclear powers will work towards a world without nuclear weapons is just an enormous lie - and everyone knows it ( except for some unfortunate individuals who read the Guardian ).

There is only one way the world could be secure without nuclear weopons and that is an authoritarian single world government that would never tolerate schism, and there are plenty of people who will die in the ditches to stop that ( and some of them will be nuclear armed ).

So lets stop the Obama/Brown dangerous fantasy and start figuring out how will will have a nuclear armed peace.

Brown still wants the option to nuke Moscow

He apparently just thinks its more sporting to have so few subs that the Russians will be tempted to take them out first. ( No commitment on warheads - the number of which is determined by UK nuclear strategy of the guaranteed destruction of key a key Russian aggressor city ie Moscow.

This man is a direct danger to the lives and prosperity of every man woman and child in the UK.

The Labour party need to get rid of him.

Further:

Let be clear - less subs but the same number of warheads is a less stable (as it further invites a first strike in the hope of destroying the retaliation) and more likely to result in the us of nuclear weapons configuration.

Only a complete idiot would make this move.

You would think Gordon would understand MAD - but apparently not.

We may not have until the next election....

There's a sort of phony war going on. Cuts have been declared - and everyone assumes we can wait six months for a change of national leadership before the blood shed has to start. ( Indeed many Labour and Lib Dem career politicians will be happy to see Conservatives throwing away their careers to save the country - so they can bounce back into office once the responsible adult work has been done claiming they opposed it all along ).

Wat Tyler uses the phony war strategy on his blog to describe the current situation.

We assume we have till after the next general election before cuts have to be made - indeed we can keep the current high burn rate of voter bribing going based on rapidly increasing debt and printing money till then.

But there are other dangers lurking out there. Yes the markets may be willing to wait for a sane Conservative government - all other things being equal. However we may be an island but we are not isolated.

A dollar crisis is getting closer every day. And the value of the dollar is very very unstable.

There are a lot of people who would like their money out of the US currency, but fear pulling it out fast would cause a collapse which would destroy their wealth. But if they think someone else is doing it then the queue's outside Northern Rock will look like a metaphorical picnic in comparison.

The US has no - repeat no - chance of honouring its debts with using inflation to effectively default and cheat its creditors.

Guess which financial genius invested large amounts of the UK's money in US debt - think World Statesman of the Year who is very popular in New York right now, but oddly nowhere else.

A US collapse will drag us to the bottom also because of the debt run up over the last year by insanity Brown. You see there is the risk they never mentioned of "investing your way out of the recession" really being tying a millstone around your neck just at the moment a sudden impact holes your ship below the water line.

( Note the US is already pulling back fast. Missile defence cancelled for Europe, NASA shortly to be told to forget its budget, troops out of Iraq and maybe Afghanistan. The US Suez moment may have already started. )

For those of a nervous disposition its time to head for safe assets like gold.

Declaration of interest ( no pun intended ) MiaS domestic asset management has already moved a proportion of my assets into a well known shiny metal.

Brown makes large concession without getting anything in return - again !

Just about to head of to bed when I read that Brown now wants to make unilateral disarmament commitments from the UK to make our nuclear deterrent easier to destroy by only having 3 nuclear subs.

This from the genius who sold the UK's gold at the low in the market, and agreed to make the UK contribute net billions more to the EU (ie French farmers) in exchange for a weak promise the French ratted on over reducing the CAP.

Can't someone tell him he's already damaged the country enough with his negotiating skills?

How does making your key concession in exchange for nothing help ? There is evidence that it won't even save money - just make a successful nuclear first strike against our country easier.

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Magna is making a very bad commercial mistake if it cuts back production in the UK, not Germany

Yes I know the Germans have paid the EU banned bribe, but sterling's going to be weak for some time, perhaps even a decade.

Cost of production in the UK will be low, Germany will be high.

If Magna want to make money then they should look to Germany to make cuts.

Baroness Scotland is proof that for Labour ...

• There is one rule for the plebs - and another for Labour ministers.
• Labour have no shame at all.
• Gordon Brown has no judgement.

It is only Brown's complete moral failure and weakness combined with his sense of self entitlement and arrogance that stops his doing his job as Prime Minister, upholding the honour of the country and sacking Baroness Scotland.

Labour shameless, gutless, and utterly useless.

More tax for the South of England as Scotland enjoys tax freeze - thanks Lib Dems

So the Lib Dems plan to punish the English who live in the South of England, especially the South East whilst at the same time their Celtic heartlands enjoy that money being hosed around in Scotland and Wales.

They will whinge on about anyone with a big house being able to "afford it" - but lets remember that money that goes to the government to pay for places like 75% public sector employee zones in the North doesn't get spent in the economy of the South of England. ( Today we have the Bank of England, for example, explaining what the impact of people cutting back is likely to be on the economy ),

The money has been taken from all of us here - but the Lib Dems will use their normal dishonest arguments to try and pass this of as a victimless attack.

The Lib Dems aren't even planning on using it to fund Gordon Brown's rising national debt, but to pay for bribes for more votes for their party in areas of Labour's heartland where they fancy their chances.

Lib Dem wealth tax fantasy to allow dishonesty with voters

They who have no chance of forming the next government need to win as many votes as possible to avoid their MPs having to earn a real living once they get their P45's when defending against Conservative challengers after the next election.

So on comes the classic idea of taxing only a few people to bride a large number of people.

Its the rule of the mob.

Its wealth tax.

It has no chance of being implemented - but in the fantasy world of Lib Dem conferences.

Its also a deception of the electorate. But whats new - its what the Lib Dems do - its who they are.

Now here the truth:

1) Everyone is going to have to pay more tax.
2) Many people has already been taxed at a massive stealth rate due to the devaluation of UK assets thanks to Labour's mismanagement of the economy and stealth taxation of private pensions. ( I'm guessing - after a brief back of envelope calculation that my middle class family is £50k worse off after one year ).
3) Everything has to be paid for. there is no free education, health or other "services". As a decent society we want to support all, but lets stop calling things free. They aren't - and many provided by the highly inefficient public sector are very ruinously expensive ( which is tolerated as the employees vote Labour/Lib Dem ).
4) Everyone is going to have to cut back.
5)It will be 10-15 years until you have recovered from Gordon Brown's last 12 months for filling his boy hood dream that he has ruthlessly pushed all aside to achieve.

The fall from grace of the BBC

The enemies of the BBC have suddenly become legion.

Only a few months ago all the BBC had to worry about was the right of centre bloggers who had picked up on its institutional left wing bias. It was defended on the left by bloggers, I would argue, for much the same reason.

The main stream parties all paid homage to Auntie, even those who knew the in built political bias.

But then the BBC started to lose its key friends.

The WMD row with Labour caused the loss of key personnel, and the creation of the BBC trust.

Then the poor performance of ITV and its commercial fellow travellers emphasised how well funded the BBC really is.

The Ross and Brand scandal lost the BBC a lot of friends, and made everyone very familiar with how much the 'talent' is paid.

But then came the killer blow. The recession, or as the BBC tried to call it the Downturn ( as always instinctively helpful for Labour ), has made the competition the BBC gives everyone else a key issue.

The key here is that other journalists now see the BBC as putting them out of a job. James Murdoch has sounded the attack and everyone else is keen to pile in.

The Conservatives have been dropping menacing hints for a while, as you might expect, but now even Labour are piling in - perhaps to gain favour with news international.

The BBC is just running out of friends, just at the time of maximum danger.

Many of us who have regarded it as a direct threat to our democracy will not be sad to see it go under.

Update: The Times says makes a simialr point - and goes into detail about how the BBC lost the support of its former employee and now Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw here.

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Right off for a weekend in mid Wales

Where the sun always shines right ?

Update: Wasn't too bad see -except for the suicidal multi language road signs.

Gordon Brown's new line to evade responsibility

The "C" word has been uttered. Brown has been dragged back from his extensively long holiday to be forced to admit some of reality, but of course he's not admitting his responsibility for it.

The new plan, which seems only likely to convince him ( perhaps this sort of self delusion is necessary to keep his mental health together ) is to say the G20 should coordinate cuts.

And it gets better - he even says the IMF should advise countries on how to make cuts ! ( Of course they'll be doing more than advising if Labour by some national disaster were to survive the next general election. )

Can you imagine it. Apparently for all the vast sums of tax payers money spent on our government and its civil service they still can't make a decision without advice ! ( Of course they can - or at least the professional half of that group can - but the politicians fear responsibility most of all ).

So here we see the usual Gordon Brown character flaws - evading decisions and shirking responsibility.

But the cost to us of this has been massive, and continues to be so for each day that the pretend nothing needs to be done budget deficit runs. the sums of money borrowed in each house holds name just for the personal career of Gordon Brown and his cowardly Labour cronies is absolutely staggering.

Soon we will hear "The cuts started in America and are global", and "we are following the plan agreed at the G20" as Brown tries to evade responsibility one last time.

What will the UKs response to a missile attack be ?

Now that the US is giving up on defending Europe from missile attacks ( and to some degree why should they ), I'm wondering what our governments planned response to an ICBM launch from Tehran towards London or our military bases in Cyprus would be.

Almost certainly it would be a wait and see approach.

Wait for the missile to reach the ground, and
see if they've managed to miniaturise nuclear war heads or not.

And if a mushroom cloud did rise over London ? Then what. With Trident looking like its for the chop would be get really cross at the UN ?

Time to consider the day that we might be left on our own I think.

Update: In some ways I think this is a start of a wider US pull back as the cost of the overseas US military become unsustainable.

Goodbye GP Areas - Hello Polyclinics

GPs have been a pain in the butt for the advance of socialism.

But plan A to get rid of these annoying ( for govt ) Doctors the polyclinics has been met with a hail of bad publicity and criticism.

So plan B has had to be a bit more subtle and us a stealth approach ( the New Labour types must wonder why they ever did anything as stupid as telling people what they were up to in plan A anyway ).

Abolish GP catchment areas.

This will mean that those shiny new Polyclinics can pick up lots of patients fast. It will also mean GP practices lose their geographical commitment and knowledge of their patients. Nobody will get a visit ( the last GP I can remember seeing do a visit to a patient was my Mother who I often had to wait for 30-60 mins for int he car every night whilst she drove around town and did her visits after a long surgery at about 7:30pm every day ).

Chaos will abound with things like emergency cover and the like.

But quietly the govt will get its way of challenging the power of the GPs and turning them into salaried supervisors of Nurse Practitioners whose protocol will decide if your from the right social class (ie sufficiently Labour voting socially deprived ) to live or die.

PS Don't forget the unintended consequences. My guess is they will include - religious segregation of GP practices.

Fighting talk from councillor Melanie Whitehand

What to do when the local Lib Dem starts peddling lines you think are untrue ? ( And lets face it a lot of people have this problem. )

Go the the bottom of the Woking Conservatives Web Site to see Councillor Melanie Whitehand giving her opponent both barrels.

Why do Lib Dems do it ? Don't they have any self respect or shame ?

Is this the case all over the country or just in Woking ? How many people have they mislead ? Why would anyone think this was an acceptable way to carry out politics ?

PS Since its clearly open season on Fib Dems here's more of Melanie's handy work.

Further There was a time when local Conservatives just thought the Lib Dems would be found out eventually, but as we know from other campaigns a lie travels a long way before the truth gets out of the door. If this type of politics continues then rapid rebuttal is going to become a regular feature.

I don't think the public really likes this style of politics and it would be much better if all sides could agree to put their case forward clearly and let the voters decide. But equally allowing the Fib Dems a free hand is not an option any more.

The post I was about to write

Ha I thought I know what if Hamad Karzai was Gordon Brown's election manager ( because we know he has problems getting anyone else to work with him ).

But News Biscuit got there first over a week ago!.

Must try harder.

Still its nice to see the Iraqi Minister of information analogies catching hold.

Remember lads and lasses only 259 more days tops to go until we can start paying Labour back.

Almost too tired to attack Gordon Brown today...

.. no don't worry I'm not tired of life. But those terribly nice people over at Conservative home have done such a good job that I don't have to ....

BBC R4 take note the deficit is not the national debt !

Man in a Shed must be nurturing a heart condition that the BBC has secretly discovered and is trying to push over the edge. from What else can explain their transposing the spin and line-du-jourMandelson about reducing the deficit and have them announcing that Labour will reduce the National debt.

They are two different, although related things.

The Deficit is the amount the country's spending exceeds its income over one year.

The National Debt is absolute and is a product of the historical deficits and occasional budget surpluses in the past.

So BBC pay attention..... and save me having to risk high blood pressure shouting at the radio.

If I halve the deficit the National debt continues to go up each year.

Have you got that ?

It is not true that if you promise to halve the deficit sometime in the future that you are promising to halve the national debt ! ( Not that we'd believe Labour even if they said so ! )

Labour are just promising to sell our children into debt slavery at a slightly slower rate, not to redeem them.

Its not vetting people Ed Balls wants - its controlling them

The apparent madness continues. Everyone and his dog who come anywhere near children is going to have to be vetted by a big government database, run by the Independent Safeguarding Authority. ( The fact it has to have the word Independent in it should ring alarm bells ).

But of course its only hard to explain, and thus appear mad if you try to see it in terms of child protection and preventing paedophiles getting access to children. ( I can't think of any cases governed by the new arrangements which would have prevented harm to children - I have to assume the minister must have a few cases).

But here is one explanation. What government craves is information. How many people do this ? Who are they ? How can we control what they do ?

This database will help a whole lot with those questions.

And of course once its established it can be expanded in scope.

Perhaps members of the BNP shouldn't be allowed to work with children ? Perhaps those who's views could be found offensive by the homosexual lobby should be banned ( see Christians ), but not of course Muslims ( esp Jihadi types who will be targeted for Muslim only adoptions - but of course Christian adoptions of Christian children are forbidden ).

Perhaps too many Middle class kids have the unfair advantage of loving parents - this can now be quantified by seeing who helps out and who doesn't.


They'll deny all this of course. But rarely has such a denial had the effect of stopping what is denied coming about.

Update: It occurs to me that this move will allow the government to figure out how much private tutoring goes on - which will be amunition for the class war against the middle classes.

Mandelson on the radio - trying another line

Labour just keep wheeling out on catch phrase routed in their deep seated dishonesty after another.

Being "wise spenders" is the latest - as Mandelson dances around avoiding the word cuts on radio4's today programme this morning.

He also tries to face down and bully bother Nick Robinson and the interviewer ( was it Eddie ? not sure ). Well even BBC staff have had enough of it - as you can see from Nick Robinson's blog here.

As to the new message ?

The clue is in the messenger.

Update: I think this just about says it all ...

Are Labour trying to silence John Redwood ?

Today in his blog John Redwood outlines the Labour spin operation over Rover and how successful it has been in diverting attention form government failures over Rover.

He also points out that this is only possible due to the considerable influence New Labour still has over journalists and editors. ( I would say especially at the BBC. )

He then goes on to say how he had been put on standby to appear on Newsnight, and asked not to accept any other offers for media appearances, but then his appearance was cancelled due to orders from higher up.

Could it be that there's a view on the credit crunch that the BBC wishes to suppress ?

This just goes to show that the BBC is hopelessly politically compromised and must be disbanded by an incoming Conservative Govt.

Mandelson trying to spin the Rover report - typical Labour

He's the master of the dark arts. Just listening to him try and focus the Rover fiasco on disbaring the Alchemy managers as directors is a wonder to behold.

No mention of Labour part it the Rover down fall. No mention of the Chinese getting the better of Gordon Brown ( and therefore the long suffering English Taxpayer ). no mention of the pre election bribe using public money to keep Rover's collapse till after the 2005 election.

Same old evil Labour - but you have to admire the master as he practices his art.

9/11 - what have we learnt ?

Its that time of year again when we reflect on one of the largest and most outrageous acts of naked terrorism to be seen on Earth.

So what have we learnt ?

Here are some of my suggestions:

1. That not everyone thinks Islam is the religion of peace, including some of the people who tell us that it is.
2. Society is vulnerable to those who are determined enough to make reckless attacks on it.
3. That a country can be invaded and its military defeated at little human cost to the modern attacker (though high financial cost), but it can be held without paying a price in blood.
4. Sadam Hussain most likely didn't have any WMDs, and our intelligence was either wrong or we were lied to.
5. Islam presents a cultural challenge to western society which western society is ill equipped to meet.
6. We need to make our infrastructure more robust and assume bad things will happen and we must cope with them. ( The UK Gov says its done this - Swine Flu and Foot and Mouth suggest otherwise ).
   

Any other ideas ?

Just what is the point of the International Space Station ?

I only ask as the end of life date of 2016 is getting closer and closer.

Will it be finished in time to be destroyed I wonder.

What was the point ? Apart for as a job creation scheme for rocket scientists and engineers ?

Just wondering ....

PS Thankfully the UK Govt. of Mrs Thatcher saw all this coming and refused to waste UK money on this flying white elephant.

If Brown is shown not to be medically fit for office then none of his cabinet are either

The rumours about the possibility that Gordon Brown may be on anti depressants are now all over the blogsphere and making the cross over into the MSM very soon. ( H/T to John Ward who spotted the question about the PM's health ).

If the worse is shown to be true then we must have some sympathy for Mr Brown, but insist he leaves office now.

But it would also show that his Cabinet have hid a vital truth that has put us all in a very real and present danger just for the sake of their careers and party interests. If so then none of them would be fit for high office ever again ( and this most certainly includes the Miliband brothers ).

Its time to quash the rumour or face up to the truth.

Draining the BBC swamp

Listening to the radio yesterday lunch time I heard some fellow from the BBC Trust trying to tell an interviewer how the public would rather be given their money back than to allow the sacred BBC licence fee to go to other organisations. ( To get the full dose of arrogance you need to listen to the programme ).

Today we here the BBC thinks it might have to do less - but James Murdoch is very wrong to say the BBC makes life impossible for other and anyway isn't Sky a near monopoly anyway.

What I see happening hear is right from the New Labour ( the BBC's soul mate ) play book. Change can no longer be stonewalled any more. They now know that their beloved Labour party may be forced from power soon and its Conservative likely replacement has a large number of scores to settle for the way the BBC has campaigned against it and its world view.

Their solution ?

Declare you are for change yourself. Have lots of consultations, focus groups and opinion polls showing that the public is on your side followed ( and this is yet to come ) by threatening to get rid of very popular things that they know there will be a public outcry against - local councils do this when told to make cuts by councillors - rather than making those cuts they say no Christmas lights this year until the councillors relent.

The BBC and Guardian sustain the careers of those damaged individuals who will go on to become the next cheerleaders and actual participants in socialist politics.

Its time to drain the Guardianista's swamp - or at least make them pay for their own.

Scrap the BBC - vastly reduce the licence fee to just technical support levels. Yes everyone will protest for 6 months and then they'll get over it and left wing propaganda funded by taxation will be off the airways.

Thats my opening suggstion for reform.

Light blogging

Sorry the blogging has been so light over the last few days. I've been trying to get the hang of my new HTC Hero phone.

I'll post a review shortly - ie when I've stopped playing with it.

Sent from my HTC

Labour's mean bullying smear machine has gone demented

Apparently they are still on for attempting to undermine the credibility of retired General Sir Richard Dannatt, even after the rouse has been completely exposed. ( Perhaps they couldn't unask the parliamentary questions once they submitted them ).

I guess its just in their nasty nature.

The silent demise of the British chemical industry

Largely unreported in the MSM the British chemical industry is being bought up from over seas and now some is being shut down.

Vast new chemical complexes in the Middle East are being built ( many designed in the UK ), but not reported.

In the north east at the old ICI Wilton complex the new owners, Dow, of the Ethylene Oxide plant are shutting it down, its the last one in the UK and moving production to Kuwait. (new plant opening soon ) So what I hear you ask - well chemical plants don't exist in isolation. They are fed by other plants and their products are required by other manufacturers.

A plant that uses say, excess steam, that closes may also make the plant that produces the excess steam uneconomic and a domino effect kicks in.

In Wilton and Billingham vast chemical complexes existed, but their British owners have sold or are now more. The Saudi's, Dutch and Germans now operate them, and they are very much biased in terms of production from their how countries.

When I left school I chose to work in the Chemical Industry as it was one of the only manufacturing sectors which was strong. ICI, Shell, BP and others all lead the world. Now ICI is no more and what's left of its plants are owned by various people, Shell is looking at selling its last UK refinery and cutting its workforce by 15% next week and its just a matter of time before BP becomes a US company in fact as it is in business terms already.

How much marketing and media studies is the UK going to have to sell the world to pay for all the things we buy abroad now ( ie nearly everything ) ?

The capture of the imagination of the country by the green suicide lobby even extends to The Institution of Chemical Engineers. In their house magazine the editorial; talks about the lose of this capital intensive bulk chemicals production being inveitable and that the green jobs will come to save us and new high tech plants.

Well the Saudi's & Kuwaitis are building those too, on a price no object basis. They have large populations they need to buy industries for and the money to do it.

And some the country that gave the world the industrial revolution is hollowed out.

There are lots of engineering in this country 40+ who cut their teeth in our chemical industry and the North Sea. Many earn money for this country by consultancy, working for UK engineering contractors and working aboard, but they won't be replaced ( though of course the courses will still run at Universities, but there will be few jobs for their graduates ) and just like the last TV set to be manufactured in the UK - where TV was invented - the capability will pass away into history.

What is it we do that the world wants to keep shipping electronic goods and food to us for again ?

Lets hope those nice people in the middle east never want to impose sanctions on us, because soon we will be reliant on them for more than just crude oil.

Needs must when the devil drives

Labour are getting their pre -announcement spin in today on "halving the budget deficit".

Now often trailed major announcements from Labour turn out to be nothing of the sort. We have learn't through painful experience that Labour tries to dominate the headlines with its chosen phrase whilst sneaking the reality in a very small bit of print hidden away in long reports.

Its who and what they are.

However we should perhaps not dismiss the idea that the Treasury may really be under the threat. Shell - a vastly better run organisation the UK under Labour - had its credit rating downgraded recently. Its not clear the UK could survive with its current spending profile if our credit rating was reduced or if the Bank of England didn't keep printing money to buy our own debt.

The money printing must end soon, and the real challenge will then be to persuade enough foreigners to lend us their money on the promise that our children will pay it back, by forgoing vital health care and social services just to win Brown a few more votes today.

Perhaps the crunch is much closer than we have been lead to believe.

Perhaps Labour are trying to make a virtue out of a necessity.

Perhaps they have been told they can't carry on with the policies of bribing the voters by selling their children into debt.

But as ever don't believe a word these people say. Check the facts, check the details. They have form for deceit and untruths and should not be trusted.

Here we go: Dalring is now talking about borrowing at a slower rate sometime in the future when there lots of money around. ( Remember last time there was "lots of money around" it was because consumers were loading themselves with insane amounts of debt - which the govt was helping itself to in terms of VAT, stamp duty and taxation on the increased economic activity )

I should point out also that The Budget Deficit and The National Debt are not the same thing - even though Laboutr spin and dedciert masters would like you to think so. Halving the budget deficit just means diggign the hole of debt salvery slightly slower, not filling it in. And every year there will be the interest to pay on that debt ....

The sunken cost fallacy on Afghanistan

I have to agree with, and have already agreed with, Matthew Parris who thinks the public mood is turning against the war in Afghanistan.

The worse part of all this is seeing the description of the dead as Heros ( many no doubt where - but those words are used by our politicians to trump any debate ) whose sacrifice has not been in vain.

Well the disturbing truth is it may very well have been.

Like a share holder who can sell his stocks because they were worth so much yesterday and doing so would recognise the loss, so our current weak and deceitful government can't admit we may have to call it a day, because the cries of the relatives, widows and Father less children would condemn them.

So they carry on.

They carried on for the last year as they had other things to worry about.

They will carry on now till the election as like all the other big decisions that require reversals they put their own selfish personal interests before those of the country they have the cheek to claim they serve.

The closest they are coming to this is the attempt at using the Basra hidden surrender policy in Helmand, which will be a slow national humiliation.

By the way what are the Dutch, Canadians and others doing right now ?

I have been sceptical about the Helmand phase of this war since its beginning, and I think that will soon be the majority view ( See also Robert Fox's article on "Britain stumbles into Afghan trap" from 11 July 2006). To our collective shame more good men and women will die as our government can't face the bad headlines that doing something about their failures will generate.

Update: See John Redwood on this also as a sign that Matthew is right about the winds of change.

Labour can't complain. All those senior officers warning about 10, 20 and even 40 year commitments were really telling our politicians something. In the future people will wonder openly how those statements weren't challenged more openly ( as I'm sure those making them hoped they would be ).

To see my posts on Afghanistan click here

Post of the day

"Of the Right" by Snuffy.

Being of the right myself I have a busy day pulling the wings of butterflies and murdering puppies to be getting on with ....

PS The Tag line Nick Cohen is just to put him onto this - given its just the stuff he likes to write about but then totally fail to grasp that "being left wing" is the problem.

No one believes in Brown's Labour any more -

See this report [on the Red Rag blog] of Eric Joyce resigning as Bob Ainsworth's PPS. Remember Eric Joyce is a rare figure on the Labour benches, someone who has served in the military, even if he had a chip on his shoulder the size of the Blackpool tower, he at least understands loyalty and duty - unlike Brown and his second rate hangers on .

Update: The Times reports Joyce as saying “I do not think the public will accept for much longer that our losses can be justified by simply referring to the risk of greater terrorism on our streets.”

I told you the public won't put up with this !

If climate change is such a threat ...

... why do we have 24 hours TV ?

Surely the BBC could save the planet by shutting down for 8 hrs a day ?

Perhaps the Guardian could stop murdering trees and contributing to climate change by turning them into drivel.

Think of all the plasma screens, LCD TV's, household lights ( as people go to bed ) and higher birth rate (especially amongst the extinction threatened middle class) that could be saved and would result.

Or perhaps Climate change isn't really what they are on about ?

Teenagers aren't stupid

Apparently teenagers are shunning Ed Ball's new social engineering diploma with its state set arbitrary value ( which no one else will honour ).

Maybe there's a lot to learn about life as you grow up, but its clear that our teenagers can spot a lame government programme when they see one.

There is hope for us all yet !

The warning about Labour's failure to provide power generation for the UK gets louder

Time is running out. Its now becoming harder and harder for the like of the child Ed Miliband to pretend the government has even the slightest grip on the UK's future power generation requirements.

Labour have failed here also.

The big and urgent challenge will fall to the next government. Its time for some honest grown up debate here.

The eco-thugs who try to create criminal damage to power stations need to be dealt with with the full force of the law. And the general public needs to grow up fast.

PS One big difference with the 1970s is that you could buy a pint of beer in a pub lite with candles and achieve much else even when the lights went out. In our electronics controlled world that's most unlikely to be true any more. That goes for much else in our society also.