The X-Factor election could be a national disaster

Well the news for those of us who think Labour have wrecked the country and if they get another five years will finish the job wasn't good this morning.

Even as the newspapers, all of them - with the possible exception of the insane Daily Mirror, drip with stories that prove Brown is unfit for public office the polls tells us the great British public is moving in the other direction.

The start of all this was Piers Morgan's crying game interview where Brown backed down on yet another one of his promises by prostituting his emotions for votes. ( Lets remeber Browns savage snide attack on David Cameron from the Labour party conference. )

Ever since then there has been no end of stories about Gordon Brown - almost all terribly bad - in the media.

The public's response ? To increase its support for him.

All publicity would appear to be good.

I think the key here is the public is viewing the general election through the prism of "Strictly come dancing", "The X-Factor" and "Big Brother".

They are supporting the character they want to see crowned winner at the end of the show. They like seeing things change around during the show. The best dancer doesn't win, but the one who comes from the most popular TV show - or whom the Grannies have a crush on.

So what should the Conservative response be ?

I think we are doomed if we try to play this game. Labour have spectacular support in the media, and plenty of media types who can help them pay this game. And the storyline they would present would be very popular in peoples minds.

The Conservative response must be a bucket of cold water with ice floating in it thrown over the electorate.

This is not a game or a TV show - though it has been made to look like one. ( And in this sense the TV debates may prove to be a costly mistake by CCHQ ).

Labour won't be able to manage the sky rocketing national debt ( even the part that's official - ignoring the massive hidden off balance sheet items that make us as guilty as the Greek government has been ). We know this as a fact since:

1) They haven't delivered on the efficiency savings they promised.
2) They haven't reformed the public services because "The Road Block to reform" is Prime Minister after having been Chancellor.

Labour won't be able to manage the most savage cuts in UK history ( and those are the ones they themselves admit to having to make ).

They will instead seek to confiscate peoples wealth - just as they have destroyed private pensions and are bleeding private savings - so they will find new ways like the death tax and higher tuition fees for Tory voters and the English middle class families.

They will also deliver worse public services than a Conservative government will - because their aim is the votes that the client state can deliver and the funding from the Unite Union that owns the Labour party - not the good of the people.

To win this election the Conservative party has to be willing to lose it by spelling out to people how bad things are, and what is needed.

We need to explain the consequences of 5 more years of Gordon Brown ( who will by then be unconstrained by the sacked Alistair Darling and Peter Mandelson ).

Further: I would point you back at my post from 2008 "Winning the argument could be more important than winning the next election"

Computer modelling shows its limits

Computer modelling shows its limits with the Tsunami predictions for Hawaii today.


A useful reminder for all those who are on the receiving end of complex computer modelling predictions of the level of uncertainty non linear models based on incomplete information can suffer from.

Yes climate scientists I mean you.

I'm sure Labour never willed the mid Staffs hopistal massacre - but they are responsible for it

A few days ago we had the report on the man slaughter by neglect of hundreds of patients at the Mid Staffs NHS Hospital.

It blamed managers obsessed by targets.

It didn't blame the government, who set and are also obsessed with targets, but it should have. ( Indeed the true nasty nature of Labour can be seen by their legal guarantee ploy of super targets set up just to bludgeon votes by bulling voters over their fears. )

The fault lies with the top down socialist dictatorship approach to running a massive organisation like the NHS.

By failing to recognise this Labour are condemning the same fate to many other unfortunate people. But then if Labour cared they would pay attention to the results of their policies, rather than just how the announcements sound with focus groups.

Only 100 days left ! ( at worse )

Its now less than 100 days until Gordon Brown has to at last stand for a real election !

Lighter blogging (again)

Gearing up for phase two of my brush with the medical establishment.

Blogging's going to be light again for a few days....

English votes on English matters - would be a start

I'm a supporter of an English Parliament and a federal United Kingdom.

However to move along in that direction English Votes on English Laws would be a start. ( There are various reasons why things won't end there, for example a UK executive that can't pass English Laws but has responsibility only for English devolved matters is unstable. )

Anyway there are only a few hours left to support English Votes on English Laws over at Power 2010 !

Remember England needs you !

Brown and the bullying allegations

What strikes me as strange about all this is that most of us have known about Gordon Brown's flaws for years.

Tony Blair was bullied from office.

The Labour party was bullied into crowning Gordon as leader without any opposition.

The country was bullied with accusations of cuts and smears in the general election of 2005 which Brown ran.

We've heard most of the stories about his behaviour and the many snubs he's issued many times before.

There are three separate books on the subject, including one by a former Labour Party Chairman.

There may be some discussion about detail and the usual media damage limitation exercises but I think we've got the picture.

But the mixture isn't yet toxic for Brown. Indeed some people will see it in the same way as John Prescott's outburst hitting a protester who threw and egg at him during the election was seen.

The sad fact is that the public will forgive or at least forget bullying ( and Labour party memebers will continue to only apply their so called principles to others and avoid dangerous double think about the obvious failings and transgressions of their leader ).

Only one thing will do for Brown.

Incompetence.

We need to link the tens of thousands of personal long term debt we have all accrued under Brown to his mistakes.

We need to repeat how "No more Boom and bust" was a lie.

We need to show that the financial crisis was Gordon Brown's fault, and he doesn't understand the economy ( as some people in the city have told me ).

He gets frustrated and angry because he's incompetent.

I personally hope he sees this and even at this late time resigns to spend some quality time with his young family, who are the people who genuinely need him the most.

Update: John Redwood has this right - "Questions of character and judgement"

A future enslaved to debt for all !

Labour again misleads with its new campaign slogan.

The truth is that they have sent the 4th biggest economy in thwe world with a pension system that was funded and the envy of Europe into a basket case dropping through the world rankings in every measure that matters.

No wonder Labour is ordering their canvassers not to dwell on their record !

What if - there is no recovery ?

Labour have pinned their hopes on the Tooth Fairy - encouraged by Prof Blanchflower et al.

But what if there's no recovery ?

The pound was competitively devalued over 6 months ago - yet our balance of payments gets worse.

We've had £200billion of printed money to pay Gordon Brown's debt for a few more months "stimulus", yet almost none of it went to private enterprise ( as the govt and BoE spun the initial plan to start Mugabenomics ).

VAT cuts and car scrappage schemes boast other countries economies ( as we import so much ) at the expense of our debt.

In this case Labour's ( & lets not forget those ultimate hedge betters the Lib Dems ) have made the most disastrous mistake possible. They have loaded vastly more debt which we must pay interest on and repay - mostly to let the value of that money leak overseas due to the UK's continued bloated non productive sector sucking in imports - and all this just for the career of one very selfish man - Gordon Brown.

Labour have gambled with all our futures and taken unforgivable risks.

This risk could have very real consequences - for example the shortages of life saving drugs as pharmacists export them to higher exchange rate areas, and that's just the beginning.

Its all been one massive gamble for a few more votes for a few dishonest politicians who want to carry on destroying the country for a few more years.

There is just no excuse for voting Labour. They are selfish, reckless and just plain wrong - and some of them who know this are evil for putting their party before country.

For the one

Labour are about to annouce their strap lines for the campaign to finally destroy our country.

One of the most hypocritical ideas is "for the Many" - when Labour has all been about the selfish ego of one man who is the most expensive individual in UK history. The nutter who is our prime minister Gordon Brown.

Gordon Brown's weakness risks disaster in the South Atlantic

Over the years I've done a number of posts on the Falklands. I've tried to point out how Labour's defence policy is driving us to a bloody disaster.

Today we have confirmation that Labour is doing nothing to counter claims over UK territory. The next logical step for Argentina is to stop the oil rig moving south to the Falklands.

This will be easy for them. After all Labour's politically correct Royal Navy with equal opportunities and iPods for all has failed on every challenge recently:

eg The HMS Cornwall humiliation and the kidnap of the British couple from their yacht - floating right next to a Royal Navy vessel equipped with Royal Marines.

This sort of craven weakness invites aggression.

Here are a number of past posts on this subject:

Thursday, April 13, 2006 Threat to the Falklands again
Monday, April 17, 2006 The Battle for the Falklands
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Blair dangerously weak on the Falklands
Friday, July 14, 2006 The Economist article on the Falklands ( War of words )
Monday, October 16, 2006 The decision to scrap Sea Harrier now comes back to haunt Blair
Saturday, March 31, 2007 We need to decide what were about.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007 Lest we forget 25 years ago
Sunday, April 29, 2007 Spanish Ambassador stabs Britain in the back
Argentina pushing its colonialist and aggressive claim to sea bed between Falklands and South Georgia
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 National security - but no mention of the Falklands
Tuesday, July 08, 2008 A threat to the Falklands ?
Sunday, December 07, 2008 Does Gordon Brown want the Falklands to be invaded again ?
Sunday, January 17, 2010 Military manoeuvres
Wednesday, February 17, 2010 We need to watch the Falklands a bit closer

Lets be clear any weakness will be punished by disaster and we have the weakest dis-functional government this country has had in living memory.

We really can't go on like this !

We need to watch the Falklands a bit closer

There are a number of things combining to make this a very dangerous time for the Falklands:

1. Economic crisis in Argentina make banging on about colonial claims to Las Malvinas good Argentine politics.
2. UK forces are stretched, and the navy reduced.
3. The Argentine airforce has re-equipped, and challenges UK airspace regularly - including over flying.
4. The UK is heading to a time of political crisis with its upcoming general election.
5. The Oil reserves of the Falklands are now considered to be massive, and a very tempting target for Argentina, as well as the potential to claim the rest of the British possessions in the South Atlantic.

Argentina is setting up a sort of partial-blockade right now.
In the short term the government needs to give clear and unequivocal support to the Falklands by:

1. Sending nuclear subs south.
2. Up the Royal Naval surface patrols.
3. Up the RAF aircraft numbers and supplies in place.
4. Giving clear political support.

But in the medium term some sort of solution should again be searched for. Remembering that the UK objective has been the freedom, nationality and self determination of the Falklanders.

Something like Falkland Islander autonomy within Co-dominion might work if it became the settled will of UK & Argentina. The Falkland Islanders would have full control of internal affairs - especially immigration, but resource exploitation etc would have to be by agreement of the two sovereign powers.

Other ideas should be tried also, but any aggression should be met with the full spectrum of UK military response ( including Nuclear ).

The worry is with the Labour government so weak and distracted it will not give this the attention it needs. As the poster says "We can't go on like this", or at least if we try the results could be very bloody.

Lighter blogging

As luck would have it I've been been dragged by GP and wife through to some investigations ( X rays, strange wires pocked up your leg etc but no super powers resulting ), and am going to win another visit with our finest and their machinery - probably next week.

This is going to reduce blogging for a bit, but I'll still manage the odd post no doubt, but at a lower frequency. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

How much does a full page advert in the Economist cost ?

Because if your a UK tax payer you just bought one to say this ( click on it to get the full size, but be prepared top weep ):This is where you tax payer's money goes.

There's plenty of scope for cuts lads and lasses.

The UK is very much involved in the Greek Debt Tragedy

The spin line from Brown and Darling is that the UK is not going to have to pay for the Greek rescue - that'll be the Euro countries.

The BBC is of course quite happy to swallow that one whole.

But its not true.

Our banks are some of the largest lenders to Greece, and our banks are underwritten by the UK taxpayer and the Scottish ones next to Brown and Darling's constituencies are owned by us.

If Greece default - Britain will be stung, and stung hard.

By £7.8 billion for the Greek economy;

and if the contagion spread, which it mostly likely would,

£15.6 billion to the Portuguese Economy; and,
and £76.2 billion to the Spanish Economy.

So its not just a Euro zone affair, and Berlin isn't just thinking of running Athens, but also saving of a wide spread collapse. ( The Germans have the money, but because of historical sensitivities , see right, need the French to make it look European. ) And the UK will be expected to cough up. Knowing Brown it will be in the small print in his usual cowards stealth approach which is the standard deceit by which he tries to control the media.

PS I though it was ominous when one of my recent statements from HSBC had a reassurance across it that this account was covered by the deposit protection scheme, especially as HSBC had performed so well in the crisis.

Now I have an unhappy feeling they are just preparing the ground for the next wave a financial shocks they can see coming.

Update: Catch the New Satesman as the lefties finally wake up to the soveriegnty issue and the Euro here.

The cruel deceits of the left - the re-branded Tobin Tax

Here we go with more politics the only objective of which is to save the careers of some very selfish left wing politicians.

To achieve this end they are trying to make a populist attack on the banks our pension funds own, and as tax payers we own in the case of the Scottish banking system that Brown and Darling thought was in the English Tax payers interests to save.

Its Gordon Brown's Tobin tax - which every sane country rejected to his humiliation earlier on - just with better PR.

The left are trying to deceive the public by portraying it as a victimless crime, or if its isn't then they can afford it anyway.

Just as regulations and a degrade eduction system have destroyed our industry, so this tax will help see off what's left of the economic activity in this country.

What the public just don't seem to get is that we import much of our food, materials, goods, and fuel and if we don't do anything for the rest of the world like provide financial services it will stop. (By the way anyone notice that the promised surge in exports and improvement in balance of trade just isn't happening ?)

We will have 100% GDP dedicated to "vital public services" and the economy of Cuba.

But then when you see how often holidays to Cuba are advertised in the Guardian you have to wonder if that isn't the left's plan all along.

They don't care about people - just getting their selfish power obsessed way with the world. This selfish con by Bill Nightly and Richard Curtis is just another example of their deceit.

The left are all about lies these days - anything for a vote or at least saying anything.

Update Tory Bear rounds on the hippies, pinkos and other assorted lefties responsible for all this flawed thinking here.

Letting state pupils down

I've just read an article that shows up two things that are very wrong with our country right now.

1) The large popular demand for Grammar schools is denied by all three of the main political parties ( many of them manned by public school educated career politicians ). What this shows is that our politics is broken. Taxpayers can't get the services they chose because the political class won't let them have them.

2) The brightest pupils are let down in the state system ( they have just closed down Blair's program to help gifted pupils to hand the money back for socialist meritocracy in schools ). Of course the fast track to socialist equality has always been to hold everyone back and punish those who achieve - and this is what our state education system has started to do as it focuses on C grade GCSE passes, at the expense of the brightest state pupils and then the socialists have the nerve to complain about the poor progress of state pupils into the best Universities and careers.

Somehow we need to be free of the political classes strangle hold on whats available and how taxpayers money should be spent.

Never mind prisoners what about service people keeping their votes ?

One of the greatest scandals of the 2005 general election ( apart the straight lies told by Gordon Brown about the impact of Conservative spending plans- but we all know the man knows no shame ) was to see British soldiers defending Iraqi elections when their own government had changed the election rules in a way that made it very difficult for them to vote.

I wonder who benefits from large numbers of service personnel being unable to vote ?

I bet the Labour party knows and is very grateful they couldn't vote.

Today we have the Human Rights people telling us we have to ensure convicted criminals who are serving their sentences to vote, and I'm making no further comment on that here, but I wonder what the position is for over seas personnel this time ?

This time the men and women who know all about Gordon Brown's lies and deceitful budget cuts of helicopter and equipment must be allowed to return the favour and vote.

PS If you need to find out how to register to vote see here, though you might be too late to help get rid of Gordon Brown and his band of dishonest and incompetent parasites.

Leader's repaid expenses

Is it just me or is there a clear message here on repayed expenses ?

One party leader is at least 1386% large than the others. Could this be the man who ran the nation's finances into the ditch ? Oh yes ...

H/T to the Lib Dem cynical bar chart dept - but boys notice this one is scaled correctly ....

Will the Bank of England's printing presses be turned off soon ?

Rumours are circulating that the Bank of England will soon stop funding the government debt by printing money. ( We'll if you ask them or a Labour Treasury minister they will say the same thing, but with a hole load more guff ).

Anyone want to buy long term UK debt at low interest rates with the prospect of a hung parliament and no clear action to reduce the deficit being undertaken till yet another general election can be held ?

The risks are real as Greece is showing.

This will be interesting ... if you excuse the pun.

Blue bash reflections

So I made it home, abandoning the younger a fitter members of the Tory blogging fraternity to their home brew entertainment.

It was good to meet up again with some of the guys from Steve Green's Pint of Badger fuelled afternoon last year. Also to get to know a few more bloggers. ( Just what is so Terrible about Terrible Tory Girl anyway ? )

Blogging's not where it was, and in many ways has gone over the initial wave of interest of a few years ago, as the media and innovators chase twitter, facebook and the semi-detached Conservative home type sites.

I suspect blogging will become the hinterland of political parties electronic presence. Few people can write about politics without becoming more involved and developing their ideas. At the same time networks are developing outside of the control of any party or body ( as Eric Pickels wisely conceeded in his brief talk ). This will continue to give blogging a form of deep long term influence. English Nationalism is perhaps the best example of this. An issue rejected by all the main parties, but a key issue for many of their bloggers.

As the general election warms up bloggers will be engaging with the issues and each other via any means possible. But the key is likely to be the wider interaction on social media - Mum's net type sites etc and the wider population starts tacking an interest for just three weeks. ( Remember how Labour tries to control the local press by getting its party members to try and write "floating voter" letters. The scope for this sort of influence has now vastly increased and we can expect the propaganda war to be relentless. )

The key moment for the blogs themselves will be after the election as the battle for ideas and the soul of the parties ( combined with perhaps two leadership elections ) gets going.

Michael White refused entry

Highlight of the evening.

Sent from my HTC

Glories past and inevitable financial decline

I'm sitting in the science museum right now. Normally I would be feeling pangs of nostalgia for past British glories, especially in the space section with its model of Black Arrow.

But today its time to feel sorry for the Americans as they start down the same road with Obama cancelling their plans to return to the moon.

Not that he's made the wrong decision. The future does lie with better innovation. But I fear this is the first step in the US having to face up to the financial reality that they are broke. There will be far more pain to come, and our share of it is over due also.

But we can both over come our disastrous financial states. ( The US is at least staging a recovery, the UK is still cursed by Brown's canutist govt. ) We have little to fear and much to gain if we face up to the world as it is, and stop living in Labour's fantasy narrative.

This was the lesson of the eighties, taught to us by Mrs Thatcher. It's a great shame it has to be re-learnt.

Sent from my HTC

Is Brown AV plan to buy support from the Lib Dems unconstitutional ?

I just wonder if this Parliament can bind the next with a referendum to take place after the current parliament ends ?

If I remember correctly there is a constitutional convention that no Parliament may bind another.

Or do I have this wrong ?

Alternative votes will lead to alternative parties and unintended consequences

The only truth we can be sure of is there is nothing Gordon Brown won't do to try to hold onto power.

Attempting to convert Labour to a form of PR just as your 13 years in power is coming to an end will be seen as just the sort of unprincipled opportunism or even cheating that Labour have become synonymous with.

But all the political parties have something to worry about here.

Each party is an alliance of interests who are willing to make compromises for power ( or in the Lib Dem case for getting a few people on the public pay role ).

AV will allow someone to vote for, say a religious party, safe in the knowledge they aren't "wasting their vote" as there second preference will be just as valid and valuable as another person's first. It will allow groups to make their presence felt. Political parties will be able to note where the religious parties votes go - which will vastly improve the negotiating strength of that group. There are plenty of other groups this applies to.

An unintended consequence will be that smaller political parties will become "more popular" - even if they don't win seats. ( And of course the pressure will come to allocate them seats in the style in Scotland and Wales ).

It will be possible to run more than one candidate from the same party in the same ward. Or two parties which are close, but disagree one one point of policy perhaps.

Some of the existing political parties will become unstable. Each of the three main parties could split - perhaps ironically the Liob Dems are the most likely as they are a hopeless compromise between Blairite Social Democrats and Nick Clegg's Tory-Lites.

It could be good for democracy, so whilst I condemn Labour for their usual breath taking cynicism, I don't rule out the idea.

The voters need more influence over the political establishment - which is liberal and over all centre right - when the votes are really conservative and centre right.

Not quite the realignment Brown has in mind though ...

Equality and repression

The Pope has entered the debate on Labour's plans for a secular legally enforced religion with prosecution and imprisonment for those who commit heresy against the wisdom of Labour/ the BBC/ the Guardian. ( This is spun, just as blatantly, by the militant secularists who will tolerate no dissent on Equality legislation. )

I'm afraid from a UK point of you he's a bit late - before the vote in the house of Lords would have been better- but better late than never.

But will the Catholic Church recommend anyone-but-Labour for the general election ? Given Labour's enthusiasm for murdering unborn children who are viable human beings you would have thought that this line would already have been crossed.

Sadly as an Anglican, the Church of England's Bishops are almost invisible on this issue of the freedom of religion.

Anyway, a few corrections from what I've heard on the radio this morning.

The Church isn't worried about employing gays or anyone else. It is worried about appointing people who openly proclaim its teachings are wrong to positions of pastoral or doctrinal authority or whom represent the church. The Church better than many other knows that all have sinned and carry on doing so - its those who say this state doesn't matter or exist that worries it.

Now there are those who argue that the current Equality legislation doesn't force this. I heard a member of the hard line British Humanist association talking about just janitors etc. However, since he has no basis for being honest and fears no judgement I go with the advice of of Christian lawyers who warn it does.

What's happening here is the establishment of an arbitrary humanist morality backed by the terror of the state. Its the opposite of what those who have an open mind or a faith should want to see.

Arguments will be made in terms of rights of services etc but some of those people making those arguments have other agendas.

The bottom line is that any Christian or Muslim should think very long and hard before voting Labour.

Labour has become a rabidly anti-Christian organisation whose actions lead to the repression of Christians and needs to be recognised as such.