An independent line

It certainly felt good to see David and Sam Cameron enter Downing street. I'm a Conservative party member who campaigned for a Conservative government, and whilst this isn't precisely what I campaigned for it contains many of the key elements.

During the campaign I've mostly targeted my comments at other parties and avoided any issues I might have with my own, except for the English Question.

Well here comes the but - normal service will be resumed shortly.

I'm still a Conservative, but I'm not a slavish follower and we're not under election conditions so I'll be speaking my mind here.

I'm economically liberal, but socially conservative. I'm patriotic but pragmatic. I willing to give the benefit of the doubt but not to be taken for a ride. Lets see how the coalition works out, I won't hold back from criticism where I think its warranted.

Two major areas of disagreement I expect to have with the new government are on;

1) An English Parliament - its very clear we should have one. I also think this would make our country stable again and save the Union. A lot of Unionist seem to oppose giving the English their national recognition, but they are making a fatal mistake.
2) The Climate Change Fallacy - Sorry guys I am very far from being convinced that the Warmest argument is true, indeed the majority of reliable evidence (known as the geological record) points the other way.

These are the two main points but there will be others.

We are setting of into the unknown with the coalition - but independence of thought and opinion will continue here, though I'll not be unnecessarily unhelpful - apart from this ;-) .

PS I've a lot of work to make up after the last month, so forgive me if blogging is a bit more sparse. In many ways the next month or two will belong to Labour bloggers anyway as they try to react to their defeat and need for a new leader ( hint - this time try having an election ).

Europe - part 2

So the news is just in, Vaclav Claus has signed the EU constitution and the conspirators of the European Union have pulled of the greatest anti-democratic coup since Hitler had the Reichestag burnt down.

We have been cynically sold out by Labour who lied on their election manifesto and have insulted peoples intelligence with the weasel words on the Lisbon Treaty being something different. And let us never forget this treachery and the traitors ( specifically Miliband and Brown who sold England out for their own personal reasons ).

Those who voted Lib Dem have been betrayed as Nick Clegg found a formula that allowed him to do what he wanted to do anyway, just without his party telling people they would do it in 2005.

So finally its time to see David Cameron's hand. ( And lets pause for a moment to consider what our democracy has come to when the views of any political leader count more than the principles of their party or the manifestos they stood on. Are we really a functioning democracy at all ? )

The hints and leaks are that David Cameron will announce that there will be no referendum on the Lisbon Treaty but that there will be a manifesto commitment to repatriate some powers.


So what to think and what to do ?


I've mentioned in comments elsewhere that in my nightmares Peter Hitchens is right and the current Conservative party and especially its leader are not really Conservatives at all. What's coming up is one of those litmus tests of this concern.

But I'm not quite ready to let it dominate my waking hours yet, although I have to acknowledge the possibility it may be the case.

Like many Conservatives the thought of sending the party card in cut up pieces back to CCHQ has crossed my mind today - and I know from conversations that I'm not the only one.

But there is a fundamental calculation that has to be made. Does the next election matter more than starting down the long road to a greater change in our political system by embracing a minor party that is Eurosceptic, knowing that in the short term this will just help Gordon Brown and if we do too much of that then there will be no long term UK future.

Such a course of action is a project in terms of decades, during which time we will be vacating political ground to the left ( unless AV PR comes in ).

Add to that the utter desperation of the current financial status of our country and the accelerating attempts to put the jack boot of authoritarian socialism on the country's wind pipe by the likes of Brown, Balls & Mandelson ( and the stiletto of Harman ) and its time to start thinking of getting your ducks in a row.

I would therefore suggest the appropriate plan of action for those not committed to the surrender of their country to a foreign power or its economic destruction and enslavement by socialism is as follows:

1) Defeat Labour at the next election, and if necessary pipe down to ensure it happens.
2) Hold Cameron and Hague's feet to the fire of ensuring the UK's survival as a sovereign state over the next 5 years.
3) Rebellion and insurrection as necessary if 2 fails, but only after 1 has been dealt with.

David Cameron is announcing the new line at 4pm tomorrow today. I guess he didn't want to have it played over in PMQs. David Cameron has turned our party around as a political force ( though perhaps Michael Howard started the process ), and has delivered on the EPP - the the fury of the Euro Imperialists - so all hope is not lost.

And if hope fails - then will come rebellion.

How Scotland's media is driving 'inevitable' seperation

I have lived in Scotland for a number of years, in Lossiemouth -as a boy, and more recently Edinburgh and Aberdeen, I travel there once or twice a year to visit my wife's family and I have one key observation on the slow relentless drive to break the Union from North of the Border. It is this:

Separation has been significantly driven by the Scottish media.

In an almost a fit of jealousy the Scots papers resented the key news occurring down south in Westminster. Add to that the ugly current of anglophobia that runs through a vocal minority of Scots society and you have the motivation and means to drive separation. After all how much easier it would be for these journalists if they had their own government to report on - allowing them to succeeded in their own careers and be as self important as they think they should be.

Hence the drive for devolution had the volatile fuel of Scots media self interest to ignite.

It is almost a 180 degree reversal of the New Labour project where a political elite has driven and bullied the media, to a case where the media has dragged unthinking politicians (except the SNP who know full well what they are doing - and are in that sense have a far higher degree of integrity ). Lets face it its now clear Labour had no idea what they were doing with devolution or even in many cases why they wanted it.

This week's visit to Scotland certainly did not disappoint on this score with the newspapers.

Take for example The Glasgow Herald.

Their report of the Crewe and Nantwich bye-election was limited to a corner on David Cameron saying New Labour is dead.
Get to the centre pages and the vitriol starts, see this article by Ian Bell - "Is the drift playing into Nationalist hands?".
First note the sympathetic photo of Gordon Brown, but the up nose shot of David Cameron - the hint is he's a snooty Englishman.

How is the result at Crewe and Nantwich described ? Answer - as "English". Even suggesting that the Liberals (who weren't standing at the election - the Lib Dems were ) couldn't draw "the poison".

"The boy Dave "( no idea David Miliband was there) is how Mr Bell describes Cameron. Surely he knows we call him "call me Dave" when we're having a go ?

The Conservatives are described as an English Party (if only that was the case - or at least the Conservative party had an English section as it does Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish ), and the big news is that the SNP under Alex Salmond stand to benefit from a future English dominated Conservative Government ( hampered by not having such great political figures as Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown - no less ) will make Alex's job of getting his divorce much easier. Its implied the Scots hate the English Tories - just see the article title which assumes the failure of Labour will lead to the end of the Union, as Scotland can't have any part in a centre right government.

See this quote from the article by Mr Bell (catch the reader comments also):

"It suits him, too, that there are no Scottish complications, if you like, within Team Cameron. This is, beyond argument, an English Tory party charting a route to power. There is no Brown, or Browne, or Darling, or Alexander to distract voters from the contrast between "Scotland's party" and those whom the good people of England now appear to favour."
... ..

When talk turns to saving the Union, nevertheless, could someone ask a basic question: from whom?

David Cameron talks of sacrificing the English on the alter of Unionism (not that the Scots give him any credit for that - a fact he should clearly understand). He should first check if it can conceivably to do any good, given the media make up north of the boarder. He should also insist, if it isn't already done, on getting some of his own research done in Scotland separate from the Scottish Conservative party. Finally he should read The Herald, regularly.

Its going to take more than a reheated devolution settlement with some weird committee structure to cheat the English to stop the drifting apart of the Union. The dynamics of the central belt based Scottish media need to be taken into account and countered. ( Alex Salmond knows how this plays which is why he's so keen to break off the Scottish arm of the BBC ).

Update: See the campaign to get a Scottish Six O'Clock news as reported by Alan Cochrane. If this happens then the effect I have described will intensify in magnitude. It is far more significant that offering a vote on independence, as it helps ensure that such a vote will be won sometime int he future.