Don't hate, Harriet...appreciate!

Mad Hattie Harpie's big speech is tomorrow. She probably wants to cut my cock off...and every other man in the country's too. Still, I'm not going down without a fight! But rather than post the same old 'Worm that Turned' youtube clips I thought I'd do something that'd really get her goat. So here goes :-

Shoot me now!

This is one hour of my life I can't get back. Click on it at your peril.

Quite liked the idea of putting all the slutty young girls who can't keep their legs shuts in one place...it makes them easier for me to find, Ding Dong!

A river in Egypt? De nial!

Paxo doesn't seem in the mood for Labour's shit today, but still they keep shovelling it.

And Gordon's going to agree to the debates. Might have been good for him if he'd agreed a month ago.

Possible name changing conundrum

Uncle Bob had a job interview today and was subsequently offered said job which I readily agreed to. Now the problem is do I change the name of my blog? Decisions, decisions...

It isn't particularly well paid but it's better than sitting on your arse watching the labour conference. And with this new found employment it got me thinking...the one good thing I remember from the Libdem farce last week was when Saint Cable of Tango, Crashfinder pursuivant, suggested raising the persona tax allowance to £10,000. What I wouldn't give for George O to take it on board. How would he pay for it? Abolish tax credits (I am dreading the myriad of paperwork and chasing I'm going to have to do for this!) and raise the basic rate by a couple of pennies. It is the best idea Cable's had in a long while.

Getting a bit repetitive isn't it?

All I'm hearing in this turd of a conference is 'tories=evil, savage tory cuts, etc.' How's about you talk about what you are about Labour?

If you're finding it a bit dull here is something to perk you up a bit.



Update

Conference bingo update! Our troops are best equipped (?)....Barack Obama (The One!!!)...HOUSE!

And so it begins....

Christ, the rumours were true...it is half empty in Brighton. This is going to be hilarious to watch. Pass the popcorn!

PS. I've already marked four off in conference bingo...comrades, do nothing, Maggie Thatcher and tory cuts, eyes down for a full house!

UPDATE

Peter Hain has started the smearing.

UPDATE II

I've been watching for a few hours now and boy, it's dull. And as I said before, this conference is all about Cameron and the Tories. Labour and Brown are barely getting a mention.

To quote his former boss...Weak! Weak! Weak!

Did anybody else get up to watch the Andrew Marr show and his interview with Gordon Brown? I'm not going to mince my words, what a load of old horse-shit!

How do you solve a problem like the BNP?

This post is little more than linkwhoring to this excellent post over at Coffeehouse by Fraser Nelson.

It explains a lot of the reasons why the mainstream parties are experiencing such difficulties dealing with Griffin and his party and the best ways to take them on. Certainly I think the left have been the biggest cause of the problem, shouting them down and screaming 'racist, racist!' has not been a successful tactic and has only led to their own natural supporters becoming disillusioned and switching to BNP. He also points out that for all the press coverage and handwringing by mainstream politicians they haven't been very succesful because deep down, Britain's the most comfortable multi-cultural country there is.

The issues that are causing people to vote for the BNP now isn't racism but immigration (and before anyone bitches it isn't the same thing). But anytime a politician mentions immigration they are automatically accused of playing the race card (unless it's a labour politician, there's nowt like double standards!). Michael Heseltine was shouted down on Question Time for suggesting that the people waiting to cross Calais to get here were 'economic migrants'. It's plainly obvious that the vast majority of them are. If they were purely seeking asylum then they could have done it in France or one of the multitude of other EU countries on the way. No, they try to come here because we are a soft touch, with free housing and handouts more genorous than they will get anywhere else. To suggest otherwise is complete bollocks. And this is what is the grist to the BNP's mill.

Fraser also queried who would be a good person to take Griffin to task on Question Time. I'd suggest the tory invite goes to John Redwood. He's a very straight talking politician who would deal with the immigration issue without trying to fudge it...and he would completely destroy the feasibility of any of the BNP's other so-called policies which are further to the left than Dennis Skinner (Expect maybe the EU, it's probably the only thing he'd agree with them on...though I'm sure his argument would be far more coherent.).

And so the funeral begins

Yes folks, the labour conference is to commence this weekend and the stench of death is thick in the air, of course Mandelson, Campbell et al will be doing their utmost to engineer talk of a 'Brown Triumph' in the media when 'He delivers the speech of his life'...again. Charlie 'Walrus' Clarke will be bound and gagged until conference end and all other dissenters will be forcibly ejected from the venue by government stormtroopers...again. Brown will probably announce his decision to agree to a leader debate but Cameron, yet again proving he's 10 steps ahead of Brown has already nullified this moment by calling Brown out on it again this moment. If he declines he's a coward, if he accepts it's because Cameron has dragged him to the debating chamber kicking and screaming. Dithering, a double edged sword. Of course he could always surprise everyone and call an election. But that would require an act of courage, though he should at least know what the word means having written books on the topic.

Charlie says 'Do one, nonce!'

Hat-tip to HenryNorthLondon for this. I love viral videos!

Question Time

'You are a politician, you are supposed to have an opinion!'

Get in, Tarzan! Digby Jones seems to be on good form as well.

UPDATE

Well, maybe Heseltine peaked a little early. Thought Nelson Fraser was strong in his usual understated way and thought Libdem David Laws came across well. You could tell Mad Hattie was working hard to restrain her inner harpie.

Poor little Jimmy G Brown

We've all had it...that moment when the one you love the most decides you're a complete loser and gives you the spanish archer. It starts with a big argument (libyagate), then you end it in acrimonious phonecall that gets out amongst your acquaintances (Even though you pretend the conversation was 'warm and amicable') and then they choose to snub you when you are at the same social event with friends when you try to go for a reconciliation (Though, people usually take the hint the first time. 5 attempts is almost the work of a stalker!). Desperation is a stinky cologne.

How said for wee Jimmy Brown...'The One (tm)' has forsaken him and is probably playing footsie with the French midget and 'Bristols' Merkel. And now the british press are having a field day, laughing at the smelly kid on the back of the bus that no-one wants to play with. 'Walrus' Clarke, the big hairy bully is waiting to beat him up and steal his pocket money when he gets back to school as well. What is a boy to do? He almost wishes he could quit and never go back....hmm, now there's an idea. Unfortunately Headmaster Mandleson has written him a speech he has to deliver in assembly in front of all the other remedial students first, it's a tough life.

Maybe I'm missing something

Can someone explain to me how Baroness Scotland is still in her job as Attorney general. She is guilty of employing an illegal immigrant. She broke the law, she cannot plead ignorance as this is a law that she implemented yet still she hangs on with no concept of honourably resigning due to what was an avoidable mistake and Gordon Brown won't sack her. This is another sign of his terminal weakness. It has also been suggested that he's reluctant to give her the axe as she's a woman from an ethnic minority. So let me get this straight....if she was a white man it'd be fine to give her the heave ho? The misogynistic, racist bastards. I can't wait for the Labour conference, I can smell the stench of death on them already.

Arrrgh! My neck!

So here it goes.

* 'Labour investment vs Tory cuts'
* 'Lansley just admitted it....'
* 'Mr 10%'
* 'Public spending will increase....because it's the right thing to do.'
* '0% Growth'

All fine and dandy, so I take it Labour are not cutting spending, you wouldn't lie to us, would you Gordon? But wait, just a couple of days ago...

* 'We will have to make some difficult decisions'
* 'Wise spending, not big spending...and we won't enjoy doing it, unlike those baby-eating Tories!'
* 'Alright, I'll bloody say it, we'll have to cut. We don't want to. I watched that credit crunch documentary on the BBC last night and it's all Thatcher's fault really'
* 'Alastair Darling will discuss with Cabinet colleagues on what proposed cuts can be made so that all of them have blood on their hands...'

Screeech! Jesus, they've slammed the brakes on and gone into reverse so quicly I've got whiplash!

'We're doing it so that the Tories will then come under pressure to set out their own plans.'

So it's just more Labour games, bloody typical.

WTF? Scientology?

I let GoogleAds run on the site in the vain hope that one day I'd have enough visitors to make some cash out of it (I'm up to about 90p at the moment!) but tonight I spotted the weirdest thing. Why on earth is scientology.org advertising on here? What about my posts made those fruitloops think it was a good idea when I and my readers tend to be independantly minded people with a healthy libertarian slant? I can't see them brainwashing too many of my readership into handing over vast quantities of their own money so that we can get more Thetans in our systems or whatever shit they believe (Don't they know there's a bloody recession on?). Besides, if I can avoid Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism (Nice guys, but I'm never going to become a vegetarian and orange just isn't my colour!), etc. what makes them think I'm going to buy into L. Ron Hubbard's fraudulent theological pyramid scheme? They'll probably send one of their little drones here to bleat about me disparaging them but they forget one thing...I'm a rightwing welsh blogger. I have to put up with drivel from Labour and Plaid every day, a bunch of aliens is a walk in the park compared to those frauds! And I think I've a bit more mental togetherness than this guy :-

What are the beeb doing?

So tonight's big story on Newsnight isn't the leaked Treasury document, it isn't the social justice report from IDS, it wasn't even another quarter of appalling unemployment figures...no, it was a waste dumping story in the Ivory Coast. No wonder people are bypassing the BBC for their news and relying on blogs. And newsflash BBC...most of us are probably just as biased as you but from the other end of the spectrum, why not meet in the middle and be the impartial news source you apparently used to be (though in my 30 years I struggle to recall a time when you didn't have a leftwing agenda.).

UPDATE

At least they have actually mentioned the unemployment figures. The communication workers union boss is a slimy shit. Let him strike if he wants too, privatise by the Royal Mail. And as for Jim Knight, he's in cloud cuckoo land. And why no Tory or Liberal to counter his bullshit? The unemployed man on there outdebated the pair of them, hopefully he get's a job soon.

And now they're turning the Treasury leak on the Tories because they won't write an emergency budget 8 months before the GE. Name any politician who would ever do that?

Nice to watch Fraser Nelson catch Brown hook, line and sinker again though.

It's been a while,,,Downfall!

Last night in a comment on Denverstrope (Click on the blog limk on the right) I said that Attack video's would be rubbish unless they were as good as the Downfall parodies. Well thanks to Gordon Clown commenting on Old Holborn's page, I've found the best one of all from 2008's Glasgow East election...enjoy!

The new prince of Darkness?

"Ow mush! Who are you calling posh?"


The big political story today (other than another round of depressing unemployment figures) is the leaked Treasury document released by George Osborne showing 9.3% cuts in government spending planned up until 2013/14. He's sat on that document for five months (His patience is admirable) and could have released the document at any time but waited...and waited...and waited. waited until the argument over spending cuts was comprehensively won by himself and his party and then he dropped this statistical hand grenade, showing that the Treasury was planning these cuts all along, that Brown not only lied to the press, but comprehensively lied repeatedly to the House of Commons during PMQ's. Now, it's not a shock to anyone that Brown was lying, we all knew that anyway but to have the smoking revolver here ratchets up the pressure on a prime minister that is already seriously ailing after the worst year of his political career and one day after Brown relaunch no. 354. It is a piece of political skill that Machiavelli would be proud of...and yes, I do consider that to be complimentary.

Why have I just dubbed him the new Prince of Darkness? Well he has quietly and effectively gone about systematically setting traps for Labour to fall into. Mandleson himself had recognised the political savvy and instincts of Osborne a year ago and that's why he tried to bury him over that holiday in Corfu. It was the master and the apprentice sparring to see who would be topdog. Mandelson outmanouvered him then (with the aid of a supine media) but wasn't able to kill him off, the younger man staggered away and tended to his political wounds. But has waited and bided his time. That's the last victory Mandelson won, since then he has been reduced to propping up the most unpopular prime minister the country has seen and the press are no longer prepared to do his bidding. Meanwhile Osborne has been flying under the radar largely just popping out from time to time testing his lure and waiting for Brown & Co to bite. And boy, have they bit.

Mission accomplished, Osborne will never be the most popular member of a Cameron government with the public, he knows it and accepts it, his job is to give Cameron the bullets to win the political war, but he will be influential, as influential as Brown was to Blair, but unlike that ill-matched duo, Cameron and Osborne are swimming in the same direction.

And Brown? well, he's on his last legs, the ref should jump in and stop it...one more solid hook will politically finish him for good.

Sorry for all the allegory, have had to rewrite this post twice as it almost came across a bit 'Sion Simon' (regular readers of political betting will know of what I am referring to!) and no, Osborne hasn't been paying me to write this. Though if you do somehow get to read this George, you can find the donate button down the page on the right hand side, all donations gratefully recieved!

Treasury Budget Leak

A thank you from your host

In the last couple of days, the number of people following my blog has nearly doubled. I'd like to thank the newcomers for joining the most jiving, happening blog since Guess Her Muff (Thanks for the tip, Rab! ;) ) and my older followers for sticking through my inane nonsense. But most of all, I'd like to thank The Paedofinder General...and this cheeky bottle of wine I've just polished off in Keith Floyd's honour. Onwards and upwards my flock!

Man promises to tell the truth...then doesn't

It had been hyped up so much...'Gordon's finally going to tell the truth'...'he's going to say the 'C' word, etc. What a bloody letdown.


He basically pulled his pants down, bent over and gave the TUC permission to cornhole him like he was a drunken prostitute (Well, the speech was in Albert Dock so maybe that had something to do with it). Not for Gordon to say 'Sorry folks....I fucked up and now I'm going to fix it. No, far easier to be 'Gordon Brown : Saviour of the World (tm)'.

I'll do a simple fisk of Brown's speech.

*I've saved the world once I'll do it again!
*We took action that might (Fucking MIGHT?) save 500,000 jobs
*The Tories would do nothing
*Tory Cuts, Labour investment
*Because it's the right thing to do
*I'm going to spend a fuckload of money adding another 21,000 public sector apprentices
*And I'm going to put it in the statute books so it will be law
One issue with this is that first he has to get it through both houses of parliament before the general election, that clearly isn't going to happen as his party lost the appetite for a fight ages ago. Secondly, it'll be repealed once Cameron takes the reins, so a futile and expensive gesture which won't actually go anywhere

Thanks for that Gordon, now fuck off. Sheerman get your arse in gear, a desperate nation needs you. Brown in place may be good for the size of the Tory majority but the nation's interests come first. Another labour leader may not be quite as damaging.

Paxo's back!

Was it the threat of Nick Robinson taking over? Whatever it is, Paxman's got his mojo back over the last two weeks. He's actually being thorough with his questioning rather than just being irrascible from the outset.

He was thorough on all his interviews tonight and did quell the flow of bullshit coming from Bradshaw and Dobson. Thought Lamont came out well (Not being biased, despite his reputation from his time as chancellor he is actually a very good economic thinker) and put his points across in a reasoned way unlike the spurious dribbling of a rabid Frank Dobson who seemed like he'd swallowed a handle of uppers in the green room before the start of the programme.

PS. I love what that mayor of Doncaster is doing. No messing, saving the public's dosh and getting shot of Union pork-barrel positions.

Oh and someone explain to me in layman terms how cutting the public sector is damaging to the economy? Surely the only figure that really matters is growth or contraction in the private sector as that's what generates our wealth and pays the public purse anyway.

Where will this ISA madness end?

Here's where :-





Get rid of this stupid law now!

A man for all seasons

There are times when I just love being a Manchester United Fan, I'm also proud to be a Welshman and on some glorious days, I am able to combine the two. What's all this drivel in aid of, you may ask? (You may not even care! TOugh tits, I'm telling you anyway!) It's about a man...but not just any man, a remarkable athlete, a fantastic role-model and professional. The most successful footballer in the history of Britain and an all-round niceguy and family man to boot. I am of course referring to Ryan Giggs, footballer and record-breaker extraordinaire.



Why have I chosen to laud him today? What more could he have achieved after such a glittering career? He has made the most appearances for a United player (811), won more league titles than any other player (12) and until today was the only player who had scored in every season since the inception of the Premier league in 1992/93 (He also scored in the 2 seasons preceeding it too). A record of longevity at the very top that is only bettered by the great Paolo Maldini of Milan and Italy.

Well today, he just extended one of those records when he scored in yet another premier league season. And it was also his 149th goal as well so the 150 will be his next milestone to reach. Giggsy, I salute you! And lets hope there is a couple more seasons of memories for you to provide us.

Tim Montgomerie (Yes he of ConHome) also runs a United blog, Mustbered and is currently running a petition to get Ryan knighted. If you haven't signed this, then please do so. To my knowledge no player has been made a Sir whilst still playing, if any player ever deserved to break that, than it would be him. Personally, I'd make the man a Lord. Wouldn't that sound good being read out by an announcer...'No.11 Lord Giggs of Salford & Ely', let's make it happen!

CORRECTION

Ryan has only won 11 league titles...we'll have to wait a few more months for his 12th! And have just seen his goal on MOTD. It was a peach!

Back to the future

Hat-tip to Dazed & Confused for finding this youtube clip. I'm a euro-sceptic but not a ranting better-off-outer usually. But when I watched this video I found it hard to disagree with the points being made. The people of the EU are by and large sleepwalking into this future disaster, hoodwinked by the politicians who profess to look after their interests.

Thatcher and the right faced down and ultimately won against the Soviet Union. The task facing Cameron and the right of centre politicians of today will be more difficult. They have to stop the insidious enemy within that seeks to turn nations in europe into the political rquivalents of the likes of Arkansas, but without the pesky checks and balances of democracy. Mind you, I think I could handle being an oligarch, with my yacht, football club, money grabbing nymphomaniac wife, etc.

Here's to the next 30

I've just read this article on the BBC website about the party held to honour Frank Field's 30th year in Parliament. It was attended by friends and admirers from all sides of the house, most notably Lady Thatcher and present Home Secretary Alan Johnson. That one man could be popular with two people from such opposite ends of the political spectrum says all about the qualities of the man. A maverick who's never been afraid to speak his mind and is a beacon in the house of commons for all new MP's to aspire to. That he has been treated so shabbily by the Labour party during their time in office has been a travesty. I suppose the one advantage of them denying him the speakers role which he would have excelled at with effortless neutrality is that will not stop him speaking his mind on the issues that matter to him in parliament. He is the most non-partisan member in the entire commons chamber and when he does get up to speak, it would do other members good to listen. That his time as a minister was cut short is a shame. He was asked by Tony Blair to 'think the unthinkable' on welfare reform. Well, he thought it and then honestly spoke his mind...and Brown, Harman and the labour left crucified him for it. Still, when Labour is reduced to a rump at the next election it is nice to know that Field will still likely be there, except less likely to be drowned out by the present rows of mediocrity and he will still be a man worth listening too. Here's to the next 30 years Frank.

Why no comment?

I've just had the misfortune of browsing a labour blog called Aneurin Glyndwr. I'm not going to link to it as I wouldn't encourage people to read that crap but I'll just give you the gist of it, the biggest pile of regurgitated Labour shit since Prezza's last motion. But the real problem I've got with it is not the rubbish that's being blogged, it's the fact that he doesn't allow comments.

Now, if you want to write rubbish, it's your choice....hell, sometimes it's my choice too. But to turn off comments szo that people can't take you to task is just cowardly. If anybody does know this blogger tell him (or her) to grow a pair and allow comments so that someone can challenge his spin and smears. No wonder the valleys are starting to desert Labour with people like this fighting for them.

Good Economy debate on Newsnight

When I say good debate I am of course referring to Paxman, Hammond and Cable. Why did Liam Byrne bother showing up, like his incompetent master he has proved incapable of answering a question. What a chump.

At least Hammond and Cable were prepared to say what areas they would look at and cut. Byrne spouted some rubbish about waiting to announce things to parliament first which will be a novel innovation for this government as it's usually The Guardian, The Mirror and the BBC before parliament. He doesn't realise that the debate over cuts was won nearly a year ago, the public knows and accepts cuts must be made. The Tories won the argument, the liberals followed the prevailing wind but Labour have turned up late to the party, drunk and incoherent and are about to be ejected for groping someone else's mum.

I'd say that Hammond put on a slightly better performance than the grand sage Cable, bu that may be my bias. Nevertheless, a very strong performance from the man doomed to be the most unpopular member of the next tory administration for having to do the necessary and think the unthinkable.

UPDATE

Fraser Nelson and Andrew Rawnsley were even better than the politicians. Nelson has mentioned this 20% cuts plan alledgedly being drawn up by the Civil service. It'll be interesting to find out if this is the case. With cuts of that scale, it'll definitely be structured so that no essentuial and backline services get chopped first. This could be useful as no-one wants to see frontline staff get it in the neck while their layabout managers continue to collect their inflated wages and pension packages.

He gets it...do any other MPs?

Hat-tip to Ben Brogan at the Daily Telegraph for bringing this to my attention. I missed David Cameron's speech buth through Brogan and Conservativehome I've been able to get the details of what he said. Hopefully Conhome will get a link to the full video of the speech up soon. (I've seen some brief clips on the bbc's site, including an excellent gag at the libdem's expense).

What Cameron has done is outlined how the conservatives plan to reduce the burden of politics to the taxpayer by weilding the spending axe in the house of commons. Here's a list of the pledges that I've taken from Conhome :-

* Ministerial salaries will be cut by an immediate five percent, but on top of that, those salaries will be frozen for the lifetime of the next Parliament - "That means a further pay cut when inflation is taken into account and a saving of over a quarter of a million pounds a year for the taxpayer".
* Taxpayers’ cash will no longer subsidise politicians' food and drink, with the cost of food and drink in Parliament "being increased to match the prices normal people pay in cafes, restaurants and bars around the country". That will, he said, save £5.5 million.
* The budget for official government cars will be cut by a third. He said: "There are times when having a car to hand which gets a minister to a certain place on time is absolutely vital to our democratic process – for example, to make a vote in the House of Commons, or to meet a foreign dignitary or open a school. But there is no need for 171 of these cars to be on hand for every government minister, whip – and indeed, myself."
* Public sector bodies will be stopped from hiring consultants to lobby politicians, to save £10 million a year.
* He also demanded that the Electoral Commission must be run more efficiently, saying it had overreached its role "with advertising campaigns and wasteful marketing initiatives" and that under the proposed quango review, "we will identify all the unnecessary functions it has assumed and see what savings we can make for the taxpayer".
* A Conservative Government would also demand that the Parliamentary authorities must cut costs by ten per cent, banking the taxpayer £50 million.


Now this would save millions, which may seem like small-fry compared to our £200 billion plus deficit but it's a start and if he takes this approach with other avenues of public sector spending, those billions will rapidly add up. And to make a start on that he also pledged :-

* each and every quango having to justify its existence
* every item of government spending over £25,000 to be published online
* all public sector salaries over £150,000 to be published online
* opposing new MPs getting a final salary pension scheme
* getting rid of the £10,000 yearly ‘Communications Allowance’ that every MP gets
* abolishing Regional Assemblies
* scrapping the Standards Board for England
* reducing the number of MPs by 10%


Now the savings made by slashing the quangocracy alone will make a healthy dent in public sector expenditure and will also make ministers have more responsibility on their own shoulders. It is an excellent statement of intent, but also puts some meat on the bones of what he actually would do in power. If Labour had any sense they would attempt to get these suggestions implemented over the next parliament and I'm sure Cameron would welcome that.

But what this has demonstrated most for me is that Cameron gets it, he understands what has gone wrong with Westminster and in the public sector at large. And he's also shown he's got the gumption to sort it out. He's not going to be poular with quangocrats and public sector empire builders but he'll sort out the mess. He may not be the neo-thatcherite many on the right of his party craves, but he is someone who sees a problem for what it is and is prepared to go to the heart of the problem and solve it without too much bullshit...and of that Lady T would most certainly approve.

Make up your minds

Ed Balls. He does like to talk bollocks doesn't he. He's now claimed 'None of us wanted to see Al-Megrahi released. Completely contradicting Brown and Miliband who had 'no desire to see Al-Megrahi die in prison'. Who's telling the truth...any of them? All Blinky has done is keep the story stoked for another few news cycles.

New Labour, the survival instinct of Lemmings! Oh No!

Dead Man Walking

Jesus, Brown's speech was dull. After the first five minutes I was losing the will to live. It had everything, jaw-dropping, tractor stats (134% increase in helicopter flying hours isn't a lot when you consider the amount of flying hours was fuck all to begin with! We've blown up two of our 'copters just recently, that's going to help isn't it?), pig-headedness, etc. And he's stuck around for questions, astounding!

Will these labour plotters pull their fingers out of their arses and get shot of this putrid man?

Help cut Iain Dale down to size...literally!

Iain Dale has decide to go on a sponsored slim and lose two stones in weight for the excellent charity HELP FOR HEROES. He is attempting to raise £2,500 but I hope he can go way beyond that. Now to help Iain along everyone should give him encouragement and keep him motivated. To all you political bloggers and readers of blogs, if you see Iain at any of the party conferences coming up yand he's trying to sneak a creambun, danish, choccies, etc. Do him a favour and give him a slap on the chops and tell him to man up and be strong!

Click HERE to donate and please be as generous as you can.

Farage vs Bercow

So Nigel Farage has decided to run against Speaker of the house John 'Smeagol' Bercow in his buckingham constituency. This could prove to be the most interesting seat in the entire general election. The three main parties are extremely unlikely to put up a candidate against the speaker, giving UKIP a free run at this. The poison dwarf has a majority of 18000 and this is strong blue territory, plus the office of speaker would usually favour the incumbant but this could become a lot more interesting. Until he was elected Speaker, Bercow had no profile to speak of, he was known in his constituency but that was about it. Farage, on the other hand, has a very large media profile. He's outspoken and gets acres of press considering UKIP's relatively low national standing (Euro elections excluded). The tories in the constituency will be all to aware of Farage, some may have been tempted to vote UKIP anyway, they are in a stronger position than in 2005. Other's may have shared UKIP's views on europe but preferred to stay within the Tory camp. With Bercow's election to speaker this quandry will have dissipated. Bercow has sided up to the Labour party for years and underwent a damascene conversion from being being the dryest of the dry to the wettest Tory in the party, it was even rumoured that he had contemplated crossing the floor (Pressed on by his labour supporting wife, though I can sympathise; if I was nose to tit with my beloved I'd probably be making stupid decisions at her beckoning too but sadly Uncle Bob has yet to find the 7 foot Valkyrie required for such a task!), this has reportedly angered many conservative members in his local assosociation and with the tories not running there is nothing to stop them giving nudge nudge, wink wink support to Farage. He also used this relationship with Labour to get himself the Speaker's chair. He was also as much a trougher as anyone and Farage is bound to bring up expenses and an anti-politician line. The media will big up Farage as it'll generate them headlines and don't forget, as Leader of UKIP he will be a presence on the BBC and Sky anyway, but this will get ramped up even before as he may possibly pull off the biggest election night story of all. Apparently you can get 4/1 at the bookies on him. He isn't certain of overhauling the dwarf but I think the result will be mighty close as UKIP throws a lot of it's resources at this (and don't forget, Bercow can't totally rely on Tory help any more).


It'll certainly be one to watch

Best placed to handle the recession

What a wheeze, that Brown is a card isn't he. Turns out we aren't best placed at all and for the last decade he's turned our economy to rat-shit! You want proof? From the Times.

"

Fears that Britain is emerging more slowly from recession than other economies were stoked yesterday with figures showing that UK factory output dropped last month.

The figures came as similar data for the United States, China and France pointed to an expansion in manufacturing activity in those countries, while Germany’s factories were also highlighted as being in recovery mode.

Figures published by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) revealed that UK manufacturing activity, which had been expanding during the previous five months, contracted in August.

The CIPS/Markit survey of purchasing managers in manufacturing — where a reading above 50 indicates expansion and below 50 indicates contraction — fell from 50.8 in July to 49.7 in August. The July figures were revised downwards to 50.2.
Combined with disappointing lending data from the Bank of England, the surprisingly weak figures helped to send the FTSE 100 index down 89.20 points to 4,819.70. On currency markets, sterling was down against the dollar, with the pound trading later in the session at a six-week low of $1.6137.

Economists focused on the gloomy aspects of the survey, including confirmation that manufacturers were continuing to cut jobs. Colin Ellis, at Daiwa Securities, said: “These numbers are a reminder that the economy is nowhere near out of the woods yet.”

Elsewhere, hopes that the global economy is emerging from the worst recession since the Second World War were given new impetus with strong manufacturing data from both the US and China.

America’s factories have returned to growth for the first time in more than 18 months, while China’s giant manufacturing sector is growing at its fastest rate since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the start of the global financial crisis a year ago.

French factories reported their first expansion in activity since May last year. German manufacturers also reported an improvement.

The figures from the US were seen as the most dramatic. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported a reading of 52.9 for its manufacturing index in August, the first since January last year to exceed 50. The ISM said that new orders, new export orders and production had all risen.

Agreed US home sales, which have now risen for a record six consecutive months, rose in July to their highest level in two years.

But suspicions that the figures had already been priced into the market sent Wall Street sharply lower. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 185.68 at 9,310.60 and the S&P 500 finished down 22.58 at 998.04.

In Shanghai, shares rose after Monday’s rout, as figures pointing to further expansion in Chinese manufacturing helped to calm nerves."

Thanks Gordon.

General Election Debate

Never mind Al-Megrahi, Brown and Milibands position et al. The news that has lit up the blogosphere to day has been this :-



You can sign the petition in support of it HERE.

Sky have formally invited the leaders of our three main political parties to a debate in the run up to the general election.

David Cameron, who realistically would have the most to lose in a debate agreed to take part immediately, but anyone who's seen footage of a CameronDirect event on the net knows why, his ability to answer questions and debate whilst engaging with his audience is currently without equal.

Nick Clegg will almost certainly agree too, he needs the exposure that such a debate would bring as it legitimises him as a choice come election time.

All that leaves is Gordon Brown, that man of courage and deep conscience. He really should agree, his party is in a desperate position, Mandleson already tried to commit him to it in July. But, then again, he does like to shy away from such things. Only this time Sky have said that any of the leaders who refuse to participate will be empty-chaired (I doubt they would take the HIGNFY 'Roy Hattersley/Tub o'lard' line even though it would be amusing). With that, it is almost certainly forcing Brown's hand.

If Macavity does bottle it again, perhaps they could put a picture of him in his place. Something like this would do :-



UPDATE

Cleggy's on board. Just waiting on Macavity now.

UPDATE II

Saw an excellent suggestion on Politicalbetting.com from Andrew G about also having some smaller debates on specific policy debates with Ministers and their prospective replacements.

Imagine debates like:-

Economy Osborne vs. Darling vs. Cable
Foreign Policy Hague vs. Miliband vs. Ed Davey
Education Gove vs. Balls vs. Laws
Health Lansley vs. Burnham vs. Lamb
Defence Fox vs. Ainsworth vs. Harvey

Sky might not want to give up so much time for these but there's nothing to stop the BBC running a series of Newsnight or QuestionTime specials, is there? It would be good for the public and at least people would know what people would stand for. People may moan this would exclude other parties but since these are the only three with any hope of forming a government it's just tough tits to everyone else.

Bullshit detector

I'm very good at reading people and am rarely wrong. I've just seen Bill Rammell on the 10 O'clock news and his sweaty, blinking performance has got my spidey sense tingling. I call bullshit and think this story is going to grow and grow.

Stat porn....lite

I can't really be bothered to do Statporn, in fact I've only been measuring traffic to this blog since the 12th of August and my traffic is still meagre, though growing all the time thanks to you good people.

Since starting monitoring I've had 88 unique individuals (Ha! In your face, Iain and Guido!) view the site and I now have 7 wise, learned and noble individuals following the site. My ego is sufficiently sated and I shall commence ramping up the posts once conference season starts. Keep the faith my flock!