Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. Lets hope it's a good one for us and an interesting one to blog about.

Faltering Lib Dems

Christmas 2006 has not been a good one for the Liberal Democrats. This week they have scored 15% and 14% in the polls, which when entered into Electoral Calculus gives the Lib Dems just 6 seats.

Added to this is the defection of three Lib Dem PPCs at the 2005 General Election to the Conservatives.

These show the Lib Dems need to act if they are to even hold their seats at a General Election, let alone make any gains.

Now I don’t believe they will be reduced to as little as 6 seats, but the question has to be asked of the leadership and the direction the Lib Dems are heading. It has been well publicised that they are planning for a snap election to be called, yet Campbell just doesn’t seem up to the challenge.

I think the Lib Dems made a mistake when they elected Campbell as their leader, as at a time when Labour and the Conservatives have relatively young leaders in Blair (soon to be Brown) and Cameron, the Lib Dems went the other way and chose an older leader. For me, Campbell just doesn’t fit in with this age of politics. To win votes the leader of a party needs charisma and to come across well on TV. Campbell just doesn’t have this which is being reflected in the polls and through the defections that have occurred.

So could Campbell serve a shorter term as leader of the Lib Dems than Duncan Smith did as leader of the Conservatives. This would require Campbell going before May 2008 (Duncan Smith served two years, two months). Of course this would depend on any General Election and its result occurring during this period. But let’s take it there is no General Election as was the case with Duncan Smith. I can’t see the party ousting Campbell within this time, even if things look bad for any upcoming General Election. There’s two reasons for this. The first being the level of support Campbell has from fellow Lib Dem MPs. After the way Kennedy was removed, it would take someone very brave to try and remove Campbell in the same way. The other reason is that the Lib Dem MPs would have to admit they got it wrong backing Campbell as their leader. As we know, it takes a lot for MPs to admit they were wrong.

So for the Lib Dems the new year does look bleak. It will take something for Campbell to turn his party around for the election that could be not far away. I just don’t think he can do it.

No solution, other than more money!

The Government has come up with a new solution for tackling anti-social behaviour. It’s going to through money at problem areas.

You would of thought that after the lack of improvement in education and the NHS, which the Government has thrown money at, it would of realised money isn’t the solution to everything.

Obviously it appears not. Local councils are bidding to become one of the forty new “respect areas”. The name itself tells you this is nothing more than another New Labour gimmick. What does a respect area mean? If you go to one you’re likely to receive no respect, perhaps?

Well I suppose it will be easy to recognise where not to go, by its “respect area” status!

New "cash for" enquiry?

It seems Labour is trying its best to ensure the Conservatives are brought under the “cash for” light of sleaze.

Several Conservative MPs, including Shadow Cabinet members, have been reported to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards over their use of House of Commons dining rooms by two Labour MPs.

The rules state that dining rooms cannot be used for "direct financial or material gain" by parties, sponsors, or any person or group.

Whether Conservative MPs have been breaking the rules or not will be for any inquiry by the Parliamentary Commissioner to decide. It will be interesting of course to find out if any similar activities have been undertaken by Labour MPs.

I very much doubt hiring out dining rooms raises as much cash as selling peerages though.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope it's a good one for you all.

Too Tory for Jowell

Tess Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sports has vetoed both of the candidates for Chairman of English Heritage.

The nominations were Lord Marland, the Tory party Treasurer, and Lady Cobham, the partner of the former Conservative Cabinet minister David Mellor. Both of these were nominated by an independent body.

The reason giving for not appointing either of the candidates? “Neither quite demonstrated the full range of criteria for the post.” Errrr so how did they get past the nomination process then, to be the final two? Surely if that was the case, they would have been eliminated early on?

This comes after five Labour supporters were appointed to the BLF. Obviously the chairman of English Heritage can’t be appointed until a Labour supporter is one of the final two.

More scaremongering

Sir Ian Blair has joined the Government in attempting to raise our fears of a terrorist attack over the Christmas period. He has said the UK is facing an increasing threat of a terrorist attack.

This comes just weeks after Home Secretary John Reid said a similar thing. My guess is this is being said so that were something to happen, those responsible for preventing it, can say we told you! Some reassurance.

Sir Blair has said there was “no specific intelligence” of a new attack but there was an “ever present” chance. This whole line from the Government and the Met really is getting quite boring now. The scaremongering tactic this Government has adopted to try and justify its legislation really drops to the lowest level.

Treasury errors make it difficult for the BoE

Well, after all Gordon Brown’s ranting about how successful a Chancellor he has been and how well he has run the Treasury, it turns out the Treasury has been making it very difficult for the Bank of England.

The BoE is responsible for setting interest rates which help to keep inflation under control. It’s my belief that it is the good job the BoE has done, that has lead to much of the success and stability of the economy over the past 9 years.

But a report out today says the Treasury’s over rated forecasts for economic growth have not helped the BoE do its job. The Treasury’s response to this, "fiscal and economic forecasting is complex". I’m sure it took the most intelligent people in the Treasury to come up with that!

As the BoE has done such a good job with interest rates, prehaps forecasting should be devolved to them as well.

No. 10 Perverting the course of justice?

An article in Today’s Times suggests the CPS is pushing for No. 10 to be investigated for perverting the course of justice.

The most interesting part states,

“it does not matter whether or not the act results in a perversion of the course of justice: the offence is committed when acts tending and intended to pervert a course of justice are done”.

I just hope the article is true.

The state of New Labour

New Labour appears to be in an absolute mess at this current moment in time. One I will be very surprised if they ever fully recover from.

To start off it now appears that evidence exists which contradicts Blair’s defence in the Cash for Peerages investigation. The Independent on Sunday is reporting that the nomination papers show donors were nominated for public service, not for their work for the Labour Party, as Blair claimed in his interview.

Added to this is the report in the Sunday Telegraph which suggests Blair is refusing to support Lord Levy. Essentially this means Blair is trying to put all of the blame onto Lord Levy in the hope Blair can exonerate himself. This could all get very messy if Lord Levy refuses to play along.

To finish off is the report in the Mail on Sunday which claims to of received a leaked memo which spells out that “Labour has no chance of winning the next Election because voters think the Government is a shambles”.

It makes very grim reading for Labour but especially Gordon Brown, as it claims No. 10 considered bypassing him in favour of a younger candidate. This suggests No. 10 are behind the leaking of the memo. Iain Dale believes Philip Gould is the one who wrote it.

Of course No. 10 has denied all knowledge, in true New Labour form.

Although we don’t need a memo to work out what a shambles the Government is in.

The point of democracy?

It seems to me that “democracy in the Middle East” is somewhat pointless.

When the West calls for “democracy in the Middle East”, what they actually mean is “the party we want in power”.

Take for example Palestine. The West had been calling on Palestine to hold democratic elections to form a Government for years, which they did in January this year. The fact that Hamas was elected (which took the West by surprise) was a kick in the teeth for the West and frankly created a problem.

On the one hand they had to defend the democratic process whilst on the other condemning the result it had produced.

So what do you do when left with a problem like this. Well you do your best to destabilise the regime which has been elected. First, cut off aid to the Palestinians, leaving them with a financial crisis. Then blame the regime for everything that happens in the region, such as the Hezbollah attacks on Israel. After that ensure the regime destroys itself through fighting with its opposition party Fatah, which is led by the President of Palestine. Finally you get the Palestinian President to call for new elections in the hope the result you want is produced, a Fatah Government.

The Palestinian President has called for new elections in the hope it will solve the current tensions between Fatah and Hamas in Palestine, which is close to civil war. Of course the idea of early elections is bitterly contested by Hamas, which has never been allowed to operate its mandate it won last January.

Now Hamas’ refusal to recognise Israel is a problem to future peace in the Middle East. But I’ve purposefully ignored how to gain peace and just focused on the democratic side. By penalising the result of the January election is a clear undermining of the democratic process and refusal to recognise the wish of the Palestinian people who did the voting.

It just shows the West isn’t keen on true democracy, as when it happens, everything is done to change it.

Why we love the Inland Revenue!

Of course I am being sarcastic in the headline!

Apart from the fact they take our hard earned money, it is for reasons like this that the Inland Revenue (now called Customs and Revenue) is hated so much.

The Revenue has sent out millions of letters to people saying they have a gap in their tax payments that will affect their pensions. They are asked to pay £371 to correct this.

The problem is an unknown amount of these letters have been sent out in error! Of course this is being blamed on a glitch in the system.

You just got to love the Revenue!

The effects of alcohol

You would need to be very drunk to sleep through a train going past your head!

New limits on Freedom Of Information

What a surprise that the Government was to limit the number of Freedom Of Information requests.

The Government currently answers all requests which cost less than £600. Currently this does not include officials time, yet reforms being considered by the Government would include officials time. This is bound to lead to a huge reduction in the number of Freedom Of Information requests which are answered.

Therefore a large amount of information which should be disclosed will continue to be hidden. The Government will be pleased as a number of requests have led to information being released which is embarrassing to the Government.

It’s quite amusing how much legislation this Government has itself introduced has turned out to be a nuisance to itself. The Freedom Of Information Act, The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act, The Human Rights Act, I could go on…

How was Blair not questioned under caution?

Well, Tony Blair has finally been questioned in the Cash for Honours investigation, but only as a witness, not under caution. This means he is not considered a suspect!

I really fail to see how he cannot be classified as a suspect. Even if it was others who were offering the peerages in exchange for donations to the Labour Party, Blair has to make the nominations. Therefore Blair must be implicated? Is it really possible that others can tell Blair who to nominate and he doesn’t ask why?

We may never know how the Met reached the decision not to caution Blair, could they have lost their bottle?

It is hardly surprising that having let Blair chose when the interview took place, it happened on what must have been one of the busiest news days of the year.

Adam Bolton has a very good analysis of the Blair questioning on his blog.

UPDATE: The BBC is reporting that “notes” suggest Lord Levy offered Sir Christopher Evans “a K or a big P” in exchange for a donation. I wonder who leaked that information? Trying to shift the investigation away from Blair I wonder?

Report suggests limit on Labour funding lifeline

Sir Hayden Phillips who is in charge of a review into party funding, is suggesting £50’000 limits on political party donations, including those from Trade Unions.

This is sure to be of huge concern to the Labour Party, who currently receive around £10.5 million a year from Trade Unions.

Of course the Government would have to endorse the proposals and put them into law, something I think they will be more than reluctant to do.

What is more likely to happen is that public funding of political parties should be introduced. We already know Labour are keen on this idea. So expect a donation tax to be introduced and the caps on Trade Unions to be ignored.

UPDATE: The BBC is now reporting Labour MP John McDonnell opposition to the idea. What a surprise considering he is a left-wing Labour MP. I'm not so sure about his belief Tony Blair supports the idea. Such is the concern over the suggestion that the Labour National Executive has called an emergency meeting for tomorrow.

Lib Dems build for the Olympics!

Liberal Democrat MP, Sandra Gidley, has labelled school sports days as an humiliation of those less able at sports.

Iain Dale is reporting the story that is in the Daily Echo.

It’s all well and good saying school sports days humiliate and put kids off of sport for life. But it’s also the way we find those who excel at sports.

She said: "I would ask that we try to get away from competitive sport in schools and think about increasing exercise and activity.

"Personal improvement initiatives are much more positive and inspiring for children than those in which their performance is compared with that of others."

This is ridiculous. If the competitive nature of sport is taken out of schools, how are we ever going to find our top sportspersons. Saying they should be replaced with “personal improvement initiatives” like “skipping, dance and games” is not going to help.

This is hardly a supportive gesture to make when the Olympics are 6 years away and we need to find and bring through the system are best sportspersons if we our to avoid total humiliation as a country in London 2012.

The failure of "education, education, education".

Remember the pledge on education Tony Blair made in 1997? “Education, education, education” were three words Tony Blair promised would be central to his new Labour Government.

But nine and a half years on what has the Labour Government really achieved on this three word pledge?

The answer makes very disappointing reading. 1.24 million people between the age of 15 and 24 are not in education, work or training. This is a 15% rise on the figures of 1997 when Labour came to power. In fact this is now such a big group that the Government has an acronym for them. NEETs: Not in Education, Employment or Training.

These figures come despite the billions of pounds Labour has poured into education over the years and into other programmes such as the New Deal. Clearly they have fallen far short of the success that has been made out. Yet again further proof that just throwing money at problems doesn’t solve them.

Carbon "credit cards!"

Environment Secretary, David Miliband has announced he is looking into the possibility of introducing carbon “credit cards”.

I can see so many holes in this idea, there’s just too many to list.

Each person would be given an annual allowance which things like travel, energy and food would count against. Therefore each item, bill and travel ticket would need labelling with its carbon credit level. This alone is a massive task.

Then there’s the actual system for implementing it. Will it tie in with the current chip and pin system or will need hardware need to be installed at checkouts.

Never mind the fact that people will have to remember to take their cards with them wherever they go.

Just as well a feasibility study has said many questions need to be answered. I wonder how much the study cost? I could of told them that for a competitive fee.

The Government and terrorism

It’s interesting that on Sunday John Reid continues Labour’s campaign of fear by stating a terrorist attack over the Christmas period is “highly likely” with around 30 plots in motion at any one time.

Then today Reid announces two terror suspects who went missing two and four months ago are still on the run.

No doubt we will hear next that 90 days detention without trial would solve all this.

Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out that one of the two in the second report isn’t responsible for what is claimed could happen in the first.

Amusing petitions

The 10 Downing Street website has a section where you can create a petition to put to the Prime Minister.

Whether any of the petitions will ever be acted upon is a matter for discussion another time, but the website does have some amusing petitions.

I’ve listed the ones I’ve noticed:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to…

Resign immediately

Replace the national anthem with 'Gold' by Spandau Ballet

Force all ramblers/walkers to wave a red flag when walking on a "public road"

Stand on his head and juggle ice-cream

Change the electoral process to include a binding "None of the above, re-open nominations" on every ballot paper

Ignore the petition to repeal the hunting act 2004

Release a Christmas single

Stop Being So Politically Correct & Use Some Common Sense

Scrap all quangos and see if anyone notices

Let Mrs Pritchard run the country

How to make sure you can't be wrong

The Government seems to of learnt at least one lesson from its past mistakes.

Instead of trying to predict how many migrants from EU countries will come to the UK, just don’t make any prediction at all.

The Government’s answer to ensure they don’t get it totally wrong again.

Unemployment to break 1 million

One thing Gordon Brown 'forgot' to mention that is contained within his Pre-Budget Report is the fact it shows unemployment will break the all significant 1 million marker next year.

The figure is contained in the Key Assumptions part of the Report.

Vince Cable Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor asked Gordon Brown to confirm the figure in the report. Brown’s reply, the Government doesn’t predict unemployment rates.

So that’s the reason why its labeled as an “assumption” then.

Perhaps the Treasury calls it an assumption because a prediction is more of an estimate whereas an assumption is “something taken for granted.”

Brown delivers his (last) Pre-Budget Report

So Gordon Brown has delivered his Pre-Budget Report. Not on the whole very exciting really.

There was the usual boosting about the UK’s continuing growth which will this year be 2.75%, above the Treasury’s prediction and Brown said the government's policies were responsible for low inflation, growing exports and increased investment. Although what Brown forgets to mention here, is the important role the Bank of England plays with its control over interest rates, which are central to the stability of the economy and controlling inflation.

In the Pre-Budget Report The Chancellor introduced an inflation increase on fuel duty of 1.25p per litre and announced a doubling of air passenger duty to £10.

Of course Brown will play that he has introduced these rises to help fight climate change. I’m more inclined to think that the hole created by the £2 billion short full in North Sea Oil Revenues needs plugging and this will do the job nicely.

Here are a selection of responses I have found on the Pre-Budget Report:

"With this PBR, like the nine PBRs before it, Britain is moving further from the direction we need to go. Today the chancellor had no new answers. He promised to change a gear, but all we got was more of the same." George Osborne – Conservative Shadow Chancellor

“The Chancellor’s legacy is one of high personal debt and massive spending commitments. Household debt has grown to a very dangerous level. British household debts are without precedent. Given that the next Chancellor will inherit a set of massively expensive commitments – the continuing war in Iraq, ID cars and now Trident – can he guarantee that in meeting these commitments he will not cut essential services, such as pensions, hospitals and policing?” Vince Cable – Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor

"Gordon Brown has a long way to go to gain any real green credentials, and his pre-Budget report will not even start him on the right road. This is gesture politics at its worst: he is trying to outflank the Tories on sounding green. What is the point in raising a tax on airline seats when his support for airport expansion will ensure the biggest growth in the aviation sector for a generation?" Sian Berry – The Green Party Principal Speaker

"I would give him probably one out of 10, maybe two out of 10. I think it's pretty feeble really. He's got a terrible record. For 10 years he's failed to provide a green budget. We thought in the wake of the Stern Review, given the new science demonstrating how bad climate change is, he's got to take action. And he's failed to do so again." Ed Matthews - Friends of the Earth

“The increase in duty has nothing to do with reinforcing the UK’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. Extra taxes of this type enhance the government’s reputation of helping itself to cash from road users.” Simon Chapman – Freight Transport Association’s chief economist

“Air Passenger Duty is an extremely blunt instrument that provides the Treasury with extra funds for general public expenditure without any benefit to the environment whatsoever.” British Airways

"A successful economy depends on being able to move goods, services and people across the country. Increasing aviation and fuel taxes will not help small business to increase productivity." Federation of Small Business

Not a very popular report then!

After Lottery funding?

If you are after lottery funding, then what’s the best way of securing it?

Not many organisations will have the same advantage as the Labour Government now has.

The new board of the Big Lottery Fund now has five committed Labour supporters. The BLF board is responsible for distributing National Lottery money, around £630 million a year.

Remember how the Government was defeated by the Lords over the powers Minister’s had to influence how Lottery money was distributed. Seems the Government has found its way around that one!

I wonder, could the National Lottery bail out the Labour Party?

The return of back to basics!

David Cameron has said education should focus on the basic core subjects of English, maths, science, history and modern languages.

Remember the last time the Conservatives tried going “back to basics”. Although so far the focus has only been on the basics of education.

It would have to be quite a spectacular failure to be any worse than John Major’s attempt at back to basics though.

£100k a year for MPs?

The Times today is reporting that MPs have written to the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) calling for MPs salaries to be increased to similar levels with GPs and council chief executives.

This would put MPs salaries around the £100’000 a year mark. Is this plain greediness from MPs or a fair reward for the work they do?

We are just talking about backbench MPs here, who currently earn £60,277. MPs who have a position, such as Ministers and Shadow Ministers earn more depending on their position.

£60k to £100k is some increase, in fact it’s a 66% rise. The average wage increase at the moment is around 4.5%.

Any increase in MPs salaries is likely to be unpopular amongst the general public given the way politicians are currently viewed at the moment.

But are MPs underpaid? In my view £60k a year is on the low side and £100k too high for a backbencher. £75k seems a more reasonable salary.

Income tax cut?

An article in today’s People claims Gordon Brown will cut income tax by 2p when he becomes Prime Minister.

The article says Brown would reduce income tax within 12 months of becoming PM. It’s certainly a good platform to go into an election on and is sure to still the thunder away from the Conservatives and Lib Dems. To maximise the benefit of this an October 2007 General Election would be ideal.

The tax cut would be funded by putting an extra 1p on fuel and an extra £5 on air passenger tax. Sounds very much like the Lib Dems Green Tax Switch.

If this article is correct, the days of opposition parties attacking Brown as the big tax riser will be gone, as he will no doubt claim he is returning the benefits of those rises to the people.

Wednesday’s Pre-Budget report will be studied hard looking for clues as to Brown’s intentions.

Blair went into the 1997 election promising to freeze income tax levels. Brown may well go into the next election promising to reduce them!

What were they doing?

Police have spent six hours outside an empty house due to reports a man was being held hostage.

I have to wonder what they were doing for the six hours?

Does it really take that long to work out a house is empty?

Exactly what I said...

After my post yesterday, David Cameron has told the Daily Telegraph that his party has to "change to reflect changes to British society" or face another election defeat.

Exactly what I was saying.

Passport control?

It appears £250 is all you need if you want to get into the UK.

A BBC journalist for the BBC’s Panorama has managed to enter the UK twice on fake and stolen passports.

The first of which the reporter managed to get in London by responding to an advert in a Russian language newspaper.

Something like this can’t even be prevented by the introduction of new biometric passports. That will make it much more difficult for UK passports to be faked, but unless they are introduced in every country, nothing much will change.

People wanting to enter the UK illegally will get hold of a passport from another country and just stroll right in, it appears.

Panorama: My Fake Passports and Me will be broadcast on Monday, 4 December, 2006 at 2100 GMT on BBC One.

New is the old Old

New Labour has been branded old by First Minister Rhodri Morgan.

This is no surprise really as politics and the centre ground that New Labour was built on has shifted in the 12 years since New Labour’s creation in 1994.

First Minister Morgan has suggested that New Labour will die when Tony Blair leaves Downing Street. However this needs to happen for Labour to remain attractive to the voters. Political parties have to recognise and move with the mood of the electorate. Hence Cameron’s reinvention of the Conservatives.

Tony Blair was a master of this. Whether his successor, most likely Gordon Brown is as good, we will have to see.

Insane bank charges

The Consumer Action Group today protested outside the Office For Fair Trading, calling for them to investigate bank charges imposed on customers who go overdrawn without permission.

This is a campaign that I fully support and if you have incurred bank charges, claim them back using the step by step guide in the CAG forums. My best friend incurred £90 of charges for going as little overdrawn as 18p. Between the two of us and using the guide on the website, we managed to claim back £60 of them, so it does work.

There is no justification for these charges other than to make the banks extra money at the expense of the consumer. Ok so there needs to be some sort of deterrent to deter people from just going overdrawn, but the idea of charging someone for going overdrawn, which puts them further overdrawn makes no sense at all.

Having said that, had better go check the bank balances!

Bring on 1st July 2007

The Government has finally announced that smoking in enclosed public places will be banned from 1^st July 2007.

I can’t wait for this day to arrive. I’m a huge supporter of the smoking ban.

There’s nothing worse than being in a smoke filled room, breathing in and smelling of someone else’s smoke on a night out.

Difficult financial year

Labour has admitted it is facing "acute cash flow problems" due to the �23.4m it has received it loans. Despite major cost cutting and debt rescheduling it is still struggling to repay two of these loans.

A statement issued by the Labour Party said it wants a future where "political parties should live within their means".

It would appear it's a bit late for that now. No wonder we live in a debt ridden society when the party in Government can't even mange its own budget successfully. I dread to think what the Government's balances are really like, given they have billions to manage!

The solution I expect will be to introduce state funding for political parties. So Labour gets itself into levels of debt it can't manage, the public has to bail them out. Great!

ITV Coup

ITV appears to of pulled off a major coup this evening with the news that Michael Grade has resigned as BBC Chairman to join ITV.

What this means for the BBC we will see.

A less attraction business location?

A CBI survey has found that Britain’s complicated and high level business taxes are making Britain a less attractive location for business.

It found 50% of business either had or were thinking about moving abroad mainly due to the taxes.

The Treasury has hit back at the survey, denying that Britain is uncompetitive due to its taxes.

“The World Bank recently found that the typical UK business faces the lowest total tax rate in the G7, the fifth lowest in the OECD,” said a Treasury spokesperson.

Now there are two things about this:

The first being that it is hardly surprising the CBI has found Britain is uncompetitive due to its taxes. It does represent British business interests after all.

The second is that the Treasury denied Britain was uncompetitive due to its taxes. It does make a fair bit of money from its taxes on business.

So surely both can’t be right. Well the answer is yes they can.

The CBI survey consulted executives in 100 top firms. There could be no taxes at all, and these people are still likely to think there is too much tax.

The Treasury quotes, "The World Bank recently.” Well how recently. Does this take into account for example the level of corporation tax, which has gone from 10th best in the OECD in 2000 to 18th in 2005. Probably not.

It's all in the detail

Proof that statistics can be made to pretty much show whatever you wish...

2012 Olympics

When the announcement was made that Britain had won the 2012 Olympics I was one of those who believed it would be a good thing for Britain and bring many benefits.

However out of all the countries in the world, I can see one who will manage to completely mess it up. That of course is Britain.

Evidence of this is already coming to light with disagreements between Ministers and the Mayor of London over the cost.

This is 6 years before the event takes place and we even start to worry about building completion deadlines!

No sorry in the volcabulary

I'm really beginning to think that Tony Blair just doesn’t know how to say the word “sorry”.

He seems to manage everything other than, with the latest example being “deep sorrow” and “profoundly shameful”.

This time it is over Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. The fact we did very nicely out of it I’m sure plays no part in the Government’s resistance to say sorry.

"Only one way to fly"

I’ve just caught up with Thursday nights Question Time.

They are discussing the BA cross women who was told to take her necklace off that had a cross on it.

David Dimbleby has just asked Sarah Teather is she is “one of one hundred MPs going to boycott British Airways.”

Her reply, “No of course not, there is no other way to fly.”

Evidently she isn’t aware of any of these then. Although as a Lib Dem, surely she shouldn’t be flying at all!

Scraping the barrel

The Labour party’s association with sleaze has grown again today with allegations that it is using councillors allowances to pay off the party’s national debt.

It isn’t unusual for a percentage of councillors allowances to go back into the local party to help pay the running costs. In fact all three of the main political parties do it.

But changes made at Labour’s Autumn conference meant a percentage of councillors allowances had to be paid into central Labour group funds, which is being used to pay off the party's debt.

In the case of the Labour party it appears public funding of political parties is already taking place. Of course Labour are so in the red, they need to raise money any way they can, espiecially now selling of peerages has been ruled out!

"The tosser within"

The Conservatives have launched a new website aimed at fighting the urge that gets us into debt. They have decided to call it “The tosser within.”

I’m very surprised by the website, it isn’t what I would expect from a political party. I even think the website looks amateurish and very cheesy! At first I thought it was some kind of hoax, pretending to be the Conservatives.

But there’s no doubting the fact there is a problem with debt in this country especially amongst younger people which this site is obviously aimed at.

Therefore anything that get’s people thinking about their financial situation must be a good thing. I’ve been on the site, I’ve taken the test and looked around. The amount of debate it’s created is sure to get many others to visit the site as well, so perhaps it will help.

The joke of EU spending

Is it really surprising that people are naturally sceptical over the EU with news like this being released all the time.

The fact the EU has had its accounts rejected for 12 years in a row is hardly likely to make people trust the EU. Especially with the huge sums of money the EU has to play with.

Now the Government wants to try and boost our trust in EU spending by releasing figures of how much the EU spends in the UK. I’m not so sure this is a good idea. The UK is a net loser, in that we pay more to the EU than we get back. So releasing figures of what is spent is more likely to make people realise what the EU costs us.

Then again, I suppose Labour encouraging people to vote UKIP is better than them voting Conservative.

Tories plan to beat debt

The Conservatives today announced their plans to tackle Britain’s personal debt culture.

The 6 point plan they have outlined is:

1. Tackle financial illiteracy

2. "Cooling-off" period on store cards

3. Greater corporate responsibility

4. Clearer information on cost of debt

5. Look at advertising code for Individual Voluntary Agreements (IVAs)

6. More competition within "door-to-door" credit firms

On the whole I agree with the 6 points. For a long time I have been in favour of teaching about finances in School. The number of people who appear to not understand their personal finances is quite appalling considering how important they are.

No need for 90 days says Goldsmith

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith has said he is yet to be convinced that detention of terror suspects should be increased to 90 days.

He says he is yet to see any evidence to support the claim. This is interesting as the Government has always claimed there is plenty of evidence to back the need for 90 days. No doubt it will be harder for the Government to convince those to support 90 days when it comes to the vote. (The second one)

Not surprisingly the Government hasn’t commented on the Attorney General’s remarks.

Disaster in Iraq

Finally the Prime Minister has accepted the reality of what is happening in Iraq.

In an interview for the new English Al-Jazeera TV channel Sir David Frost asked the PM whether the violence in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster".

The PM replied "It has”.

Now to me that is an agreement with the question. Yet in true New Labour fashion the spin machines have gone to work. A spokeswoman has claimed, "He was simply acknowledging the question in a polite way before going on to explain his view. To portray it as some kind of admission is completely disingenuous."

I fail to see how answering the question, “It has” is an acknowledgment, not an agreement. It seems the Labour spin machine is running out of ideas!

Now let’s take up the PM’s explanation. He said, "It's not difficult because of some accident in planning. It's difficult because there's a deliberate strategy - al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militias on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

The fact we went to war because the Government ignored the majority opposed to the war of course is conveniently forgotten here.

It’s also quite obvious there is a lack of planning. Just taking what the PM has said. “It’s difficult because there’s a deliberate strategy.” So we failed to plan for the fact there would be any resistance then. Well done Mr Blair.

Should Brown be in Iraq?

Gordon Brown has turned up in Iraq today on a surprise visit to our troops in Basra.

But should he be there?

As Chancellor of the Exchequer there’s no reason within his brief to visit the country. Obviously it’s the job of the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary. Ok, so Brown has pledged £100m to help rebuild the Iraq Economy but that doesn’t require a visit to the country to do it.

But Brown isn’t there because he’s the Chancellor. He’s there because he is doing all he can to broaden his appeal out of the confines of his Treasury role to help his leadership bid.

So should the tax payer be paying for Brown’s leadership bid of the Labour Party. I think not!

Cash for Peerages investigation "significant" material

Scotland Yard's Assistant Commissioner John Yates has said in a letter to the Public Administration Select Committee the investigation had gained "significant and valuable material" after interviewing 90 people.

Guido has the letter on his blog.

Of course the big question is, what is meant by “significant and valuable material?”

Although it is clear from Yates’ letter that he is making progress and hasn’t experienced lots of dead end leads. So prosecutions could well be in the pipeline. Provided the CPS holds its nerve.

On another note, in the letter Yates says “I am confident security remains very tight” and that “the major developments are not in the public domain.” A nice dig at Labour and the defence it appears to be adopting.

Social Enterprise Action Plan

I like the sound of Gordon Brown’s Social Enterprise Action Plan.

Making £18m available for projects like Jamie Oliver's restaurant which is staffed by previously unemployed people sounds like a good idea.

Of course it will be good provided the money is made available and isn’t just rhetoric.

What do Tony Blair and Abu Hamza have in common?

The answer is the adopting a defence of being unable to receive a fair trial due to the negative influence the media is presenting.

According to the Telegraph and reported on both Iain Dale’s and Guido’s blogs is the suggestion that Downing Street is hiring lawyers to run the Abu Hamza defence.

Well Abu Hamza is in jail so I can’t see it being the strongest defence in the world.

It's ironice really, the once so useful media to the Blair spin machine, is now being accused of prejudging the trial. (We don't even know there will be one yet. Or does Blair know something we don't?)

What makes the scenario even more amusing is the Government accusing the Police of being the ones doing all the leaking which is feeding the media. Perhaps if the Government didn’t have such a bad reputation for leaking and spinning we might believe them. But as they don’t…

The fact it’s got to this stage clearly shows the Government is expecting a prosecution.

Blair and the Imperial March

Good post on Guido's blog quoting one of his conspirators.

I so hope it's true.

Blair building for his departure?

Very interesting post by Nick Robinson on his blog today.

He picks up on Tony Blair’s attacks on David Cameron branding him as a lightweight who will be defeated by a hard punching Labour heavyweight.

The fact Blair took the fight to Cameron and did a fairly good job of it, leads Robinson to speculate Blair could be building for an earlier departure than we think.

It is certainly the case that the only option Blair has left to go out on, is surprise. I still think he will be PM come Christmas, however he could be gone by March.

Haven't we heard it all before?

Why did I decide to watch the Queen’s Speech today? It was so boring.

It seemed to me that most of the bills presented in the speech were the same as previous years.

Bills will be introduced to tackle crime, security and anti-social behaviour. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Blair in 1997 say he was going to be, “Tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime?” Evidently he hasn’t made any progress on that promise then.

I totally agree with David Cameron when he says the speech is, "so repetitive and hollow people feel they have heard it all before.”

The Queen must have been nearly asleep reading it. Perhaps next year the Queen should rap it or something, try to make it a bit different.

How are extremists getting into the Country?

Easy, they have a guy in the Home Office.

So much for the Government dealing with the threat of terrorism. It sounds like they should start with their own departments.

Human Rights gone too far!

The announcement today that the Home Office is to pay prisoners compensation for them having to go cold turkey whilst in prison is totally the wrong signal to send out.

The claimants have claimed it is a breach of their human rights to be forced to go cold turkey!

Since when is being forced to obey the law a breach of human rights?

This clearly shows that human rights has gone too far. Added to this is the fact you’re not supposed to be able to profit from crime. These claimants seem to have done very nicely.

This could open the door to a whole wave of claims from any prisoner who’s lawyer suggests could make a claim. I await the adverts, “Have you been imprisoned in the last 5 years… You could be entitled to compensation…”

90 day battle to return

It seems that even when Parliament votes down a policy, it doesn’t make any difference as it will just be returned to Parliament a year later.

The Government appears to be preparing to draw up new plans for 90 day detentions without charge.

The very same proposal was rejected in Parliament last year, but that doesn’t seem to of stopped the Government.

The Government of course can chose what policies it wants to introduce, but would 90 day detentions get through Parliament having already been rejected?

A lot of evidence that they are needed would have to be presented, more so than last time. I can’t see that enough has changed since last year to of changed enough minds.

Even wife didn't vote for husband?

Lib Dem Voice has picked up on voting machines used in the US midterm elections, questioning their reliability after reporting zero votes for one candidate, despite him voting for himself.

The report on CNN says candidate Randy Wooten got the news from his wife who saw the results.

"She saw my name with zero votes by it. She came home and asked me if I had voted for myself or not. I told her I did," said Wooten.

Evidently then, even his wife didn’t vote for him!

It was the Tories!

Lord Levy, Tony Blair’s personal fundraiser has said he got the idea of secret loans from the Tories.

I suppose he thinks that makes it all alright then?

It seems someone needs to mention to Lord Levy that selling of peerages is what he’s been arrested and interviewed twice for.

As far as I understand it, secret loans isn’t actually illegal just outside the moral of the law. It’s the selling of the peerages that’s illegal. So no matter how much Lord Levy wants to blame the Tories, they can hardly be blamed for Labour selling peerages.

18 to leave school?

Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, is considering raising the school leaving age from 16 to 18.

I can’t decide where I stand on the idea. Whilst believing that it is important for everyone to get a good education, there is a reason why a number of people leave school at 16. If these people were forced to stay in school until 18, wouldn’t they bring down those who wanted to be there?

Raising the school age to 18 could therefore lower the overall level of education people achieve.

Surely the best way to achieve a good education for all would be to deal with the reasons why people don’t chose to stay in school. If these are addressed there would be no need to raise the school leaving age as people would chose to stay.

Beckett is still Foreign Secretary

Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary has spoken about Iraq, warning of the consequences of withdrawing to soon.

It may just be me, but this is the first time in a while I have seen any news reported regarding the Foreign Secretary. Surely we should be seeing more of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, considering the circumstances British soldiers find themselves in in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brown coronation a step closer

Gordon Brown’s coronation is step closer today with Alan Johnson’s announcement that he will not stand for the Labour leadership.

Therefore it is looking more and more likely that a credible candidate will not stand against Brown.

However Guido is reporting that rumours John Reid had done a deal with Gordon Brown are unfounded. So there is still a chance that Reid may put himself forward as a candidate.

Ministers to be interviewed

Five current Ministers have been sent letters requesting interviews as part of the cash for peerages investigation. Interview requests have been sent to every member of the Cabinet at the time of the 2005 General Election.

The investigation seems to be getting closer and closer to the Prime Minister. Surely it is only a matter of time.

Tory Councillor attacks Cameron and suggests violence

This is a copy of a letter sent to Bath's local paper The Chronicle.

It's from a Tory Councillor. I find the letter which suggests single mothers bring up kids who commit mayhem and even murder and “Thump a Thug” unbelievable to be publicly stated from an elected official.

It's good to know that David Cameron intends to come on strong with the criminal elements but I'm not sure that his 'Hug a Hoodie' and 'Love a Lout' will do much to win support from those vulnerable citizens who have fallen victim to out-of-control teenagers.Community service is a soft option and simply doesn't work and ASBOs are seen as badges of honour by thugs and are an expensive waste of time and resources.

We have the worst record in Europe for teenage crime and if politicians like David Cameron don't take the proverbial bull by the horns and really start to get tough with Britain's growing army of feral thugs the country will descend into total mayhem in a very short space of time.

My own ward - Lambridge - is beset with problems related to anti-social behaviour and intimidation resulting from the nefarious activities of feckless youths and not all of them from the local area.

Larkhall Square has now lost its public bench, dedictated to the memory of Jack Love, because yobs saw fit to destroy it. Why? What exactly was achieved by this act of mindless vandalism? Each time I suggest ways of reining in these thugs, I am castigated by the soft-option brigade and accused of being a martinet, or worse.

Sorry, but I come out on the side of respect, good manners and adherence to the law and wholly intolerant of what our society has become. If an undisciplined bunch of louts can find nothing better to do than destroy property and frighten the wits out of decent, law-abiding people, then clearly something needs to be done.

Soft options and kid-gloves have had no effect whatsoever and Britain is now over-run with vicious young thugs hell-bent on terrorising all and sundry and it has to stop - now.

If so many of these kids are into fast cars, go-peds and other souped-up motor vehicles, then let David Cameron instigate a scheme whereby their energies, if and when they are apprehended and hauled before the courts, are channelled into useful community work, like restoring vandalised cars, or helping to rebuild damaged walls, fences and bus shelters.

This kind of enforced activity would give them a sense of purpose and personal pride.

These kids aren't born bad, but frequently lack parental discipline in the form of a father figure, look to slovenly and oikish football 'stars' as role models, view an almost total lack of police presence on our streets as a 'go' sign to create mayhem - and sometimes murder - and end up as aimles drifters with drink and drug problems.

I can tell you now that I am tired of kow-towing to the do-gooders and refuse to yield to hoodies and other louts and know that so many others agree with me. But, what to do? Unless ordinary members of the public can actually win support from politicians, we might as well sell up and emigrate. Spare the rod and spoil the child.

Forget the latest 'Hug a Hoodie' and 'Love a Lout' themes, isn't it time to 'Thump a Thug', 'Belt a Burglar' and 'Lob a Yob'? Soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime - you bet!

CLLR BRYAN CHALKER

Quarry Rock Gardens

Claverton Down

Bath