David Davis, the Conservative Shadow Home Secretary today pledged that immagration would be "substantially lower" under a Conservative Government.
A risky pledge to make as it's not easily controlled and difficult to quantify. Therefore not easy to prove it has been met or is being achieved.
The designs have been released for public consultation of the proposed Olympic Village.
The landmark tower block looks like someone has started a game of Jenga!
In the South West we have Bath and North East Somerset which is a unitary authority and soon Wiltshite Councty Council will become a unitary authority.
Now the acronym for Bath is BANES and Wilshire County Council has just decided to drop the County part when it becomes a UA, given it the acronym WC.
So we've got the pains and the toilets for Councils.
Gordon Brown is "just getting on with the job." Ministers are staying on message and refusing to talk about it. No one will rule out an election. The prep work has all been done.
General Election shortly it is then.
Ming Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrats has called for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union instead of a referendum on the new EU treaty.
He argues,
"If there is to be a referendum it shouldn't be restricted to a comparatively minor treaty. It must be a decision about the EU as a whole”.
What complete nonsense. For starters the treaty Campbell refers to can hardly be described as minor. Minor would be legislation being passed by Europe, which is already under their remit. A new treaty involves a further loss of British sovereignty to Europe.
By holding a referendum on British membership you immediately limit the option for those who believe being in Europe from an economic viewpoint is a good thing. Those people would have to vote yes to allow that to continue, even if they believed further powers for Europe from a political stance is a bad thing.
There have been calls for a referendum on this treaty due to the further political powers it gives to Europe, not because of Britain’s membership of the EU. Therefore the only way a true opinion of the British people’s views on Europe’s increase in political power can be gained, is to hold a referendum solely on this treaty.
Tom Watson, one of the MPs behind the failed coup of Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister has been given a job by Gordon Brown in the whips office, which is responsible for ensuring Labour MPs toe the party line.
It seems Gordon Brown does have a sense of humour!
A number of rumours have been flying around recently regarding Gordon Brown making an announcement on Tuesday for a General Election. These rumours have been denied today by Douglas Alexander, Labour’s election coordinator.
Alexander has ruled out an election announcement in the next 6 days, but refused to rule out a General Election taking place in 2007.
This could of course be a continuation of the ‘wind up the Tories’ policy Labour is currently undertaking but I wouldn’t be surprised if a General Election is called within the next fortnight.
Watch this space as they say.....
Apparently the answer is three fire engines and a rescue boat. This is deemed to not be a waste of resources as there were "no more important calls at the time" a spokeswoman said. Had a more important call come in the fireman would have left the scene.
One of the fire engines made a 35 mile journey to attend the scene, so had a call come in, it would potentially be 35 miles away. It's all a matter of priorities the spokeswoman added. It appears ducks are very high up that priority list, judging by the amount of resources attributed to it.
Linda Jack, a Lib Dem party policy committee member has got it spot on when she says Ming Campbell has been “over promoted”. Ming was a good Foreign Affairs spokesman, probably one of the best in the Commons, but that hasn’t transferred when he became leader.
What’s interesting is Vince Cable’s response.
“Vincent Cable rejected the criticism and said the party was not in a "dissimilar" position to the position it had been in recent years.”
Well then clearly the party hasn’t moved forward in that time and Charles Kennedy the leader during that period is no longer the leader. It doesn’t really say much for Ming and his future.
David Cameron is aiming to fix Britain’s broken society which in reality is a very difficult thing for the Conservatives to do.
Following the divisive row over Grammar Schools the party went through recently it’s no wonder Cameron is looking to avert any further fallout with the Conservative right over the suggestion of local lotteries for school places.
Iain Duncan Smith’s social justice committee is due to report soon spelling out the use of local lotteries. However the Tory leader has had to block the idea due to potential fallout with parts of his party.
Cameron has to leave out some of the suggestions to fix Britain’s broken society in order to avoid leading the broken Conservatives.
Gordon Brown today has announced a number of constitutional reforms. However he has said his proposals are not a final blue print but a route map.
A route map to where? Well Brown will want to gain as much political capital out of them as possible. These reforms are designed to show Brown isn’t a centralist but willing to give power back, then there will be reviews so we can be told about it all again and finally it will be shelved, never to be heard about again.
The European commission is informally investigating the high definition DVD market as they are concerned movie studios committing to one format (HD-DVD or Blu-ray) is restricting competition.
Why should it matter if movie studios pick one format over the other? Surely the fact we have two rival formats competing with one another increases competition. Interfering with that will reduce it. Prices of Blu-ray players have already started to fall as they are so much more expensive than HD-DVD players.
Likewise if studios choose to only release movies on one format, that is their decision and they risk losing out by the number of movies they could have sold on both formats. They must of calculated that it is worth while choosing to release in only one format.
Let’s leave them to do battle until a winner (or dominate format) emerges. In the mean time, standard DVD will surfice, until the new format war drives down the price of HD.
Watching BBC3's coverage of Glastonbury at the moment, it's got in the corner BBC3 Live. Yet they are showing the Killer's who performed on Saturday night (it's currently Sunday). The fact it's dark on the show and light at the moment is a big give away, even if you didn't know the night of the performance. Glastonbury is in the GMT timezone after all!
Harriet Harman has won the Labour Deputy Leadership race, beating Alan Johnson by 50.4% to 49.6%.
The Deputy Leader doesn't make a big difference to the Government as it is a party role, but Harman's election victory will alow the Labour Party to present a man and a women when it comes to campaigning. Something that may help to gain those vital women's votes.
There’s a very simple reason why Gordon Brown’s so called “Government of all the talents” can’t have any members of the Liberal Democrats in it. Ming Campbell would not get a job. It would be a bit embarrassing for the Liberal Democrats if their MPs and Lords were offered jobs in roles more senior to their own leader. Tells the whole story about Ming as leader really.
So even had Lord Ashdown of wanted the Northern Ireland job, he couldn’t take it as it would undermine Ming.
The whole affair is a big mess. Brown now has to face the fact the Lib Dems have rejected his offer. (A sign for after the next General Election?) Whilst Ming has provided more ammunition to those who want him out. Would a Nick Clegg lead Lib Dems have given a different response? They certainly wouldn’t have had the same problem of what to do with their struggling leader.
Update: Have just started reading Dizzy's blog. He makes a very good point about Brown's offering of jobs. "The fact he's offering jobs out to so many people, and, being turned down, makes me wonder whether he is choosing people he knows will say no. He can then at least claim that he tried right?"
Quite clever if Dizzy's theory is correct.
Money well wasted I feel.
Update: It also seems that for the animated version on electronic displays, no one thought about the epileptic consequences.
A report by the US Defence Department has reported that China will spend between $85 and $125 billion on its defence in 2007, not the £45 billion the Chinese Government has officially reported. This, the report says, could indicate a shift in China’s military strategy away from a focus on Taiwan to a wider scope.
Of course what the report fails to do, is compare this figure to the US own spending. For the fiscal year starting in October 2007 George Bush has requested $484 billion to spend on defence, a figure which does not include military spending in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is nearly 4 times the $125 billion higher end figure the US estimates for China’s spending.
China has a population of 1,306,313,800 and the US of 299,114,218. Therefore China’s spending per head is $96.69 compared to the US $1618.11. That’s 16.7 times more per head the US spends on defence. I wonder which country we should really be worrying about?
The Independent today is reporting that the cash for honours enquiry is to be reopened. Despite the articles report suggesting that the Crown Prosecution Service is taking the case very “very seriously”, the fact they have asked the police to “find key pieces of evidence to strengthen the case”, suggests that the vast file of evidence presented to the CPS before was not substantial enough.
The police will no doubt continue with their investigations but are they really likely to find more evidence than they did first time round? Perhaps once Blair has stepped down as Prime Minister they can apply more pressure. But it would appear a prosecution is a long way off yet, if there will even be one.
I’ve just seen the voting figures from Friday’s Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill. Now remember this is a Conservative Private Members Bill, which usually don’t stand a chance unless the Government backs it, and it’s extremely rare for an Opposition Private Members Bill to be backed by the Government.
Yet, Brown refused to back opponents of the bill, the PM refused to comment and the official line of the Government was that it was “neutral.”
The Bill passed by 96 to 25, of which 78 Labour MPs and 16 Conservative MPs voted in favour. So this bill only went through because Labour backed a Conservative Bill. Not even enough Conservatives backed it to send it through!
There is an interesting post on Lib Dem Voice about the Lib Dems position over the Freedom of Information (Amendment) Bill that is well worth a read.
The post points out that despite repeated messages from Ming Campbell to oppose the bill, himself and a lot of his front bench failed to do so. Hardly the sign of a party that is supposedly committed to FoI.
Credit to David Heath (my own MP) for his role in trying to block this bill.
Alastair Darling appears to be admitting on The Politics Show that the DTI will be abolished. He’s refused to confirm that the DTI is needed.
A lot has been said about the lack of an idea of what Gordon Brown’s Labour Government would be like. Well on Friday a clear sign was given and it would appear not a lot is going to change.
Part of Brown’s leadership bid launch was “open” politics and restoring the trust of the electorate in politicians. Yet within the same week Brown has refused to support a bid to block a move by MPs not to be bound by Freedom of Information laws.
Brown could quite easily of used this to show he is committed to his open politics agenda. Unfortunately he has chosen not to do so, instead a spokesman in his defence said the chancellor has promised not to dictate to MPs.
Let’s wait and see how long it is after he is officially installed as PM before he starts dictating to MPs. If he’s not going to dictate, surely that means all votes will be free votes?
On previous occasions it has appeared the Police have their priorities in the wrong place but fining two 16 year old girls for drawing “hearts and rainbows” in chalk on a pavement, hardly seems worth police time.
The two girls have been fined for graffiti, yet this is with chalk that washes away in the rain. If it had been spray paint that costs time and money to remove, then fair enough, but that’s not the case here. Also, hearts and rainbows aren’t exactly offensive to anyone.
Come on Police, there are slightly more important crimes to pursue.
Update: Police have overturned the charges. I wonder if the press coverage the story got had anything to do with the decision.
There have been some gripes made towards the 15 soldiers who were held hostage in Iran selling their stories, but why shouldn’t they?
1’000’s of people every day make money from experiences in their careers other than their salary, so why should these soldiers (or any other for that matter) be any different. Politicians for example make a glamorous amount on the side.
So long as they don’t release any confidential information they should be allowed to make some extra money. Putting your life on the line for your country isn’t well paid, so there may as well be some perks with the job.
Every year there are a number of good April fool jokes, but TiSP from Google has to be one of the best.
It's worrying that looking at the posts made about it, there appears to be quite a few who fell for it and wanted to know how to sign up.
Appears to be a nice little dig at Tiscali though, as www.tisp.co.uk is for the Tiscali Network, which promotes Tiscali products. Now I'm sure Google aren't suggesting any direct link between Tiscali Broadband and flushing down toilets.
MPs have today voted to give themselves £10k on top of their current expenses to inform us more about what they and Parliament do via a website.
Quite why it costs £10k to set up and maintain a website that tells us what an MP is doing I don’t know.
Quite simply, all an MP needs to do is set up a blog that acts as an online diary. They can then tell us what they’ve been doing and why. Simple and best of all it’s free.
What an embarrassment for the BBC last night when Terry Wogan and Fearne Cotton announced different winners at the same time on last night’s Make Your Mind Up show.
It’s interesting the BBC has given no explanation to as to why the two presenters announced different winners.
This latest blunder comes of course on the back on the many phone-in scandals, which started with Richard and Judy and has led to ITV Play being axed all together. I wonder just how long viewers have been ripped off by these phone-ins as it seems odd that all of a sudden so many errors are being discovered. The explanation for this could be that it’s just being picked up. The best way to ensure you doesn’t get ripped off? Don’t phone in.
There’s been a campaign of radio adverts running for some time now promoting the tougher penalties for using handheld mobiles. The advert tries to get its message across by saying its “harder to concentrate on two things at the same time”. The two things being the driving and the talking.
This is kind of off message really as correct me if I’m wrong but you can still talk to someone whilst driving as long as it’s on a hands free system, hence still having to concentrate on two things at the same time.
Surely the campaign should focus on the fact it’s difficult to drive whilst using a handheld phone. You can’t change gear for example without taking your driving hand (if you’re holding the phone in your right hand) off the steering wheel.
Despite the tougher penalties and this campaign, the message doesn’t seem to be getting through. There are still plenty of people using their hand held mobiles. Surely a call isn’t that important it can’t wait until your able to pull over?
With the FA finally being handed the keys to the new Wembley Stadium this week, it led me to wonder, has construction in this country gone forwards or back in the 80 years since the original stadium was built.
The original stadium began construction in 1922 and opened on 23rd April 1923, taking only 300 days to build. The new stadium has taken 5 years to build, 7 if you include the delay to actually starting the construction.
In terms of cost, the original stadium cost £750’000 compared to £757 million pounds for the new one. Using Measuring Wealth to calculate the £750’000 in today’s money you get this:
£28,495,652.17 using the retail price index
£32,908,995.82 using the GDP deflator
£128,967,442.87 using average earnings
£159,930,757.94 using per capita GDP
£215,927,827.71 using the GDP
So in just over 80 years it now takes 5 times longer to build a stadium, and even using the most expensive measure GDP, the stadium cost £541 million pounds more than the original. In terms of time and cost then the construction industry certainly has gone backwards. Doesn’t bode well for the Olympics.
The Cash for Honours inquiry just got interesting.
Up till this point I had been rather sceptical of this inquiry going anywhere, but the announcement today of Ruth Turner sending an email to Jonathan Powell regarding Lord Levy suggests there is credible evidence to bring a prosecution.
Of course we don’t know what the contents of the email are, due to the injunction and it is quite likely that Ruth Turner would email Jonathan Powell, mentioning Lord Levy, but no standard routine email would lead to an injunction being sort by the Met Police to prevent the discloser of the email.
Could justice be done after all? Well there is still a long way to go, but this investigation is starting to look like it’s not a waste of time after all.
You scored 61 out of 100 on a scale of Theist vs Materialist. This means that politically you are more likely to believe that religion and spirituality are superstitions that should not inform political debate.
* 48% of test takers were more theist than you.
* 50% of test takers were more materialist than you.
Big Government vs Small Government
"The big government advocate believes that governments should be responsible for regulating a wide array of social practices, even what might be considered personal decisions such as abortion, euthanasia, children's education and births. A small government advocate thinks that, wherever possible, these issues should be up to individuals or companies to direct."
You scored 65 out of 100 on a scale of Big Government vs Small Government. This means that politically you are more likely to believe that government should keep out of legislating social policies, leaving such decisions to individuals.
* 66% of test takers were more big government than you.
* 32% of test takers were more small government than you.
Nationalist vs Internationalist
"The nationalist believes in the sovereign rule of nation states, particularly his or her own. The internationalist believes that there should be more important international fora and perhaps, ultimately, international government."
You scored 51 out of 100 on a scale of Nationalist vs Internationalist. This means that politically you are neither more nor less likely to favour international bodies over national ones.
* 31% of test takers were more nationalist than you.
* 68% of test takers were more internationalist than you.
Protectionist vs Free Trader
"The protectionist believes in barriers against free trade most probably due to a belief that this is in his or her country's interests. The free trader rejects such notions, believing that the system ultimately suffers when tariffs, subsidies and other obstacles to free trade persist."
You scored 65 out of 100 on a scale of Protectionist vs Free Trader. This means that politically you are more likely to favour free trade over protectionist policies.
* 67% of test takers were more protectionist than you.
* 32% of test takers were more pro free trade than you.
Absolutist vs Non-Absolutist
"The absolutist believes that either a divine presence or scientific laws provide absolute truths about the world, which can and should be applied in practise. The non-absolutist may be either a relativist, or simply someone who is more pragmatic."
You scored 74 out of 100 on a scale of Absolutist vs Non Absolutist. This means that politically you are less likely to believe that there is an absolute truth that may guide your ideological beliefs.
* 95% of test takers were more absolutist than you.
* 4% of test takers were more non-absolutist than you.
Controlled Market vs Liberal Market
"Both of these categories assume a capitalist system. Assuming this system, the controlled market believer holds that government should intervene in regulating a nation's economy: wage laws, environmental standards, privatised industries and workplace relations policy. A liberal market thinker believes that such regulation is unnecessary and often counter-productive."
You scored 59 out of 100 on a scale of Controlled Market vs Liberal Market. This means that politically you are neither more nor less likely to believe that there is need for government regulation of industry.
* 80% of test takers were more controlled market thinkers than you.
* 19% of test takers were more liberal market thinkers than you.
Marxist vs Non-Marxist
"This scale purports to show to what extent you follow the thought and teachings of Marx. Marxists tend to be scientific, materialist and revolutionary, believe in class struggle and the laws of historical and dialectic materialism."
You scored 73 out of 100 on a scale of Marxist vs Non-Marxist. This means that politically you are less likely to follow the philosophies of Marx.
* 95% of test takers were more Marxist than you.
* 4% of test takers were more non-Marxist than you.
This question has just been asked on the Politics Show, why would you vote for Ming Campbell?
It’s a very good question, why would you?
The Lib Dem’s do have a couple of very good policies, politically reducing income tax in favour of green taxes is a very good idea.
However in a day when image means as much as policies Sir Campbell is a long way behind Cameron and even Gordon Brown. I just can’t picture Ming as a Prime Minister. I don’t think had he been in the Labour or Conservative Party, he would ever have got to Leadership level. He was a very good Foreign Affairs Speaker, but as a leader he just doesn’t cut it.
I do think he will still be the leader of the Lib Dems for the next election, which will be a mistake. The reason I can’t see him going before then is because of the level of respect he has from his fellow Lib Dem MPs. Unfortunately though, respect doesn’t gain you votes.
At a time when Banks are soon to no longer offer free banking it seems ironic that the Halifax can offer £100 to anyone who uses their current account switching service to move their account to them.
Quite clearly it can’t cost that much to maintain a bank account. In this day and age with computers doing most of the work, the costs of an account must be coming down.
So clearly the only reason to no longer offer free banking is for banks to boost their profits at a time when they are already announcing billion pound figures.
The Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in response to her apparent setting up by Rory Bremnar has claimed she does not remember such a conversation taking place.
Yet she then says "If he has done as he suggests, it is both an unprincipled and unpleasant breach of privacy." Well the one person besides Rory Bremnar who would know if such a conversation took place is Margaret Beckett herself.
Surely the conversation took place or it didn’t. It can’t be both.
This week we found out the real reason for E-Petitions on the Downing Street website, one massive propaganda machine.
The 1.8 million signatures to the anti road pricing petition all received an email this week from the PM spelling out exactly why we need road pricing. Hardly recognition of the opposition to the scheme.
The ideal way to build a database of email addresses in which to ignore the views of the voters and try to bring them around to the Government’s way of thinking.
The News of The World today is reporting that Blair is to sign the resurrected European Constitution without going to the country for a referendum, like he promised the last time it was attempted to be introduced.
The Constitution will set up a European President and a Foreign Minister, two jobs which Blair is bound to be interested in. These two positions will be key to international relations for Europe and therefore whoever holds them will hold quite a bit of power and in true European style be unaccountable to the people, ideal for Blair then!
Perfect timing for Blair then in the year he will step down, that one of his last acts as Prime Minister will be to sign a treaty creating a position ideal for him, which will allow him to continue in a position above Brown.
It doesn’t seem to matter to this Government what the views of the people who elected them are. Even if one million people are against what they plan, the Government carries on regardless. The first case came with the Iraq war, and now it appears the same is going to happen with road charging.
More than one million people have signed a petition against planned vehicle and road charging on 10 Downing Street’s own website, but this is going to be ignored.
It does prove just what a gimmick this website is as the Government clearly has no intention of acting upon the petitions.
At a time when the Government is encouoraging people to take care over their personal data due to identity fraud, the Deparment for Work and Pensions has done its best to help out fraudsters by sending 26’000 letters containing personal and bank account details to the wrong addresses.
The DWP has said it launched an investigation as soon as it found out about the problem. Not really going to help all those whos details have been sent to the wrong house. The problem is made worse by the fact it is pensioners details, a group who are more vunerable than most.
The problem occurred because two letters were put into the same envelope, throwing the whole process out. The simple solution to ensure this problem doesn’t happen again? Use windowed envelopes!
Depending on whether you believe what is printed in the News of the World (the fact its been given such a prominent position says there must be something backing it up) 3 people are to be charged in the Cash for Honours investigation and Tony Blair will be questioned for a third time, under caution.
Things could yet get very interesting. I would be surprised if Lord Levy, Ruth Turner and Sir Christopher Evans don’t bring Blair down with them, if he is indeed involved.
Research from the University of Plymouth (my very own lecturers I should add) has shown that Labour stand to lose 7 seven seats and the Conservatives gain 12, just because of boundary changes.
This of course assumes people vote the same way as they did at the last election. Even so, had these boundaries been in place at the last election, Labour would have a majority of just 28.
The bounderies are yet to be confirmed for England, which adds support for an early General Election, as it would be held under the current boundaries, benefiting Labour.
The Government has provided us with the answer to tackling anti social behaviour. Jump up and down. I’m serious, that was confirmed as one thing you could do to distract criminals, whilst waiting for the police to arrive.
Anybody think that will actually help? Nope, didn’t think so. To be fair to Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty, he suggested distracting people and it was Jeremy Vine (the interviewer) who suggested by jumping up and down. But even so, it appears quite clear from the interview that Mr McNulty has no idea what you should do if you see a crime happening in the street.
Here’s the text from BBC One’s Panorama,
Jeremy Vine: You see something happening in the street. Do you step in?
Tony McNulty: I think the general line must be to get in touch with the authorities straight and make sure that if things are as bad as you paint the police will be there as quickly as they can.
Jeremy: You see a young man looking aggressive, shouting at an old woman, what do you do? You retreat and ring the police?
Tony McNulty: I think you should in the first instance. It may well be the simply shouting at them, blowing your horn or whatever else deters them and they go away.
Jeremy: He's now hitting her and the police haven't come, what do you do then?
Tony McNulty: The same the same, you must always ...
Jeremy: Still wait?
Tony McNulty: Get back to the police, try some distractive activities whatever else.
Jeremy: What jump up and down?
Tony McNulty: But I would say you know sometimes that that may well work.
Clearly a sign the Government has run out of ideas. Bring in the next lot.
The programme is being shown Monday 5th Feb at 8:30 on BBC 1.
Tony Blair’s second interview in the Cash for Peerages investigation, suggests Blair is not in the clear yet. He was only interviewed as a witness, but this shows the investigation is not moving away from Blair’s door.
Will it lead to Blair being charged? I expect not. I still think the best we can hope for, is Blair being called as a witness against one of his own aides. Unless of course, they bring him down with them.
John Reid, the Home Secretary is going to try to extend the time limit for detention without trial beyond the current 28 day limit.
Nothing like ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again’. So here we go.
I probably would be in favour of an extension in time, if it could be proven it was needed. Even John Reid has admitted that the police have not encountered a time when they needed more than 28 days. So why is there really such a need for it? I think this question will need to be answered if John Reid is to get his way.
All fears over funding of the Olympic games can be easily put to rest with a very simple solution. The Government can sort out all the money it wastes every year. I know never going to happen, but it just puts into perspective how much money is wasted each year.
A Government report from the Department for Work and Pensions has estimated that £2.6bn was overpaid last year in benefits due to errors and fraud. To stage the Olympic games themselves will cost £2bn, so that would be that bit paid for.
This estimate is just for benefits, so if the whole of Government spending was taken into account, I imagine the Olympics could be paid for several times over without the tax payer having to pay anything.
We can only dream….
House of Lords reform, which has been a controversial and difficult reform process for the Government is to go before the House of Commons for a free vote.
MPs will get to vote on the percentage of Lords that are elected to the House of Lords. The minimum being 10% and the maximum 100%
Now I’m not in favour of an elected House of Lords of any proportion. The issue I have is over when to hold the elections. If they are held on the same day as a General Election, people are likely to vote the same way for the Commons and the Lords, so the Lords would just become a rubber stamp for Government legislation. On the other hand, if elections took place mid way through a Parliament, the Lords is likely to reflect the Opposition as Governments are most unpopular midterm. Resulting in a stale mate over legislation.
Hence the reason I still think the Lords should continue to be appointed. It seems to be doing the job alright to my. I do agree with getting rid of Hereditary Peers though.
So Lord Levy has been arrested again and later released on bail. The interesting thing is he, like Ruth Turner, was arrested for perverting the course of justice.
Now I’m no expert, but in order to pervert the course of justice, wouldn’t you actually have to be worried the police might find something?
However it would appear that with the way the investigation is going, no one is going to be charged under the original Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act 1925. Otherwise why are the police arresting people for preventing the course of justice. Perhaps they are trying to make up for the fact they haven’t found anything?
The Sunday Telegraph today is reporting detectives have found a hand written note from Tony Blair linking him directly into the Cash for Honours scandal.
Downing Street is of course denying any such document exists.
I still don’t think the PM will be charged, would be interesting if he was required to be a witness against the likes of Lord Levy and Ruth Turner though.
John Reid must be regretting the day he said the Home Office “isn’t fit for purpose” and attacked the Judge in the Craig Sweeney case for being too lenient. The Home Office hasn’t been out of the news for the last two weeks due to blunder after blunder being reported and now Reid has had to right to Judges, asking them to be more lenient.
What a way to land yourself in it. Gordon Brown must be loving this from a leadership point of view.
It seems the Government and it’s loyal MPs will use terrorism however they can, if it can be useful to them. One could be forgiven for thinking they actually want the terrorist attacks to continue, so they can continue to hide behind it.
Can a Minister who believes homosexuality is a sin, really promote equal rights? It appears the answer has been made clear today. Ruth Kelly, the Minister responsible for equal rights, is pushing for an opt-out for Catholic adoption agencies, so they wouldn’t have to allow gay couples to adopt from their agencies. So much for equal rights.
The fact that if Ruth Kelly fails to get an opt-out, she will have to lead a debate promoting something she doesn’t believe in and her own religion denounces, could be interesting.
So our wonderful Prime Minister who took us into the Iraq War, isn’t prepared to face the debate over how badly it’s going. How typical of our PM. Makes a decision and isn’t prepared to face the consiquences.
So John Reid wants to split the Home Office in two. One part responsible for justice and the other for public protection.
It’s always interesting when a Minister says they want to get rid of their own department. Reid clearly knows he won’t be Home Secretary once Brown takes over. Hence the split coming within months, Reid needs to move quickly if he is to the Home Secretary who made this dramatic change to the structure of Government and the Home Office. His own legacy if you like.
The SNP is proposal that should it be in power it will introduce a tax on Trident missiles which are brought into Scottish harbours.
They claim it could raise £85m a year. But of course that wouldn’t happen. Should ever such a tax be introduced, all the UK Government has to do is move our nuclear fleet from the Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde in Scotland, to somewhere in England, therefore avoiding the tax. This would lead to the Faslane Navel Base becoming obsolete, costing Scottish jobs. I’m sure the SNP wouldn’t be popular for that.
Wednesday provides a good day for Ming Campbell to demostrate to the country and his own party that he is the right man to lead the Liberal Democrats. On that day is a full debate on the Iraq war, a subject which at the time, Campbell has been one of the best MPs in the House of Commons.
Can he turn back the clock and come out of Wednesday’s debate on top, like he has in the past? He certainly could do with it!
It seems Labour just can't help themselves, particularly those who are backers of Blair's New Labour ideal.
This is from LabourHome.
"A Tribune investigation has discovered that party staff and Downing Street officials, have been breaking selection rules, in order to assist favoured candidates."
It seems to be Labour's answer to everything, if the rules get in the way, just break them, even if it's your own rules.
Guido makes a good point here, over the response of some Labour MPs to the arrest of Ms Turner in the cash for honours enquiry.
They have chosen to comment on "an ongoing investigation" after maintaining for months it would be improper to comment. Then again, should we really be surprised that MPs change their minds depending on whether it suites them or not?
This is footage from a match in Johannesburg, South Africa.
And we think we had strong winds.
I should add, the match was later abandoned due to a lightning storm, not the wind!!
Our glorious Chancellor, Gordon Brown, who only last week was praising the union between England and Scotland has snubbed his own party at No. 11 to celebrate the 300 years of the Act of Union.
Of course despite praising the union, there’s no press coverage in attending a party at No.11. There is however press coverage for travelling to India, espeically at the moment with the goings on in the BB house.
It seems Germany when it takes over the presidency of the EU wants to bring back the failed EU constituction.
Here we go again! Another chance for EU members to show they don’t get along with each other in reality.
Fianally an MP has made a statement about TV that actually resembles common sense.
David Cameron when asked about the racism in the Big Brother House has said there is "a great regulator called the off button". About time this was said.
Instead of complaining about something you don’t like on the tele, just don’t watch it. In this case unless Shilpa Shetty actually complains herself, I don’t think we should be worried. All those that are, there is plenty of other channels. It’s like when people complain about Friday Night with Johnathan Ross. You know what he’s like and his sense of humour, so if you don’t like it, don’t watch it. If enough people feel the same way, ratings will plummet and the show will be axed.
The fact Miss Shetty hasn’t complained says a lot. I believe she said upon entering the BB House she was there to increase her status in the UK. This must be fantastic for doing that. Front pages in the press and even raised in the House of Commons. Everyone knows who she is now.
I should add I haven’t actually seen the show.
This is stating the obvious a bit but the Conservatives have warned that UKIP will cost them and help Labour.
This is hardly a surprise as UKIP is aiming to attract the anti Europe Conservative vote. Labour doesn’t have quite the same problems.
However UKIP could be a problem for the Conservatives at the next election, provided they don’t completely collaspe before then. Remember the Referendum Party in 1997?
So Blair is to receive the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor later this year.
Now we all know why the UK was dragged into a war in Iraq. So Blair could be awarded this medal, move to the States and go on a tour of the US delivering speeches which will earn him millions. Nice to know the PM had the countries interests at heart the whole time and not his own future!
Well at least he will have the money to buy his own peerage!
I find the Government’s line over the current Home Office scandle involving 27’500 unprocessed overseas criminals rediculous.
They keep saying the Home Office is doing all it can to identify those people who may have “slipped through the net”.
Well it must be a bloody big hole for 27’500 people to of slipped through. Quite worrying really. How many terrorists have “slipped through the net”?
During December Halifax were running a promotion for existing Halifax One credit card holders of 0% on balance transfers for 6 months.
Thinking this was quite a good offer I filled out the form and returned it to the Halifax 2 weeks before the deadline date for applications, to give them plenty of time as it said 5 days were needed to process the application.
But of course nothing happened. The balance from my other card wasn’t transferred and the deadline date ellasped.
I wasn’t too bothered really but then last week I got another letter from the Halifax offering 6.95% on balance transfers until the balance was paid off. Now call me a synic but at a rate of 0% the Halifax makes no money, yet at 6.95% it does. So surely it’s in the Halifax’s interest not to process applications under the first promotion in the hope customers will reapply under the second?
Of course I’ve no proof this is the case but it’s very convienient for the Halifax.
It’s interesting the messages that are coming out from the Conservatives. They are calling for Labour to hold a proper leadership contest and for an early election to be called as the new leader has no mandate.
It’s simply because the Conservatives are calling for these two things that I don’t think they really want either.
A Labour leadership contest if carried out in the right way is sure to be good for the Labour Party and increase their poll ratings. An early General Election is more likely to suit Labour, one because it can be called off the back of this poll boost and secondly because they have a number of policies to present the electorate. The Conservatives currently have very few and will be forced to rush out policies should there be an early election.
So could the Conservatives current line purely be one to ensure no Labour leadership contest and no early election takes place because that is what the Conservatives appear to want? Clever planning if it is.
Is there a difference between when John Major took over as Prime Minister to then Gordon Brown takes over from Tony Blair?
I don’t really believe there is. When Thatcher was re-elected in 1987 the electorate voted for her as Prime Minister untill the next election, not for John Major to take over when she resigned. This will be the same when Tony Blair steps down and Gordon Brown takes over. Now Blair did say at the last election that he would serve a full term which is the argument David Cameron used today. But I think this is just a statement of what everyone was expecting anyway.
So does Brown have a mandate to carry on as Prime Minister? I think he does. Brown is an elected MP, who became leader of the party and the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons forms a Government. That’s the way it is, there’s nothing that requires Brown to hold an election so why should he, just like John Major chose not to.
The big question that is sure to be referred to almost every day until it’s decided is will there be a Labour leadership contest?
Today Stephen Byers (a Blairite) has warned Gordon Brown (although not by name) that Labour will not just follow his lead and "The Labour Party is not royalty and we don't go in for coronations.”
It doesn’t surprise me that an ally of Blair is making these warnings but does he have a point?
I think he does. A Labour leadership contest can only be good for the Labour Party, whereas a coronation for Brown will bring all sorts of difficulties. These will be set to one side should he win a fair leadership battle. It is clear from the Conservative leadership contest of the benefits it can bring to the party. Not to mention all the media coverage whilst it takes place.
It is for this reason that I’m slightly surprised by the line the Conservatives are taking. They are taunting Gordon Brown using the line “Labour only has a mandate for a full Blair term, anything else requires a General Election and they’ve stitched it up (the leadership) so there’s not even an election in his own party”.
Now attacking Brown over a General Election I agree with, however encouraging him to fight a leadership contest can only benefit the Labour Party. A bounce in the polls from which to call a General Election could lead to a new Labour Government. Whereas no leadership contest, a split Labour Party and a hostile media is sure to be play right into the Conservative’s hands.
Mike Smithson of PBC is offering £200 that “Gordon Brown will not get his coronation”
The Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has said the NHS is on track to break even within three months.
This is of course 3 months later than Ms Hewitt previously said the NHS would balance its books.
How is the £500m the NHS is currently over budget to be recovered? Through job cuts. It is claimed these cuts will be made in administration and not frontline doctors and nurses, we will see if this is the case. £500m is a lot of administrators.
The big question over the forthcoming Labour leadership race, will or won’t John Reid stand?
He is clearly testing the water, with speeches like the one today and other speeches which cover a much wider scope than his current Home Office portfolio.
I still think it is too early to tell John Reid’s true intentions. I think he wants to stand, but there are two problems. The first is can he beat Gordon Brown, which I’m not sure he can. The second is, he can’t appear to be making his pitch for the leadership until Blair announces a clear departure date. Otherwise he will appear to be undermining Blair’s leadership.
Following Belarus’ grudging acceptance of new gas prices set by Russia’s Gazprom , Belarus has hit back by putting large taxes on Russia oil pumped through Belarus’ pipe lines.
This clearly shows Russia’s influence over its former Soviet Union countries is dwindling. What it hoped would regain some of this influence, in this case at least, has clearly backfired.
Good for Belarus to stand up to its much bigger neighbour.
Ming Campbell on the Today programme has defended his leadership of the Lib Dems confirming the fact the Lib Dems are in trouble.
Even though Campbell had the chance to spell out what he has done since becoming leader, the best he has managed is “restoring stability”. Hardly the best claim since it was him that brought the instability in the first place. This is a clear example that he hasn’t achieved much since taking over and infact the Lib Dems are going backwards.
He then went onto say “I will lead the party through this parliament, through the next general election and beyond”. Always a dangerous comment to make in my opinion. I still think he’ll make it through the year though.
Politicalbetting.com has its forecasting questions up for 2007.
Here are my predictions using pbc's questions:
On Christmas Day 2007 who will be…?
1. Prime Minister – Gordon Brown
2. Leader of the Opposition – David Cameron
3. Leader of the Liberal Democrats – Ming Campbell
4. Deputy Leader of the Labour Party – Hilary Benn
5. Chancellor of the Exchequer – Alastair Darling
6. President of France - Nicholas Sarkozy
7. Scotland’s First Minister - Nichol Stephens
8. Leader based on average of the three latest polls in race for the Democratic nomination – Hilary Clinton
9. Leader based on average of the three latest polls in race for the Republican nomination – John McCain
For how many days during 2007 will…?
10. Tony Blair serve as PM - 160
11. Ming Campbell serve as Lib Dem Leader - 365
12. David Cameron serve as Tory Leader - 365
13. Lembit Opik serve as LD party spokesman on Wales and Northern Ireland - 151
14. The “Cash for Honours” investigation continue without any current members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords being charged - 100
15. The Conservative Party candidate “A-List” continue in its current form - 365
What increase/decrease in the monthly Guardian ICM poll will there be for…?
16. Labour, compared with an average of the party’s ratings for the previous three months, when the new leader takes over the office - +3
17. Labour in the third month after the new leader has taken over compared with the first month. - 4
What will the Guardian ICM Poll report as..?
18. The Tories highest rating during the year - 42
19. The Tories lowest rating during the year - 32
20. The LDs highest rating during the year - 21
21. The LDs lowest rating during the year - 13
Seat losses and gains in the May 3rd elections.
22. Net SNP seats won/lost for the Scottish Parliament - +6
23. Net PC seats won/lost for the Welsh Assembly - -1
24. Net Labour seats won/lost for the Scottish Parliament - -11
25. Net Labour seats won/lost for the Welsh Assembly - -4
26. Net Labour seats won/lost for the local elections - -300
27. Net Lib Dem seats won/lost for the local elections - -45
One of the things the new year has brought is an increase in the size of the European Union to 27 with Bulgaria and Romania the latest additions.
When any new member state joins the EU the same question is always asked: How many will migrate to Britain?
Now with Bulgaria and Romania I don’t feel we face anything like the same situation when Poland joined. Bulgaria’s and Romania’s population combined isn’t as much as Poland’s. So the discussions over a new wave of mass immigration are unfounded. Besides the Government appears to of learnt from the previous time, by placing restrictions on migrant workers from the new countries.
However one thing that is interesting about the restrictions the Government has implemented is the admission of self employed workers. Any EU citizen is allowed to come to the UK to work, providing they are to work self employed, including those from Bulgaria and Romania.
Now I would of thought it would be much better for the UK if migrants were employed? That way under the PAYE system we know that taxes are being paid. If migrants are self employed how do we know they are even working? If they are working how do we know that their tax returns are being completed, and if they’re not, is it possible for the HMRC to find the workers. The HMRC isn’t exactly the most organised organisation anyway!
