Wednesday 8 August 2007

The Poliblogs 8th August 2007

The EU Treaty in plain English

Excellent work by the party today. William Hague has just launched the EU Constitution (?) in plain English. Download a full PDF here but here are two examples of the translation:

Conservative Home

T0 answer the question: YES - Winston Churchill

Does the Guardian have no sense of history?

I think that the invasion and fall of France in May 1940 followed by Dunkirk, and the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force that Churchill had to face probably rank some way ahead of the flooding, Glasgow airport and foot and mouth.

Political Betting

Not all donations are welcome

Party funding has led to all kinds of trouble for the Conservatives. But David Cameron has plenty of support - we won't miss the odd fair-weather friend.

Iain Dale

The Secret Diary of David Cameron (39 1/2)

Actually not so secret - they were serialised in the Guardian from his election in 2001 up until 2004. What's a bit surprising is that they're really rather good - light, self-deprecating and amusing. It's enough to make you hope he's keeping a diary. Couple of samples:

Conservative Party Reptile

New Conservative 'tax' policy

Well this is a small one, but at least something to take a look at in a post. The good news is that the party sees the benefit of tax cuts; the down side is not for the taxpayers but lenders (i.e. banks) for the 'Social Sector.' The announcements were made by Greg Clark, pictured left.

The CityUnslicker

The social impact of Blairism

Rosemary McKenna - Labour MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East - is to step down at the next general election. After entering parliament in the Labour landslide of ten years ago, she is in no doubt that a decade of Blairism has transformed the postwar new town and associated former mining communities that she represents:

Dave’s Part

Why doesn’t Dave join the Gordomania?

An idea that’s developing is that Cameron should go along with the grain of the public mood and stop trying to find ways of attacking Brown. In the current context it just looks like carping and reflects even worse on him.

Political Betting

Culpable ignorance

Wandering around the various BBC-watching bloggers gets you down after a while. It's a one-note samba swelling to a chorus loud enough to deafen everyone except the BBC trustees. No... please, don't.

Prodicus

Foot in mouth in Whitehall

Gordon demanded the HSE report on his desk within 48 hours of his announcement on Sunday last. Well, that didn’t happen did it. The HSE put up two fingers to Gordon and said, quite rightly, that such a piece of investigation could not feasibly be done, or done accurately and sensibly, within that time. Round one to the HSE. Gordon must have been hopping mad.

Tales from the Riverbank

It's always you!

It should come as a shock to no one that Camelot has yet again won the licence to run the National Lottery beating for the third time since its inception.

Tory Radio

Liberals try to pump up David Cameron's flat tyre

My fondest hopes were fulfilled by the Sedgefield and Ealing by-elections, in which the Tories did even more badly than I had wanted them to. The false claims of a Tory recovery, made by opinion pollsters and commentators, were exposed for what they were. And the only argument that will ever influence tribal Tory voters - that their party has no hope of winning office again - was greatly advanced. And yet we are not much further along the road to party reform and the replacement of our existing discredited parties. Why not?

Peter Hitchens

So much for Summer Holiday, Gordon Brown.

Erin Horan ponders how Gordon Brown will deal with the recent Foot and Mouth disease outbreak.

18 Doughty Street

Why the honeymoon?

The much talked about “Brown bounce” is just the latest example of the good will that politicians seem to receive in the opening months (or longer, if they're lucky) of their leadership reign. A quick Google search for “political honeymoon” reveals that this is by no means just a British phenomenon either. From Sarko to Yuschenko, everyone seems to love the new guy. Interestingly, no one seems to question this state of affairs. It was always just accepted that Labour would go up in the polls once Tony handed the 10 Downing Street keys to Gordon, for example. Why?

18 Doughty Street

Leaked email reveals how Gordon Brown really wants to handle terrorism

If you’d been following Gordon Brown’s comments about terrorism in the media, you could be forgiven for thinking that he doesn’t want to score party political points on the matter, and in fact wants cross-party consensus.

Lib Dem Voice

Peter Franklin: Home truths for the Right

“I’m not that pessimistic now, because I wasn’t that optimistic before.”

These level-headed words are by far the wisest I’ve heard on the recent ups and downs of the Conservative Party. They come from someone who would describe himself as belonging to the Right of the Party, but who is, in this context, atypical of his fellows, most of whom don’t know whether to hang their heads in despair or dance a little jig.

Conservative Home

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