Thursday, 13 September 2007

The Poliblogs 13th September 2007

Gordon Stops The Political Week

Under Tony Blair Labour dramatically changed the way Westminster did business just by shifting around the parliamentary timetable. PMQs went from taking place twice a week for 15 minutes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to 30 minutes at noon on Wednesday. Hours were also modernised so that the House sat in the morning mid-week.

Adam Boulton

The next opinion polls

It's shouldn't be too long before we get some more opinion polls. They will measure the impact of recent events. My prediction is that Brown's lead will widen a little. The narrowing we saw in the most recent polls followed David Cameron's successful August fightback. At that time we'd dominated the political stage in the same way a party does during the week of its Party Conference.

Conservative Home

Is this the end for the Lib Dems?

Over the past year they have been guilty of political stupidity of epic proportions. The new 'stupid party' is heading for oblivion.

Iain Macwhirter

Exclusive: Boris, if successful, plans to crown Lurline Champagnie as Deputy Mayor

The formidable Lurline Champagnie is set to become Boris Johnson's Deputy if he, as expected, wins the primary. This is a very smart move indeed. It would kill off Labour's disgraceful suggestion that he is a racist (Boris is many things, but a racist he is not). Lurline, famous for turning up at a Conservative conference under Margaret Thatcher's premiership and declaring, 'I'm black! British! Conservative! And proud of all three!'

Hunter & Shooter

Too late to call, not that he ever intended to…

I remember blogging that Brown had no intention of calling an election this year. He allowed the speculation to continue anyway, thereby turning the heat up on the Conservatives. Instead of calling Brown’s bluff, the Conservative leadership panicked. Policies were spun out one after the other in what was widely interpreted as a shift back to comfort zone issues.

UBCF

Tory green tax ideas; Barmy

Saw these today, blimey what a mixture of ill-thought out and regressive ideas these are.

The CityUnslicker

Fresh thinking

It's not often we see a political contender making a strong case for or against anything. It's too controversial, too divisive you see. That is why it is so refreshing to see and hear someone with vision, principle and the intelligence to apply those things to politics.

Edland

Are imperial measurements really common sense?

There’s been much triumphant talk about a victory for common sense over the EU’s decision to allow the UK to continue using imperial measurements. But really what is the change from now? OK, so the UK will be allowed to keep pints of milk and beer, won’t have to change road signs and the price will still be displayed in imperial. That makes sense, but retailers will still have to sell most goods in metric, and so they should.

Anders Hanson

Apart from Iraq, what are the LibDems for?

The LibDems spoilt their summer of silence with a brief period of media activity when Gordon Brown replied to a letter written by Sir Ming demanding the withdrawl of troops from Iraq. It is, therefore, a surprise that the next LibDem media hit is ... Iraq, again.

Little’s Log

Why Ming is quackers about the EU referendum

Why am I mentioning all this on a blog post about the EU referendum? Well, because those classic Bugs-Daffy-Fudd cartoons remind me a lot of the level of debate surrounding the EU. Elmer is the voter, Bugs is the Eurosceptics and Daffy is the Europhiles. Depressingly, Bugs always gets the better of Daffy. Daffy meanwhile never seems to realise he’s onto a loser playing Bugs’ game and never changes tac (except for when he tries to be clever and ends up being hoist on his own petard). All too often, the debate degenerates into the equivalent of “Rabbit season! Duck season! Rabbit season! Duck season!” At no point does Daffy sit Elmer (who is a vegetarian for God’s sake!) down and attempt to reason with him. No wonder the voter often ends up losing his rag and gunning for both sides of the debate.

Quaequam Blog

Aux Armes Citoyens

I have had a number of comments relating to my post on the letter to the Prefect of the South West which have lead me to conclude that there is now the need for a Libertarian Party in England, I say England because Wales and Scotland have a different political culture which is more collectivist, and fair play to them they have one the argument over Home Rule. They have their Assemblies and Parliaments.

Looking for a Voice

Hung hang-up

If Gordon Brown's constitutional reforms ignore the potential for a hung parliament at the next election, he is burying his head in the sand.

Mark Oaten

Banking on self interest

One of the key dividing lines between the left and the right used to be, when we had such things, the idea that people act in their own interests. The right assumed that perhaps they could be persuaded to group those interests for family or even town / village, but you shouldn't push your luck. The left saw this as cynical and believed in a more optimistic view of human nature (remember 1997 - things can only get better?)

Man in a Shed

No comments: