The Poliblogs 24th July 2007

Cost of Government Day: Monday 23 July

The TPA has extended the concept of Tax Freedom Day, long championed by the Adam Smith Institute and now an established part of the political calendar (in 2007 it fell on 1 June) and can now provide an estimate of the Cost of Government Day. This is the date in the calendar year on which the average person has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of government spending and regulation.

The result for 2007 is as follows:

• The average person must work for 204 days of the year to pay off his or her share of government spending and regulation.

• The Cost of Government Day in 2007 is 23 July.

The Tax Payers’ Alliance

Ed Balls and Nursery provision

So now he tells us. Now he tries to repent. Well, thanks for nothing, chum. After 10 years of suffocating legislation, the Labour Secretary for Children and Schools, Mr Edward Balls, appears to have woken up to what his government has done.

After 10 years of elf and safety lunacy, Balls has plaintively called for children to be allowed to take a few risks: play conkers, have a snowball fight, climb a tree, get a few scabs back on their knees. Bring back the joys of childhood, says the blithering Balls, as if Labour had nothing to do with the creation of our grossly over-regulated society and compensation culture.

Boris Johnson

ASBOS 'R Us

In Nanny's world councils have been given, or shall we say believe that they have been given, a hell of a lot of power over us.

Now, as we all know, power can corrupt; it would seem that one of Nanny's "respected" local councils has found that to its cost.

Nanny Knows Best

Proud to be British

Most days, the newspapers report the name of a soldier who has been killed, a soldier like the squaddie from Holyhead.
What the news does not show, and what the newspapers rarely describe, is the soldiers who are injured. Amputees with burnt faces are not photogenic. Soldiers with brain injuries, physical or mental, act strangely.
It is all most unpalatable for the general public. Best ignored.

NHS Blog Doctor

Still not getting it...

You might have noticed that your humble Devil did not crow over the Ealing and Sedgefield by-election results. There were several reasons for this; first, NuLabour were always going to hold Sedgefield. Let's face it, had Blair ever thought that the seat was in doubt he would have put himself into a nice safe seat; it's a trifle difficult to be Prime Minister when you haven't even been elected as an MP.

The Devil’s Kitchen

Paying for Labour's next General Election win

On a positive note, let's examine the options to funding Labour's next General Election campaign. How much money needs to be raised?

Peter Kenyon

‘Cash for honours’: the inquiries continue

Labour’s top fundraisers and donors may have been saved from chokey by the Crown Prosecution Service last week, but they still have to run the gauntlet of the House of Commons’ Public Affairs Committee.

Lib Dem Voice

First and second class kids

The story of schoolchildren being trained to work in a call centre will trigger a dumbing-down furore, but systemic failures in education are the real problem.

Fiona Miller

Ditch Cameron for Oddball Fascist, say Tory Rebels

SENIOR Tory MPs are calling for David Cameron to be replaced with another vote-losing weirdo from the party's extreme right wing.

Frustrated with the relatively normal behaviour of the Conservative Party over the last 18 months, rebel backbenchers are plotting to replace Cameron with a leader who can recapture the child-scaring days of the late 1990s.

One rebel Tory MP said: "Norman Tebbit just sits at home all day writing psychotic, foul-mouthed letters to the BBC. It's such a waste."

The Daily Mash

Fare games

British Rail was criticised for raising ticket prices rather than investing in improvements - but the quasi-privatised railway is doing just that.

Christian Wolmar

Raining on Gordon's parade

The government can't do anything about the weather, but it can get the blame for it. So Prime Minister Brown is wise to take the floods seriously.

Martin Kettle

Was the Rwanda trip a big mistake for Cameron?

With the flooding story continuing to dominate the news the Guardian has postponed publication of its ICM survey for July which was carried out over the weekend in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s by elections. So we don’t know the precise figures but Michael Crick on Newsnight last night suggested it was in the same region as the last ICM poll a week and a half ago which had Labour 7% ahead.

Political Betting

You ain't seen nothin' yet!

I read this post on Comments is Free last week, but decided against putting it on the Poliblogs simply because of how self indulgent and embarrassing a piece of writing it really is. But now I think - what better reason do I need for posting something on the Poliblogs!? This is "former" Tory Mayoral candidate, the poptastic Mike Read. Essentially it is no-hoper, Mike Reid, gallantly backing down as a Tory candidate for the London Mayor job soon after Boris announces he is putting his hat in the ring.

Good old Mike not only makes way for Boris, but he offers him some advice to boost his chances. He uses the language that even the Daily Mail would think was alarmist, tries to sound "down with the kids" (or crews) and wants to put police men in every single tube station - great way to take them off streets Mike.

Apologies for those who have read this already, but here are some extracts. I strongly recommend reading the whole thing if you haven't already.

"I've decided not to stand as mayor of London, but I'm getting behind the man who I hope will raise the city's profile and improve life for Londoners." - I wonder why?

"It was not Boris Johnson standing that made me think twice at the eleventh hour, but the change in the voting system." – yeah right, nothing at all to do with the fact Boris would wipe the floor with you?

"Last October, having spoken for the third time at a Conservative conference many influential and political figures encouraged me to stand as London mayor, resulting in many people in the party urging me forward." – Name one of them. Go on. Just one.

"It's essential for Boris to be much, much tougher on the persistently antisocial, making sure that rapists, murderers and paedophiles have no place, and never will, on the streets of London, and will not threaten civilised society." – Rapists? Murderers? Paedophiles? I’m sure Boris will appreciate your insight in to the average “Man on the Street”. Even Paul Dacre wouldn’t swallow this nonsense.

"I've spoken to lots of young kids in gangs or "crews" as they prefer to be known and most want to get out of a way of life that gives them nothing." – When do you meet up with these “crews” exactly? I bet they thought you were cool.

"I'd like to see Boris push for a police officer on every tube entrance/exit so that underground miscreants know that their exit route is effectively sealed." How many policeman doing bugger all, all day do you think that will add up to? It’ll really solve London’s crime problems – pack the coppers underground and get them off the streets.

"Scrap the congestion charge and put the life back into London trading." Even the most ardent opponent of the CC now concedes it was a good idea Mike – keep up.

"...set up mayoral shops as an information point for tourists and to sell merchandise such as maps, London T shirts, flags, souvenirs and so on." What sort of a Mayoral policy is this? Why not go further and have a Multicoloured Swap Shop on every corner of every street in Zone One?

"As I've decided not to stand, I'm going to get behind the man who is. I'll be available, if needed, to help Boris raise London's spirit and profile and become London mayor." Ken will be pleased.

I'm still not sure if it's really just a spoof...

The whole article is here - enjoy! (Scroll down to the comments for an extra laugh bonus at the end)

If he really didn't spin...

Just like you...

The Poliblogs 23rd July 2007

Reflections on calls for a leadership election

The Daily Telegraph reports that up to half-a-dozen Tory MPs have written to Sir Michael Spicer asking for a leadership election. The magic number triggering a ballot is 29. Is the situation as straightforward as everyone is saying today or are there other interpretations?

Enough is enough

Greg Hands MP: War in Iraq is now longer than the Great War; the conflict in Afghanistan longer even than World War Two

Last month, our armed forces reached two unlikely milestones. On 12th June, after 2,074 days, the war in Afghanistan overtook World War Two in length. On 27th June, after 1,560 days, the war in Iraq overtook World War One in length.

Conservative Home

Stephan Shakespeare: The public need to be convinced that changing government is worth the risk

Michael Portillo, who I greatly admire, used his Sunday Times column on the weekend before the Southall and Sedgefield by-elections to call on David Cameron to show more ‘cojones’, reminding him that the ‘half-hearted’ don’t get to the top. He meant that up to now the modernising project had lacked the necessary ruthlessness, and that DC should stop feeding the party’s ‘baying right’.

Conservative Home

Where has conservatism gone?

Our party leader promised that 2006 would be a year of transformation for the Tory party. Indeed, eighteen months on the results are spectacular. Mr. Cameron’s search for a ‘modern and compassionate Conservative Party’ has resulted in a palpable loss of party identity and an acrid erosion of time-honoured conservative values. Today it seems that the Tory party can no longer call themselves ‘conservative’ nor that they are ‘right wing’. Instead their political compass is spinning adrift in a Bermuda triangle of identity disorientation.

Tory Radio

The stamp of moral authority

Our politicians' soundbite on youthful drug use betrays a hopelessly simplistic attitude towards law-making.

Ned Beauman

Why the cash for honours inquiry is a success

The cash for honours fiasco? A triumph.

The purpose of raising money is to advance a party's political cause. But if you handle donors and donations carelessly you risk damaging the party's cause more than the money secured advances it. In a competitive political system, you won't do this too often. That's why democracy works.

Daniel Finkelstein

Brown should be fighting the Europeans, not America

When a British prime minister visits a US president it is never a meeting of equals because of America’s incomparable influence in the world. But when Gordon Brown arrives at the White House next week, his hosts know he will be in office long after George W Bush has departed for his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Michael Portillo

Trial by media?

Quite a number of those who've responded to my blog on the cash for honours saga have questioned or criticised the media's role in it. Now, the wife of one of those caught up in the police investigation has gone further.

Nick Robinson

Covered in glory on honours

The Times has the only new information on the cash for honours story. It claims that eight people who loaned Labour large amounts of money were initially put forward for peerages - to some extent reported before - and that a diary entry from one lender recorded an agreement to nominate him. Meanwhile, the Observer quite shamelessly gives the Blairites' side of the story.

Spin and Spinners

Labour’s YouGov lead jumps to 7%

Another big boost to Brown’s Labour comes with a YouGov poll for tomorrow’s Sunday Times showing the party now has a 7% margin. These are the shares compared with the last YouGov poll three weeks ago - CON 33% (-2): LAB 40% (+2): LD 15% (nc).

Political Betting

Was Cameron’s mistake to have even tried?

As we’ve discussed on the previous thread things don’t look too good for the Tory leader, David Cameron, this morning. With two new opinion polls showing Labour in the 40s and reports of Tory MPs wanting a confidence vote this is certainly going to be a period that will test him to the hilt.

Political Betting

What’s the political fall-out from the flooding?

As was seen in the US in 2005 the way that governments respond to natural disasters such as flooding can have a significant and lasting political impact. The manner of the Bush administration’s response Hurricane Katrina was cited by many as a major reason why the Republicans did so badly in the US mid-term elections last November.

Clearly what we have had in the UK in the past few weeks is not on that scale but there’s a similar expectation that governments should be there to help when things like this happen and inevitably it’s going to be hard to satisfy everybody.

Political Betting

How not to impress as a prime minister in waiting

The likely next Prime Minister of Belgium is Yves Leterme, a Flemish speaker. About 1.18 into the clip below he is asked by a reporter if he can sing La Brabanconne, the Belgian national anthem. He declares that he can, and even those readers with no knowledge of French, and little of national anthems will be struck by what he decides to sing. Anyway, enjoy.

The Croydonian

A Good day for Labour

After the solid performances in the by-elections last night and the "so-what" reaction to drug allegations, the 18 month inquiry in the cash for honours scandal has cleared anyone of any wrongdoing.

I was surprised at the number of bloggers, left and right, who took the view that Levy and the rest (from both sides of the House) were up to something but there simply wasn't enough evidence. Paul Linford has compared the result to the other great "whitewash" - the Hutton Inquiry. I also take the view that all is not perfectly innocent but it should not be as surprising as it may seem that a Labour supporter gets an honour. After all, the Lords were packed out with Tories during the Thatcher years. Right or wrong, the whole investigation has been a farce and vast waste of public money - it was also very unlikely that anyone would be fingered for it and so it has turned out. There will always be a shadow over the merky world of honours however, regardless of the this verdict.

Carmen Dowd announced today her decision on behalf of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that there would be no criminal proceedings arising out of the so called “Cash for Honours” investigation. In reaching this decision, she was advised by a team of independent counsel, led by David Perry QC. The Director of Public Prosecutions played no part in the decision-making process. In his stead, Carmen Dowd consulted the Director’s Principal Legal Advisor, Chris Newell.

CPS Decision

All hell is about to break loose

The CPS has decided that no charges are to be brought against those involved in the cash-for-honours investigation.

And so it came to pass that another of the year's predictions came true.

Will the story go quietly? Not a chance. Expect the Tory blogs to erupt with indignation. Especially as one of Guido's predictions falls flat (and not for the first time)...

Political Hack UK

Do You Believe there is No Connection Between Cash and Honours?

Tony Blair created 292 peers. Millions were raised from the recipients of those honours.

The correlation between making large donations to the Labour Party and receiving an honour is extraordinary. Statistical analysis shows that 58.54% of all donors giving more than £50,000 to the Labour Party receive an honour. This compares to just 0.035% of non-donors.

Guido Fawkes

No Coincidence

What brilliant timing for the Labour Party? Just as the polls were closing in Sedgefield and Ealing Southall, the news that the CPS is likely to drop the cash for peerages prosecution hits the airwaves. Given the following three facts that are in the public arena

1. Labour secretive funding arrangements for the 2005 General Election.

2. Blair's "they were party peerages" defence.

3. Even though several of the donors have never done anything for the Labour party other than give them this loan.

Iain Dale

No Charges

Lawyers from the Crown Prosecution Service met yesterday to finally conclude how this 16 month investigation into allegations of 'cash for honours' - that went to the very heart of Downing St - would end.

Their conclusion?

Nick Robinson

Another Whitewash

And like Guido, neither do I believe there has never been a connection between donations to the Labour Party and the award of peerages, even if nothing was ever written down on paper about it in a way that would have enabled the Crown Prosecution Service to prove that a specific crime had been committed.

Paul Linford

Cash for honours: no charges

Finally we reach the conclusion of the cash for honours affair. And, in the immortal words of the country and western song, there’s no charge.

New Labour is going to claim that 16-month investigation by Scotland Yard exonerates Levy, Turner, and Evans. It doesn’t. It simply means that there is insufficient evidence to take things further.

Dave’s Part

Desperation knows no bounds…

Does anyone - or should I say anyone expressing an honest and unbiased opinion - really believe that a full audit of Tory Party finances and donations covering the Thatcher/Major government, which created 341 peers between them, would not show much the same kind of correlation?

Ministry of Truth

Gordon's lucky escape

If the cash-for-honours decision had gone the other way, it would have damaged the Labour party and badly rocked Brown's premiership.

Jonathan Freeland

Damning Stuff from Mark Field MP

Conservative Home have a post from Mark Field MP which is a pretty damning verdict of the by-election campaign in Ealing Southall. Here are some extracts - (to read the whole article click here)

I believe that our by-election campaign in Ealing Southall may have done lasting damage to the Party’s outreach work in the British Asian Communities.

...actions betrayed a failure by our Party to treat sensitively the potentially explosive racial divisions within Ealing Southall.

...in spite of a frenetic and energetic PR campaign, our vote effectively flatlined at 22.5% - and this in a seat where in the 50 years to 1997 the Conservative share of the vote never dipped below 30%.

Someone's not towing the party line today... doubt he'll be the last.

The Cannablogs 20th July 2007

So it appears they all do it and no one cares. So little do we care in fact that the whole political blogosphere has had their penny's worth!

I don't care either really - though it is a nosey interest that we all seem to have. It certainly won't change my views on the individuals concerned or of the government as a whole. With the exception of Alistair Darling - are they sure they got this right? Darling smoking a spliff? I reckon he this is worst type of spin yet under New Labour - "Darling isn't that boring, he was bonging it down at University!" Can't see it myself.

It also amazes me how they all tried but either didn't like it or never did it again because they saw had bad it was. No one cares -but if you're going to "confess" at least tell the whole truth!

Maybe I'm reading too much in to this, but I get the feeling this is the prelude to something else - though not sure what. Possibly getting it all out in the open for the government before an expose of a certain opposition figure... perhaps? Time will tell...

Anyway, I do hope they've all stopped now - I can't think of anything worse than seeing a smoke filled room of giggling politicians containing the likes of Hazel Blears, Ruth Kelly and Andy Burham eating copious amounts of chocolate to quench their munchies. What a horrible thought.

Cannabis matters

Newsrooms across London are filled with the sound of a lively debate about how much the home secretary's "confession" to using cannabis matters. Some argue that no one cares anymore. Others that many beyond the liberal metropolitan set do care passionately. Some that it shows she's in touch. Others that she's a hypocrite.

Nick Robinson

Labour, the Tories and Cannabis

Few things in life are safe for all of the people, all of the time. Even traces of nuts in a restaurant meal can kill those unfortunate enough to suffer from certain allergies.

And sure, cannabis is a mind-altering substance. Some medical studies reportedly show that prolonged heavy use can result in psychosis. With no relevant expertise in the subject, I’m happy to take the specialists’ word for it. But alcoholism can – and in countless cases every year, does - also have that effect.

Dave’s Part

The Politics of Pot

The Home Secretary has just told Sky News that she smoked cannabis as an Oxford student over a quarter of a century ago.

My instinctive reaction to Jacqui Smith's revelation was 'so what'-- a view shared, I suspect, by most people.

Adam Boulton

.and they inhaled

So, Jacqui Smith isn't the only midnight toker in the government - Alastair Darling, Andy Burnham, Ruth Kelly (RUTH KELLY???), Hazel Blears have all joined the roll-up call with Vernon Coaker, Patsy Hewitt, Caroline Flint and Tony McNulty.

Political Hack UK

Gordon Scores

The Tories are predictably fuming about the fact that Gordon Brown has succeeded in re-focusing attention on the issue of politicians' drug-taking pasts, first by pledging to look again at the reclassification of cannabis and then by persuading Home Secretary Jackie Smith to fess up to having a toke at university.

Paul Linford

Smoke and mirrors

Here we go again, another politician forced by our stupid laws to say that drugs are wrong and unpleasant.

Sue Blackmore

Crimebusters go to pot in a haze of cannabis smoke

The tragic consequences of what can happen when someone smoked cannabis 25 years ago were there for all to see in the Commons yesterday. I refer, of course, to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary. She had come to tell us about the Government’s crime reduction strategy. I regret to report that she was forgetful, confused and, once or twice, very close to having a fit of the giggles. Perhaps she no longer feels the need to hide the effects. Who knows? Clearly she has an addictive personality.

Ann Treneman