Showing posts with label Cameron. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cameron. Show all posts

Change? What Change?

Friday, 10 September 2010

Anyone who thought some semblance of sanity would return to government if they voted Conservative at the GE had better think again.

Last March I wrote about Mindspace, a discussion document prepared for the last government by the Institute for Government and signed off by the head of the civil service, Gus O'Donnell.

Cameron has a Behavioural Insight Team ('The Nudgers') on his staff and seems set to take up the policies advocated. We already know how keen he is on the 'Red Tory' theories of Phillip Blonde and this just confirms my worst suspicions.

This isn't what a government is for. The primary role of government is to represent the people and defend the nation (which they're spectacularly failing to do).   As far as I can tell there is little difference between Labour nannying and Conservative nudging. LEAVE US ALONE!

The IfG, which has charitable status, has published a new report about increasing the effectiveness and accountability of quangos. The report starts from the premise that quangos are 'A Good Thing'.  'Nuff said!

Another indication that all's not well with the coalition comes from the Health Minister, Anne Milton, who has defended last year's £7m spend by the FSA on nannying adverts telling us what to eat - how to cook a turkey, eat an apple, drink water - HERE.
Cross-posted
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What Has Europe... etc?

Friday, 27 August 2010

Surprise, surprise, there's some disquiet within the EU at the moment; I don't know how these muppets ever thought such a project would work.  For muppets read delusional and traitorous b@st@rds.

Poland isn't happy; the Czech Republic isn't happy; neither is Hungary nor Slovakia.  And those are just the governments.  Germany is squabbling with France over Sarkozy's proposal to create a designated EU humanitarian relief fund (The European Union Natural Disaster Rapid Relief Fund - EUNDRRF.  Is anyone managing to keep track of all these abbreviations?)

I think the only government not making waves at the moment is our own - perhaps Cameron, like Blair, sees himself as a future President.  Let's see what he does with the EU's proposal to raise the British contribution to their budget to £10.3bn by 2013.

EU Foreign Minister, Cathy Ashton, is to speak on behalf of the EU at the UN.  Apparently Cameron won a 'concession' here - she'll only be allowed to speak in the General Council and not the Security Council.  It always goes the same way - give a centimetre and they take a kilometre.

Speaking of kilometres, road pricing across Europe, "for the sake of the environment", seems to be on the cards but that shouldn't come as a surprise given the number of surveillance cameras already lining our roads.

I think I've already mentioned Italy's proposal to extend expulsion (aka deportation) to EU nationals as well as the Roma in France but it's worth repeating if only to draw attention to the way politicians play with words.

Scotland and Norway aren't too happy either.  They're threatening Iceland with legal action over mackerel fishing rights.

It pays to riot in the EU says Evans-Pritchard and I think he has a point. Ireland, which abided by the rules, is paying more for its borrowings than Greece, which did not.

Thanks to Open Europe for this link.  Five activists from the group DĂ©sobĂ©issance Civile Belgique occupied a crane in the centre of Brussels to protest against the Lisbon Treaty, which they said "rejects the European member states and has been ratified without consulting the citizens". They attached a banner to the crane criticising the "antidemocratic movement" of the EU. They also argued that no referendum has been held on the euro and that EU President Herman Van Rompuy was elected without elections.  Good for them - that's five more up a crane in Brussels than there are in Great Britain.

Open Europe also reports that the EU wants to set up a database to fight "radicalisation", noting that it should target not just terrorists, but also the far left, the far right, and anti-globalisation activistsavatars: Animated Images: <br>Middle Finger

My eye and Betty Martin  "EU citizens favour stronger European economic governance. 75% of  Europeans are in favour of giving the EU a stronger role in the co-ordination of member states' economic and budgetary policies."

The German Constitutional Court has strengthened the ECJ and Lisbon Treaty.   "EU decisions may only be checked if European institutions seriously overstep their powers" .  I wonder what 'Common Purpose' is in German?

This looks promising:  86m euros and 750 'citizens'  could "launch a devastating cyber attack on the EU."     It's time to raid the piggy-bank, folks.

Other Sources:
New Europe
Euractiv
EU Observer
Heise.de
Open Europe
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The New Govt & Our Armed Forces

Friday, 11 June 2010





It's hard to be completely objective about the outcome of Cameron's visit to the troops in Afghanistan but I get the impression he was more welcomed than Brown ever was.  Like the rest of us, the Forces are listening to the words and waiting to see the follow-through action but there is a sense of optimism that, this time, it might be different.

Blair and Brown blithely sent the country to war with no thought for manpower, funding or equipment and then when problems arose, they lied and covered-up, thinking of their own political reputations and their 'legacies' rather than the welfare of our troops.  Even the ineffectual Bollox Bob Ainsworth has decided the coast is clear enough for him to come out and criticise past defence policies.

I doubt Cameron & Co will go down the same route and so far he's made some encouraging noises.

"That is why we came here. That is why we cleared away those training  camps. If we left tomorrow, those training camps could come back  tomorrow, because today the Afghans aren't yet ready to look after their  own security. As soon as they are ready – and you are helping to train  them to be ready – then we can leave and go home."

Something else would help too and that's the Afghanis themselves.  If, instead of leaving their country and letting someone else fight their wars, they stayed & played a more positive role in cleaning up their politics, getting rid of the warlord mentality and building the foundations of a modern state, we'd all be out of there a lot quicker.  It's time to sort out the bumper poppy harvests too and stop the drugs trafficking.  If GMO crops are such a wonderful blessing for mankind then let Monsanto plant up Afghanistan with them, for free, as a humanitarian gesture to replace the poppy fields and give the farmers a living wage.

There still seems to be confusion over a British role in clearing Taliban-infested Kandahar.  Depending which paper you read and which day of the week it is, we're either going or we're not.  The latest is we're not but we might be.  The Sec of State for Defence, Liam Fox, says we're not but US Gen Stanley McChrystal is hinting we might.   He's also laying the ground for a longer stay in Afghanistan than any British politician wants.

Speaking at a NATO meeting in Brussels, he said: "I do think that it  will happen more slowly than we had originally intended.  It's  more important we get it right than we get it fast."
He said he  would know by the end of the year "whether it's progressing", but added:  "I don't know whether we'll know whether it is decisive."

One thing Cameron should do asap is speak to Obama - not about his unhelpful BP rhetoric - but about this:  US calls again for UK/Argentina talks.  The sovereignty of the Falklands is non-negotiable and it's about time Obama showed the quality of statesmanship we expect from the USA.   Cameron really should have nipped this one in the bud by now.



Cross-posted
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My Goat's Been Got

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

The long grass of democracy

I'd hoped that this coalition would grow on me.  I was waiting for the action, not the words because we all know that words mean only what the politicians want them to mean - see Clegg's sudden discovery that what the Libdems and the Conservatives meant by 'Big Society' were the the same thing after all and that they really shouldn't have been arguing about it in the run-up to the election, oh goodness me no, we're all friends now.

I didn't like Clegg before and I like him even less now.  He's an in-the-pocket, paid-for, dyed-in-the-wool EU f/wit and that, by extension, means he doesn't tell the truth.  Like all British politicians over the decades he doesn't tell the truth about the government stance on the EU; the government pursue their own agenda for their own reasons while telling the people that it doesn't really mean anything and to go back to sleep and not worry our little heads about it - this is big boys' stuff.  I wonder what successive generations of politicians have been promised in return for selling the country down the river?  I wonder if Ted Heath died a happy man?

The other thing I don't like about Clegg is how he seems to have taken over Carswell and Hannan's idea of the Grand Repeal Bill for himself and his Party so they will get any kudos if (big 'if') anything of any consequence is actually repealed.

Cameron was weak in Opposition and he's weak now - a strong leader of the Conservative Party, sure of his position and a true belief in the principles of the Party, wouldn't have been so quick to fall into bed with a bunch of eco-internationalists who retain a belief in social engineering and wealth redistribution.

The only thing the LibServatives agree on is that Labour's repressive laws have gone too far and need rolling back.  I'll eat my red hat if they do anything about RIPA or the Civil Contingencies Act and as for the Human Rights Act which the Conservatives repeatedly pledged to repeal and put in their election manifesto, well, we can forget that too.  I wouldn't count on changes to the Digital Economy Bill or anti-terror legislation either.  As for cctv, they're not actually taking any of them down they're just saying that any more must be paid for by local councils and that any revenue from them will now be forwarded to central government.

Am I cynical?  You bet.  I have more faith in the new Home Secretary, Theresa May, when she says they're considering repealing Labour's 24-hr licensing laws and taking the decision whether to prosecute or not away from the CPS and giving it back to the Police.  Whoever thought that 24-hr drinking would make the British adopt 'a European cafe culture' should be sectioned.

One other point is that all these 'little nudges' from the Red Tories and the Red LibDems will bring is into line (or, if you prefer, 'harmony') with the grand concept of the EU.  Layer upon layer of bureaucracy with everything driven by 'localism' but all that does is drive actual, real power away from the people to an unelected body in Brussels.  Nothing will get rid of the fact that we are ruled from Brussels, whether we elect our Police Chiefs or not, or have local petitions about our MP.  I've written before about the likes of Hannan and Carswell being 'useful idiots' - I'd rather not believe it but when their ideas dovetail nicely with the overall scheme for the EU, you can't really blame me.

I've just remembered  something else.  Who remembers when Clegg said that the Conservative Party in Europe was allied to a bunch of 'nutters and homophobes' since it left the EPP?

The leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt, wants to abolish the nation state.  He wants a 'United States of Europe' - taking over responsibility for justice and security policy, taxation and creating 'a European army'.  The LibDems are also in bed with the Feminist Initiative from Sweden - one of the party's policies is to abolish marriage and create ' genderneutral' names.  Then we have the Latvians - one of its leaders equated gays to paedophiles and the party regards homosexuals as 'degenerates'.   By Clegg's own reasoning he's not only nutty and homophobic but hypocritical too.  I wonder how long it will be before Cameron's Conservatives re-join the EPP?

The upshot of all this is that no, I'm not applauding Clegg or Cameron.

References:
Panem et circenses - vote for an English Anthem
Telegraph - Clegg: tell us what should be scrapped
Guardian - Clegg:  democracy shake-up
Daily Mail - Clegg: Human Rights Act
Daily Mail - Clegg: Grand Reform Act
Guardian - Theresa May speaking to the Police Federation
Old Andrew Pierce article
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Looking For A Job

Sunday, 14 March 2010


I'm an intelligent guy who acknowledges his short-comings and is determined to learn lessons.  I have a pretty wife who cooks jolly good family meals and has a career in her own right.  I'm a pretty messy kind of guy - just like you.  I'm well-versed in PR but could do better and I'm seeking a new appointment in May 2010.  I am currently Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. 

Ethics and morality - negotiable.

Calling England
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More F-F-F-Fabian Tactics

Friday, 19 February 2010

But, this time, they're from the Conservatives:

The row about Cameron's imposed, pre-vetted shortlists is deepening with the release of a 2002 Michael Gove-penned, document entitled: 'Action Plan for Candidate Selection in Safe Seats'.
'Like a conjuror, we'll get more applause if the audience cannot see exactly how the trick is performed...

'There are several reasons why the Party should not publicly proclaim the new methodology.

'The more that the profusion of women, black, Asian or gay candidates appears to be the result of spontaneous open-mindedness on the part of grassroot activists the greater will be the accolades.

'Most Tories loathe political correctness and positive discrimination. If one tries to be 'in your face' about the fact that positive discrimination is taking place activists are much more likely to rebel; a version of 'don't ask, don't tell', is called for.

Mr Cameron is unrepentant and his decision to seize power from local associations, say his friends, is the culmination of the secret plan on how to neuter the party faithful in the country.

Some friends Cameron has there!   I can't believe this man, on whom the voters of the country relied to be strong, decisive and lead the way out of the mire, has been so stupid.

Whoever you like, as long as it's a woman
Cameron scores another bullseye

If Cameron becomes PM after the GE he also intends to make it as hard for the Party to remove him from office as it is for the Labour Party to remove Gordon Brown.  FFS - GET A GRIP CAMERON.

(Click to enlarge)

I think this is being reflected in the opinion polls at the moment which seem more volatile than usual - last week an Angus Reid poll gave the Cons a 14% lead but the one below, from the Sun, has it cut to just 7%:


Cross-posted
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Musings of a Eurosceptic

Saturday, 31 October 2009




What's it called when someone apparently sabotages their own plans?  Calling it 'electoral suicide' might be too strong and 'shooting oneself in the foot' doesn't quite do it justice.  How about 'beating the electorate over the head with conflicting propositions and then sitting back and blaming everyone else when you can't do what you said you would do but you knew that would be the case all along'?

I think that just about sums up Cameron's position on the EU but perhaps 'sabotage' isn't the word, perhaps it's been the art of politicking from the outset.

politic adj 1 said of a course of action: prudent; wise; shrewd. 2 said of a person: cunning; crafty. 3 old use political. See also body politic. verb (also politick) (politicked, politicking) intrans, derog to indulge in politics, especially to strike political bargains or to gain votes for oneself.

After looking at all the evidence M'Lud I conclude that Mr 'same destination; different path' Cameron has always wanted Britain to be in the EU. Ted Heath begged our way into it (I wish he were alive today.  Still, come the revolution we can always dig him up and hang his bones on a gibbet in Parliament Square), Thatcher discovered what it was all about and stood her ground as best she could, John 'Maastricht' Major didn't.

The Trades Unions wanted to join the EU because they saw the EU as giving them more power -  they imagined an EU-wide strike of, eg, postal workers.  I bet they'll be amongst the first on the bonfire of vanities.

The Labour Party, composed as it is of Fabians, ex-Marxists, ex-Trots, and advocates of Common Purpose & Agenda21, have always been sneaky International Socialist backdoor-dogs.  Some are useful idiots and the majority, Miliband, Brown, Balls, Straw et al, will find they are expendable.

Back to Cameron:  In less than twelve months we have gone from this, which was a holding position, to this, when his prevarications were noted by the msm, and this, which we knew would be the outcome.   In fairness, he has always said, "If the Lisbon Treaty has not been ratified by all 27 countries by the time there is a Conservative government, we will hold a referendum."  When pushed, the line has always been, "We will not let matters rest there."

There was never any way on God's earth that the Lisbon Treaty would not be fully ratified by all twenty-seven countries if/when the Conservatives formed a government next May and Cameron knew it, even as he wrote to Vaclav Klaus asking him to delay the Czech signing (nice try, Dave).

We can expect sudden and major changes in our Constitution to become self-evident - things done behind closed doors will come out into the open and why not?  After all, in the words of EU Leaders, this Treaty is the final treaty and the EU won't need another: it is self-amending.  Cameron's promise to put further treaties to the British people is hollow and he knows it.  He must know it because even I know it.  I think I'm right in saying that after Lisbon there's only one way to go back and that's to repeal the the 1972 European Communities Act.

That's the Party I'll vote for - the one that gives the British people a voice because I'm heartily sick of this damned stuff - look below at the Post of the Week from CharonQC or if you're feeling more poetic, read Philip Pullman's powerful statement on the state of our country.

What will it take?  When will GK Chesterton's Silent People speak?

Cross-posted
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Quibbling With Cameron

Sunday, 4 October 2009

It's just a small point but it's stuck in my head. This morning on the Andrew Marr programme:
Marr: ...once it's ratified, what then? And I put it to you that you're not answering because you don't know what to do.
Cameron: ...a very good reason... I don't want to say anything or do anything now that will undermine or prejudice what is happening in other countries where they're still debating whether to ratify this treaty...sensible thing to do... as I said, I don't want to undermine or prejudice those people elsewhere in Europe who are currently debating...
Marr: (interrupting) I don't understand this.
I don't understand it either. If Lisbon can be debated in Germany, Ireland, Czech Republic & Poland at the same time (as it was), where's the harm if Britain debates it as well?  It's a spurious and lame excuse if ever I heard one. DC needs to up his game.

What he said is a far cry from: "I will give this cast-iron guarantee: If I become PM a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations."

Much more was said about 'Europe' so I'll post the video if it turns up on YouTube.
UPDATE:  Here is a short extract:

Cross-posted from Calling England
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No sympathy

Monday, 3 August 2009


Another 17 Conservative MPs are likely to step down at the next general election amid plunging morale at Westminster, according to Eric Pickles, the party chairman.

Thirteen Tory MPs announced their intention to quit in the aftermath of The Daily Telegraph's expenses disclosures , but Mr Pickles said that "in total we might be looking at 30-ish Conservative-held seats" becoming available.

A spate of resignations among long-serving members would leave the party still needing to select candidates in about 100 constituencies ahead of the election, which is expected next year.

David Cameron has been accused of using the expenses scandal to root out backbenchers sceptical of his modernising agenda. He has reopened candidate lists to people with no previous involvement in the party, in an effort to attract outside talent.

Mr Pickles predicted that more MPs – including many with clean expenses records – would choose not to contest their seats.

"Some colleagues have found the process of expenses very wearing and they're very demotivated. They might not have had any problems themselves at all, but maybe they're feeling it's just time to move on," he told The Guardian.


So they are down in the dumps.
Low moral.
Tired and weary.

So if you have done nothing wrong they why be low on the old moral scale??
Is it you have just not been fully exposed yet???

No smoke without fire.
Is it that we now know more. Is it the fact you actually do not like having to account for it all?
Is it you know the gravy train is stopping at the next station and you must get off?

Goodbye, dont let the door hit you on the way out.
No sympathy at all.

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Corrupt And Dirty EU

Tuesday, 21 July 2009


The EU: an iron fist in a velvet glove. An anthropomorphised EU would look like Peter Mandelson. It's corrupt, sleazy, unaccountable and undemocratic.

Marta Andreasen, who was elected as a Ukip MEP for South East England last month, has been blocked from becoming vice-chairman of the European Parliament's budgetary committe. They even broke convention on the allocation of committee posts by demanding a vote by secret ballot to do it.

Andreasen, the European Commission's former chief accountant, was fired in 2004 by Lord Kinnock after she publicly claimed there was a £172 million discrepancy between two sets of Brussels accounts. Kinnock accused her of "disloyalty and breach of trust" after she went to MEPs with her concerns.

Inge Graessle, a senior German Christian Democrat MEP, admitted that Andreasen had been opposed for the senior post because of her 'trouble-making' past. "The role she played in the past, what I feel was a certain scandalising of issues, is not really one we want endorsed by her becoming vice-chairman," she said.

"This is a message about how much they fear me. But I still know what I know and they will not stop me," Mrs Andreasen said.

Source: Daily Telegraph


Also, before I forget again, here's a link I've been meaning to post for ages:

Petition against the nomination of Tony Blair as President of the EU

Sarkozy is much more luke-warm towards Blair's candidacy than he once was and seems to prefer the Spanish Gonzalez these days but we should never underestimate the vaunting ambition of the Blair-Mandelson team. Machiavellian back-room deals are being struck all over Europe in anticipation of full ratification of the Lisbon Treaty and we still don't know which side of the fence Cameron will climb down from. It won't hurt to sign it - just in case.


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Cameron's fuzzy foreign aid policy

Monday, 13 July 2009

Cameron's speech on international development funding failed to make a case for government-sponsored aid - let alone a convincing case.



If a government feels so strongly about giving aid, then one would think that it would have specific objectives, in each case - such as the development of industries, reduction in despotism, educating people on sound economic principles (preferably the sound money principles of Austrian Economics).

Why, then, does Cameron advocate "MyAid", where we get to choose the organisations/countries which receive our aid?

We can do that ourselves - with no help and no costly government administration involved.

If Cameron wants to help the Third World, then it should start by renegotiating CAP, under threat of our refusal to subsidise it. CAP subsidises EU countries to produce goods that are far more cheaply produced in the Third World.

The money we save from CAP can be diverted to helping the Third World - at no extra costs to ourselves. And the Third World gets a fairer deal.

Cameron needs to think again.
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MSM & Tories Plays Catch-Up

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Probably the best thing about the upsurge in blogging is being able to read the wide variety of views on offer. For instance, I would never ever be able to find the time to read all the newspapers every day but by having them available to read online is great and I can probably get through them in about an hour and include some foreign press as well. On top of that are the personal politics blogs, mostly written by ordinary people, and those who post comments. It all adds up to a fairly comprehensive overview which you wouldn't get if you just, say, read one newspaper and listened to one tv news channel every day.

Two things stand out and smack you in the face: (1) msm news often seems like history because it's already been covered by independent bloggers; (2) by searching & sifting a blogger can often get much closer to the truth of a matter and so highlight an inherent political bias in an organisation.

Three words have been zipping around the blogs for well over a year now and they are:
**Scorched Earth Policy**

It's been a constant theme, at first tentative and bewildered, now accompanied by howls of outrage and advocating retribution on those responsible. Where do you think the cries of treason, cartoons of heads on pikes, witty and obscene videos and mock-ups have come from?

Well, the msm and Cameron's Conservatives have finally picked up on it: However, Team Cameron is deeply worried that Labour is pursuing what one of his aides called a "scorched earth" policy

It's a good article and takes a fairly in-depth look at how Labour are tying the hands of an incoming government.

I find it hard to believe that supposedly-intelligent MPs of all stripes haven't given this thought before. I know the Cons have had their internal problems since 1997 but nevertheless I think they've been weak and lacked the courage necessary to confront the government in any meaningful way.

The Conservatives probably will form the next government and the problems they helped to create as a result of ineffectually challenging Labour's policies will finally be theirs, as they've been ours for many years now.

Cameron, we're watching you and we want to see a true commitment to change together with a Grand Repeal Act of all Labour's lousy laws, directives and regulations in the first month. If you don't listen, it will be more of this:

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