Ind Home launches today

Unlike LabourList, which is shite, IndHome.com is a place for debate on Independence-related politics and, of course, the European Union.

One very interesting article which caught my eye was the hypocrisy of the Conservative European Election campaign. I suspect it doesn't mention their massive support in Brussels for deeper integration nor the fact that it was a Tory MEP, Van Orden, who lead the drive for Bulgarian criminal gangs to have free run of Britain.

It's focusing on the Lisbon Treaty, because that's the only drum they have to bang if they don't reveal how fucking awful they really are. And even on that they're duplicitous:

So significant is the Lisbon treaty that David Cameron refuses to pledge a retrospective referendum, or even its repeal, should the treaty already be in force when The Conservatives take the keys to Number 10!

Mr Cameron again refused to say whether the Conservatives would hold a referendum if they won the next election but the treaty had already been ratified by all the member states.

He simply repeated the previous formula that they would “not let matters rest there”.
Well, I’m afraid that “not letting matters rest” is not good enough. Be honest with the people and explain exactly what the Conservative Party’s stance is on the issue. The voters deserve an unequivocal statement on what voting Conservative means.

Go read the rest.

Some things never change...

Readers may remember the rather amusing story in the News of the World

The evening our reporter arrived in Brussels Wise demonstrated how generously the daily allowance stretched by dining at posh restaurant Jacques on taxpayers' cash.

After a slap-up feed of herring to start, followed by steak and a whole bottle of wine to himself the podgy, bearded bon viveur chortled: "I've spent whatever-it-was pounds tonight and I'll still make a humungous profit. Thank you very much!"

Wise-who boasts of having a cellar of 1,000 bottles of wine at home-added: "I have a simple philosophy. You and your parents are paying for me. Sorry, tough!"

Well, it seems that some things never change. From Gary Cartwright, Wise's staff member in the European Parliament, this little e-mail found its way onto the internet:

You will be familiar with the tradition of celebrating the start of a new week in Tom Wise's office (2 M 115 - Brandt building)...

Tonight, at 6pm, we will have our last get together, and we hope that you will join us for some very special, and very old, rather fine wines, dating back as far as 1960! .... and of course a bite to eat.

We look forward to seeing you......

I presume that's some of the wine picked up:

At 2pm he sauntered off to a private appointment. In the afternoon he attended meetings on biofuel and windfarms but left before the end. Then it was time for a shopping trip, where he splashed out on six bottles of red wine and huge bags of crisps.

Or maybe on another shopping trip?

All right thinking UKIPpers must have been so glad that Farage and Whittaker insisted that he was kicked out, despite protestations and continual bullshit from certain other MEPs shrouded in jealousy.

political language

Madame Trixy is getting a bit narked at the use by our media, particularly the BBC, of the phrase 'European Union' rather than 'Europe'.

Unless, for example, this new hyped up illness stops at political borders, the correct term is the geographical one. Far be it for me to suggest that the BBC is so intent on our continuing and deepening membership of the EU that they want to make the two synonymous, permanent and irreversable...

A reminder

The Sun today have jumped on the bandwagon and launched a campaign to let all Ghurkas stay, and then will presumably claim all the credit if there are any changes in the rules.

However, this kind of comment without justification makes me spit with rage:

The Home Office decision came weeks after Romanian rapist Ali Majlat admitted committing vile sex attacks so he could be sent to a British jail, learn English and live in comfort. He got his wish with an indeterminate sentence. Yet brave Gurkhas are to be sent home.

That is because Romania is in the EU.

The PM cannot throw this Romanian rapist out, indeed he couldn't stop him coming into the country because of his criminal convictions. It's only people like Geert Wilders who are excluded on grounds of national security because they have an opinion on something which the government doesn't approve of.

Now, can I just reiterate that Labour, Tory, Lib Dem and Greens all want to stay in the EU. They are all in favour of EU expansion, including Turkey, and are all aware that because of Qualified Majority Voting this will not make legislation more difficult to pass. They might use that as a reason if they're pretending to want the EU to have less control but it's not true.

So that means more people like Majlat will be able to stay here and take advantage of our soft, bloated welfare state which encourages people not to work and gives those who have done wrong an easy ride.

I also can't remember when the Sun told people that we should leave the EU either. I do hope that they are well aware of EU legislation if they are writing about the consequences of it.

I am sure their defence editor does, after all his father is a Lib Dem MEP and he himself has said that he is in favour of an EU army. Bet he doesn't tell that to the troops when he's trying to be their best friend in Helmand.

MPs expenses - a new window of opportunity

What a surprise. After three years troughing Tom Wise has been charged 38 days before the European Elections. I'm sure our darling state, who consider membership of the EU to be a matter of national security, had nothing to do with it. Still, at least UKIP can say that they get rid of their bad apples, unlike other parties.

But now Gordon Brown has made an announcement that he wants MPs to clock in and out, just like MEPs.

Gordon Brown was blasted yesterday after rushing out plans to clean up MPs' expenses that could see them pocket up to £260 a day extra just for turning up.

The Prime Minister wants to introduce a Brussels-style daily allowance system which could see them get as much as £174 a day for accommodation and £86 for meals on top of their £64,000 basic salary.

MEPs of course who were subject to considerable attack by journalists last year following a secret report the European Parliament refused to make public. The leader and Chief Whip of the Tories in Brussels lost their positions although not their salaries, of course.

Den Dover was the one who I think must have had a dad who was the judge in his case. Michael Lea of The Sun caught him signing in at 7 in the morning before following him catching the eurostar home, and if memory serves me correctly took a lovely shot of him with his mouth open.

Now, Dear Old Den took the case to court saying that he was paid that day because he was up until the early hours working hard. What can you say to that? I seem to recall Godfrey Bloom writing at the time saying many the time he caught the lift, bleary eyed at 4 in the morning after working for hours on amendments for tractor brake lights. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

So should these proposals go through - although it looks highly unlikely - at least it opens a whole new opportunity for journalists to camp outside offices or barriers catching out MPs signing in and then buggering off.

And that's without even monitoring what they're up to.

Because of course, now 75% of our laws come from Brussels, it can't be a huge amount. Maybe whilst these expenses are being altered they should also cut the salaries to show a true representation of how much power they now have? Okay, you'd have to get them to admit that we've handed over the vast majority of our law making abilities to a group of fanatical civil servants, but MPs are nothing if not honest, loyal and true.

And just for good measure.

Although nothing should surprise me...

this does!

All this stuff about Dolly Draper rather takes my mind tumbling back to my time as a student. Draper, then the National President of the Young Fabians was giving a talk to the York University Labour Students. I as the Chairman of the Student Tory association ambled along to hear what was being said and ended up in the bar afterwards (Vanbrugh if I recall).

Well the Conversation went on until past closing time and fascinated by experiencing for the first time both the moral vacuity at the heart of the growing New Labour project, (this must have 1992) and its extraordinary will to power and ambition I invited Draper back to my house to continue the discussion and kip over - he had missed the last train to London.

Go read the rest!

Things to be thankful for.

It's been a joyous few days for those of us whose opinion of politics and politicians had descended so low they were now firmly resident in the great London and Metropolitan.

Let's take for granted that the departure of someone whose job appeared to be a cross between Goebbels and Himmler is a good thing: something which has been backed up in a truly wonderful article by Alice Miles in the Times.

Some of the words that tumbled yesterday from the mouths of Labour former victims of the No 10 briefers were more suited to people subject to chemical attack than to mere political hostility.

“The most lethal attack machine in the history of British politics,” said one; “they have polluted the core of British politics for years.” “Licensed to kill, by Gordon,” said another.

“Red-on-red action,” muttered a third. “These e-mails are the minutest tip of the iceberg. For years and years and years it has not been the Labour Party’s political enemies who have been on the receiving end, it’s been people in the Labour Party."

Why did they let him get away with it for so long, and will anything truly change? Aren't whispers in corridors the life blood of political hacks, without which a paper's political pages consists of tweaked PA copy almost identical to its rivals?

In economics, the model which would take place in our utopia is one of perfect competition. To reach this ambrosial economic situation requires unhindered access to information. Such a thing is hardly able to happen in the world of politics and yet, knowing what is happening, what the people we pay are doing with our money and what MPs and the government actually get up to is something that everyone should be able to access.

The developments of last weekend really have hit the establishment hard. It follows hot on the heels of the internet informing the main stream media that, actually, we did rather like the speech made by Dan Hannan in the European Parliament and perhaps they'd wake up?

The not-so-whispered concerns among hacks is that how did Guido get the e-mails before they did? Why was he the first port of call? Sunday papers in particular need those big scoops brought about when someone calls them with a scandal, or a video or some e-mails. They pay thousands of pounds for them knowing that it will draw in the punters to buy their weekly rag. It's their life blood.

And now some upstart blogger who hasn't done a graduate trainee scheme or worked on a regional paper has been running rings around not only the seemingly terminally foolish Dolly Draper and the political editors of the nationals but magnificently called the bluff of these spin doctors.

I can see why they're concerned, but the running of this country and the actions of the people who do it is too important for the information not to be published. How dare people being paid from the public purse spend their time thinking up such deceptions? How low must one sink to try to divert democracy in such a way by seeking to alter the view voters have of an opposition party with such lies?

The internet has many pitfalls, but the quick, cheap dissemination of important information is one of the reasons we should revel in our new found power over people who seek to control the information we have access to.

If economics flourishes with information, then politics - an industry where the abuse of power can dominate opinions, actions and pay cheques, will surely benefit as people realise that they aren't safe from the voter finding out.

And with the internet and blogs in particular, those who stand to lose the most can't lunch or bully everyone.

Greens: the Watermelon syndrome

I know it's all very trendy to recycle and catch the train and put shit rather than chemicals on your vegetables, but as people like The Devil have pointed out, there is a dangerous side to this green fanaticism.

Here is a prime example. About 12 minutes into this programme, the Leader of the Green Party and MEP for the South East, Caroline Lucas, responds to questioning from UKIP candidate David Campbell Bannerman, saying that flying a lot is the same as stabbing someone.

Honestly.

She also says, earlier in the programme, that we shouldn't build airports because it encourages people to leave the country to go on holiday, spending their hard earned government tokens abroad, and that is a bad thing.

The Greeniewatch website point out:

The modern environmental movement arose out of the wreckage of the New Left. They call themselves Green because they're too yellow to admit they're really Reds. So Lenin's birthday was chosen to be the date of Earth Day.

These people are standing in the Euro Elections where they will rejoin the group headed by Danny The Red. It doesn't just stop at recycling, they want to control how you live.

You have been warned.

UPDATE

The Mail have the story too.

Votes for convicts?

The European Union wanting prisoners to have the vote has been circling around for a while, but it seems as though our representatives in the federal discussions decided to bend over and drop their trousers last night.

THOUSANDS of rapists, killers and ?paedophiles will get the right to vote after ministers caved in to pressure from Europe, it emerged last night.

Justice Minister Michael Wills said the ?Government would change the law to allow most prisoners to have their say at elections.

The plans could see as many as 28,800 criminals serving less than four years being treated the same as law-abiding members of the public. Offenders getting the vote could include those guilty of manslaughter and terrorist offences.

This is an absolute disgrace. Could I just raise a point with our delightful government and highlight that going to prison is not just about removing crazy people from the way of law abiding citizens, it is also supposed to be a punishment.

In a democracy there are rights and responsibilities. If you aren't responsible, e.g by breaking the law, then you lose some of your rights. Rights are part of a balance which makes society work. If you want to ensure that you have the right to vote, how about you ensure that you don't break the bloody law?

Breaking into someones house, for example, is a bad thing and quite clearly the wrong thing to do. You have no right to be there, to take things someone else owns, to frighten them, to ruin their property and invade their privacy. You should therefore be punished and locking you up and not letting you vote is fair enough in most people's opinions.

But this proposal is also deeply insulting to women. Now, I know the EU don't particularly like women and they certainly have no respect for them. The patronising attitude emanating from the buildings in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg shows they think that women aren't capable of looking after themselves and need men to help them. They also like to pass damaging legislation to stop them getting employed, such as granting them the potential to bankrupt a small business.

But knowing the fight women went through to get the vote in many countries, to then grant that right to people who break the law is an insult to the memory of those women who won that right. The Suffragettes and also those women who took on the jobs made vacant by men going to fight in the First World War.

So women, let's not have these guys desecrate the memory of those who worked so hard to allow us to participate in democracy. Let's exercise the right we now have and vote against those morons who want us to be run from Brussels and think that law breakers shouldn't be punished.

It's on June 4th and it's easy to do.

Obama and Turkey and Qualified Majority Voting

I guess it must be easier for the USA to only have to concern themselves with one country rather than 27, but I don't see why President Obama should start saying that Turkey should be in the EU.

The president also reiterated that the US government strongly supported Turkey's bid to become a member of the European Union.

"Europe gains by diversity of ethnicity, tradition and faith - it is not diminished by it," he said to a round of applause from the audience. "And Turkish membership would broaden and strengthen Europe's foundation once more."

Perhaps Barroso, now the EU is considered 'a country' and is present at the G20 - watch this space for their seat at the IMF which was included in the Finance Minister's Statement last month - and Brown had a word with him in London?

It's timely before the European Elections in any case. For Obama is supporting the position held by Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and Greens that Turkey should become a full member of the EU meaning that they get to trough at the pot of money countries like the UK pay massive amounts into. It also means that their population of 110million plus can have free movement across all borders.

And how penetrable are Turkey's borders? Only 10 per cent of the country is actually in Europe with the rest in the Middle East, right next to Iraq. Will it not just end up being a passageway for more migration on the already cracked nipple of the British Welfare State?

I know the Tory line in the past has been that if you have more countries in the EU then the pool becomes wider and more shallow, but given that that was an A-Level question in 1980 and was also used as a reason for Greece to join, it's a straw man because it's simply not true.

I wonder how many people in Britain are even aware of the prospect? Given the general ignorance and lack of coverage given the monstrous state, something I'm sure our politicians actively encourage, will they know the implications and even who is in favour and who is against it?

I see today that a top British judge has spoken out against the European Court of Human Rights, saying that it imposes laws like a federal court. Well, that's because it views itself as a federal court, just like the European Court of Justice. EU law supersedes UK law, although I once again raise the question of how many people actually know that.

Bring on the campaign, I say. Let's have debate and honest and information making its way towards the electorate.

And if Geoffrey Van Driver starts campaigning in the Eastern Region, blathering on about border controls, I will personally get a van, a loud speaker and a lot of leaflets so they know about his actions with Bulgarian entry to the EU.

UPDATE

The usually very sensible Alex Massie has completely the wrong end of the stick.

the EU has been a boon to freedom and there's much to be said for expanding its borders to give more people the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of membership.

This on the day that the internet snooping directive was launched!

Today, an EU directive comes into force which will compel all internet service providers to retain information from all emails and website visits. Data from phone calls and text messages will also be stored and made available to the government, its agencies and local authorities. Having seen how local officials have abused anti-terrorist laws, it's not hard to imagine the damage to privacy that will ensure.

These powers were brought in by a statutory instrument and so were not debated by either house. The accepted view is that the Home Office now bypasses parliament by lobbying Europe directly in the knowledge that the measures they desire will go undebated and unscrutinised, then be smuggled into British law as a European directive.

It is difficult to think of anything that makes the House of Commons look more feckless or more redundant.

Also I would like to raise a point of order regarding the concept that it will be nigh on impossible for decisions to be made.

Er

QUALIFIED MAJORITY VOTING?

ANYONE?

Lessons in the EU. That's what we need.

Round Up

Well done to everyone who isn't currently having a real downer with the news and the written word, and especially to those in this week's Brit Blog Round Up

I'm off to organsise my shoes.

Flint: the sham minister

I'm still furious about this story

Caroline Flint, the Minister for Europe, has admitted that she has not read the Lisbon Treaty, the controversial document which codifies the rules of the European Union.

And yet Ms Flint has no problem sticking her pert little snout in the trough and making sure those voters who she lied to in the manifesto - that little chestnut about the British people being able to have a vote on their future - pay for her to like the high live.

The report out this week showing the amount our MPs claim has the Europe Minister on £158,773 all in, the second highest in her county of South Yorkshire.

So the woman clearly can read, she's just decided that she'd rather read the rules on how she can shaft her constituents rather than doing her job.

Because not reading it and then telling the public how fucking great it is is a dereliction of duty and it's an abomination to our parliamentary democracy and whatever standards we are supposed to have in British politics.

At the last election there were two other people who wanted that job and yet it went to someone who cares so little about the role she's been given to do, the lavish expenses, second houses, plush offices and cars, that she just didn't bother. She's such a slave to the party line she'd rather polish her nails and swish her hair and just let it all pass by than actually check to see if what she is saying bears any resemblance to the truth.

The woman is an embarrassment and a sham. I've fucking read it, why couldn't she?

A question over that pay rise

Right, so MPs have given themselves a 2.33 per cent payrise when unemployment keeps on rising because this government have fucked up the economy?

What really irritates me about this (one of the things) is that student loans still attract the old RPI interest rate of some 4.4 per cent according to my last bill. Now the real interest rate - not this EU regulated CPI bullshit - is at bugger all. Yet not only have the government not replied to Bob Spink's question about this but they've used the reason they gave as to why they were charging the RPI rather than the CPI (because wages were based on it) but they've ignore it with their own pay rise. If they'd stuck to theor own rules they wouldn't have a payrise.

Now, they have access to far too much public money already, but why, when so many people hate them, do they continue?

Britblog roundup 215: Harry Potter and the YouTube video

Apologies for the late arrival of this weeks Britblog and for the fairly surly and rushed tone it will be delivered in: I'm ill, and I hate being ill. I also have a cat sitting on my keyboard.

The big story this week was that people finally worked out there was a Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. It's true, chaps, but don't tell the MSM or they might get upset. At least the world has blogs, ready to catapult their latest darling into the stratosphere.

Young Dan Hannan was the man who caused all the rumpus, and the video was praised by all and sundry forcing even the national media to comment on it. Sort of. Trixy has heard it's caused all sorts of goings on within Tory HQ and a certain seat in Woking which may have a new Tory candidate. But it's all unsubstantiated tittle-tattle and, Lord knows, I'm not one for gossip myself.

The other big story was the news that our beloved Home Secretary, fond of a kebab herself, has apparently been paying for her husband to have some of his own. One wonders how long it will be before a paper with a large circulation actually decides what the long game is and has a sensible campaign to reform MPs expenses rather than the usual drivel?

Sticking with lady vixen parts for one more entry...

Moving swiftly on from that unpleasant image of two-bellies and her husband to some other stories gracing the blogosphere this week.

It seems that Richard Curtis can’t bring himself to stick to historical facts in case he upsets some of his chums.

Meanwhile, go read Craig Murray’s most important post he’s ever written. His words, not mine. And it probably is regardless of whether you’re in the FCO or some guy on the street who has to pay for it all.

Someone’s defending Eric Pickles! He was shit on Question Time and he owns two houses at a time when repossessions are increasing and young people can’t afford to buy even one house. So what’s the solution? Go read it and find out.

What a start to the Formula One season! Can Ross Brawn represent us at the G20 instead of Brown, I wonder? At least he has a proven track record of success...

Scrambling away from that costly PR exercise to a slightly cheaper and more amusing one: Lynne Featherstone has a titter-inducing video and possibly too much time on her hands considering she’s a Member of Parliament. Not the blog, no: MPs telling us what they're up to is a novel thing and I like it, just go and look. I seem to recall seeing something on ‘You’ve been framed’ or similar when I was a wee Trixy.

A lady with mental health problems: no, not the PMT stuff which can be solved with a daily milk (I really want a dairy milk now) but the stuff that needs decent and urgent assistance. Alas, as I have experienced myself, the NHS does rather hamper this.

There’s a huge gulf between a dairy milk and scotch eggs. The former I want, the latter is making an ill Trixy feel worse. If you’re not a fan, there’s also a nice book review and another example of an incompetent council.

A quick hop down the deli counter and we’ve moved from scotch eggs to circumcision. It doesn’t sound that nice, but chaps, at least it’s not done with a spoon as some young girls have to experience in Africa. (that’s not a nice video, by the way)

Hammersmith Bridge: It’s green, it crosses a river and it has one of those great stories about British people in the face of adversity.

The Daily Maybe on the problems that social networking sites can cause. A question: If you twitter, does that make you a twit?

His Grace has a truly excellent post on the MCB and the astonishing news that The Little Chipmunk has done something right. Gosh. Whilst we're talking about the MCB and their unpleasant deputy head, Heresy Corner also has something to say.

Curly dips his toe into the world of uniforms albeit in a different way to Mr Smith of Reddich.

Someone almost as stroppy as me has a thing or two to say to the Archbishop.

And finally, because I'm feeling really ill again, one of my favourite blogs with some news on how it might be worth sending your child to private school.

And that's the last time I ask for entries from my fellow britbloggers: there were millions. Sorry to those who wrote wonderful things which I didn't include but I'm about to vomit on the carpet.

Next week Charles is hosting us all. I do hope he remembers the nice biscuits for his premiere.

Pip pip

Trixy

A note on dress codes

I will not have my attire dictated to me by a transient bunch of second rate university drop outs intent on causing trouble and attacking people who have been funding their benefit scrounging lifestyle for the past few decades.

If you start causing trouble because I have a job and you are a moron, I will retaliate.

And I'm quite tough.

The worm that turned

Wow. Dan Hannan's gone viral.

Those of us who've been following 'debates' in the European Parliament initially were wondering how come it was that one speech out of the many hundreds given by decent eurorealist MEPs over the years got people so interested.

Hannan is hardly new to the world of politics and when it comes to people who make forthright speeches in the European Parliament, he's not alone. It's just that the media haven't really got up to speed.

So what was it about this which grabbed the attention and sparked the interest of so many?

I'm going to nail my colours to the mast whilst I throw my hat in the ring and say that it's because he's really the first Tory to actually sound like he would have done anything different.

On the same day as that speech, Hannan's leader David Cameron was making a meaningless speech about the need for a slightly different amount of financial regulation. He'd completely missed the point, of course, but that's because Cameron knows as much about financial regulation as I do about the inner workings of a combustion engine.

The public don't want to hear about the FSA because to the average person, they're an irrelevance. They're self policing grey suited bureaucrats who won't do anything especially different whether it's Brown or Cameron in power. There's no such thing as 'light regulation' and this supposed 'transparency' they've brought about has resulted in such situations as a run on a national bank when a quiet word in a shell-like would have done the job perfectly a few years ago.

Brown - the enemy - was in Strasbourg, the beating heart of our surveillance society and a black hole for democracy and our money. The cameras were on, the world was watching. Stop a moment, Dave, and think about it.

And then something happened: something that millions of people in the UK and beyond have been wanting to hear for a long time. A Conservative politician standing up and telling our unelected Prime Minister that, to paraphrase, he's an economically retarded cretin who views the British people, judging by his behaviour, as fools.

In his interview on Fox news he went even further, saying what millions of people across the country would have loved Cameron to have said: that we want government to do less.

There are three developments I can see which this episode has brought about:
1. People will realise that the European Parliament exists and is worth watching. And it is. My favourite speech is still this one:


2. That the media is no longer a place for a politician with a press release to dominate. The success of two speeches in the European Parliament has become a story in it's own right because despite the media ignoring Hannan and Farage, we the people, we the voters, we the paymasters wanted to know more. The BBC, with their own desks, crews and Europe Editor there, could have led the pack on this. And what did they do instead? They didn't even stay to listen. They've heard it before - just because the rest of us haven't did not appear to matter.

3. The Cameronistas won't be happy. Indeed, young Trixy has already heard of developments within the Tory party ensuring that the young whippersnapper doesn't get above himself. Ignore the fact that he's an intelligent man with a following who is addressing a huge wing of the party virtually alone, this is not the green, left wing agenda that Cameron has worked so hard to achieve.

And Cameron clearly realised when he was running for leader of the Tories that Dan was a man not to be ignored: That tricky EPP pledge did not spring from the mind of a man who thinks that the EU is so important to our economy that he cannot even entertain the idea of an independent and democratic Britain. With Hannan being told by senior party figures that only an MP could be leader of the party this unkept promise was a way of securing the support of a talented and popular figure in the party.

But libertarianism, independence from the EU, a - wait for it - smaller state do not appear to be part of the current package which preaches 'schoolsnhospitals' with the best of the social democrats.

So will a safe seat be winging its way towards our hero?

Unlikely, my whispers tell me.

For while the traditional right wing elements of the party are gleeful at these developments and for someone breaking out of this policy-less, drab straitjacket which Cameron appears to have imposed on his MPs, the powers that be are not.

The subject which split the party in the 90s has reared it's ugly head again. No one can really deny that Cameron wants the EU off the agenda: apart from the Lisbon Treaty it's a sore point and a real divide between the party and the members. But with more and more people aware of a potential leader who breaks the mould we've come to expect and despise from our MPs, how long can that situation remain?

One thing's for sure: Fear the power of YouTube and fear the power of the voter.

Iraq

Look, you don't need a full blown inquiry into Iraq, and certainly not now when the troops are there.

All you need are the minutes from the cabinet meetings because the rest of it is on the internet under 'minutes from UN security council'.

If students can manage it then I fail to see why politicians couldn't.

more financial bullshit from the Conservative Party

From Cameron's speech today:

"Without proper financial regulation, there will be no lasting financial confidence, and without lasting financial confidence, there will be no lasting recovery,"...

"People don't want to abandon markets, they want us to reform markets so they work properly...

"What they want is a sense of order and social responsibility brought to the operation of the financial markets. And that is a task for the modern Conservative Party.

"We are the party of law and order. So we are the party to bring law and order to the financial markets. We are the party of social responsibility. So we are the party to bring social responsibility to the financial markets.

Of course, they were the party who invented the financial regulation in 1986 under Francis Maude.

Godfrey Bloom MEP, who used to be the Chief Executive of Mercury life and worked for many years at TBO investment, was on the advisory panel and said at the time that the regulation wouldn't work.

Ever since then we have seen the collapse of a variety of companies.

I'll paraphrase my conversation with me, because unlike Cameron, Brown and Darling, I like to speak to people who actually know what they are talking about.

"I don't know how they've got the nerve to pontificate on financial regulation when it's perfectly obvious from their performance over the last few years that they have no idea what they are talking about." he said.

"There's no such thing as 'light regulation' in financial services: the FSA write their own rules, collect and keep any fines and are above the law. It's a system a banana republic would be proud of.

"And currently, the FSA is being run by friends of Gordon Brown, and not even clever ones. This is an industry which used to make up 40% of GDP and it should be in the hands of people who know what they are actually talking about.

"Would you let your family members go for heart surgery performed by a taxi driver? Then why should the heart of our economy be managed by people who don't have a clue?"

I still can't understand how everyone let the Tories (and most politicians to be fair) get away with blaming 'mark to markets' except, I suppose, that most people writing about it didn't understand. Mark to Market wasn't to blame, that was just something which happened because the previous system of mark to model had overvalued so much.

How the man who is likely to be our next Prime Minister can get away with speaking such utter hog wash as to blame collapse of markets on a system of pricing is, frankly, dangerous.

Polly Toynbee was blathering away today in the Guardian about the need for 'good journalism' - not something one could accuse her of - to regulate the political system. Here's an example of how we really have a long way to go before most of her chums can even be classed as 'competent' or 'responsible', let alone good

Of course, her moaning was just a cry from a sinking ship for more of that tax payers money she loves to talk about wasting. I wonder if she thinks that her colleagues at the Daily Mail should also be assisted, or aren't they allowed because they don't love all things left?

great news!

The pro-Lisbon Topolanek has lost a vote of confidence as Czech Prime Minister which means that the fabulous Vaclav Klaus, who has 4 1/2 years left of his presidency, can appoint a new Prime Minister.

And guess what? My Czech sources tell me that it's going to be someone who is against the Lisbon Treaty. Whodathunkit!

When it comes to the EU, apart from the masses of legislation passed this lunchtime which was completely ignored by the media, it's been a good day.

Things you'd love to say to Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown was in Strasbourg today, kissing the arses of a group of politicians who despise democracy. To be fair, they love the fact that he lied to the people and bulldozed through the Lisbon Constitution on a lie, so he was in pretty good company.

Not that you'd hear it on the news, or probably even read it in the newspapers, but there were two blinding speeches yesterday from two of my favourite people: Nigel Farage and Dan Hannan.
Amusingly, the lovely Dan was the only British Conservative to speak whilst Gordon Brown was in the chamber because, of course, the others who weren't kicked out for having a pair had Joseph Daul (see posts past for his delightful background) speaking on their behalf.

This situation is all the more amusing on the day that Christopher Beastley Beazley, a man one can find tired and emotional* in Brussels and Strasbourg, said that he wouldn't leave the EPP because it would mean less influence.

Like not using secretarial allowances to fund the yes campaign in France, The Netherlands and Ireland, perhaps?

Anyway, enjoy.


followed by


Shame Mark Mardell walked out to give a one sided view of the performance to News 24 whilst these speeches were being made. It's not like there isn't a huge screen with the current speakers and the next two speakers after that.

*There was a rumour about assistants collecting any left overs from 3rd floor receptions but it's completely unsubstantiated.