Boris - Will He Eat Your Babies?

I am a great fan of Boris Johnson because he can come at a topic from "the left field" and in doing so brings a fresh perspective to it. In this article in today's Daily Telegraph here he proves it once again.

You may also have noticed that the issue of population growth and its consequences both for the UK and the world in general have tended to dominate my posts over the last couple of weeks.
In my own amateur way I see links to the other major issue of the day - climate change or as we like to call it "global warming". There are still arguments about the extent that this is a man-made or 'anthropogenic' phenomenon.

Whatever the reasons are for an apparent upward trend in global temperatures - and I agree we should be conserving resources whilst developing new technologies to ensure that we can keep the lights on and feed ourselves - it seems inevitable that the prediction that the world's population will increase exponentially over the next few decades is the biggest threat that we face.

Most of the popular media are happy to constantly tell us that we are all doomed - by being too fat, drinking too much and smoking too much which all lead to cancer, diabetes, stroke, dementia and sundry other terminal diseases - yet at the same time we are told that the demographic profile of the UK is getting older (as it is in other first world countries). In other parts of the world - notably Africa - the ravages of AIDs, malaria and other horrible diseases have prompted our political leaders to pour our money into dubious schemes to reverse this trend so that their populations (which are growing anyway) grow even more quickly.

Is it time to look again at the Gaia hypothesis put forward by James Lovelock? If the Earth is an "organism" perhaps disease, pestilence, famine and disasters on the scale of tsunamis and earthquakes are its way of telling us that we will have to learn to live with Nature.

As for Boris eating your babies - he's a politician - he loves babies. But he couldn't eat a whole one!

"Migration to Britain Reaches Record Levels"

In case you think this relates to today's announcement by the Office of National Statistics, have a look at a report by the same body from June 2001 here. It says "....migration to Britain is running at record levels and has helped to increase the population by more than 2 million in less than 10 years."

The much maligned Sir Andrew Green, head of Migration Watch has today written in the Daily Telegraph about the latest ONS report.

"We must act now to cut immigrant numbers....... official figures now indicate that England's population will increase by nearly 16 million by mid century - that is twice the population of Greater London. This increase will be 90 per cent due to immigration."

I go back to one of my previous suggestions: France has a landmass about four times the size of the UK with about the same size population. There is far more scope for them to increase their population by 16 million than Britain. Come on, France, be a bit more communitaire!

Oh, and by the way, if Al Gore and his ilk are to be believed, global warming will shrink the size of Britain's landmass by quite a chunk anyway so there'll be even less space for all these hopeful immigrants! Bring it on.

It's the Economy Darling (Stupid)!

Hope Alistair has read this Daily Telegraph article here.

If this doesn't convince those that think that throwing - sorry, investing - taxpayer money at every problem has been a disastrous experiment that should be stopped immediately, then I don't know what will.

We're doomed! Doomed, I tell you!

Time to kick this Labour spin machine out and get back to good old fashioned sound money policies.

The Real Facts on the Effects of Immigration on the UK

This article by Bob Rowthorne, Professor of Economics at Cambridge University, in the Sunday Telegraph entitled " We need an honest debate on immigration" is required reading for all politicians. Read it here.

It's important to know that he is not a Conservative Party supporting academic. Check him out on the internet.

Personally, this is the first time I have come across his writings and they certainly do provide food for thought. There is nothing racist in what he says. Unlike some of the comments from Labour - whenever this topic is raised they always play the race card and the "same old Tories" jibes are wheeled out. They really do need to grow up - and very fast.

Feed the People - Jeremy Clarkson-style!

Good old JC - read this


He must have read my post about Al Gore's part in the rush to turn food-producing land into alternative sources to generate heating, lighting and transport fuel. I hope so!

Join the Conservatives Now - you know it makes sense!

On 5th July 2007 I wrote this:

"An extremely elderly man in a Savile Row suit, looking like Bill Deedes's older brother, apparently leads the Liberal Democratic Party. Well, for the time being, anyway, if the rumours are to be believed.
"The latest betting for the LibDems to win the next General Election is 150/1 - not much surprise there. But for some reason there are members of his party who think they should change their current leader as this would improve their electoral chances.

"I don't know what you think but if someone takes on this job they will have to be a bloody superman (sorry, superperson). My advice is stick with Ming - it's steady as you go, LibDems."

Today Ming has gone- apparently in a bit of a huff as he didn't even make the announcement himself. I can't blame him.

They are a wobbly lot these Liberal Democrats - always have been. "Masters of spin and obsfucation" is the least of the charges that can be laid at their door in local politics and, on the wider stage, their policies often lack coherence and credibility. They are a rag-bag party, claiming the moral high ground on Iraq and the environment. But what do they actually stand for? What is their "vision"?

Now is the time for true Liberals to "come home" to the only true liberal party in the country - the Conservatives. Together we can oust this awful Labour government and make some sensible progress. You know it makes sense!

Time to be Tough!

England beat France in the RWC 2007 semi-final tonight - it wasn't pretty but they did what they had to do. Compared to a few weeks ago when their chances were being written off they have hauled themselves back to within one game of winning the RWC twice in a row. What a performance! Sheer dogged determination.

But it's been a bloody fanatastic week in politics too. Brown's nose rubbed in his own dirt and Labour on the backfoot where ever we look. And the Conservatives are now back to where they were fifteen years ago - 7% ahead in the polls. It's not been pretty and there have been some dire failures along the way but they are now close to an historic victory. But, like the England rugby team, the Conservatives have to look closely at the details of these polls:

• Why is Brown still seen as a stronger leader than Cameron?


• Why are Brown/Darling still seen as more competent than Cameron/Osborne at handling the economy?

Surely, after the events of the last few weeks the balance should have tipped in favour of the Conservatives? After all, the MSM has been pretty good at reinforcing the public's impression of the disastrous choices that Brown has made, his lack of judgement and his propensity for spin and to steal the Conservatives' ideas. At the moment they are content to ridicule Brown's New Model Labour Party but it seems that they are not taking it that little bit further and saying the Conservatives have a competent team to lead the country. They still seem to be reluctant to give David Cameron & Co the credit for seizing the political initiative. What's to be done?

Over to you Messrs Coulson and Hilton. Let's get the message across about Brown and Co. They haven't got the guts or the ability to get to the final - let alone win it!

Is it racist to talk about immigration?

We are a small island; there's is a finite limit to the number of people who can live here; in some parts of the country there are already severe pressures on our basic infrastructure - schools, hospitals, housing, transport and some areas of some cities are already "swamped" (as a previous Labour Home Secretary once said) with such a large volume of non-indigenous, non-English speaking extended families that the established populations feel overwhelmed.

Even in the small (100,000 population) town where I live in the North Midlands we are beginning to see far more groups of people from all over the world (who stand out, not so much by the colour of their skin, but by their style of clothing, language, etc) but not to the extent that we feel "swamped" - yet.

But if current trends are allowed to continue without some form of control (for example, the points system that the Conservatives suggested and has been adopted in part by NuLabour) then the nature of this small town will change very quickly.

It's all very well NuLabour et al saying that immigration has had a positive benefit on the economy (that might be true in parts of the country and in certain sectors of the economy) but to ordinary Joe Public they just see that their world has changed without them being asked if they agree.

That's why we need to be able to discuss immigration policy in a mature way without being accused of being racist.

Here's a thought: France has about the same population as the UK but it's landmass is four times bigger than the UK's. Lot's of room for new (Brown-style) eco-towns and they already have sustainable nuclear power as their main source of energy. Wouldn't it be great if they absorbed the vast majority of the projected numbers of immigrants to Europe from the Middle East and the north, east, west and south of Africa? They have got more space after all.

But then again, the French are more racist than we are!

Gordon Must be Green with Envy

Brown must be feeling very envious of David Cameron today. Forced into a humiliating U-turn on calling an Autumn election (whilst pretending he could have held one based on his "competence") and denying the polls from the marginals showing the Conservatives ahead had any influence on his decision, he must be rueing the day he allowed those two gargoyles - Eds Balls and Miliband - to sit on his shoulders and whisper in his ears : "Go for it, Gordon. You can keep us (and our families) in power for ever."

Compared to Brown's, Cameron's team has played a brilliant game this week and all the signs are that events over the next week will conspire to build the pressure on Brown.

The next week will be a long time in politics for Gordon. But what rat (sic) will he pull out of his hat - as he surely will?

More funding for the NHS than previously estimated? (Although it is reported that this will result in £200 a year rise in council tax.) Is he that stupid?

Some other clever personal tax reduction wheeze - other than the one already announced for April which will, in fact, reduce the income of low paid workers? What could it be?

Or, how about a swingeing tax on private equity? No, even he's not that stupid.

How about increasing the size of the Army? And giving them a big pay rise (in two or three years time, if he's true to form)?

A review of the need for ID cards? That would be a corker.

And the ultimate - agreeing to a referendum on the EU Treaty? That might be a bridge too far!

Whatever it is, it has to cut the middle ground from under the Conservatives or they will get him on the ropes.

Let's hope the Cameron team has been thinking ahead.

Nifty Footwork by Cameron but can he get the Clunking Fist on the ropes?

With a few exceptions, I have never read such a collected load of old tosh rendered by blog commenters on David Cameron's speech at the Conservative Party conference today.

His tour de force was notable not only for his ability to speak without an autocue but because of its content and sheer commonsense.

The idiocy of all the NuLab commenters and the views of some unreconstructed ultra right wingers who still believe that Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbitt are about to return to lead the Conservatives are just risible. What they couldn't stomach was the fact that Cameron actually understands what has gone wrong under Blair/Brown and knows how to deal with it. He has got a formidable team in his corner too who will make sure he will get up for every round of this epic fight with the "Clunking Fist" with fresh ideas and renewed strength. Compared to Brown, Cameron has the footwork and the fast hands of Muhammad Ali against Sonny Liston in 1974.

Cameron can "float like a butterfly and sting like a bee". There is now a buzz about the Conservatives and it won't be long before Brown and his corner will be on the ropes.

Let's hope we can go in for the knockout very soon.

Is the BBC an organ of Brown's state?

Just seen Newsnight interview of Alan Duncan by Emily Matis (she really is rubbish) where she tried to suggest Phil Hammond was disagreeing with Osborne.

But the article on the BBC website was less equivocal: in fact, if you read it, Hammond is saying exactly what Osborne has said. We must not make unfunded spending or tax cut promises.

Of course, Stephanie ("I don't need a tax break") Flanders on Newsnight was trying to find chinks in Osborne's figures but not very convincingly. If she isn't actually part of Labour's spin machine she should be.

So far, the BBC is in its usual form. All is well in the Brown kingdom and when he pulls out all the troops from Iraq next week because many fewer people are being blown up then his coronation will follow very shortly.

How low can low politics go? Watch the BBC!