Gordon Brown - The Wonder Year!

If you find yourself waking up more and more in the middle of the night sweating and feeling anxious that Gordon Brown is still the Prime Minister don't worry - you are not alone. Many people are experiencing these "night horrors" after a year of the "Clunking Fist" being our leader.

Help is at hand. Doctors recommend that you keep a copy* of the "Gordon Brown Annual Report: Do We Want Five More Years Of This?" by your bedside. If you wake up at 4.00am shaking with uncontrollable rage just dip into any of its sections and you'll soon feel calmed and realise that the end of this nightmare can't be far away.

*Hat tip: Guido Fawkes

The Dog Days Of Labour!

The Mail on Sunday has got one of the most bizarre graphics I have ever seen to illustrate the current state of the political parties according to a poll by BPIX.

Interestingly, the Conservatives are very close to the 50% barrier with Labour languishing on 26% - the LibDems are back to 14%.

UK Polling Report reports the unsurprising news that 44% think Brown should resign now but only 14% support David Miliband as his replacement - 10% for Jack Straw.



Woof, woof!

Respecting The Irish "No" Vote - Not!

Take a few minutes to read this wonderful piece from Robert Shrimsley reported on the FT Blog. It illustrates beautifully what the politicians that run the EU really think about the people whose views they are supposed to represent

"The great figures of Europe met in the wake of the Irish No vote to agree on a way forward. About one thing they were absolutely clear. “We must respect the Irish vote,” they agreed. “It would be a terrible sign of European arrogance to suggest we could just sweep aside a democratic vote of a member state.

"So they all agreed to go out and tell the Irish how much they respected their vote. And they agreed there must be no bullying; no warning the Irish to get their ungrateful Fenian butts into line or go it alone in miserable and obscure isolation. In fact, they were so clear on this point that they at once agreed to go out and start emphasising it in public. Several gave statements noting that there was pressure from some quarters for Ireland to be left behind but adding that the people of Ireland should not be frightened or feel disrespected because they were sure it would not come to this.

"And so, just to offer further reassurance, they would put up posters in Ireland making clear that the Irish had better vote Yes PDQ or get their miserable Fenian butts out of the EU. But maybe even this is not enough, said one. Perhaps we ought to get over to Ireland and give TV interviews stressing that under no circumstances will there be any miserable Fenian butt-kicking. While they were there, they would take the chance to add that so deep was their respect for the Irish No that Ireland could have as long as it liked to change its mind. Across the continent European leaders insisted there would be no pressure. “If the deadline slips by a few months, so be it,” said one, adding that to take any other view would be to “disrespect the Irish No”.

"But surely, they argued, the best way to demonstrate our respect to the Irish people is to show how we can move Europe forward. We need to change the agenda, said another.“The people have spoken,” they said. And the message was that they wanted to get away from all this talk of treaties and constitutions and referendums that had caused the Irish reaction that had to be respected. “We have to move the agenda on,” they said. We need to stop bothering the people of the EU with these referendums they do not understand. When you analyse this, they said, what the Irish - who had to be respected - were telling them was that this was far too complex a matter and they want us to drive this through without bothering them.

"Once you put it that way it was clear their views had to be respected. More importantly they had to heed the message that they were being told - to stop fussing about internal stuff and start talking about things that really mattered to the people, like jobs and the economy. That meant they needed to drive through those changes as fast as possible so they could get on to the important matters.

"So they got to work at once, working out how to secure most of the rejected changes without bothering the Irish again - out of respect for their democratically expressed wishes. After all, they noted, deep down the Irish are good Europeans. They know a convoy cannot move at the pace of its slowest member - unless, of course, that slowest member is France."

So there we have it! Stuff you Ireland - get off your butts and fall into line. We are going full steam ahead whether you like it or not. Democracy - don't ya just love it?

David Davis Gets His Freedom Show On The Road

In this concise piece for ConservativeHome David Davis sets out the key points of his campaign on the reduction in our freedoms by this Labour Government.

This passage seems to summarises the things that he wants to debate:

" ....there are now 266 state powers allowing officials to force their way into your home. Six hundred public bodies have the authority to bug phones and emails and intercept the post. And God help you if you put out the wrong kind of rubbish or attempt to get you child into one of the few schools not ruined by a decade of Labour government. Gordon’s neighbourhood spies are watching......My hostility to the Government's bloated and unworkable £19 billion ID card scheme and my dismay at its creation of the largest DNA database on earth stuffed with the details of a million innocent people are well known...."

On this basis, he seems to have got off to a good start and promises to run an unconventional campaign with debates involving people from all ends of the political spectrum. Let's hope it proves to be as interesting to the wider public as he intends.

Tomorrow, he launches his website http://www.daviddavisforfreedom.com/ to act as a sounding board for the debate. You can follow the debate there and put your views forward by emailing him at dd@daviddavisforfreedom.com).

I urge you all to do as he suggests and have your say.

Can Cameron Maintain The Momentum?

There are two new opinion polls this weekend. Both show the Conservatives are still well ahead of Labour. (The details of the YouGov poll are here and the link to the details of the ComRes poll is here.)

I hope Steve Hilton will have time to think how to ensure that this lead can be maintained while he is changing nappies (or is it diapers?) in California.

Friday 13th - Lucky For Some? (Part Two)

Thank God for the Irish!

Voting no against the Lisbon Treaty has probably stopped the final, and what seemed inevitable, step in the absorption of the UK into the "European Project".

Several pints of Guinness are now required to get the celebrations underway. My shout!

Friday 13th - Lucky For Some? (Part One)

Following David Davis's shock announcement that he was to resign as the MP for Haltemprice and Howden and to put himself up for re-election on the single issue of holding suspected terrorists for up to 42 days without charge he wrote this article in the Daily Telegraph. As a result I posted this comment on the Daily Telegraph website:


"We are into extraordinary territory, Mr Davis, as a result of your decision. My first reaction is to applaud you for standing by your principles - and I agree with all you say about the erosion of our fundamental liberties by this Labour Government.

"But I'm not sure that I understand why you have taken this step at this point in the electoral cycle. The Conservative Party has strong support at present and there is, for a very long time, the real possibility that we could form the next government at the general election.

"Why have you jeopardised that position now by handing our opponents the opportunity to show us as divided? You must act very quickly to spell out to the general public why your stand on this issue is important.

"I wish you luck because Joe Public is not always as well-disposed to the type of libertarian views you espouse. They will be confused and sceptical about your motives and be influenced by the mischievous (and misleading) media who will portray you as a cypher for the beginning of the self-destruction of the Conservative Party.

"I hope you have thought this through very carefully otherwise you might find Brown and his unworthy bunch of "never-weres" are here to stay."

Let us hope that over the next few days and weeks David Davis can indeed create the sort of debate he is hoping to achieve. My fear is that too many people will see the issue as relatively unimportant when they are contending with the higher costs of living, higher borrowing costs and the potential that they will lose their jobs. Who cares about a few "Islamist extremists" intent on bombing and maiming innocent people being locked up while the police build a case against them? According to a couple of recent opinion polls some 70% think this a price worth paying.

But, if he can widen this debate to show how we have all been suckered into this authoritarian society that Labour has been steadily building over the last 11 years then maybe they will sit up and listen. As soon as you get into your car to go to work you are already being tracked. Speed cameras can read your car number plate; call in at your local petrol station you are on CCTV; use your credit card and you've been clocked; make a "hands-free" call from your mobile - you've been logged - even to the extent that your exact position can be pin-pointed; your company can trace exactly when you arrive at work and can also record all the websites you visit.

There is no escape from this surveillance society. If the Labour Government are allowed to have their way every detail of our lives will be electronically recorded on ID cards, electronic medical records and other central databases that are all vulnerable to illegal access.

If Mr Davis can make a case that there is a grave danger that our fundamental freedoms are being eroded and cause us all to think very carefully before we give away any more, then his "noble gesture" will not have been in vain. At this stage I'm not so sure he can.

The Poverty Of Labour's Policies

Reports today show that yet another key aspect of Labour's failed social experiments has been a failure. The number of children and pensioners now living below the Government's self-defined poverty line has risen again. Not much of a surprise there. As they describe it themselves - "It's like running up a down escalator". (See Gordon Brown running up the escalator on the left!)

But with all the other economic indicators going the wrong way - falling house prices coupled with the spectre of negative equity, lay-offs in the construction industry, factory gate inflation at 20% plus, energy, fuel and food prices rising faster than ever - it's no wonder that confidence is ebbing away.

It's no wonder, too, that the poor are getting poorer under this Labour Government. They have over-taxed, over-spent and over-reached themselves . They have created this unholy mess themselves and now have no way out. It's time for them to go.

Mike Smithson over on Political Betting has asked us to imagine the imminent demise of Gordon Brown which is actually quite attractive - apart from his last question!

Darling - You Are Between A Rock And... Er, Well Another Rock!

First we had the "most successful Chancellor for 250 years". Now we have the most unsuccessful Chancellor for, well, maybe 250 days. Poor old Alistair Darling - he is really proving to be the patsy for Gordon Brown's useless, and short-lived premiership.

It is just a few months ago he delivered his first Budget speech yet he has already been forced to undo the removal of the 10p tax band by adding to the national debt by borrowing £2.7 billion - in the hope that this would rescue the Labour Party from the first Conservative gain in 30 years at a by-election in Crewe and Nantwich.

Now it looks like he's going to have to backtrack on his proposed plans to increase duty on fuel and vehicle exercise duty - see the Daily Telegraph HERE as just one example of what the MSM are saying.

It also looks like the Northern Rock affair will be coming back to haunt Mr Darling rather sooner than he thought.

As reported in the Financial Times' Westminster blog the rate of repossessions of so-called sub-prime mortgage lenders is at an uncomfortably higher level than the prime lenders. Not good news when piled on top of all the other bad economic signals that seem to pile up day upon day.

Bet the Chancellor wishes he had never taken the poisoned chalice from Gordon Brown. Oh well, he'll be out of his misery soon when he loses his very marginal seat in Edinburgh!

Where Is The Way Out, Mr Brown?

How is it all going to end for Gordon Brown?

It's interesting to watch the decline in his power and influence in such a short space of time. Only a year ago he was being hailed as the new leader of the Labour Party who was going to shun all the worst aspects of Blair's hegemony that had kept the country in thrall to one of the best political spin machines (think Mandelson, Campbell) we have ever seen.

What has gone wrong? Basically, Brown was never the right man for the job in the first place. He made his (now heavily corroded) reputation as a financial mastermind. Largely, this was illusory as he stuck to the Conservatives' spending plans for the first two years but, and here was the clever bit - the only clever bit as it turns out - he spent that time amassing vast amounts of our money through some very damaging stealth taxes - remember the pension funds raid that has left so many people without the safety net that they thought they were paying for? Remember too the way that other direct and indirect taxes were pushed up by fiscal drag so that the average family has ended up paying about £4,000 more a year.

Then he went on to create a disastrously complicated system of tax credits to begin to implement his socialist redistributive paradise that has resulted in the Labour client state and which, in reality, has done nothing but perpetuate and reinforce a variety of underclasses that are now so dependent on the State that they cannot afford to drag themselves up by their bootstraps.

I could go on .... and on .... but you get the point. Brown is not the answer, never was and never will be. More to the point, Labour is not the answer and they have no one of any stature to get them out of the hole they are in. This piece by the usually Brown arch-apologist David Aaronovitch in the Times shows why this is the case.

Unfortunately, the only way we are going to get them out is if Brown falls on his sword or he struggles on for another two years when we should do all we can to obliterate Labour for a generation.