Tory Outcast

As it seems to be the trend among bloggers I thought I would become a sheep and start doing a weekly list of things I think you should read. Not sure how many there will be as it may depend on my week and the week in politics but let us start with a nice round number:

1. True Blue Blood had a guest post from Patrick Phillips, an independent conservative candidate in Buckingham (running against John Bercow and Nigel Farage). Could be a breath of fresh air or could split the anti-Bercow vote and let him in. Interesting reading none the less.
   
   
2. Dizzy expressed his anger over MPs spending £49,000 on a smoking shelter.
   
   
3. A. Tory set out an interesting list of things he expects NOT to happen in the next week or so
   
   
4. A bit of a personal one: Tory Bear picked up on my housemate (the York Uni Lib Dem Chair) buying members with funds from his local association. Cue much banter
   
   
5. Iain Dale issued one of the more comprehensive slap downs to those who have nothing better to do than slander the Conservative's European allies...
   
   
6. ... while Guido pointed out Labour's hypocrisy on the same issue when it was revealed that Tony Blair welcomed Kaminsky and his party at Number 10
   
   
7. Mary Ellon Synon slammed Cameron on his Lisbon treaty betrayal
   
   
8. Roger Helmer MEP made the case for euro-sceptics actually supporting Miliband in his bid for one of the EU top jobs
   
   
9. The choice for the top spot was tough but in the end Tim Montgomerie's detailed case against all women shortlists was pipped narrowly by...
   
   
10. Ed West's highly entertaining piece showing how EU supporters practically define extremism
    

A busy week meant I missed this call from the TUC to increase the National Minimum Wage (NMW) to £6 an hour on Thursday.

Much like the postal strikes this seems to me to be more of a power play by the unions rather than a genuinely fair request.

This is an increase of 20p or to put it in more comparable terms an increase of 3.5%. Since it was introduced in 1998 at the rate of £3.60 it has increased by the following percentages each year: 2.7, 10.8, 2.4, 7.1, 7.7, 4.1, 5.9, 3.2, 3.8 and 1.2. A quick glance at inflation figures will show these increases average to be well above inflation.

So how can they justify yet another increase above inflation? It currently stands at just over 1% and the TUC want an increase of more than three times this?

They claim that it will not increase unemployment but I find this hard to believe. Even if it doesn't increase it any further it is likely to stop it declining. It will further burden businesses and consequently become less likely to start hiring again, one of the key factors in us clawing our way out of this recession.

An irresponsible and unecessary call in my opinion and a dangerous trend if the government continues to roll over and let the unions have their way. Can Gordon show some strength or is Cameron going to have to go all Thatch on us?

The Mail is today running with this story showing, if we didn't already know it, that this government has no actual interest in reducing global warming and instead views it as a weapon of massive taxation.

Alistair Darling is set to increase passenger duty on flights. While short hops are only expected to rise by £1, British Airways estimate that a family of four flying to Australia are looking at at least a £340 increase in their bill. The official reason for this is of course the old chesnut of environmentalism but as Darling conceded yesterday it is simply to reduce the budget deficit.

So to summarise, the government is:

• pretending to tackle climate change
  
  
• causing potentialy serious and long term damage to the airline industry
  
  
• putting thousands of jobs at risk
  
  
• endangering our tourism industry
  
  
• greatly increasing the costs of doing business abroad while we are still in the longest recession this country has ever known
  
  
• punishing those who have dared to be successful against the best efforts of 12 years of mismanagement

And for what? To pay off a tiny chunk of the debt they have built up in our name through sheer incompetence. Utterly pathetic but on reflection utterly typical of this excuse for a government.

Seeing as flying will soon become a luxury beyond my means I thought I should start searching the clouds for silver linings while I can still afford to do so. Fortunately I think I've found one: voters, indeed voters in marginal seats, saw right through this months ago before Darling admitted it. Flying Matters reports here that three quarters of these voters believe it is simply a stealth tax and recognise the dangers to our economy and way of life.

Give it up Gordon. You had your chance to spend reasonably, reduce the deficit and earn our trust but you missed the boat. Or should I say plane?

Posting has been a little absent this week but I'm back and concentrating on the pressing issue of the day: President Blair.

So many arguments have been thrown back and forth. There are far too many to list here so I shall restrict myself to half a dozen that I think raise the most interesting questions:

1. Timothy Kirkhope made an interesting case for a more low key President.
   
2. The Telegraph pointed out that only 31% of the British public want him to have the job. Not exactly a ringing endorsement but understandable considering the mess he made the last time we put him in a position of power
   
3. George Monbiot made an excellent case that he would have to go to countries where he could be put on trial for war crimes. Not quite sure of the realities but an interesting proposition none the less.
   
4. Iain Dale supported his bid because it "guarantees that this country remains overwhelmingly eurosceptic". Intriguing but not the best criteria for picking our leaders.
   
5. A wide variety of commentators have said we should support him because he's British. Aside from Blair being one of the least "British" people I can think of this argument seems flawed. A President of Europe is going to sideline our PM on the international stage. If he's also our former PM this effect is only going to be strengthened.
   
6. And then there was of course David Miliband's suggestion that Blair had the motorcade effect and should therefore warrant the job. Ignoring the fact that the reliability of these remarks coming from someone who has his eye on the "High Representative" job is questionable you still have to ask whether it is relevant. The job of EU President is a joke but employing a clown just because he can stop traffic is a custard pie to the face too far.

Still all of these arguments seem to either ignore or silently acknowledge one undeniable truth: President of Europe is an impossible role. At the risk of taking the clown metaphor much too far it would be an incredible juggling act. Several commentators are saying that he couldn't do the job because of the Iraq war and the division it caused it Europe. They are right but what they aren't considering is that the same problem exists for every candidate. No single person could possibly represent all the peoples of Europe.

If the EU president flew off to talks with their American counterpart and was asked to comment on how we should proceed in Iraq what could he possibly say?

I recognise it as crime of aggression but think that based on the evidence it was the right thing to do?

We need to pull out and commit more troops?

We've done as much as we can and therefore need to stay until the job is done?

It is utterly laughable. How could they represent both Spain and the UK on the Falklands issue? How could he talk about Kosovo when several EU countries don't even recognise it as an independent country? Where would he be on the Russian invasion of Georgia?

This problem isn't exclusive to military action either. What if abortion came up as an issue? In most of mainland Europe it is available on request but in Ireland it is only allowed if it saves the life of the mother. In Malta it is banned altogether.

When Chirac stormed out of business negotiations because they were conducted in English what would a representative European President have said? And in what language?

What would he have said about Thatcher's rebate? If it's Blair we know that answer but even if it's not it is still an impossible task.

The fact is he would be gagged on so many issues and inevitably biased on the rest. He could not possibly answer so many questions without infuriating swathes of Europe. Could he even support his country of origin in the World Cup? How would he cope with an England vs Germany penalty shoot out?

I have been fairly glib this far but the point is an important one. Either the role would be so restricted that he would be an international laughing stock or he would end up taking the agenda (when there is one) of the big players in Europe and end up a figure of hatred everywhere else. We should not be questioning who to support in this selection process we should be questioning the sanity of anyone who wants the job (although again if it's Blair we know the answer). Then again Blair is already a figure of hatred and a laughing stock so perhaps he is perfect for the job...

The last (I promise) pictures from Tory Conference:

Bumped into Andrew Marr outside the main hall. He made painkillers jokes...


I even made it into the shot with Quentin Letts on the Politics Show. Ever the student cliché I spotted the champagne before Mr Letts or the cameraman:


Still the personal fave has to be this one from Mr Letts' Daily Mail column (not sure who was stalking who, maybe I was still chasing the bubbly). Taken just after Dave's speech when he and Sam ran into the crowd and paused just behind me. Maybe he sensed an Outcast present?


That's the lot. Other conference installments: one, two, three, four, Tories got Talent Speech and BBC interview.

Tory Rascal claims this morning to have overheard this:

"Gordon’s resigned himself to backing Blair for the [EU] presidency"

As he concedes he was unable to identify the source so it could be complete rubbish but it does raise an interesting proposition. T/R says it reminds him of this:


I'm more intrigued that Gordon might have actually come up with a genuine "cunning plan". After all if anything is going to stop ol' Tony in his tracks it is going to be Brown's reverse Midas touch. Just when I thought Gordon had run out of political nouse and had just started randomly picking policies he comes out with such a brilliant scheme. All he has to do is officially endorse Blair and the job is done. Well done Gordo, didn't think you had it in you. You may save us all yet.

I have posted the video of my winning speech from the Freedom Zone's Tories Got Talent event below (warning TO's real identity is revealed!)

Regular readers will recognise the speech as a reworking of this piece I wrote a few months ago but sadly limited preparation and a lot of free conference wine stunted my originality. Hope you enjoy.


The sound quality is not brilliant so I have provided something close to a transcript below:

The Telegraph website is carrying this story confirming postal strike action:

Considering the current time I will not bore readers with too much commentary but much of what I want to say is summed up by the advert at the bottom of the article:

Get back to work or there wont be a job waiting for you when you do.

Anyone who glanced at the Guardian today will have been greeted with this headline on the front page:


My initial reaction was some where between exasperation and boredom. Not only is this story completely overblown rubbish (as if I should expect anything else from the Guardian) but it is also dull. This frankly deceitful, irresponsible and dangerous attempt at political slander is simply becoming tiresome. I thought even Guardian readers would be bored of this by now but I was proved wrong by this tweet from David Wright (Labour MP for Telford):


Aside from being stunned that anyone still believes this stuff I was intrigued by the first word. "Inciteful". Now if you ignore the fact that it is not actually a word it is still interesting. If it was a spelling error and he meant "insightful" then I disagree with him. If he actually meant that it was intended to incite then I am more inclined to agree. My handy OED (something Mr Wright should probably invest in) gives this definition:

"Verb 1. to encourage or stir up 2. urge or persuade to act in a violent or unlawful way"

This actually seems to be fairly accurate. I can see little purpose for this article other than attempt to kick up a fuss because Labour have run out of positive ideas and are resorting to petty attacks.

Still it did encourage me to reread the article to see if I had missed anything. As it turned out I hadn't but I thought I would pick out a couple of points anyway.

1. It attacks the Polish Law and Justice party and suggests Hilary Clinton should raise concerns over the Tories connections with them. Perhaps if we are doing that she should also question President Obama's links with the party as seen in the photo on the right where he is meeting the Polish President. Even if the allegations were fair it is very irresponsible to attack the party of European head of state. Our Foreign Secretary has already failed in his duty by doing so for the sake of political point scoring. I hope the American Secretary of State is not convinced to do the same.
   
   
2. It is very entertaining watching Labour suggest that Americans should be wary of the Conservative's European friends when you consider their own. Some Americans will be concerned if they are taken in by this slander but I think many more would be concerned if they knew the Labour party sit with murdering terrorists, communists and 9/11 deniers.

It would simply be pathetic if it wasn't so potentially dangerous.

This video was shown in the conference hall before Cameron made his closing speech. Particularly love the bricks breaking away from Brown's face although the font in the section afterwards is a bit tacky. Still pretty good though -

Having recovered from the piggy flu and exams being postponed for the moment I can finally get round to uploading the last pics from conference.

With Dan Hannan after the TFA dinner and his cracking speech -


Signing the TPA postcard to Vaclav Klaus-

One from UKIP conference with Nigel Farage-

and one with George Lee, the Tory candidate for Holborn and St Pancras-

Keep an eye out soon for the fifth and final gallery. The dear leader Mr Cameron might even make an appearance... Watch this space

Gallery one is here, two is here and three can be found here

The title of this post is not just a criticism but also a genuine question. If anyone knows something I don't or has an insight I am missing please do share it on the comments board.

With that introduction out of the way let me move on to the rant for today. For those of you who don't know, playwright and critic Bonnie Greer has been invited to join the Question Time panel which already boasts Chris Huhne, Jack Straw, Baroness Warsi and Nick Griffin. It seems pointless to suggest that the show will deal with much else other than racism, fascism, the BNP and connected topics. While other issues may come up I would be very surprised if Nick Griffin's presence and his party's recent success didn't dominate the agenda.

Therefore the other four panellists should be carefully selected. As usual the three main parties will nominate a candidate to represent them leaving just one available spot. In this case Ms Greer has taken this chair and I really have to question why? I have growing concerns that she may be there mainly if not completely for the colour of her skin. She does not seem to have any particular background in this area or at least not as much as many others that could have been selected.

Still the real problem is that the BBC seem to have picked a black woman deliberately. By doing so they are pandering to a BNP agenda. Anyone; black or white, male or female and indeed from any background should be able to debunk and dismiss the pathetic agenda proposed by the BNP. By implying you need to be black to do so, even unintentionally, damages the credibility of the attack and gives Nick Griffin and his like uneccesary ammunition.

Equally by, as it seems, making race the main topic you risk losing the chance to show how unworkable so many of the BNP's other policies really are. It could jeopardise one of the few opportunities to expose the many levels of ignorance not only in their immigration proposals but also in their policies on the economy, society and a variety of other topics.

If Ms Greer has genuinely been picked because she is an independent person who is well placed to attack BNP policy, ridicule their hypocrisy and generally make a show of how completely opposed to British values the British National Party really are then I wish her the best of luck and look forward to the show. However considering she was born in Chicago, moved here when she was 38 and (unless I have missed something) has no obvious credentials in attacking fascism, socialism and racism I fear this is not the case. Instead I suspect she has been selected in order to cause tension and potentially aggression on the panel in what can only be described as a Big Brother style of television production where contestants (or in this case panellists) are picked purely to cause conflict.

Question Time is one of the better political shows on television in a genre that is increasingly becoming more about presenting a circus than the issues of the day. This level of shock television (if it is as I suggest) threatens to undermine this. I am constantly told by BBC supporters that a nationalised broadcaster allows for programming that might not ordinarily get made. I am told that programmes are made because the subject matter is important rather than the viewing figures. This seemed like a perfect chance to prove it and it seems to me that the BBC has made the wrong call.

I mentioned George Lee last week in a report from Tory Conference. If you missed it he is the Conservative candidate for Holborn and St Pancras. As I said then:

"if you were to design a Tory candidate from the ground up you would end up with something very close to Mr Lee. He is an embodiment of modern Conservative values and his story is truly inspirational"

Before this blog becomes a George Lee Fansite and I become a giglling teen I'll just post the video:



Unfortunately the election seems almost certian to be at exactly the same time as my University finals so any time I have to campaign will be severely limited but beyond my local candidate (Julian Sturdy) George is almost certainly my first port of call. He is in a tough seat and has to fight from third place but if anyone should be part of a prospective new Conservative government it should certainly be Mr Lee.

If you have a spare campaigning day before the election then I can't think of a better place to spend it.

George's website can be found here and his petition for an enquiry in to the Lockerbie affair is here.

I am beginning to recover from the dreaded piggy flu with which which the Lib Dems attempted to put me out of action but am sadly still essentially quarantined. Unfortunately in the last couple of days I have missed quite a few stories. I thought rather than trying to play catch up however I would just link those sites that in my opinion covered the various stories in the best or most interesting manner.
In no particular order:

1. Chloe Smith gave her maiden speech in Parliament.
2. The Save General Election Night campaign gathered pace with a staggering 126 MPs signed up to the Early Day Motion already.
3. Iain Dale gave quite a good account of why he wants to be an MP. In my weakened state I haven't got round to checking out the other candidates for the open primary in Bracknell but for the moment I would recommend Iain.
4. The whole Trafigura/ Carter Ruck/ Guardian Gag affair came and went in what seemed like a matter of hours.
5. Tory Politico suggests (like many others) that Charles Clarke's Labour Future meeting is actually a platform for a coup. Tory Bear worries about the cost.

Oh and PMQs returned to our screens. ConHome have a fairly good blow by blow report here.

I think that covers the main points. Normal service should return fairly soon and may increase for the next few days as boredom replaces illness and newspapers replace medicine on the coffee table.

My Lib Dem housemate has resorted to infecting me with swine flu so I am unable to help out at the York Tory freshers stall on Saturday. He claims it was unintentional but I struggle to believe that considering the source. As a result posting may be scarce or frequent over the next few days depending on how bed-ridden or bored I am.

Curse the Lib Dems and their nasty campaigning habits. Vengeance shall be sought.

Being around conference did bring back a few memories of my expulsion. There were particularly present when bumping into other characters from the saga:

First there was His Honour the Judge Pickles-


Then came the Witness for the Prosecution. Mr Dale himself (we made our peace)-


and of course Mr T. Bear, the witness for the defence-


Now if I could just bump into Andy "executioner" Griffiths and Ed "motive" McMillan Scott I could complete the set...

Gallery Part 1 here and Gallery Part 2 here

A couple more pics from conference with a few more famous faces. Once again to avoid embarassing the MPs involved I have redacted myself:



Find gallery part 1 here

Despite being an Outcast I did manage to bump into quite a few famous faces at conference. Obviously being seen with a reprobate such as myself could be damaging to MPs and the like. In order to protect them I have done what they do when getting caught in a damaging situation and redacted myself. Particularly appropriate with this first picture:


Just a couple of Outcasts trying to get by! A bit of Disney's Hunchback of Notredame comes to mind:

Still nursing a hangover from the close of the Freedom zone drinks I managed to drag myself to an Open Europe debate at 7.30am yesterday. However I was rewarded for this effort by a fantastic event. I am always sceptical of “hangover cures” but bacon sandwiches, black coffee and Dan Hannan first thing in the morning is probably one of the best. He was as ever on sparkling form and I feel remiss to just pick a few quotes but space is short:

“Of the 199 states and territories in the world, 172 of them are not in the EU. In those countries, unlike Britain, it is perfectly normal to not want to throw away your national sovereignty”

On double standards in the EU: “however obnoxious, racist or homophobic your views you cannot be an extremist if you are pro-Brussels

When asked by an anonymous EU bureaucrat “what right do the Czechs have to defy 500 million European voters?” he responded “the only voters who were asked said no until they were forced to change their minds”

“EU policy uses a sledgehammer to miss a nut”

He was joined by the equally entertaining Peter Oborne, Mark Francois and David Rennie leading to a very lively debate at a very unlively hour. Oborne and Francois clashed on expenses, Hannan declared his mystification at suggestions of a party split, Rennie told the party to stop wallowing and talking to themselves and prepare for government and Francois dodged the referendum issue with this entertaining quip:

“unlike the Lib Dems we don’t believe in having more than one policy on the same issue at the same time”

With bacon and coffee running through my system and feeling refreshed I headed into the main hall to see Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove. Both gave fairly policy light speeches but were still very entertaining. Michael Gove (who has clearly benefitted from some Cameron gloss and training) gave perhaps one of the most entertaining remarks of the conference with this offering on the subject of Churchill being cut from the national curriculum:

“Never in the field of public expenditure has so much been spent by so many to distort World War Two.”

Chris Grayling (fresh and still reeling from his gaffe) and Shami Chakrabarti spoke more sedately but informatively on the database state and civil liberties at a debate (or more of a series of very similar speeches). The event was livened slightly by Chakrabarti’s challenge to Grayling to not become complacent if elected and rely on a stream of legislation but instead reform what exists but it quickly returned to fairly familiar ground.

I then spent a fascinating half hour chatting and quizzing George Lee, the Conservative candidate for Holborn and St Pancras. If you haven’t heard of him I really encourage you to check out his website as well as sign his petition for an inquiry into the Lockerbie affair. I think if you were to design a Tory candidate from the ground up you would end up with something very close to Mr Lee. He is an embodiment of modern Conservative values and his story is truly inspirational.

The evening brought more entertainment with Iain Dale’s blogreaders party. It began with some hilarious stand up and impressions from Steven Nallon of Spitting Image fame in which everyone from Ann Widecombe to David Milliband and Alan Rickman to Delia Smith was fair game for ridicule. Afterwards I went and introduced myself to the host. Not sure what I was expecting but he showed real class, humour and dignity and even stretched to a hug and a handshake. Hatchet buried.

From one blogger to the next I then bumped into Tory Bear at the Party for Change event. The bar was filled with a few too many Tory boys but still proved a very entertaining evening as everyone got more and more inebriated and fell over even more in the roller disco.

A good day all round although once again I found myself nursing a hangover as I wondered to the conference hall this morning. No Dan Hannan or bacon sarnies this morning so the task it left to Mr Cameron to help me recover. He should be on stage any moment now…

Another great day at Tory conferece. Another interesting set of speeches but still slightly lacking in solid policy.

A few highlights:

• Roger Helmer followed Dan Hannan's lead from last night and quoted Enoch Powell. Legitimate, fair and truly relevant without being in anyway racist.
  
  
• In the same debate an incredible and highly entertaining quantity of Ken Clarke bashing
  
  
• Osborne straight talking on cuts, Gordon Brown's deceit and sensible budget balancing. Quote: "the Iron Chancellor has turned into the plastic Prime Minister
  
  
• Iain Dale attacking climate change "nutters" only to withdraw it and instead call them "fundamentalists"
  

Still a personal favourite has to be the Freedom Association's "Tories got Talent" event in which I managed to clinch a victory. After getting over the irony of not actually being a Tory and still winning I was asked for an interview by BBC radio 5. Not sure if it actually got broadcast (if you heard it please confirm on the comments board). I think there is a decent chance it may have been cut considering how much I attacked the BBC in the interview but if they did have the guts to broadcast it please do let me know.

Privatise the Beeb!

After being unable to find a gap in my conference schedule yesterday I have managed to clamber out of bed slightly early in order to post this. I am unsure when I will again so in the meantime have expanded my Twitter feed (above) for updates.

So far it has been a reasonably uneventful conference. Lots of talking without really saying much and no talking whatsoever about Europe (except on the much more lively fringe where I have been spending my Outcast waking hours). Osborne’s NI announcement was met well although every businessman I have met is already trying to work out loopholes. A few other highlights have been the discovery of James Dyson’s Tory tendencies after his quite interesting speech yesterday and Dan Hannan’s fantastic after dinner speech when he risked left wing hysteria by once again by quoting Enoch Powell. Bumping in to Andrew Marr was something of an unexpected pleasure; particularly when he started making painkillers jokes.

Still there has been a sense of tension at the conference; almost a sense of expectation. Will Cameron come clean on Europe? Does he have an ace up his sleeve? Will we learn where the spending cuts axe will fall? At times I have been half expecting the doors of an event to fly open and a cry of “Brown’s gone” to ring out. We can only hope…

In the meantime we can only speculate on what Labour are going to announce in the next few days to try to steal the limelight. Agreeing to the leadership debate is probably the favourite as it seems they have run out of all other ideas but again we can only wait and hope…

In the meantime speculation is rife so I shall indulge in some myself. I did begin to wonder (or possibly hope) whether Cameron has an ace up his sleeve concerning the Lisbon treaty. Perhaps a legal challenge or something else to delay it a few months? It might explain why he wouldn’t want to announce it until the last minute and then only if the Czechs have delayed it long enough for it to push it beyond the general election threshold. Probably just my youthful optimism but a guy can dream…

Yesterday Ireland voted to ratify the Lisbon Treaty after the yes side bought or cheated their way to victory. Now it seems the whole of the EU, including the UK will be saddled with this oppressive, undemocratic, borderline illegal document. This poses a problem for those of us in this country who still care about democracy and freedom and consequently want to see this treaty consigned to the dustbin of history.

Our best hope it seemed was David Cameron. He has frequently said he "will not let it rest there" but judging from this article it seems to all intents and purposes he will.

We must therefore look to other sources of aid. Unless we make the Irish have another go (best of three?) then it seems our only options are Poland and the Czech republic.

Daniel Kawczynski MP has written a letter to the Polish President asking him to stall ratification and Cameron has done the same to Václav Klaus, the Czech President. It seems that the Polish President has ignored the plea and agreed to sign. Mr Klaus on the other hand has made a truly astounding effort to allow the British people their say on the treaty. He is planning to delay ratification via a legal challenge and while it is expected to be resolved in 3-6 months it seems to be our only hope. He is standing up commendably well against increasing pressure from the EU machine and we can only hope he suceeds.

Still one coincidence seems to have been missed in this saga. The situation now rings so many bells with the historical account of another troubled time in Europe's past.

In 1938 a growing, overbearing, undemocratic Empire was beginning to spread it's tendrils across Europe. Countries such as Czechoslovakia had already lost much of their sovereignty and the new Empire was dictating much of how the remainder was to be governed. In desperation they turned to Britain but received nothing more than token assistance. Within a few months the Government had surrendered entirely to the Empire and it was engulfed by it.

Then the Empire turned it's attention to Poland. Here they met more resistance and were forced to take the country and annex it. Eventually the government had to retreat and allow the Empire to unlawfully take what was once theirs. At this point, finally, the British intervened.

Now the similarities are extraordinary. Once more a huge, undemocratic Empire is spreading across Europe. Country after Country is capitulating. Instead of the Czech and Polish governments pleading for our help it is the other way round. One plea has gone ignored but the other has been taken up and fought for. In a twist of fate it is the Czechs answering our cry rather than the Poles but answer it they have. The real question is: can they hold out long enough for help to arrive? Now like then a new Conservative Prime Minister is appearing on the horizon. He is stronger, more determined and more competent than his predecessor and could be the one to defeat the Empire. Can those still holding out continue until he is in place or will they, like all others have already done, simply accept this encroachment on our freedoms, our right to democracy and our sovereignty?

Last night I went along to a public meeting with Nick Clegg where he gave a quick intro and invited audience questions (basically very similar to Cameron direct). As I predicted it was... well credit where credit is due it was not that bad. These sorts of meetings are supposed to be a chance to meet and gain the public trust which is all very nice and would ring true if Cameron or Clegg didn't confine them exclusively to marginal constituencies. Still last night York was his chosen speaking place and I decided to go and see what he had to say.

It was generally fairly predictable. He defended the mansion tax and talked extensively about tuition fees and Afghanistan. He said he wouldn't bother renewing Trident and wanted more equality in the school system. He played down the special relationship (because Obama snubbed him?) and played up a more federalist Europe.

Still a few items did stand out. At one point he described denying the holocaust as "wholly unacceptable". I'm not sure that sits well with me. Ignorant yes, irresponsible coming from an elected official certainly, but "wholly unacceptable"? Surely the leader of any Liberal party should support freedom of speech even if it makes us uncomfortable?

He also spoke quite strongly against "barely camouflaged protectionist rules" describing them as "vastly unfair". Unless anyone has any other suggestions I would guess h e was talking about the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and the Common External Tariff (CET). Again you have to wonder how the leader of such a Euro-federalist party can hold such strong beliefs about the way the EU spends so much of it's money. He spoke with the sort of passion I have against the CAP. My conclusion is that there is no way we can possibly morally justify keeping millions of African's in poverty and so, as we have failed to change the EU's policy must leave the EU. For some reason his is to further integrate. If anyone can fathom his reasoning any more than I can please do share it on the comments board.

Still his worst crime by far had to be when he pinched Eric Pickles' shopping list line about Gordon's speech. An outrageous theft without even a nod to the great Mr Pickles. Honestly Nick come up with your own witty and insightful political commentary

Sadly I didn't get a chance to ask how we can possibly trust him after he bottled the referendum vote but I have put it in writing. I'll let you know what response I get.

When I saw the constantly ridiculous Glenn Beck blaming America's problems on godlessness in the clip above I could not help but think of Lewis Prothero in the film V for Vendetta. Scroll about 50 seconds into this clip to see what I mean:



Strength through Unity! Unity through Faith!

Give me strength...

Hat Tip to Shaun for the clip

One of Tory Bear's eagle eyed anonymous tipsters spotted this little cock-up in Labours latest party political broadcast:


First they can't use Google and now spell check seems beyond them. Perhaps they should give up their infatuation with Twitter and get back to basics.