Tory Peer Norman Tebbit, former party chairman, is urging people to "teach the big parties a lesson" and "show them who is master" by boycotting them in the forthcoming European Elections. Lord Tebbit did not endorse any specific party but he did stress that he did not want people voting for the BNP.
It is interesting to note that one of the largest of these smaller parties are Eurosceptics as is Lord Tebbit himself so this is probably not a coincidence. Particularly as the UK Independence Party is the only one coming out of the expenses fiasco with clean hands having dealt "absolutely ruthlessly" with both Tom Wise and Ashley Mote after their 'financial irregularities' came to light.
More importantly, if the "public anger" and "sense of betrayal" which many political commentators have been referring to recently is reflected in the results of the next month's European elections then the UKIP could take a majority of the seats being contested.
Whether this would constitute the "pretty powerful shot across the bows" Lord Tebbit believes Tory, Lib-Dem and Labour MPs need is debatable but it's certainly not something they can afford to ignore.
Naturally, Lord Tebbit's own party are not too pleased with him about this and Tory leader David Cameron warned him that he risks being expelled from the tory group of peers.
Boycott big parties, says Tebbit
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Monday, 11 May 2009
Away with the fairies
Well the apologies started in earnest this morning with Gordo jumping on the bandwagon at the Royal College of Nursing conference in Harrogate, North Yorkshire with the following lacklustre effort.
"I want to apologise on behalf of politicians on behalf of all parties for what has happened in the events of the last few days."
Fairly bland 'I'm sorry we got caught' nonsense of the sort one would expect from the socially retarded and not the Prime Minister of a modern democracy, but not totally unexpected of course. However he soon followed it up with this.
"We must show that, where mistakes have been made and errors have been discovered, where wrongs have to be righted, that it is done so immediately."
Mistakes? Errors? Is he totally deranged?
With everything which has been made public so far, it's difficult to comprehend how Gordo could still believe he can gloss any of this over as a mistake or an error.
I suppose the most charitable explanation is that the strain has finally pushed him over the edge and he is now living in some deluded fantasy where people still believe what he says.
Brown apology over MPs' expenses
"I want to apologise on behalf of politicians on behalf of all parties for what has happened in the events of the last few days."
Fairly bland 'I'm sorry we got caught' nonsense of the sort one would expect from the socially retarded and not the Prime Minister of a modern democracy, but not totally unexpected of course. However he soon followed it up with this.
"We must show that, where mistakes have been made and errors have been discovered, where wrongs have to be righted, that it is done so immediately."
Mistakes? Errors? Is he totally deranged?
With everything which has been made public so far, it's difficult to comprehend how Gordo could still believe he can gloss any of this over as a mistake or an error.
I suppose the most charitable explanation is that the strain has finally pushed him over the edge and he is now living in some deluded fantasy where people still believe what he says.
Brown apology over MPs' expenses
Panic in da House
I heard a rumour this morning that certain members of the leadership have been discussing the possibility of calling an immediate general election.
If true, I can only assume that they are hoping this most singular act of desperation will distract attention from the expenses row and allow them to quietly sweep it under the rug during the fuss attending the run up to a general election.
This may save individual MPs, particularly if they fail to retain their seat as the tabloids will probably lose interest once they are out of office. Their readership certainly will as the majority of them have the attention span of a four year old. But in doing so, it will almost certainly destroy the Labour Party as an effective force in British politics. The 'two horse race' will once again be the sole province of the tories and the liberals.
However what's far more likely is that this rumour is simply an expression of the sense of panic prevalent amongst MPs as they await further revelations.
More importantly, it shows that new labour MPs simply do not care about the party or the people who elected them. It shows how they're willing to sacrifice this party's future to save their own miserable hides.
If true, I can only assume that they are hoping this most singular act of desperation will distract attention from the expenses row and allow them to quietly sweep it under the rug during the fuss attending the run up to a general election.
This may save individual MPs, particularly if they fail to retain their seat as the tabloids will probably lose interest once they are out of office. Their readership certainly will as the majority of them have the attention span of a four year old. But in doing so, it will almost certainly destroy the Labour Party as an effective force in British politics. The 'two horse race' will once again be the sole province of the tories and the liberals.
However what's far more likely is that this rumour is simply an expression of the sense of panic prevalent amongst MPs as they await further revelations.
More importantly, it shows that new labour MPs simply do not care about the party or the people who elected them. It shows how they're willing to sacrifice this party's future to save their own miserable hides.
Thursday, 7 May 2009
The Laddie Vanishes
Tony Wright, chairman of the Commons public administration committee, is probably the only MP in the country who actually wants to see Damian McBride at the moment. He wants McBride to give evidence to the committee which is currently investigating the role of 'special advisers' in UK politics.
The only problem is he can't find him.
Strange as it may seem, for once the timing of this event isn't significant as McBride hasn't been seen in public since Gordo booted him out of no. 10 and, not surprisingly, no one is admitting to having seen him elsewhere either.
So, has he 'done a bunk' or have Gordo's blackshirts been 'cleaning house' Godfather style?
MPs 'seek to trace' aide McBride
The only problem is he can't find him.
Strange as it may seem, for once the timing of this event isn't significant as McBride hasn't been seen in public since Gordo booted him out of no. 10 and, not surprisingly, no one is admitting to having seen him elsewhere either.
So, has he 'done a bunk' or have Gordo's blackshirts been 'cleaning house' Godfather style?
MPs 'seek to trace' aide McBride
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Unsuspecting eh?
For a long time now it's been generally recognised that the alleged deterrent effect of so-called 'safety cameras' is virtually non-existent. Many have suggested that it is and always has been nothing more than a cover story to hide their real purpose of raising revenue by penalising unsuspecting motorists.
Naturally there appears to be a certain degree of truth in this allegation until you consider the simple fact that these idiots wouldn't have been fined if they hadn't broken the law.
Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the case of Tom Riall, chief executive of Serco Civil Government who was convicted of speeding at Sudbury Magistrates Court. Riall, who pleaded guilty to driving at 102.9mph on a 70mph road, was fined £300, banned for six months and had six penalty points added to his licence.
Quite frankly, with Serco having supplied more than 5000 'safety cameras' within the UK there are many things you might wish to call Tom Riall, but "unsuspecting" is certainly not one of them.
Speed camera boss in 100mph drive
Naturally there appears to be a certain degree of truth in this allegation until you consider the simple fact that these idiots wouldn't have been fined if they hadn't broken the law.
Nothing demonstrates this more clearly than the case of Tom Riall, chief executive of Serco Civil Government who was convicted of speeding at Sudbury Magistrates Court. Riall, who pleaded guilty to driving at 102.9mph on a 70mph road, was fined £300, banned for six months and had six penalty points added to his licence.
Quite frankly, with Serco having supplied more than 5000 'safety cameras' within the UK there are many things you might wish to call Tom Riall, but "unsuspecting" is certainly not one of them.
Speed camera boss in 100mph drive
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Waccy-Baccy 'outs' Gordo
It looks like that "significantly better advice" Gordo seemed to be getting is limited entirely to 'new media' if the photograph accompanying the following article from the BBC is anything to go by.
Brown 'right' man for UK - Smith
Naturally this comes as no surprise to those of us who have always suspected that Gordo's true political affiliations were somewhat further to the right than he is prepared to admit.
Ironically, one of Gordo's highly expensive PR team is former BBC producer Nicola Burdett who was hired precisely to prevent this sort of thing. A task in which she is obviously having rather mixed results.
Brown 'right' man for UK - Smith
Naturally this comes as no surprise to those of us who have always suspected that Gordo's true political affiliations were somewhat further to the right than he is prepared to admit.
Ironically, one of Gordo's highly expensive PR team is former BBC producer Nicola Burdett who was hired precisely to prevent this sort of thing. A task in which she is obviously having rather mixed results.
Friday, 1 May 2009
Phoul Play or just a Phoul smell?
This morning I had my attention drawn to Phorm's new "Stop Phoul Play" website in which Phorm attacks it's critics and accuses them of "conducting a smear campaign" in what I can only describe as a deranged frenzy.
The site itself is an uninspired combination of the worse aspects of Microsoft's "Get The Facts" campaign, the copyright lobby's 'anti-piracy' propaganda and pre-war Nazi propaganda. It attempts to de-humanise it's critics by applying labels such as "Privacy Pirates", "The Angry Activist" and "The Concerned Consumer" to them in much the same way the Nazis did with European Jews.
A bit extreme?
Perhaps, but the use of de-humanising labels is extremely popular amongst those who's activities cannot stand up to scrutiny and while the Nazis were certainly one of the worst, they were neither the first nor the last to use such tactics. The copyright lobby's liberal use of the terms "pirate" and "freetard" to describe anyone opposed to their member's extortionate business practices is simply one example of this.
In this case it seems to have backfired rather badly and if anything, has only served to draw more attention to those critics and Phorm's alleged misconduct.
Quite frankly, the whole thing looks like something McBride and Draper might have cooked up after spending the entire afternoon in the pub. However the idea appears to have actually come from right-wing tory attack-rat Patrick Robertson, a 'PR consultant' who's own history of blunders rivals that of McBride.
Robertson's previous 'clients' include convicted perjurer Jonathan Aitken and it was while acting for Aitkin that he rather infamously faxed a confidential memo to the wrong number. A blunder he later compounded by surreptitiously obtaining the recipient's ex-directory phone number in order to leave a message on his answering machine asking for the fax to be returned.
This remarkable display of bad judgement can be found here:-
Stop Phoul Play
Some of the media coverage can be found here:-
The Register article 1
ThinkBroadband
PCPlus
The Guardian
The Register article 2
The site itself is an uninspired combination of the worse aspects of Microsoft's "Get The Facts" campaign, the copyright lobby's 'anti-piracy' propaganda and pre-war Nazi propaganda. It attempts to de-humanise it's critics by applying labels such as "Privacy Pirates", "The Angry Activist" and "The Concerned Consumer" to them in much the same way the Nazis did with European Jews.
A bit extreme?
Perhaps, but the use of de-humanising labels is extremely popular amongst those who's activities cannot stand up to scrutiny and while the Nazis were certainly one of the worst, they were neither the first nor the last to use such tactics. The copyright lobby's liberal use of the terms "pirate" and "freetard" to describe anyone opposed to their member's extortionate business practices is simply one example of this.
In this case it seems to have backfired rather badly and if anything, has only served to draw more attention to those critics and Phorm's alleged misconduct.
Quite frankly, the whole thing looks like something McBride and Draper might have cooked up after spending the entire afternoon in the pub. However the idea appears to have actually come from right-wing tory attack-rat Patrick Robertson, a 'PR consultant' who's own history of blunders rivals that of McBride.
Robertson's previous 'clients' include convicted perjurer Jonathan Aitken and it was while acting for Aitkin that he rather infamously faxed a confidential memo to the wrong number. A blunder he later compounded by surreptitiously obtaining the recipient's ex-directory phone number in order to leave a message on his answering machine asking for the fax to be returned.
This remarkable display of bad judgement can be found here:-
Stop Phoul Play
Some of the media coverage can be found here:-
The Register article 1
ThinkBroadband
PCPlus
The Guardian
The Register article 2
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)