John Baron MP officially opens the new George Hurd Centre

MP secures scooter shelter in car park for local residents

John Baron MP has opened the new George Hurd Centre, in Audley Way, Basildon. Whilst there, John secured a promise from Lovells to provide free of charge a scooter shelter in the car park to protect against the rain when residents are visiting the centre.

John said:

“This fabulous day Centre will allow residents to access a wide range of services all in one place for the first time. With the elderly population growing, this facility will play an important role in helping older people to continue to live independently and to fully enjoy their retirement. It is a great community asset.”

“I am also delighted that today I have been able to secure from Lovells a scooter shelter on behalf of local residents. This is badly needed and our thanks go to Lovells.”

“Congratulations to everyone for working together to produce such a fantastic new day Centre at no expense to council tax payers. Our thanks also go to the teams involved in now making this work for the local community.”

There is a little more as well. The George Hurd Centre is primarily a day centre for the elderly, built right in the middle of the largest concentration of the elderly in Basildon, in a ward that traditionally returns Labour Councillors, and its construction was fought tooth and nail by the Labour party. Yes, you read that right. Labour didn't want it built in their backyard, and as the Cabinet member responsible at the time I had to fight off both Conservative and Liberal Democrat Councillors that would all have been happy, nay eager, for the building to have been put up in their wards. Anyway, we pushed it through, as you have to sometimes in politics, and winding forward a few years we came to the opening. Now, the new centre is in Angela Smith's constituency, but as her party didn't want it built, we asked John Baron from the other constituency in the District to do the honours. Labour's reaction was to focus on some local disquiet at the lack of a scooter shelter, not that they did anything practical about resolving the matter. John sorted it out in about five minutes.

So, there was have it. Labour put party politics above providing for Basildon's elderly. Tories got the job done, doing what's best for the whole District, not just those parts that mainly vote Conservative.

Poll Summary from Electoral Calculus

Considering the latest polls Electoral Calculus has it thus:

The Conservatives have continued to increase their lead over Labour following their
wins at the local elections and the Crewe and Nantwich by-election.

Populus (Times) has a Conservative lead of 11% (up from 10%), ComRes (Independent)
has 17% (up from 14%), ICM (Guardian) has 14% (up from 10%), and YouGov (Daily Telegraph)
sees the greatest lead of 24% (up from 14%). Ipsos-MORI have not published a poll this month.

Overall the Conservatives now have 43% on average and Labour are on 27%, a Conservative lead of 16%.
This is unprecedented in recent years. If this result were repeated at a general election,
it would compare with the 1983 victory of Mrs Thatcher's Conservative party over Michael Foot's
Labour party (Con 42%, Lab 28%).

The current prediction is that the Conservatives will have a majority of 92 seats,
winning 371 seats (+18 seats since 1 May 2008).

In one poll, YouGov for the Daily Telegraph, Labour is polling at their worst level ever. Brown has actually managed to do half a point worse that Michael Foot, which is saying something.

Labour's plans summarised

The Daily Mash has it here:

LABOUR will today unveil a detailed plan to alienate its last remaining pockets of support.

The central plank of the party's strategy involves identifying the 10 most popular family cars in Britain and then making them a nightmare to own.

A Labour spokesman said: "We're going for the double whammy of making them too expensive to drive, but also impossible to sell.

"And if that doesn't work we'll just spray paint a big swastika onto the bonnet."

Let's hope Darling is reading this. Sometimes sarcasm can help you think more clearly.

Simon Heffer thinks Al Qaeda Have got guts

Simon doesn't like the idea that we should negotiate with Al Qaeda. You know, he is right about that, but being Simon idiocy will out:

Al-Qa'eda is far more threatening to us than the IRA ever was, for three reasons. First, its network of supporters is vast. Second, and as a consequence, it has better recourse to funding and weaponry. Third, it lacks the IRA's sheer cowardice. No republican was prepared to blow himself up on an aircraft, a Tube train or a bus in order to inflict heavy casualties on the innocent. All too many militant Islamists seem happy to do just that.

It's the 'sheer cowardice' bit that makes no sense. It does not take a suicide bomber to blow up aircraft, tube trains or buses. Al Qaeda's carnage on the Madrid train system in 2004 did not require a suicide bomber, neither did the IRA's massacre in Omagh. Suicide bombing has nothing to do with operational effectiveness and everything to do with a death cult that fixates on self-immolation. The IRA's unwillingness, in most cases, to slaughter civilians in large numbers had nothing to do with a dislike for suicide or 'cowardice', and more with a considered view on the likely political effect of their actions. They knew that wholesale slaughter of men, women and children would be counter-productive. Al Qaeda's mix of religion and politics leads them to think differently; and that's it. Neither have any moral courage and Simon's seeming admiration for the most vicious of our enemies is actually quite disturbing.

Left commentators go mad

Johann Hari is joining a number of others on the Left who have decided that the game is up with Brown, Conservative victory at the next General Election is now inevitable and that the best course of action is to implement a hard left agenda without regard to the consequences.

The reality is that if a Labour government decided, as policy, to ignore the electorate and push up taxes, 'price SUVs off the road' and allow vast new immigration then it would not just lose the next election, it would be the last Labour government ever. What would the campaign slogan be, 'We don't care what you think?' or 'So what?'. As political advice goes this is actually a bit bonkers and it suggests that Hari and is cohorts actually have no clue about, well, anything much. The point of representative politics is to balance the concerns of the electorate with the national interest and a vision for a better society. If you deliberately detach from the electorate then they will vote for someone else. A Labour government that effectively told the voters to shove off would not just lose, it would be obliterated.

Hmm...maybe Hari has a point.

Interesting article by Matthew d'Ancona on Brown

Matthew d'Ancona is not quite as smart as he appears to think he is, at least based on his writings to date. However, his article in today's Telegraph is an excellent analysis of the state of Labour. In particular he hits upon Brown's coronation as the pivotal failing. By not having a leadership contest, Labour put off any debate about its future as a movement and as a government. Instead they let Brown and his cronies bully them into not even putting up another candidate, when the fact that the man was even doing that said volumes about him as a potential leader. In contrast, the effect of Conservative leadership contests has been beneficial, each time moving the Party on in terms of ideas. The last contest arrived at unexpected new thinking from an unexpected new leader, and that has sort of worked out. Now Labour are trying to rethink on the go, with a leader who has never even been tested by his own Party much less the country. How did they get here? Because too many of their MPs rolled over under pressure from the coterie that surround the PM.

They have only themselves to blame.

Basildon Labour bad at maths

I've just noticed that the website for the Labour Group on the Council has the current state of the parties at 27 Conservatives and 12 Labour. Actually it's 29 Conservatives to 10 Labour. Do keep up.

Labour's not funny

Yesterday, the Labour party asked the voters of Crewe and Nantwich to vote for them because they despised some of our fellow citizens and some visitors to our country. To their credit, and Labour's shame, the electors saw through race and class-baiting and deserted Labour in droves. It was a disgusting Labour campaign and many of their own people have been saying so. The only rational explanation is that they knew that they were going to lose, but by running a poisonous 'core-vote' strategy they hoped to limit the damage. It says a lot about how they view their own core vote, but I am glad it not only didn't work, it was a disaster.

Now they are saying that it was all about introducing a note of humour into the election. Well I have news for them. Hate isn't remotely funny.

New Look Council

Full Council last night for the first time in the new St. George's room at the Basildon Centre. This is part of our general refurbishment of the Council offices at the Council staff move out of Church Walk House elsewhere in Basildon Town Centre and I think all would agree that the new room is much better. It has decent air-conditioning for starters, unlike the old sweat-box.

The St. George's name continues the general theme of Britishness and Englishness that we have sought to promote for Basildon. This is quite concious, we have all seen the symbols of our nation hijacked by the far-Right in the past and we are determined to take the back. I do believe that this is one of the things that has helped to keep the BNP down in Basildon. They work by trying to portray themselves as the sole custodians of patriotism, but that argument is difficult to make when the Conservative Council flies the Union Flag and the Cross of St.George from the Council offices every day of the year. So, far there are no BNP Councillors in Basildon, which is very good for community relations, and for the operation of the Council. While I am not a particular fan of Labour and the Liberal Democrats I think that we are all united in our especial detestation of the BNP. Keeping them out means that we can keep an all-party cabinet and that debate in the Council has as its background a basic commitment to equality and respect for all of the groups in our community. Frankly, Basildon District does not need those Nazis.

The meeting itself was pretty routine, except for one Labour Councillor who raised a number of ridiculous points of order about an item that everyone agreed about anyway. Having made his speeches he then voted for the matter, leaving everyone wondering why he had bothered. If there is a real concern about agendas then it is reasonably straightforward to bring these up with the Council officers before the meeting, instead of putting on a show in public. Labour were a bit down though, but I don't blame them for that. While we were talking the Crewe and Nantwich byelection was drawing to a close. This was a disaster for Labour and most of them must realise by now that Brown is simply not up to the job. It also raises the question about the moral responsibility of those MPs who nominated him for the Labour leadership, because they must have known that he couldn't hack it. The only question now is if they have the intelligence to dump him before he destroys their party. I actually hope that they get rid of him. Never mind the politics, Britain should not be led by a such an incompetent, regardless of Party.

I never liked Tony Blair, but I was never embarrassed that he was our Prime Minister.

Brown to face Challenge?

The Labour party is holding its breath waiting for the result of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. If they lose, and the last poll showed them trailing by 13 points, then a bout of bloodletting is to be expected.

The first issue will be the divisive 'toff' campaign that has seen Labour pushing class war and xenophobia as the main reasons for people to vote for them. This has already caused disquiet among many Labour people because of its small-minded appeal to the worst instincts of voters, but they have been muted by the need to hold things together for the campaign. Do not expect that to continue if Labour fail in Crewe. Then the gloves will come off and the recriminations will be bitter. It is one thing to lose an election, but quite another to lose the moral direction that is meant to characterise your party. One rumour is that it was Stephen Carter, Brown's management consultant, who came up with the 'toff' wheeze. Certainly someone will have to take the fall. As a former parliamentary candidate myself, I can’t help but wonder what Ms. Dunwoody is playing at. Losing is one thing, but losing with this campaign cannot but kill off any sort of political career she may hoped to have had. If she were as independent as her mum then she would have told Labour HQ to shove off when they came up with their poisonous ideas.

The second issue is Brown himself. If Labour lose badly then the rumour is that a coup is planned. However, the buzz on the Internet is not about Charles Clarke, rather Alan Milburn as the assassin. Labour rules make a challenge to a sitting PM very difficult in theory, but in practice a succession of MPs calling on Brown to go could force the issue, especially if any of the cabinet were involved.

Whatever happens the elephant in the room is that the Labour party is broke. Tony Blair mortgaged their future in the 2005 general election campaign and then bowed out leaving Brown with empty coffers. Brown is not a good fundraiser and even if he survives politically, keeping him at the helm may mean the end of the party as a going financial concern. This is serious stuff by the way; Brown's ineptitude has cost the party the broad-based support that it needs to rebuild as a functioning political entity. It is this sort of convergence of events that can do for a political movement: no money, poor leadership and, worst of all, a political narrative that is out of touch with most of the electorate. By ditching the New Labour coalition, Labour could contract back into a party of the working class. Except that the working class, as measured by those people in NRS Social Grade Definitions C2DE, only makes up about 44% of the population. If your electoral strategy starts by only appealing to less than half of the population before you have even started competing with other parties then you are never likely to be a party of government, and that means that many good people interested in public service will find another berth.

Labour's best bet is to find another leader who can raise money and who wants to keep them in the political mainstream. Much more of the class war stuff and Nick Clegg will be leading Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition in a couple of general elections.