A balanced review of Gordon's first year

The Conservative Party has issued an objective analysis of Gordon Brown's year as Prime Minister. Chapters include: Brown the failure, Brown the incompetent, Brown the ditherer, Brown the opportunist, and Brown the hypocrite. You get the drift. On one level you should try to play the ball not the man in politics, but when it comes to leadership much is bound up in the character of the leader, and much of the failure of Labour is bound up in the character of Brown. It is also pretty funny.

My favourites are some of the photographs, like this one of Brown asleep:


Or this one of him on fire:

Or having had a make-up malfunction:


Apparently there is someone now employed at No.10 whose entire job revolves around preventing such images. Given Brown's legendary temper they must be a master of tact.

Basildon Cabinet - Everyone Agrees!

Just got back from a Cabinet meeting at Basildon Council and I think that we may have achieved a first. Every item was passed by unanimous vote; this with a multi-party Cabinet, in Basildon. For those that don't know, Basildon politics is traditionally highly adversarial, with disagreement often occurring seemingly just for the sake of it. However Lynda Gordon, the new Labour leader, and Ben Williams who is also new to the Cabinet, clearly have a different way of working. This is a good thing, with a better discussion of the various items instead of party-political ping-pong. I don't doubt that we will continue to have disagreements, but if they are on matters of real substance then we will serve the people better by spending our time arguing about things that matter.

It is Full Council tomorrow. Let us see if the trend continues.

David Davis and Freedom

When I first heard about David Davis resigning to fight a by-election my first reaction was that he had gone mad. As Shadow Home Secretary he was clearly doing a good job, and he had helped position the Conservatives as the next likely government, in which he would have one of the great offices of state. I think that my view was shared by many of those involved in politics and political commentators, and it was certainly the line peddled by openly gleeful government ministers doing rounds of the TV and radio studios. The thing is though, while us political anoraks might have been shaking our heads it has gone down rather well with the wider public. David Davis has clearly struck a chord with his campaign on privacy and against the encroachment of The State. He has garnered approval from all across the political spectrum, judging from comments in the left-leaning media, and quite a few Labour activists reckon he is dead right on this issue. He has also made Brown look like a coward, again, for not daring to take him on and it may be that DD's judgement was spot on. Instead of detracting from the Conservatives, he has positioned the Party perfectly on an issue where the government is hopelessly vulnerable with its own supporters, never mind those who already dislike it. That he will win his election is pretty much a done deal. That he will hurt the government quite badly in the process seems increasingly likely.

Labour doesn't like St. George

In Basildon at least. The Conservative administration on the Council replaced the EU flag with the Cross of St. George alongside the Union Flag for Council meetings. Apparently our local Labour party don't like this. In particular Lynda Gordon, the Labour leader, has connected the EU with trips to MIPIM.

She said it was "two faced" of the Conservatives to jet to Cannes in the south of France and try to lure foreign investment to Basildon without recognising the benefits of being in Europe

If you don't know, MIPIM, which is held in Cannes, is the largest property development conference in Europe and Conservative Councillors have attended for the last two years in order to bring investment to Basildon. However, it is nothing to do with the EU, being entirely privately run. Anyway, why is that if any objection to anything to do with the EU if automatically equated to a dislike of all things continental European? We just think it is better to fly the English flag in, well, England.

The good news for Lynda is that Associated Press have picked up on the story and so in may get some national coverage. So, do you think that Labour HQ will be pleased at Basildon's Labour's firm rejection of English patriotism, regarding it as a surefire vote winner? Or do you think that she might be getting a pointed phone call sometime this evening?

Peter Oborne on Labour's financial meltdown

Peter Oborne sums is up here.

It is difficult to predict what will happen if Labour collapses financially. One outcome is that they may be finished permanently. Another is that the party reforms as new legal entity, albeit with senior figures from 'old' Labour personally bankrupted in the process. Of course, the unions may bail them out, but as Peter Oborne writes, at what cost? An obvious deal would be politically suicidal. Their best hope is that some lenders are forgiving and the remaining rich supporters dig deep.

What they should be doing, of course, is to cut costs like any business or public body would in the midst of a budget squeeze. There appears to be little sign of that.

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.