Doing Your Bit For The Economy

On a car bodyshop invoice.

Please help us to beat the credit crunch by settling your account promptly.

Labour Family Trees

When it comes to selecting candidates, I don't think you'll ever find me holding up the Conservative Party as a paragon of virtue, but compared to the Labour Party we approach perfection. Several recent contests involving all-women-shortlists have resulted in organisational chaos and worse. If you were looking for arguments for selecting on merit alone, the catalogue of chaos that follows makes a strong case.

The most obvious debacle is of course Erith and Thamesmead where the 22 year old daughter of Lord Gould was placed as favourite before the whole show was called off after some ballot box tampering back at Labour HQ. You'd have thought that Labour would have learnt from Crewe & Nantwich that nepotism is unappealing - but then again there are many unlearnt lessons from that campaign.

Speaking of 'it's not what you know' Tony Blair's mother-in-law recently won out in an acrimonious contest in the Calder Valley.

Not wishing to be upstaged, West Midlands Labour have organised an all-women-contest in the wake of the mysterious departure of Cllr Kim Brom from the inner city ward of Lozells & East Handsworth. Contest you say? Well not really. Despite interest from various quarters, only one name was put forward to the party membership - benefit claimant, Hendrina Quinnen, leaving Khalid Mahmood's former squeeze out in the cold.

But this time Elaina Cohen isn't taking things lying down. It appears that when she was canvassing for support she was told she was too white and jewish and has a witness to back her up. All this is before I give you the lowdown on how the 27 year old daughter of the Chairman of the Birmingham Labour Party managed to win selection for Clare Short's seat... That will have to be for another day.

Labour rules may prevent men from having a fair chance, but it's all relative. ;-)

Labour List Lost

The online project that the Labour Party planned and in which senior figures invested so much political capital is drawing to an end. Red Rag? No, I'm talking about Labour List.


I did predict that this online project would help the Tories, but as you can see by the latest polling data, it has surpassed all expectations. Bravo Derek Draper.

Bull In A China Shop

The Labour Party are desperately trying to limit the fall-out from Smeargate to Damian McBride, but facts may get in the way. For example, if he's not the person who purchased the Red Rag website, there is likely to be further spillover. The BBC reports,

Meanwhile, the Times newspaper has reported that the Red Rag website was set up by someone giving the name "Ollie Cromwell" and the House of Commons as their address. Easily internet, which registered the site, would not confirm or deny the address given but is looking into whether its terms and conditions were breached. The firm has been unsuccessful in contacting the site's creator on the telephone number given.

We're looking for a Westminster-based Puritan whose phone doesn't work. Hmmm

Spinning Into Oblivion

Gordon Brown and Damian McBride's published reactions to Smeargate sum up their regime. I've thrown in Tom Watson's resignation letter for good measure.

Damian McBride's Resignation Letter

I am shocked and appalled that, however they were obtained, these e-mails have been put into the public domain by Paul Staines. When Derek Draper originally suggested using a website to compete with the kind of material seen regularly on the Guido Fawkes blog, he asked me in a personal capacity to write up some of the stories doing the rounds in Westminster. Derek and I decided in the end that this website was the wrong thing to do, and that Derek should not take his online efforts down to the level of Guido Fawkes and his Tory backers.

Guido has frequently asserted his independence - which is a key element of his online reputation. Astonishing that a resignation letter for smearing would contain an apparently actionable smear.

I have already apologised for the inappropriate and juvenile content of my e-mails, and the offence they have caused, but I did not want these stories in the public domain - it is because Paul Staines has put them there, and I am sickened that he has done so.

Only because you lost your job over it.

However, we all know that when a backroom adviser becomes the story, their position becomes untenable, so I have willingly offered my resignation. It has been an absolute privilege ...

Game over.

Gordon Brown Apologises For Getting Caught

I enclose a letter sent to Gus O'Donnell to revise rules for political advisers. The political adviser concerned has apologised unreservedly and left his post. He sent these prank emails without the knowledge of anyone in Downing Street. I understand the embarassment caused, and any activity such as this that affects the reputation of our politics is a matter of great regret to me. As you can see, I have taken action to do all I can to avoid this happening again.

Firstly, is that supposed to be a personal apology? Secondly, McBride's e-mails were palpably not a prank - even his resignation letter makes that clear. Misrepresenting them in this way is brazen dishonesty. Rather than an apologising, Brown's letter adds insult to injury.

Tom Watson's Resignation Letter

Dear Tony,

The Labour Party has been my life since I was 15 years old... So it is with the greatest sadness that I have to say that I no longer believe that your remaining in office is in the interest of either the party or the country. How and why this situation has arisen no longer matters.

At least have the guts/decency to explain your resignation. What a coward.

I share the view of the overwhelming majority of the party and the country that the only way the Party and the Government can renew itself in office is urgently to renew its leadership. For the sake of the legacy you have long said is the only one that matters - a renewed Labour party re-elected at the next general election - I urge you to reconsider your determination to remain in office. As you know, I had a conversation with the Chief Whip last night... with the greatest regret, therefore, that I must leave the Government. Yours ever,

Tom Watson MP

The greatest regret! Ha.

Happy Easter

Back again. Call it intuition but now seems like quite a good time to be recruiting/energising Conservative Party supporters. Funnily enough I have a list of about 200 to go through. Should be fun.

Blogging Break

The Lenten season approaches and I've decided to take a blogging break as part of that. I'd like to point you to a couple of Birmingham-based conservative websites. Young Tory activist Matthew Tidy has just started blogging. And David Kelly is a mysterious character who seems to be the first on all the local political gossip. I only plan to update the blog if and when my suggestion for a party peerage is published by Conservative Home.

Prescient?

I saw the following on a blogpost last November, so I repackaged it and sent it to some mates titled "The wisdom of Alistair Darling". Unfortunately, we're actually ahead of schedule...

Jan 2008 The UK economy is one of the strongest in the world

Feb 2008 Growth in the UK next year will be 2.5%

April 2008 The UK will continue to grow throughout next year

May 2008 The UK will escape recession

Nov 2008 The downturn will end in the second half of next year when growth will resume

Jan 2009 The UK recession will not be as bad as in the nineties

March 2009 The UK recession will not be as bad as in the seventies

April 2009 The UK economy is stronger than Irelands

May 2009 The UK economy is stronger than Icelands.....just

June 2009 The depression in the UK will not be as bad as in the thirties

Sept 2009 It will not be as bad as the Irish potato famine of the nineteenth century.

Nov 2009 It won't get as bad as during the Black Death which ravaged throughout the middle ages leaving millions dead

Dec 2009 Christmas is cancelled this year

Jan 2010 Hello...is anyone still listening?

Update - On a related theme, I have to admire the way Fraser Nelson is using his blog.

I Live In My Sister's Box Room

But last May in my capacity as a local resident and voter, I nominated the local Labour candidate at my 'second home' in Redditch.

Britain's Unsustainable Credit Expansion

Some people seem to think that bank nationalisation/massive public borrowing/lowering interest rates are the best way to get us out of this mess. I do not concur.

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.

Ludwig von Mises.

That's why I'm looking for another currency. I like the Polish government but worry that these smaller economies will be at the mercy of global capital movements. Any other ideas?