Praguetory

03 February 2008

February

Feb 28th

Interesting if brief interview this morning on Breakfast TV with Heather Brooke who has been successfully campaigning for increased transparency in Parliament. WHen I get a chance I'll have a detailed look at her website. Blogrolled.

Feb 26th

It takes some doing, but Councillor Bob Piper is the most reprehensible serving politician in England. Informed by ignorance and blind hatred it is easy to run rings around him in an argument, which is the reason he won't let me have my say on his blog. His only religion is crypto-Communism so I guess he'll have no qualms about some of the violent fantasies played out in the comment section - personally I think this sort of stuff is well beyond the pale.

Feb 25th

It's been pointed out to me that in the bottom mayoral picture on the far right are two former councillors for Kings Norton (now 100% Tory) Laura Ross and her husband Duncan - who mentioned what a big lad he was when I correctly reported that Laura was looking for alternative employment in advance of last year's election where she was the defeated incumbent. The unsuccessful mayoral referendum petition is not a street or grassroots campaign, it's a Labour campaign.

Feb 22nd

The regular reader(s) of this blog will know I'm generally a pretty tolerant guy, but David Blunkett!? being wheeled out on Sky to ~~defend~~ commentate on the Commons Speaker Michael Martin's irregularities is somewhat irksome.

Feb 21st

I find proposals for elected mayors to offend my pro-democratic and pro-small government tendencies. I'd rather give more powers to local governments that are arranged in the traditional Leader & Cabinet manner. Being as we already have councillors, I'd rather have elected police chiefs than elected mayors. Nonetheless, it can be argued that support for and opposition to elected mayors is cross-party. If 5% of the voting population signs up for it, legislation triggers a referendum and in Birmingham, support for a mayoral referendum has formed the main campaign of the local paper and the Labour Party for about a year - check here for 100! Birmingham Mail stories related to this campaign. Both are eager to portray this campaign as a grassroots one. This is rather skewered when you consider the people manning the stands. It may be a cross-party issue, but it's definitely a Labour campaign as you can see if you click on the pictures and check out the sources.

Source 1 and Source 2. By the way, it is rumoured that with a month left until the petition deadline expires they are miles off meeting the threshhold. Steve Dyson (editor of Birmingham Mail) and Neil Elkes (chief political editor) have shown poor judgment by flogging this dead horse and have allied themselves with a shambolic local Labour Party in the process.

White people will want to know his/her motivation/credentials are but I like this blog because it's funny. Blogrolled.

Feb 20th

Re Northern Rock, Cityunslicker eats his hat. Meanwhile Ken Purchase and other idiots on the Left are celebrating the nationalisation. My take is that NR is a disastrous but all-too-typical saga of Labour incompetence. The decision to nationalise is yet another misguided attempt to kick the issue into the long grass rather than take a short-term hit and move on. It won't work and the existence of a government-backed bank acting like any other commercial player will have a pernicious impact on the rest of the financial sector.

Feb 17th

It seems that my name goes before me in Birmingham Conservative circles, but it is a bit embarassing to be introduced as Dominic Fisher aka Praguetory. Some have suggested I could/should stand in a non-target seat in the upcoming locals, but this is impossible because you need to be registered as living in a local authority for a year before you can be a candidate. I was out delivering with Cllr Bobby Alden who represents Birmingham Erdington the seat that he lives in. Although there is a limited amount that a councillor can achieve due to the centralised democracy we have, he seems to have earned the trust of his constituents. Residents emerged from their houses with thank you cards and for advice and car drivers were screeching to a halt upon seeing him to get out and asking him to make representations about traffic issues. The incumbent Erdington Labour councillor Jilly Bermingham has apparently decided not to stand using a laughably weak excuse that would be too cruel to repeat here, but is a source of Tory derision. Rumour is that Labour have picked someone from outside the area to replace her.

I've decided to add Susan Polgar's blog to the roll. She was the first female grandmaster and posts prolifically here. She is part of the a sister act that became world team chess champions for their country. An interesting programme on her and how she reached the chess heights is here.

Feb 16th

They say that there aren't many Tory members in Birmingham - there were around 100 out in force last night at a beer and skittles night. It seems that wii bowling helps with real bowling as my team walked away with the bubbly and I top scored on the evening. I agree with this diagnosis of Tory tax dithering. You don't win an argument if you lack clarity and conviction.

Feb 14th

Charlie/Gordon Brown is a lovable/unlovable loser, a child/man possessed of endless determination and optimism/cynicism, but who is ultimately dominated by a "permanent case of bad luck", and is often dominated by his peers. These traits are best-shown from his baseball team/Cabinet: Charlie/Gordon Brown is the manager of the team and its pitcher/Prime minister, Charlie/Gordon Brown consistently loses (his all-time baseball/PMQ record is said to be 0-27).

Feb 12th

In respect of the EU referendum, I was interested by Trixie's eye-witness account of Labour admitting that they don't keep their promises and that we shouldn't expect them to.

I can see certain circumstances where it could be unreasonable to punish a party (outside of the ballot box) for failing on their manifesto commitments. Required legislation might fail to pass or as in the case of single sex hospital wards, the government might simply be too incompetent to deliver their promises. But it is unreasonable and inexcusable for Labour to fail to call a referendum. The only obstacle to doing so is Brown's own cowardice/dishonour.

Labour sycophant David Boothroyd predictably turns up in the comments thread at Trixie's with the party line that the constitution is different to the treaty. It's easy to spout the party line on a blog, but Labour's lawyers clearly felt that this line of argument wouldn't stand up in court. They'd rather admit that their promises are worthless than make that case. That tired mantra is firmly skewered.

Feb 11th

Well two out of three ain't bad. Highlight of the Villa match was the chant of 'there's only one Kevin Keegan' after Carew racked up his hat-trick.

Feb 9th

Back to Brum. As part of my mission I have to bring back cheddar cheese (lots of it), Yorkshire Tea and a strapless and transparent bra.

Feb 8th

I'm off to watch Villa play Newcastle with my former Lenton housemates this weekend. It will be interesting to see whether Keegan and Wise (pictured) can motivate the Geordies.

Feb 7th

I've decided to stop commenting at political websites for Lent.

Feb 6th

Good first question from David Cameron on how many reviews Gordon Brown has initiated (the answer is 52 or one every 4 days). By the way, I didn't know that Andy Fordham was an MP but he was sat behind Gordon today.

Feb 5th

As Laban pointed out (but nobody else seemed to notice) BBC radio presenter and full-blown AIDs sufferer Nigel Wrench was suspended by the BBC just less than a year ago when he was charged with male rape. Details of the incident are beginning to emerge from court. In 2000, Nigel told the Pink Paper 'Since I've been HIV+ I've had unsafe sex more times than I can remember, often with men whose names I could not tell you now'.

When sacking Robert Kilroy-Silk, the BBC's Jana Bennett said

'Presenters of this kind of programme have a responsibility to uphold the BBC's impartiality. This does not mean that people who express highly controversial views are not welcome on the BBC but they cannot be presenters of a news, current affairs or topical discussion programme.'

Some people have asked why this did not apply in Wrench's case? Personally, I liken his admitted behaviour to HIV syringe attacks which usually attract severe prison sentences. So I'm asking why he wasn't arrested/sectioned.

Others will ask whether the overwhelming media silence is related to his orientation or his employers. Certainly, when a previously obscure 19 year old football player is named in respect of a reported rape before he is even charged with a crime, it does beg the question.

Feb 4th

I don't think I'm naturally musical, but I have a great deal of admiration for those who do have that talent and fulfil their potential. So it's nice to see this young man's achievement being recognised.

Feb 3rd

The Conway verdict and subsequent withdrawal of the whip is an opportunity to clean up politics, but as with Garry Newlove's widow's impassioned speech where the media and political classes seemed to take a call for law and order as a debate on supermarket alcohol prices (!?*&!^&) the initial fallout doesn't engender confidence that we're heading in the right direction.

For avoidance of doubt, these are the required basic measures that should be taken by Parliamentary authorities

1. All expenses must be receipted
2. Random, independent and thorough checks of the validity of expenses
3. MPs must declare all staff including the nature of any personal relationship (it's not just Bob Spink that has an ex on his payroll). New staff must be notified as soon as they are employed and changes in the nature of the relationship must be notified, too.
4. More detailed and frequent check should take place over related party employees

I would like to see legislation that supports the following ideas

1. Expenses fraud (i.e. failure to comply with any of the above) = automatic by-election
2. Voters in any constituency can trigger a by-election if more than 20% of them sign a recall petition.

The above should be enough in itself to bring the House to order. However, in the short term, the party leaders can take a number of steps to clean things up.

1. Require all their MPs to submit a similar list of expenses to the one Ben Wallace has prepared
2. Get MPs to list all staff including the nature of any personal relationship and ask those MPs to vouch that they can provide evidence to support the assertion that these payroll arrangements are arms length.

01 January 2008

[+/-]

January

The blog is going to become more like a journal - mainly political commentary with a soupcon of the personal. Unless someone takes me up on the offer in my previous post I am just going to produce 12 posts this year - one a month updated as and when. Daily blogging is bad for the soul.

Jan 29th

Derek Conway should go and now that the subject is in the public domain, let's rifle a few more drawers and turn a few tables over - I want this 'can of worms' to be opened. Cameron still needs to convince me that he's the man who can deliver a massive improvement in standards in public life.

Check out this incredible speech. Full text here.

Jan 27th

Prague has an unfortunate reputation for cheap beer and cheap women - personally I would favour red-light tolerance zones well away from the city centre. I don't want to be too hard on this fat, ugly Scottish Socialist - after all we need users of prostitutes like him to come forward if we're going to tackle the menace of international sex trafficking.

Jan 24th

Labour's line of argument re donor sleaze is that we're all as bad as each other or more specifically the Tories are as bad as us. I am sure it can look like that if you squint your eyes...

Jan 23rd

The death of Bobby Fischer raises the canard that very few chess players are successful in other fields. The PayPal founder and facebook investor Peter Thiel is one. He says "Taken too far, chess can become an alternate reality in which one loses sight of the real world, my chess ability was roughly at the limit. Had I become any stronger, there would have been some massive tradeoffs with success in other domains in life." Same goes for blogging methinks. Anyway I like this site and have added it to my links.

Jan 22nd

The Labour party line on red Ken - Ken may be an unaccountable, fraudulent, dictatorial, ineffective, wheeler-dealing, uncontrollable, criminal, PR-obsessed, Trotskyite, conspiratorial, pro-fanatical, anti-Israeli, revolutionary, anti-semitic, profligate, imperial alcoholic... but he's our unaccountable, fraudulent, dictatorial, ineffective, wheeler-dealing, uncontrollable, criminal, PR-obsessed, Trotskyite, conspiratorial, pro-fanatical, anti-Israeli, revolutionary, anti-semitic, profligate, imperial alcoholic. Hat tip - Luke Akehursts.

Jan 21st

Police pay march planned for Wednesday. How did it come to this?

Jan 19th

Rhetorical question. How long can a story about a plane not crashing stay in the news? They've done it again.

Jan 18th

Off to Nostress restaurant tonight, I'll spend tomorrow demolishing a monastery and then on to a Rubik's cube party, so no updates for a bit.

Jan 17th

I think that 2008 has been a boring year for politics so far. Dragging donation declarations out of PHain is not my idea of fun and am I alone in being bored with hearing Labour MPs using the term 'global economic problems'?

Jan 16th

Hero of the day is Helen Newlove.

Jan 14th

More speculation today over at the Royal Court of Justice on how serious Diana's relationship with Dodi was and other irrelevancies. Why the **** is this garbage clogging up our courts and media?

I rarely have much nice to say about Alex Hilton, so let me seize on this post. Considering he is not a compliance professional he has some good ideas. Speaking of which I'd quite like the job of Labour Treasurer - the last thing they need is a barrister.

Jan 13th

Asking fellow Tories what the point of the Lib Dems always raises a laugh, but Nick Clegg takes things to extremes. He appears to excel in making no impact.

Jan 12th

Most Labour bloggers aren't bothering to defend Hain, but my understanding is that the Labour party line is that he's a nice bloke. Not the strongest of defences.

Jan 11th

Hain's oversight in full.

Jan 10th

Apparently Mike Rouse's poligeek meet up is happening. Judging by the latest status updates on my facebook, my life has become a bit skewed towards politics and blogging.

January 9th

Yesterday's PM press conference was a yawn. I think I did, but I'm not sure whether I watched it all. What I'm finding ~~fascinating~~ mildly interesting is Brown and Darling's attitude to inflation. Although controlling inflation and setting interest rates is in the remit of the Bank Of England, Darling seems inappropriately disposed to opining on what they could or should do next. On public pay, controller Brown wants to make long-term pay agreements (you can see the potential benefit to the government) but I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed that Brown is mooting this idea just as the inflationary outlook looks especially uncertain. And re household bill price hikes, Darling seems determined to put a lid on them by any means. Of course he can't hold back economics, but I wouldn't want to be holding utility shares whilst he's holding the Chancellorship,

Jan 8th

I have to take my hat off to Obama's presentational skills. Charisma is the ability to influence people without logic and is political gold. For a politician to convince people to support him/her even if they don't agree with them on policy needs charisma. The reactions in the comments at Iain Dale's testifies to Obama's charisma.

Barack's performances are well-rehearsed, but not many commentators seem to be mentioning how cliched his techniques are. Here's five.

1. Producing appeasing signals

I love the way that Obama uses his hands when he speaks. Even when he is making strong verbal attacks his body language is assertive but never aggressive. Here's an example. Even if you don't remember a word you'll see a calm, collaborative and precise person.

2. Associating with babies

This is a no-brainer. It's not just about looking like a nice guy, but also cutting off attacks.

Don't attack me you might hurt the baby. ;-)

3. The politician's smile.

Hillary v Obama? I'll let you make your minds up on which is the most convincing.

4. Whispering to create an illusion of physical and psychological intimacy.

Barack cleverly related an anecdote that involved whispering in a New Hampshire speech.

5. Make themselves appear popular.

Public adulation is the best and Barack's road to change video succeeds in conveying that message.

Conclusion

A fair amount of Obama's support depends on how he makes me people feel about supporting him. His message of hope, change and healing will get him the Democratic nomination - whether his feel-good message is enough to take him to the White House is less clear.

Jan 7th

The Labour Party line is that if a recession comes right-wing commentators will have talked us into it. Regardless of whether economic growth turns negative, a combination of low pay settlements against a background of spiralling energy prices and spiking council taxes persuades me that there will continue to be widespread falls in disposable income in 2008.

Jan 6th

Good weekend so far - a few episodes that touched on 'Brand Britain'. The continued reporting of stabbings and shootings is very damaging, but I'll probably do a guest post elsewhere on this theme. My web poll reveals that 'Bottler Brown' is your favourite Gordon nickname, but 'Incapability Brown' isn't far behind. I wish I'd given you the choice of Macavity too, but oh well. New poll to start soon.

Jan 4th

I'm not the only Tory in Prague. Tonight I'm celebrating the engagement of my friends Emily and Jim (who was a member when he was in the UK). Later on, I might meet up with 'staunch Tory' Justin for his wife's birthday and tomorrow we're going out on the town with James and his wife. When I first met James and I said I was interested in politics his horrified reaction was 'You're not Labour are you?'. Probably won't be updating the site again until Sunday.

Jan 3rd

Of course I agree with my favourite police bloggers, PC South West, PC Bloggs and Inspector Gadget on the police pay negotiations.

The main issue is that the agreed rise has not been back-dated - a travesty. The government's position is indefensible. I note the Scots implemented the deal in full and I can't be the only person comparing the police award with MPs' impending pay rise.

What should the Tories do? Pledge to make a one-off bonus payment to plug the missing pay if elected. It would signal our commitment to fair dealing and is not inflationary or even expensive. One question if I join the planned police rallies in Jacqui Smith's constituency and Westminster can I be arrested for impersonating a police officer?

Fancy a game of chess on facebook? - my ID is Dominic Fisher from the West Midlands.

If you're not sure whether you're good enough check through the above game (I was white)

Jan 2nd

Can we be surprised that Africa's elected leaders morph into military dictators when we sit on our hands in response to Mugabe? Some people don't seem to realise that inaction is a decision and I think the consequences will continue - don't just watch Kenya - keep an eye on Uganda, too. Desperate stuff. I recommend Kenyan Pundit and Joseph Karoki's picture blog.

Jan 1st

I'm not very good at predictions, but I did enjoy one in the Telegraph forecasting that Labour would go bankrupt in 2008. Careful reading of the financial statements and Labour's fundraising prospects suggests that the position is indeed precarious.

29 November 2007

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Don't Leave Your Vote At Home

21 November 2007

[+/-]

The Missing Package Red Herring

03 October 2007

[+/-]

Last Day Of Tory Conference 2007

Labour’s Betrayal – Their Promises Mean Nothing

Well before Brown took over, I’d been making the point that because Blair promised to serve a full Parliamentary term, we should have been granted a general election as soon as a new PM took up post. Obviously, Labour betrayed the public both on that promise and on other 2005 manifesto commitments, but they have - in the light of some improved polls - been hyping the idea of an early election.

Natural Instincts Of A Cynical Leader

Brown’s natural instinct would not be to call an election. Can you imagine his fear at being one of the shortest-lived PMs in British history? In addition, he has already signalled that he only has one election in him and having an election would drain much of the power he currently holds over his party and swathes of the civil service like a sword of Damocles. Up until a few days ago, I was pretty sure that the election speculation Labour has been igniting was pure brinkmanship. But under a welter of cynically timed announcements and actual preparations on the ground is it any longer possible for Gordon to step back?

The Case For Labour To Go Now

Don't expect any principled argument here. Having denied us an election on the hand-over of power from Blair to Brown, the arguments around timing are purely psychological and/or party political, not democratic.

Gordon must be acutely aware of the many political landmines that look ready to explode. In the very near distance are striking unions, EU constitution and cattle epidemic issues. When and how other issues on the radar play out such as public sector pay disputes , the West Lothian question and credit crunching is less easy to guess but no less serious.

Moreover, the salient (unintended) consequence of Labour’s games seems to be a sharpening of the Conservative Party’s focus. If war is said to drive technological advances, it seems that the election speculation is proving to be a handy catalyst in the Conservative Party’s quest to get the unity, policies and clarity of message that will be required cometh the polling day. Yet another factor trending in the wrong direction for delay.

Gordon Brown – Well Short Of Being a Statesman

Of course, like any opposition member or supporter I welcome any opportunity to vote for change, but that won’t stop me calling Brown a deceitful opportunist many rungs short of statesman status. Did Thatcher call an election in 1982 at the height of her popularity immediately after the Falklands War? Of course she didn’t, because, unlike Brown, when she said she was getting on with the job she meant it.

Rabbit In Headlights

So the choice for Gordon is to go now and certainly look like a man afraid of what the future has in store for the country or make a humiliating retreat, for which he’ll deserve to be called a big girl’s blouse.

What Brown Stands For

Under Brown and Blair, Labour has embodied drift and deceit. Brown’s taken this further than ever before with an original twist even Blair shied away from - national socialist rhetoric exemplified by the "British jobs for British workers" slogan Gordon recently stole from the BNP.

So What Can Labour Offer?

A snap election would be a mandate election, but what could a Labour party led by Brown offer the country? Whenever there have been difficult decisions, Labour has kicked the issue into the long grass of reports, inquiries and commissions and much of what you’d expect a political party to run on, is tangled in that quagmire.

In Conclusion

In a nutshell, this tired government can not offer any fresh thinking and their promises can not be trusted. Never has the need to beat Labour been more pressing - never have their tactics been more base. We must highlight and oppose the many failings of Labour and espouse the alternatives we shall present with passion and conviction. If Brown names his date, we’re ready.

Cameron Speech Update

Focused on what the Conservatives would do and what they stand for. Strong, consistent message demonstrating sound principles and a desire to change things for the better. Why not give us the election you've been hawking, Mr Brown?