Time For A Break

To understand where we're at, this post-Crewe analysis is worth reading. Brown-bashing has in truth become a national sport - and he deserves it. Whether online, at the ballot box or even in Question Time audiences, the national mood is anti-Brown and anti-Labour. As a long-standing critic of the government, this is pretty gratifying stuff. Financially and morally bankrupt, the Labour Party has a choice between electoral oblivion and the blood-curdling task of finding someone willing and able to overthrow the most stubborn and self-righteous leader in recent Western history*. Re where they go next, Labour grassroots seem to be generating more heat than light over at Labour Home.

We are in different times, so it makes sense for me to have a little break before deciding what to do next. It seems likely that I will be in Birmingham for the near future, so if you have any ideas for political projects, please mail me at praguetory@googlemail.com. Have fun.

*Labourites may be interested to know that I have a 70 - 1 accumulator bet that comes in provided Brown leaves before the next general election. I also made a fair sum on the General Election that never was - I'm enriching myself on the back of Labour misfortune!

May

May 23

I couldn't have scripted a more ineffective Labour campaign if I'd been writing the election literature myself.



Gordon Brown and Steve McCabe are my heroes of the day.

May 22



May 21

Two Michaelangelo quotes.

'Faith in one's self... is the best and safest course.'

'The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it.'

May 18

Something completely different. Kasparov telling it like it is.



May 12

It seems that in the one isolated spot where Labour won on May 1st, they can't take power. Hehe.

May 8

Outgoing Labour councillors and malcontent Labour MPs have been doing the Conservative Party an incredible service since the local elections. They've all been busy spouting myriad complaints about their party's leadership of the country. In the wake of poll losses this serves to make them look like hypocrites not martyrs and when Labour politicians are giving you reasons not to vote Labour why should the public at large. The result of this infighting - Labour's lowest ever poll rating. They are in a hole, but I think that after a pasting in Crewe the Labour Party will wake up and get more disciplined. can't see the Tory leader increasing further.

May 7

I'm caught in two minds whether to have a mini-break from politics or keep the momentum going. What I should be doing is trying to recruit new members to the party which should be like shooting fish in a barrel, but the Conservative social diary looks pretty full. Speaking of which, I'm looking forward to catching up with Maggie Throup and some of the Bromsgrove CF group at an event this Friday.

May 6

I want to say hi to Geoff V who based on his frequent appearances in the mybloglog avatar list on the left has been a most frequent visitor to my blog through thick and thin. I wonder what makes him return? (See comments for Geoff's reply)

May 4

On PoliticalBetting Labour MP Nick Palmer made the comment that Labour has kept the ‘Guardianista’ and ethnic votes but has lost the white working class vote. The results in Birmingham and my time spent campaigning there corroborate this theory. Take the seat of Birmingham Erdington, home of Sion 'Just Like You' Simon with a 10,000 and 30% majority from 2005 that doesn't even feature on any Tory target list.

Check out what has happened in the locals between 2004* and 2008 here.

Erdington Con 2678 (1441) Lab 1187 (1845)
Kingstanding Con 1296 (823) Lab 1376 (1585)
Stockland Green Con 1946 (1077) Lab 1874 (1746)
Tyburn Con 1125 (1016) Lab 1144 (1507)

Total Conservative 7045 (4757) Labour 5581 (6673)

* 2004 results in brackets taking the second placed Tory/Labourite in the all-out elections that took place then. CCHQ - it's time to select a candidate here.

May 3

My old friend Peter Smallbone won the final council seat in Birmingham Edgbaston. All 12 councillors in this Labour-held seat are now Conservative.

The full results for the Edgbaston constituency were:
Bartley Green Ward - Vivienne Barton - Con Hold Majority 2418
Edgbaston Ward - Deirdre Alden - Con Hold - Majority 1517
Harborne Ward - John Alden - Con Hold - Majority 1328
Quinton Ward - Peter Smallbone - Con Gain - Majority 376

A full on-the-spot report from Deirdre Alden our PPC in Edgbaston is here.

May 2

After a very very hard fought campaign all four seats in Northfield were won by Conservatives last night!! This means that there is now a full slate of Conservative Cllrs in Northfield.

The majorities are as follows:

WARD CANDIDATE MAJORITY
Northfield Les Lawrence 1308 CON HOLD
Kings Norton Geoff Sutton 853 CON HOLD
Weoley Eddie Freeman 598 *CON GAIN*
Longbridge Ken Wood 277 *CON GAIN*

May 1

Good luck to

Deirdre Alden
John Alden
Bob Beauchamp
Matt Bennett
Jenny Brewer
Nigel Dawkins
Eddie Freeman
Graham Green
Len Gregory
Andrew Hardie
Bob Harvey
Carl Husted
Maura Judges
Gary Sambrook
Derek Johnson
Sam Pearce
Peter Smallbone
Neville Summerfield
Geoff Sutton
Ken Wood

and any other Tory candidates tonight...

Update - those in bold won seats from Labour! Hip hip hoorah.

Disgraceful Labour Campaign In Crewe & Nantwich

Update 16 May

I'm going to Crewe. Here's something for the weekend.



Hat tip 4wd.

Update 14 May

Others 54 Labour 0 - luckily someone was keeping score over at the Grauniad. Labour's tax reversal is being dubbed the Crewe Cut. If only they could have put the bribe directly in the voters back-pockets, but I suppose the logic is that if you spray enough money around some of it will hit the mark. It seems that when Mervyn King said yesterday that we were at the end of the nice decade, he may have been right in more ways than one.

Update 13 May

Labour's managed it again. A party on the brink of bankruptcy has managed to spend a few billion on an a by-election. It's wholly irresponsible.

Tax cuts + increased borrowing = pre by-election bribe.

However, it would be hypocritical of me not to welcome the small (for now temporary) increase in personal allowances. I hope one day that extracting payroll taxes from people dependent on benefits - making them slaves of the state - will come to be seen as an absurd historical aberration & this panicked move by the government certainly shifts the political debate to the right. As the legendary free marketeer Mart Laar once reminded me in a speech, a highly effective way to reduce public spending is to starve the beast.

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Visited the area today and apart from the preponderance of Tory posters that sums it up. I go into more detail here, where the good councillor host is bored and will not be taking further ridicule (everyone was laughing at him). Amusingly, the said councillor refers to this extraordinary article by the sub-standard Tim Hames where he sweetly urges the Tories to limit their majority at the next General Election.

Hames rightly gets a hammering in the comments, but I take especial issue with this quote.

'Conservatives... should instinctively support Mr Brown's (10p tax) reform.'

I know a lot of Conservatives and I know of not one who applauds Brown's tax trick. Apart from its regressive impact, no Tories would favour making the benefit trap even deeper which is one of the obvious side-effects of the doubling of tax on the lowest paid. A passing reader might mistake Hames for a simpleton, but I take the view that he is also a Labour sycophant trying and failing to dress up favours to the Great Leader as political commentary - he certainly has form. Guido is looking for dead tree targets. Hames is a nice juicy piece of low-hanging fruit.