First it was the VCR, then CRT, now it's the CD

Five of years ago we all marvelled at the pace of technology when it was announced that Currys would stop stocking video recorders.

Then manufacturers stopped producing cathode ray tube TVs.

Now one specialist manufacturer of audio equipment has announced it will stop making CD players, such is the dominance and better quality of digital music.

The fact that Blu-Ray players also play DVDs mean that DVDs still have some life left in them, but it does make me wonder what the next technology to be dropped will be.

Vince Cable in Total Politics

Vince Cable has been interviewed by Iain Dale for this month's Total Politics magazine.

The full interview is available to read HERE.

I love his refreshing honesty in dealing with a question from Iain which seemed to imply that he was inconsistent. Vince, unlike most politicians, simply says that he was proved wrong by the extreme financial mess we were in and he changed his mind accordingly.

If only a few more politicians could be less entrenched.

Iain Dale : "In September 2008, you said the government must not compromise the independence of the Bank of England by telling it to slash interest rates. A month later, you urged the Chancellor to write to the Governor of the Bank demanding a large cut in interest rates. "

Vince Cable "Yes, that is true and like a lot of other people, I realised in the autumn of 2008 that we were on the verge of a completely catastrophic failure of the system - a once in a lifetime experience. The whole banking system was in danger of going down and this was a system for which the Bank of England had not been prepared. The mandate of the independent Bank of England, which I supported, was not just concerned with those issues, it was concerned with a broadly stable environment. I had supported the independence of the Bank of England and I still do and I think its role will be increasingly important in future years when we get a lot of inflationary pressure. But that moment in September and October when they had to do something dramatic and where their existing mandate was simply about responding to and anticipating inflation rates, this was not actually the primary concern. And I was certainly the first person out of the traps saying that, although it was a departure from the line I had been giving before. "

M&S vs Diet Coke

Apparently the latest M&S Christmas ads are being complained about because they are sexist because Philip Glenister, very much in character as DCI Gene Hunt from Ashes to Ashes, says he wants as his Christmas present the girl from the ad who takes her clothes off.

Strange that those people who are complaining never moaned about women lusting after naked men in the Diet Coke ads from a few years back.

Question - What is the designation of an MPs first home ?

Please send your comments in on this simple question.

Should an MP have their first home in the part of the world they represent in parliament (not necessarily in the constituency, but locally) or should their first home be in London (if they are not a London MP).

Then the logical second question is, is your first home where your children go to school ?

Please comment and let me know your views.

And the winner is ...

Congratualtions to Norman Lamb MP, who responded to my blog posting about flu in less than an hour and a half.

Although I have known Norman for many years, I did not contact him personally about this and instead I sent an identical e-mail to both him and Andrew Lansley.

I hope too that Andrew Lansley will respond and take the issue up as I have been impressed with the work he has done on highlighting shortcomings in the government's flu vaccination programme.

The true cost of the Conservatives problems in South West Norfolk may not be known for some time yet

The local news today has been full of the smiling face of Liz Truss in the wake of the confirmation of her selection as Tory candidate for South West Norfolk. Congratulations to her. However, depite the seemingly "resounding" victory she achieved, it seems there was a price in terms of how many people in South West Norfolk Conservatives feel further alienated from David Cameron and Mrs Truss, and also in financial terms.

It appears, from reading e-mails sent to me and from comments to my blog, that Mrs Truss appears to have won her victory very much on the back of a concerted campaign from Conservative Central Office. People have commented on being phoned several times from a phone bank (presumably in London), and a massive "Get Out The Vote" campaign also being run from CCO. This, of course, does not come without its costs. But what is the cost to Mrs Truss locally ?

If comments I have received are anything to go by, there a a good number of Tories in South West Norfolk who feel absolutely disgusted by the methods and tactics of the Tory party in London who have in effect forced an A lister with no local roots on to them, in great part by intimidating locals by saying that they would in effect impose another candidate on South West Norfolk if they dared deselect Mrs Truss.

One wonders what a good candidate with strong local credentials might be able to achieve in South West Norfolk if they chose to stand as an independent if Mrs Truss's party fail to back her with the delivering and canvassing required at the next general election. The so called "Neanderthals" and "turnip Taliban" might just choose to send the Tory party a message in response to the barbs the Conseravatives have thrown at the good people of Norfolk.

The truth about the Swine Flu Vaccine - Asthmatics are NOT a priority

The government, and that idiot Liam Donaldson perpetually peddle the lie that "People with health conditions such as asthma are considered a priority and will get their swine flu vaccinations as a matter of priority". The fact is, they are not.

The department the Department of Health uses to define an asthmatic is that they are someone with "a chronic respiratory disease that requires repeated or continuous use of inhaled or systemic steroids". the fact is that many tens of thousands of people in this country (possibly more) use non steroid based inhalers. This is being used by GPs as a justification not to give Swine Flu jabs to people who are asthmatic. Even those people who use asthma inhalers and those where the doctors own records indicate that the person is an asthmatic.

The problem is that for many young children, and those who are not able to take a steroid based inhaler, even though they are actually asthmatic, they will not being given the swine flu vaccine.

So what is being done about this ? I shall be emailing both Andrew Lansley and Norman Lamb, the Tory and Lib Dem health spokesmen and I will see who takes this issue up. It seems that thousands of people in an "at risk" group are being ignored because of a loophole which the government knows exists.

Liz Truss selection confirmed

Liz Truss has won her selection confirmation in South West Norfolk.

As for the Tories, their attacks on Norfolk people as "Turnip Taliban", and worse, I predict will come back to haunt them in Norfolk in future years.

Whilst the wind is with Cameron, he might get away with it, but in the long term, we Norfolk people will not let the Tories forget that using stereotypical attacks against people from Norfolk like some poor comic will not win us round at the ballot box.

Iain Dale endorsement

My wife came home from work today having been told by a number of her work colleagues that someone had written something nice about me in the Eastern Daily Press last Saturday.

Not buying a daily newspaper and usually reading the EDP at work, I don't often see the Saturday edition, so I phoned my parents and was surprised to read that Iain Dale was talking about the ongoing problems the Lib Dems and Tories are having in the Broadland constituency.

The are Lib Dems having to reselect in the wake of April Pond switching to Norwich North during the recent by-election. But the Tories too have potential problems if, as is rumoured, Keith Simpson is "kicked upstairs" to the House of Lords and Cameron tries to insert an A lister from London (as has happened in South West Norfolk), Broadland is a very interesting seat to live in.

The Lib Dems ought to be able to win this seat within two elections and if the right candidate is chosen, perhaps sooner, so it was nice to hear that the "one credible candidate the Lib Dems could choose" is, erm, well, me, or so says Iain in his EDP column.

Thanks Iain for the kind words but no thanks. Politics is a dirty business these days and the thought of spending four days a week away from my family in London is not an option I would look forward to.

Still, I really appreciate the compliment.

Let's give Simon Cowell some credit

After all the slagging off of Simon Cowell this week, let's at least give him some credit.

It takes an enormous amount of hard work to take a group of largely talented people, give them an all time classic song, and yet still produce a a cover version of that song which genuinely is appalling.

Still, Simon Cowell has managed to achieve this through his release of the X Factor contestants cover version of Bohemian Rhapsody.

Political Opportunist Of The year Award Goes To ...

The MEP for the North West who thinks it appropriate to stand for the UK Parliament in a London Borough.

Stand up and collect your prize Nick Griffin.

Cameron and the Camera Man

It seems a very odd world that when Gordon Brown tries to do the right thing and write a person handwritten letter to a mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan, he is castigated. And when he further goes out of his way to phone her, he receives more bile from the Murdoch Press. Yet when David Cameron takes his own personal cameraman to a war memorial in order to gain extra publicity shots, he seems to get off with none of the major media organisations taking up the story.

Biased BBC ? I should say !

Forget Performance Related Pay in the MOD, all Performance Related Pay Is Flawed Anyway

The was a lot of fuss yesterday about Performance Related Pay (PRP) in the Ministry of Defence yesterday, but little discussion of the reason it was introduced and the very fact that virtually all PRP is flawed.

Looking in to the details of the MOD PRP system, it appears that staff were effectively robbed of the pay increase they might have expected in the past with the promise of a performance based system that was designed not improve performance but instead, like all PRP system, was designed to save money.

When I worked at worked at Norwich Union in a team of 10 people, we were sold the idea of PRP being introduced that would "reward people for their efforts". When you looked at the system itself, it was nothing of the sort.

Of the ten people in a team, only a maximum of two could receive the top rating of "1", a further two could receive a "2" and three people could receive a "3", meaning that three people had to fight it out to get the remaining two "4 ratings, leaving one more person to get "5". Put simply, you were not and could not be rated on your performance because you were forced in to bands. if everyone in the team did the same work and every worked to the best of the abilities, one of those outstanding people would still have received the lowest rating of "5" whilst his or her colleagues, doing exactly the same work to the same standard could receive the top rating of "1".

In short, PRP is not a means of rewarding people for the work they have done. It is a means of paying people different salaries for doing the same job.

I know of a Council, for example, that allows its HR department to choose which council department should receive the highest "one off" performance bonus each year and, surprise surprise, the HR department wins the award almost every year.

So let's not criticise staff in the MOD for getting PRP. Let's castigate those morons who thought PRP should be introduced in the first place.

What is the Tories obsession with sex ?

The furore over the possible deselection of South West Norfolk Tory PPC Liz Truss is ongoing, with various newspapers now covering the story in some detail. The problem is, whenever they need a comment on the issue, they turn to the usual suspects in the Tory blogosphere, Iain Dale, and ConHome . And sadly every single time they seem to turn the issue to one of sex rather than one of trust. It seems the Tory blogosphere is obsessed with talking about sex.

The one thing they have missed is that South West Norfolk Tories are not going on about sex at all, and it seems odd for me, a Lib Dem who has campaigned in South West Norfolk against the Tories there to be defending them whilst the Metropolitan Tory blogs sling mud and barbs at Norfolk using the sort of stereotypical rubbish that anyone who really knew the county would know to avoid. Indeed some of the insults might easily be used by other political parties to highlight just what the Tories really think of Norfolk people.

The Telegraph did a piece on the Liz Truss story which went under the headline "Having an is no barrier to being an MP", says Shadow Womens minister. I agree, and I am sure that South West Norfolk Tories would agree also. The fact is though that it is an issue of trust because she did not share this information with the local Tory Party at the meeting.

It seems clear from virtually everything I have read that locals in South Norfolk are not talking about "the sex" or "the marital affair", but are instead deeply upset that they were treated like fools who could not be trusted to make sensible judgement based on being given the full facts. It might have been any issue, one not involving sex, it might have been a failed business, a scurrilous comment or a failed marriage, quite frankly it did not matter what the issue was. It was the fact that nobody bothered to tell the members first. If the local members are not told who the candidates are in advance (which I gather they were not), they couldn't look people up on Google. But should they be expected to ? Should you have to believe that candidates might keep potentially embarrassing information from you just because you don't have the ability to come already briefed to the selection meeting ?

So I would stress to those metropolitan Tories from outside of Norfolk. Get over the affair and start dealing with the issue of trust, and whilst you are at it, stop labelling and attacking people in Norfolk. If that's what you think of us all, you certainly don't deserve our votes.

Update : Ironically, I was also phoned today about whether I was interested in being the Lib Dem candidate in South West Norfolk. Sadly, I am too busy, but it appears that my views are closer to a lot of those in the Tory Party in SW Norfolk than many would have thought.

Liz Truss - Can the Tory blogging mafia spin their way through this one ?

As one commenter to my blog wrote

"Yesterday's headlines were "Liz Truss Comes out Fighting" (Iain Dale) and "Liz Truss Wins Over local paper" (Con Home).

They should have waited a day for Saturday's EDP !

I think this finally does for Liz. Even Iain Dale cannot spin this one."

What the Tory spinners failed to notice (from only looking at the online editions of the EDP) was that there was also a column in yesterdays EDP which absolutely castigated Liz Truss and those who from on high in the Tory Party, and outside of Norfolk, were dictating what they should and should not think. This article was totally overlooked by Iain Dale and Con Home.

The inconsistencies too in Liz Truss' story about when she became a Tory (at university she claimed) when everywhere else it says she was a Lib Dem at university and that she left the Lib Dems after leaving University did not add up.

Then we turn to today's EDP front page which leads on the headline that Elizabeth Truss is accused of "more hypocrisy and deceit as new revelations emerge".

Now come on Iain and Con Home. Spin your way through this.

The fact is that Iain and Con Home still don't get it. Whilst for many people the issue might be the affair she had, the truth is for the majority of people it is an issue of trust. And what is clear is that in the current political climate, being able to trust your candidate and MP is vital. Clearly people in SW Norfolk Tories have lost trust in Lizz Truss.

UPDATE - For those incapable of reading, can I refer them to the final paragraph and get over the issue of her marital infidelity. That, in itself, is not the issue. The issue is clearly one of trust and honesty, and this is where Mrs Truss appears to have her problems.

Tories absolutely 100% spot on over swine flu

At last one of the opposition political parties has broken the cosy consensus over swine flu and dared to question the way the vaccination programme is being handled in the UK.

Andrew Lansley has questioned why, in the light of evidence from the US, all those under the age of 24 are not being targetted with the vaccine, and further evidence on the BBC website would back up that view.

It is clear that those with underlying medical conditions are more at risk than other groups, but in particular those under the age of five are at just as big a risk as many people with underlying medical conditions. Currently 81% of under fives admitted to hospital for swine flu have no underlying medical condidtions. As the evidence shows, this age group, who are also twice as likely to need medical care and an intensive care bed, are being largely ignored by the government.

Despite government claims that under fives with medical conditions such as asthma are being targeted for the vaccine, I know that many children with asthma, using inhalers BUT who ahve not been officially diagnosed because many children under the age of three are not "officially" asthmatic until further test are undergone when they have "developed", will NOT GET THE VACCINE ! This is another one of the little lies this government and Sir Liam Donaldson have peddled in order to maintain that they know what they are doing.

I hope the Tories go further in asking the government why doctors surgeries have not even been told when they can expect the vaccine (meaning they cannot even start the process of booking appointments), and why it is that all doctors surgeries, irrespective of size and the number of patients they have, will all get 500 vaccines delivered. Surely any idiot could work out that larger doctors surgeries require more vaccine than smaller ones ? Apparently not, as it seem Sir Liam Donaldson really is as stupid a man as you can find. Remember it was Sir Liam Donaldson who said in September that we were "tantalisingly close to beating swine flu", and before that in early Ausgst he said we would be vaccinating by the end of August. Worse still he was saying in June we might have vaccines by late July. Oh dear !

So well done to Andrew Lansley, who has put the Lib Dems to shame in the silence that they have shown over this issue.

The cosy consensus would have had us believe that because things are not as bad as they might have been over swine flu that they government have done well. In truth, they have shown a massive degree if complacency and Sir liam Donaldson has shown himself to be a prize fool.

NatWest/RBS double talk

For months RBS, owners of NatWest, have been selling NatWest to the public as the bank that has more staff, more branches open, the most helpful staff and cares most about customers.

Today we read that NatWest are to shed up to one third of their staff.

It's investment banking that made the losses at RBS/NatWest, but it is the staff in wholesale banking who lost their jobs. What's more is it is customers, ordinary people like you and me who suffer and get worse service and less branches.

Isn't that an odd sort of logic ?

What are you saying Mr Dale ?

Iain Dale has printed his Eastern Daily Press column today on his blog and makes a rather astonishing parallel between the Liz Truss situation in South West Norfolk and that of a gay man.

Quoting Iain directly he says

" I wrote on my blog that the social outlook of those Tories who sought to deselect Liz Truss over her past affair with an MP was ‘neanderthal’. It’s the same social outlook which caused a few – and I emphasise, a few – North Norfolk Tories to swallow hard when I, a gay man, was selected as the candidate there in 2003."

Now I find this analogy rather odd and also rather disrespectful.

What Iain is saying is that there is a direct link, an equation, which puts as equal the peoples perceptions of gay people with person who breaks their marriage vows and has a long term affair with another married person. Am I the only person who finds this odd ?

My own views on gay people is not any different from my opinions towards heterosexual people. I have many gay friends, indeed my very best friend has recently announced his intention to marry (and I mean marry because they are going to Canada to do it) his male partner next year. Yet Iain Dale seems to be saying that the social outlook that people have towards a person who cares not one jot about her marriage vows, her promise to her partner and the vows her lover made to his wife is equal to the social values of someone who dislikes gay people. I disagree.

I am not a great fan of those people who think that marriage vows are something that can be ignored. It is a solemn promise to act in a way that is wholly loyal to your partner. It is not to be taken lightly. People are perfectly entitled to view people who break these vows with suspicion, as someone who may not keep to their word, and as someone who puts themselves selfishly above others. However, if you view someone who is gay with the same suspicion simply because they are gay, then this is wholly wrong.

For Iain Dale to equate the two is absolutely wrong. He may feel as a gay man he can get away with it. But I know many people who feel that the equation between a gay man and a marriage cheat is unfair.

Someone being gay is not an issue and should never be. Someone who breaks vows and solemn promises is, for many a real and justified position to take. When the issue of trsut is so important at the moment when talking about politicians, anything that causes people to lose trust is a justified position.

A week with the Tories - What does it tell us about them ?

It is fascinating how the Conservative party has tried to paint itself in David Cameron's image as something new and shiny that should be trusted at a time when politicians cannot be trusted to tell the truth. However, the last seven days tell us just how much of this image is wrong.

Let's start in Norfolk. In South West Norfolk the Tories were selecting a new candidate to stand in the safe Tory seat of South West Norfolk. Their selection effectively decides who will be the next MP in this seat. Now David Cameron likes to tell us how the Conservative Party has changed, how it is opening itself up, how it is letting the electorate make real decisions. He trumpets the so called "open primary" as a sign that the Tory Party is opening itself up. However, these open primaries are being used almost exclusively in seat where the sitting MP has stood down directly because of s scandal over expenses, meaning the "open primary" can help cleanse the Tory party's reputation in that area or alternatively they are being held in marginal seats where the use of the primary can win over a few more wavering voters.

In South West Norfolk there was no open primary. David Cameron's pledges about opening up democracy, how the Tory party was changing, and how local people could be allowed to make real decisions went out of the window. The sham of what David Cameron says, and how the Tories really act was shown for all to see.

Then we saw just how hypocritical the Tory Party really is in the wake of the selection of Elizabeth Truss as their candidate. Despite "openness" being their new watchword, the closed meeting of Tory members was not briefed on who had made the shortlist meaning that local Tories did not have a chance to find out the full details on who the candidates were. Then, upon being selected, it was revealed that their chosen candidate had had an 18 month affair with a married Tory MP, which she failed to mention at the meeting, the Tory Party showed itself to be as hypocritical as any party could be.

The leadership, ignoring their pledge towards openness, said that it was in the public domain and the candidate had their full support. The local party, feeling they had been lied to, referred her selection back to the Tory Party members in South West Norfolk and, as yet, we are not to know whether she will or will not be the Tory candidate.

In short this whole affair tells us that openness and honesty cuts only one way with the Tories. It is used to whitewash the Tories words. I don't much care if the Tory had an affair or not. It is her business. However, if you are claiming to be honest and open, you have to be exactly that and not expect people to have to look up your past on the internet.

Then switching from the East to the West, we have the example of the Tories in Cornwall and their "honesty" and "openness" when campaigning. Last week, Caroline Righton, the Conservative candidate in Newquay and St Austell misrepresented her Lib Dem opponent to electors. You can find chapter and verse on it all HERE.

Now everyone makes a mistake, and Caroline Righton appears to have made a big mistake in smearing her opponent. The deliberate insertion of a swear word in to a statement made by the Lib Dem candidate is childish. The forwarding of this false statement to electors is blatant low level dirty campaigning. But it could all be settled of Caroline Righton simply issued an apology, contacted those people who received her false information to make sure they understood it was an error and she apologised, and perhaps she could also have the guts to speak to the press and explain to them what she did without refusing to comment on what she has done.

The question is though, why a someone who uses the Tory mantra of fighting a positive and honest campaign can justify to herself telling untruths, peddling muck about her opponent and then refusing to apologise unless the simple truth is that the "positive and honest" campaign is just a means to an end. In fact the aim is not to be truthful, honest or positive, but instead to appear to be so in order to win at any cost.

Moving back from the West towards the Midlands, we read about two Tory councillors caught being unpleasant about fellow councillors in the Cotswolds. Two Tory councillors referred to Lib Dem councillors as "morons" on an internet forum. Did they apologise ? Did they offer an excuse ? No. Instead they claimed that one of their Facebook friends must be a Lib Dem sympathiser, and then ranted that it showed how "low the Lib Dems would go". So no apology, not reason given. Their abuse is forgotten in their foaming at the mouth to attack the Lib Dems again.

Finally we move back towards London for our geographical tour of the Tories behaviour. Watford Tories have returned to their usual form in spreading lies and innuendo about the actions of the Lib Dems in Watford. Before we start, let's remember that it was the former Watford Tory candidate who was found guilty of running a hate campaign against the Lib Dems in Watford just a few months ago, so you might have imagined the Tories would show more care and sensitivity when campaigning in Watford. But apparently not. The Tory headlines read "Lib Dems ban parents from playgrounds". The truth, as you can read HERE is completely different. That doesn't stop the Tories in Watford from blathering about this as a case of "political correctness gone mad". Sadly, it appears that child protection issues are something, even in the wake of the Baby Peter case that the Tories still feel they can make political capital from.

So aside from worrying parents, from stirring up distrust of the council, telling lies about the Lib Dems and seeking to undermine measures to protect children, what have the Tories achieved ? Well they have gained publicity for their candidate. Their "To hell with the truth and honesty" view to politics knows no shame.

So what do we learn about the Tories from this week ?

They tell lies. They don't apologise. They mislead people. They will refuse to comment when pressed on their smears. They know no boundaries and will use issues of child protection as a means of gaining votes, and actually honest, truthful and positive campaigning are just words.

More on Tories telling fibs in Cornwall

More articles can be found about the Caroline Righton "fibbing" story HERE

Iain Dale gets his facts completely wrong - Slight "Googling" hypocrisy ?

Iain Dale appears to have some egg on his face for reporting a story from The Metro without bothering to do a Google search and checking if the facts are correct.

This seems odd because Iain and other Tory bloggers were suggesting the other day that South West Norfolk Tories should have done a Google search about her sexual misdemeanours before selecting her. It's a shame therefore that Iain didn't bother to do a Google search before implying things about the Lib Dems that are not true.

Then again, this appears to be the Tory policy these days !

That's the kiss of death for Blair's ambitions

Gordon Brown today spoke up on behalf of Tony Blair becoming the first President of the EU. Brown called Blair and "excellent candidate" and spoke highly of Blair's qualities. There is only one problem. An endorsement from Gordon Brown is like a reverse form of the Midas touch for everything Gordon Brown touches turns in to excrement, not gold.

Such is the contempt in which Gordon Brown is held by the public these days, should he endorse beer, chocolate or sex then it is likely that beer sales would fall, women would stop thinking about chocolate and the birth rate would drop dramatically.

Green Party in "Do as we say, not as we do" shocker

Actually the title of this post is supposed to be sarcastic. We already have a Green candidate who stood in the Norwich North by-election whose carbon footprint is higher than I will achieve in a lifetime whilst the Greens voting record on Norwich City Council shows a level of inconsistency even the government would find hard to match.

So we shouldn't be surprised in the least to read that the Green Party leader does not follow her own advice when it comes to preventing energy and heat loss.

That said, the story is in the Daily Scum, so it probably isn't true.

Caroline Righton - Hypocrite, liar or fool ? Perhaps all three given what she has been doing in Newquay and St Austell

A week after Tory candidate for Newquay and St Austell misrepresented her Lib Dem opponent, she has still done nothing in the way of an apology or even explained why she chose to mislead people about her ability to check the facts.

One has to wonder what the Conservative voters in Newquay and St Austell will think of her particularly given her recent pledge to 'fight a positive and honesty campaign'. David Cameron is, of course, totally silent on the issue. Mr Cameron is quick to talk about honest and decency in politics but in this case does not seem to practise what he preaches.

Caroline Righton might do well to remember in 2005 Iain Dale was caught out misleading the electorate about his Lib Dem opponent Norman Lamb in North Norfolk. We all know what happened then. The Conservative Partyin Newquay and St Austell would do well to note this.

The truth is that a quick apology by Caroline Righton would have buried this as an issue, and with her refusing to comment on it for the local press, meaning the spineless local press have pulled two stories on this issue (they won't print without a statement from both sides), Caroline Righton, a former BBC and TVam journalist obviously knew the rules the press followed and assumed it would go away. She does not realise that the blogosphere does not work like that.

Update - Mark Pack reports that the Lib Dems have written to David Cameron about this. It does, of course, put "Dave" in an awkward position. He cannot back one of his candidates when she is lying but likewise his failure to respond would be seen as a refusal to back her actions. Interesting.

Update 2 - A member of Caroline Righton's staff has also been caught out trying to blank her wikipedia entry. Question ? What has she got to hide ?

Latest - Elizabeth Truss forced to explain herself to South West Norfolk Conservative members

Following on from the story yesterday about Elizabeth Truss, the newly selected Tory candidate for South West Norfolk, the BBC are reporting the the executive committee of South West Norfolk Conservative association have met tonight and asked her to return to speak to all party members at a special AGM to be held at the weekend.

The executive could have rubber stamped her appointment but have chosen not to do so.

Caroline Righton - Still no apology

I blogged about a Tory candidate in Cornwall going around misrepresenting her Lib Dem opponent. Apparently, according to twitter, she has still not apologised.

Come on Caroline Righton. Surely the people of Newquay and St Austell deserve better. Apologise to your Lib Dem opponent and move on.

Newly selected Tory candidate might be deselected within days

The EDP reports that Elizabeth Truss, the Tory A lister selected for the safe Tory seat of South West Norfolk might be deselected within days of being selected after revelations of her affair with a Tory MP were published by a national newspaper.

I thought it odd that South West Norfolk again did not choose a local person for the area after the clear success of having local woman Gillian Shephard as their MP for so many years. Still, it after the awful Christopher Fraser, the invisible man of Norfolk politics, surely anyone would be an improvement.

Now this explains a lot

According to research, the key to a happy marriage is for a man to marry a woman who is five years younger than him and who is smarter than him.

Given that my wife is five year, three months younger than me and better qualified than me, it seems that the research might be correct.

She doesn't read my blog so at least she won't know that I think she is smarter than me. I'll carry on giving the impression that I am the brains of the partnership !

Is Caroline Righton, The Conservative Candidate for St Austell & Newquay, telling fibs about her Lib Dem opponenent ?

Work it out for yourself HERE. One thing is for certain, she is showing an enormous amount of distain to constituents in Newquay and St Austell by not bothering to check her facts before making statements about her opponents.

Update : Reading on Twitter, despite being asked to apologise and retract what she said, Caroline Righton has still refused to do so. Speaks volumes about her as a person. I suggest the Lib Dems in Cornwall visit the solicitors.

The proof that Nick Griffin's pronouncements on Question Time don't fit the facts

For anyone fooled by Nick Griffin, and I was talking to a pensioner yesterday who seemed to have been fooled by the twaddle Nick Griffin spoke on Question Time, Channel 4 have fact checked every statement of "fact" he made on the show and , er, to put it nicely, it appears he was attmepting to pull the wool over voters eyes.

Check out what Mr Griffin said, and the real facts by clicking HERE

Hat Tip to Peter Black for finding this information.

The not so solid post strike

The Mirror (which I read today because someone brought it in to work) would have us believe today that support for the postal strike is rock solid. This seems at odds with my own experience.

I know people still receiving parcels. I myself have received my post for the last two days and plenty of other people tell me that they are also receiving their post.

The truth is that there are many in Royal Mail who know that the strikes will inevitably lead to greater job losses. It was pointed out on TV last night by Andrew Neil that back under the 1970-74 Edward Heath government, there were many strikes and the government caved in on al of them except for one. The only unsuccessful strike was the postal strike. Back in the 70s there was no e-mail and no competition. The world now does not come to an end when postal workers go on strike and the longer they strike, the more this becomes obvious to everyone.

The left wing campaigners who shame us all

One of the biggest ironies in free speech principles allowing the BNP to have a seat on the BBC Question Time panel tonight is the simple fact that extreme right wing parties of the ilk of the BNP are the very parties who would, if they could, deny people those rights. So for those of us who believe in free speech, it is very much through gritted teeth that we support the BBC's principled stance in allowing the BNP to appear on the show.

Sadly though, there are those who have used the BNPs appearance on Question Time as a means of pursuing their own vested interests.

Looking at the the usual suspect waving socialist worker placards whilst attempting to attack and break in to the BBC, you realise that there is only a very subtle difference between the methods of the far left and the far right. The differences are that whilst the far right claim to speak for the "ordinary working person", the far left seek to claim the title of speaking for the rest of us, which of course they don't.

The truth is that the actions of the far left outside the BBC today will only give solice to the BNP and will add to the view of many of those people, ignorant enough to vote BNP, that the whole world is against them and that people don't want to hear the BNPs version of the truth.

The majority of people, those who are liberal both with a small and large "l" who vote for mainstream parties, abhor the views of the BNP and hope that people see them for what they are. But the is a clear division between those who choose to oppose violent thugs in suits by legitimate democratic means and those who seek to wave placards and deny those they do not like from exercising rights that the vast majority of this country hold dear.

The truth is, of course, that the far left oppose the BNP from exercising freedom of speech because just like the far right, the far left are not to be trusted with guarding our freedoms.

Whilst they may not be racists, they want a class war, they also show prejudice and would be as quick to remove the rights we all hold dear as quickly as the BNP, if they had the chance. Meanwhile they shame the rest of us who oppose the BNP and who are now cast by them as being part of the BNP opposition alongside them.

Possibly no the greatest line from a salesman on the door

At teatime, up to my arms in cooking and looking after my song, a salesman knocked on the door trying to get me to switch electricity suppliers. The typical three loud knocks signalled his arrival.

( I open the door)

Salesman : Don't worry, I'm not a salesman (lie) and I am not one of those awful politicians who knock on doors to annoy people.

Me : Errm, I am one of the politicians who knock on doors. I don't do it to annoy people. Possibly not the greatest start.

Salesman : No. I don't suppose you are interested in switching electrical suppliers ?

Me : No.

Another Swine flu question ?

If the government have done all they can to ensure our swine flu immunisation programme is as effective and quick as possible, can we ask them why they started immunising people in Australia three weeks ago and we have yet to start in the UK ?

Why Nick Robinson is loathe to attack the Tories

It appears Nick Robinson, the former Tory and BBC political reporter, has links to Bedford Tories and perhaps lacks the principled backbone to report the Tory failure to gain the Bedford Mayoralty.

And the Tories claim the BBC is biased against them.

Sorry Iain

Just a quick note to say how sorry I am that my old political foe Iain Dale was not selected for Bracknell. You can read more about it HERE.

I ran myself in to the ground four years ago ensuring Norman Lamb beat Iain Dale in North Norfolk, but since then I have built up a great respect for Iain and I was happy to say that if I lived in Bracknell I would support Iain if i were able to vote at a Conservative selection meeting.

I read that Iain is now off to a family party for his father's 80th birthday. He's probably feeling very down, but I think a chance to be amongst loved ones is the ideal tonic for a disappointment.

Go Jenson

How pleasing to see Jenson Button win the world championship today in some style showing real flair in his overtaking and real emotion in victory.

We have a nasty habit of knocking our stars and the press have been full of those talking Jenson Button down in recent weeks, but he has become World Champion with a race to spare, and he's British. Let's be proud of him.

When two add two adds up to 57

In a by-election in Noth Norfolk yesterday the Tories hled the seat of The Runtons on North Norfolk Council. According to the Tory PPC in North Norfolk it is a "triumph for the Conservatives and a blow to the Lib Dems". Of course any victory is a victory and cannot be denied, but the comments from the Tory in North Norfolk is somewhat overblown.

For starters, the Runton's ward is the sort of ward the Tories should be winning easily, especially given their current poll ratings. The Lib Dems did hold the seat until 2007, but this was because the local Lib Dem councillor there had been on the council for many years, was extremely well known, and the previous councillor had been her husband, so there were specific local circumstances.

Taking in to account that the winning Tory in yesterday's election was also a trained Tory agent and that the Lib Dems were fighting on a broader front than the Tories (in that the Lib Dems gained a seat on North Norfolk council two weeks ago in an election that the Tories did not fight as hard), the result should be expected.

So of course, well done to the Tories for winning, but winning The Runtons by 70 votes really is a sign of the state of North Norfolk Tories. They ought to be weighing the votes in a ward like this, not sneaking home.

Flu questions of the week

Questions about flu for the week

1) Why, when the swine flu vaccine was approved two weeks ago, the first 2 million doses delivered to the UK next week, are doctors not expecting to receive any vaccine until the end of next week, with the actual vaccination not starting until the week after ?

Good job its not killing anyone ... oops !

2) Why is the swine flu vaccine "safe" for children and being planned to be given to children but the season flu vaccine is not given to children even if parents want to pay for their children to get the vaccine ? In the US the regularly vaccinate children against seasonal flu, which the UK government tell is is more serious than swine flu and kills in greater numbers, so why won't the UK government ?

Opportunity wasted

It struck me yesterday morning that Nick Clegg could really have stolen the thunder of Cameron by making an early statement to the effect that any Lib Dem MP not willing to pay back money owed would be deselected and have the whip withdrawn.

I note this morning that Cameron has said words to this effect.

A missed opportunity by Clegg.

Is it just me or do you want to keep saying Terence and Philip instead of John and Edward Grimes ?

For those who don't know, Terence and Philip are two obnoxious characters in the TV series Southpark whereas John and Edward and two tone deaf teenagers from Ireland who appear in the TV series X Factor.

Would you want a swine flu vaccine created by Baxter ?

The UK government are sourcing Swine Flu vaccine from two companies. One is UK company GSK (Glaxo Smithkline), whilst the other is a US firm called Baxter.

Would it give you confidence to know that Baxter sent out a batch of seasonal flu vaccines last year to Europe that were actually contaminated with the live version of the H5N1 Bird flu and this was only detected by authorities in the Czech Republic, not by Baxter themselves !

And to think the UK government are trusting this company to produce a vaccine to save lives.

Judge a person by their actions, not words

When looking fairly randomly through some articles on wikipedia, I was struck by this sentence about William Hague in relation to the former Tory MP Shaun Woodward.

"he was a front-bench spokesman on London for the Conservative opposition under William Hague until 1999, when he was sacked for supporting the repeal of Section 28,[2] a regulation which prevented the "promotion" of homosexuality in schools."

It says all I need to know about William Hague's values.

It's not just the Irish Twins who need to be kicked out of X Factor

Having watched the opening "Live Show" of this year's X Factor, the most striking thing for the first 115 minutes was the stunning quality of all the acts except for the absolutely useless Irish twins. Then someone else suddenly appeared to be less deserving of a place on next weeks show. That person was Dannii Minogue.

Having seen the excellent final act Danyl, Dannii questioned, "if rumours in the papers were true" why Danyl had changed the lyrics of a song so that it made reference to being in love with a woman rather than a man.

Now I have not seen the paper, so this is guesswork and the opinion of myself, but putting two and two together, Dannii Minogue seemed to be trying to "out" Danyl, live on TV. If that is what she was doing then she should hang her head in shame.

Does it matter what the sexual preferences of the X Factor contestants are ? Isn't it terribly 1980s to be trying to "out" people ?

If this is what Dannii is doing to get her acts an advantage then its not the twins who should go, it is Dannii.

Is this putting the country's defence first ?

In order to save money all Territorial Army training is to be suspended for 6 months. Remember, this is just after a TV advertising campaign (costing several million pounds) to get people to join the TA.

It further undermines any credibility this awful Labour government has when it comes to defence issues.

What really undermines politics are false front organisations

The Tories talk about cleaning up politics whilst conveniently choosing to forget that the Tory Party, above all others, did more to frustrate reforms of parliaments procedures than any other party. But when it comes to outside of the Palace of Westminster, the Tories seem quite happy to use front organisations to pursue their aim of misleading the electorate.

Take the Countryside Alliance. This so called independent organisation is nothing more than a Tory dominated lobbying organisation. They actively help Tory candidates and they campaign for them yet the press speak to them and give them a voice as "the voice of the countryside". If the press were being fair they would properly designate the CSA as a part of the Conservative Party.

Now we read that another group purporting to be independent is also heavily linked to the Tory Party. The Taxpayers Alliance it seems are very much the plaything of the Tories with senior members of Cameron's team speaking at their meetings and now Cameron and Osborne repeating the words of the Taxpayers Alliance verbatim. yet despite these clear links the BBC, SKY and ITV insist of speaking to the Taxpayers Alliance (who certainly don't have my support because of their willingness to support lawbreakers who refuse to pay tax and put my tax up) as "The voice of the Taxpayer". If the broadcasters were being accurate they would properly describe the Taxpayers Alliance as the Tory linked right wing Taxpayers Alliance.

On top of all this, we read that the Taxpayers Alliance has as one of its leading light a man who does no even reside in the UK and pays no UK tax. Talk about hypocrites.

It's dead easy to talk about cleaning up politics with regard to donations and expenses. but resentment at politicians not answering questions or manipulation the agenda will not go away whilst the Tories continue to use front organisations to do their dirty work.

A story about Muslims and discrimination

Read this story.

It's probably not the story you were expecting, I suspect.

This weekend I will be most feeling unwell

Due to a head cold, an intolerance to light and an amazing ability to sneeze for prolonged periods for no apparent reason, blogging will be light.

I may still Twitter from bed !

Have a good weekend.

Am I the only person fed up with the British Retail Consortium ?

Yet again on BBC Watchdog tonight there was a story about supermarkets ripping off customers. Yet again, the supermarkets failed to turn up to answer the complaints and instead put forward a spokesman from the British Retail Consortium.

A few days ago there was a story about supermarkets driving dairy farmers out of business. Again, not a single person from the supermarket chains would turn up and instead a spokesman from the British Retail Consortium.

When there was a positive story a few weeks ago about supermarket clothing on Watchdog, guess who turned up ? All the supermarkets !

Yes, whenever there is bad news the supermarkets can't be seen for dust.

Well done at least to Anne Robinson who clearly pointed out on Watchdog tonight that the British Retail Consortium is not in any way an independent body and is paid for by the supermarkets.

We're all in this together

A sign that the Tories don't listen

As Andrew Allison points out in his blog,

"If he had listened to the question, he would have given the appropriate answer. He didn't and he has paid the price."

To be fair, it's not just confined to the Tories, but as George Osborne also showed this morning on Radio FiveLive, irrespective of the question asked the consumate politician will answer the question they want to answer, not the one that is being asked.

Another dim idea from a Labour supporter, but given the source it's hardly surprising

A Norfolk Labour activist is suggesting that people buying a round of drinks be effectively abolished as people's alcohol consumption could be monitored on an "entitlement card". His suggestion would mean that if you bought a round the whole round would appear next to your name on your record of alcohol consumption. This would stop you buying rinks for your partner, it would stop people drinking if they had had too much. Presumably also creating a black market for people who don't drink to also sell their entitlement to someone else ?

And of course on top of all this it would essentially be another way of the big brother Labour state monitoring and controlling what people do in their private lives.

You have to remember though that the person who wrote this letter is someone many Lib Dems in Norfolk know. Before jumping ship from the Lib Dems, something that every Lib Dem I know gave a big cheer for when they heard (indeed, many would have wanted to give him a shove and encouragement many years before), the author, was the sort of person you avoided at conferences. Long on talk but short on anything interesting to say. And now, having been a Tory, then a Lib Dem, he finds himself in Labour.

Believe me, they are welcome to him.

In some ways I agree about Safety Cameras, but oh the hypocrisy

Having recently travelled down to London and seen the obsession some parts of the country have with installing speed cameras almost every couple of miles along some roads, I have to agree with the Tory idea that most speed cameras could be culled.

Whilst speeding is a crime, it is not a premeditated crime intended to be at the expense of someone else. I happen to think flashing signs, better road markings and the occasional risk that a police officer might be standing there with a speed gun does provide the necessary inducement to slow down.

The problem though, for the Tories is that whilst they might like to slag speed cameras off, at a local level the Tories are actually very keen to put them up and make money from them.

Take, for example, in Norfolk, where Tory run Norfolk County Council are themselves major partners in Norfolk Safety Camera Partnership. This same partnership is responsible for the recent placing of a camera on my route to work in an area which I have, in four years of travelling that route, never seen an accident or been held up at that point. Of course, with a good flow of traffic I think most people know why the camera was placed at that exact point, and I am sure it will be a money spinner for them.

The problem though that the Tories will face by abolishing camera is that they do provide a source of income for the police, the same police that will apparently have to make its share of cuts. So the prize that motorists will get as a result of having less speed cameras will be less police officers and less crime solved.

The Tories will have to learn that for every policy there is a knock on associated.

X Factor - John and Edward Grimes - The Irish twins !

If ever there was s stunt designed to get people talking about a TV show it appears to be the X Factor's willingness to accept that two talentless, rude and obnoxious people with no discernible qualities other than their passports can foul up three auditions yet still get to the final twelve.

Louis Walsh's controversial decision to put through John and Edward Grimes seems based on Louis's belief that he thinks "people will like them". Usually such decisions split the public, but no this one. It seems from message boards that absolutely nobody likes them !

The biggest winner, of course, from this will again be Simon Cowell. With thousands already pledging to vote for all of the eleven other hopefuls in an attempt to get John and Edward thrown out it seems that record numbers are likely to vote.

Perhaps the greatest sadness is that in some of the other categories there were some fabulous artistes who could not get to the final 12 because their categories were so strong. Simon Cowell's over 25s, for instance, seemed to be blessed with 6 singers all of whom could have won the show outright.

The other shame is that there will be some young people who will see that arrogance, cockiness, rudeness and lying will get you some level of success and fame. Talent will win out in the end, but it is a shame that the Irish twins, whose biggest appeal to Louis Walsh appears to be their Irish passports, should be seen as achieving success with no visible talent.

Why is Alex Salmond misleading people in order to justify himself ?

Alex Salmond was just on Radio FiveLive justifying why the SNP deserves equal treatment in TV debates with the three main parties. The problem is, he tells lies in order to justify himself not realising seemingly that these lies undermine his whole argument.

Firstly he made the comment that he deserved to be speaking as the SNP's representative in the debate even though he would not be standing because "We do not have a presidential government in this country". Indeed not Mr Salmond. But we also don't have a system where people who are not members of the Houses of Parliament can become Prime Minister.

Secondly, and this is where the lies started to come in . He said in reply to the point that as this was a debate about who wanted to be Prime Minister, he never could be as the SNP only field candidates in 10% of seats, his response was to claim that Nick Clegg was invited to the debates and he would not be Prime Minister. Putting aside the silly rivalries and put downs Lib Dems always get in such circumstances, the fact remains that Nick Clegg could become Prime Minister since the Lib Dems field a full slate of candidates.

Then came the outright lies when it was put to him that many of the issues that the Prime Minister would debate (health, the police, education) were nothing to do with a Scottish party since they have their own parliament to deal with these issues. In response Salmond raised the issue of Trident, commenting that "all three Westminster parties were committed to Trident". As Mr Salmond knows, the Lib Dems are not wedded to trident.

Still, never let the truth get in the way of SNP mud slinging.

Will I miss Tracey Emin ?

Apparently the artist (and I use that term loosely) Tracy Emin is considering moving abroad because she does not want to pay 50% tax. She states that "the French appreciate art".

Indeed the French do appreciate art, which makes me wonder what ms Emin will do there ? After all, great art will always have an audience. Whereas her career appears to me to be based around a pompous London based market obsessed with spending large sums of money city bonus money on "installations" which are neither thought provoking or artistic.

Great art needs to make people gasp at the ability of the artist. When I look at the work of Ms Emin I am shocked at just how little artistic ability is required to produce it. To give it some relevance, when I go to watch football I want to see someone produce something on the pitch that I could never do on a Sunday morning playing for the local pub team on the village green. In the same way we want to hear musicians who can play guitar, can hit the notes with their voices, and whose lyrics inspire. We don't want someone tunelessly singing twinkle twinkle little star. And that is what Ms Emin's artwork is, to me. Decidedly average and something that I could produce, had I "the name" and the patronage of lots of rich people with friends to impress and no taste.

I'd love to say I'd miss Ms Emin, but I won't. A selfish millionaire with little discernible talent who is not willing to pay tax is hardly a role model for the youth of today.

I always feel sick when I see David Amess, so perhaps he caught sight of a mirror ?

David Amess, Tory MP for Southend, told Virgin Airlines that Osama Bin Laden packed his bags then had the nerve to complain about the way the airline treated him.

On top of this, he became ill on the plane (blaming it on travel sickness) and threw up in front of immigration officials.

As someone who gets travel sick on occasions (never on a plane or boat though), I have to say I have never lost the use of my legs (I've never been legless, so to speak) when I was ill.

You can read more about it HERE.

"Bash the teachers" - The Tories new policy

The idea that standards can be improved by sacking teachers, bringing in people who have received no teacher training and handing schools over to those organisations that have already proved cannot be trusted to run schools seems a daft idea. But not if you are a Tory education spokesman.

Read more HERE.

Would we sack privates in the army if a military operation failed ? Would we sack police officers if crime went up ? Would we sack firemen if a fire cannot be put out quickly ?

Then if all these daft things were done, would we replace these people with untrained people ?

Tory policy on Lison in three tweets

Iain Dale is getting all excited about Louise Bagshaw summarising Tory policy on the Lisbon Treaty in three tweets. You can read it HERE.

The version Iain is getting excited about is

Here's our policy on Lisbon: we oppose it, and we want a referendum. And if it's not ratified by polling day, we'll have one.

And if it is?If it is, we'll announce what we do about its lack of legitimacy then. The Tories: crossing bridges when we come to them.

Labour hates it when David Cameron is pragmatic. It's sweet how desperate for a Euro-split they are. This sceptic is fine w/ being practical.

I thought I'd give my version below.

Here's our policy on Lisbon: we oppose it, & we want a referendum. & if it's not ratified by polling day, we say we'll one.

We say this cos it wins us votes & it's a promise we won't have to keep. If it's not ratified we don't know what we'll do. The Tories: saying anything to win votes

Labour hates it when David Cameron avoids real choices. But he'll do anything to avoid Euro-split, even lying to the public.

That's nearer the truth.

Spot the Tory Press Spinning the Tory Lies

A quote from the Murdoch owned Times yesterday

"Elderly people will no longer be forced to sell their homes to pay for care under a scheme proposed by the Conservatives. "

Actually, what it should have said is

"Elderly people who are able to afford it will no longer be foreced to sell their homes. Those who cannot afford to pay will still have their homes taken from them, under proposals put forward by the Conservatives.

Marginals Poll misses the point

The poll of marginal seat published today seems to miss the point and be something of a throwback to the old two party swingometer last seen to be effective in 1979.

Virtually all the seats show a swing between Tory and labour (interestingly with a lower swing to the Tories in 2009 than in 2008). But in Lib Dem target seats, in particular those seats where the Lib Dems are in a clear second place and the Tories a distant third, they are still working out Tory - Labour swings.

If this poll is to be believed, they think there will be not one gain made by the Lib Dems from Labour. Considering that the Lib Dems made limited gains from Labour in 2005 with Labour much higher in the polls in the Lib Dems slightly lower, this shows this poll is wide of the mark.

Take a look for yourself here.

The Tories keep very strange company - Are they endorsing a homophobic rag ?

Iain Dale highlights the Daily Mail's attitude towards gay Tory candidates and is going to the Press Complaints Commission to complain (quite rightly so in my opinion).

Tomorrow the Conservative Party chooses to use the Daily Mail to publicise their new proposals on caring for the elderly.

So what is the Tory Party doing ? Are they endorsing the views of The Daily Mail ?

Two gains for the Lib Dems in Broadland constituency

The Lib Dem target seat of Broadland received a timely boost yesterday when two local council gains were made in the constituency.

In Wroxham, a large rural ward on Broadland District Council the Lib Dem vote was up by more than 50% to snatch the seat the Tories expected to pick up easily. This seat was won by the Tories in 1998, and although the councillor later sat as an independent, he was never known for being anything other than a Con-dependent and was not often opposed in elections by Tory candidates.

In the other election, the Lib Dems gained Walsingham from the North Norfolk independent group after the sad death of Cllr Tom Moore. I knew Tom when I was on North Norfolk council and he was a genuine and popular independent councillor. Again the Lib Dem vote was up significantly (over 30% up).

With Broadland Lib Dems on something of a roll after other recent by-election wins in Aylsham and Buxton, there should be no shortage of good candidates wanting to stand to become the Lib Dem PPC. Many people will know that the former PPC transferred her candidature to Norwich North.

As for the Council representation after this, North Norfolk Council now has 31 Lib Dems (Tories on 15 with one vacancy) and Broadland has 11 Lib Dems, the Tories on 34.

In terms of district councillors within each of the Broadland and North Norfolk constituencies, the number for Broadland is 17 Lib Dems to 18 Tories. In North Norfolk it is 23 Lib Dems to 15 Tories.

Lib Dem gain in Wroxham (Broadland)

Just received a text telling me that the Liberal Democrats gained the wroxham seat on broadland district council from an independent Tory with 63% of the vote. The same ward is held by the Tories at county level and also has another Tory district councillor.

The Con-dependent who died had been elected as a Tory and was re-elected with the Tories failing to field a full slate. He was also known to be a Tory party member, so in many ways this is gain from the Tories.

So much for "The Sun" effect.

Weekly flu update

Apparently the laughable Sir Liam Donaldson believes that there is a chance that flu numbers could "shoot up" in the winter. In further news he also believes that the Pope is Catholic, bears do defecate in the woods and that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Everytime this man opens his mouth it make you wonder why he is in his job. Three weeks ago he said we were "tantalisingly close to beating swine flu". At the start of the holidays he wondered why it was that flu numbers were falling, seemingly unaware of the schools breaking up).

As for my question of the week, why is it that the flu vaccine passed its final approval phase last week, but will not start being given to people for two more weeks. In effect there is a three week gap between approval and the start of the process. The vaccine is ready, hundreds of thousands of doses have already been manufactured, doctors don't need all there doses of vaccine in order to start, they just need to start doing injections for the vulnerable as soon as possible yet we have to wait for three weeks.

Just to put this in to context, if this were H5N1 flu (which has a kill rate of 60%), a delay of three weeks and another 10-12 days in order for the vaccine to take effect, would see (at current infection rates) 14,000 infections in week one, 22,000 in week two, 33,000 in week three and 50,000 in week four. A total of 121,000 extra infections and an nearly 75,000 people dying needlessly.

Okay, so this is not H5N1, but our flu pandemic plans are based on it being H5N1. So the government's own uselessness in getting the vaccine out would kill 75,000 people !

Sickening hypocrisy

I note today that The Sun has highlighted a dossier of issues where Labour has "got it wrong".

What The Sun fails to say though is that whilst all these policies were being introduced, The Sun was in total support and failed to raise an objection.

Sickening hypocrisy from The Sun.

Nobody likes glory hunters on the make

So the glory hunters are at it again. Mr Murdoch's weight has shift back to the Tories and "The Sun" is backing David Cameron. Is anybody shocked or surprised ?

Like a seven year old wearing a Manchester United top, the Sun follows the winning team. Forget principles, forget standing for something or arguing your point, The Sun is used as a tool merely to curry favour with whoever is going to hold power.

And what will the price be ? With Recent attacks by James Murdoch on the BBC, will the Murdoch "pay off" be a dismemberment of the BBC ? Will it be a free hand given to Sky ? Don't you just know that there will be a price to be paid for this.

But don't worry, Cameron has the backing of a paper which told lies about Hillsborough, which told lies about Elton John, and is prepared to sell its soul to anyone who looks like they can win.

Receiving the support of "The Sun" is like being patted on the back and told "Well done" by a serial liar and muck spreader. You must be very proud Mr Cameron.

Party Theme Songs For Conference

Details of a survey conducted by PRS for Music have been sent to me by email revealing the UK’s vote for party conference songs.

Last year the Gordon Brown walked on stage with Jackie Wilson’s Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher. However, in the survey of over 1,000 people, Elton John’s Sorry seems to be the hardest word was voted as most popular suggestion for the entrance of the Prime Minister this year.

Labour Party – most voted songs:
Sorry seems to be the hardest word – Elton John
Tragedy – Steps
So Sad – George Harrison
Die Another Day – Madonna

Conservative Party – most voted songs:
Money, Money, Money – ABBA
I could be so good for you – Dennis Waterman
We are the champions – Queen
The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades – Timbuk3

Liberal Democrat Party – most voted songs:
When will I be famous – Bros
Moving on up – M People
For once in my life – Stevie Wonder
Working 9 to 5 – Dolly Parton

Ellis Rich, chairman of PRS for Music comments: “Politics and music have a long-standing reputation of going hand in hand. Many famous artists have expressed their political voice through the medium of music, whilst many politicians have used music as a platform to address their audience. The song which each party leader ultimately decides to use could have a significant impact on the outcome of the upcoming elections”.

Any views on which songs might be better ?

Pressure on Baroness Scotland after new revelations

It is being reported that Baroness Scotland never asked to see the passport of the illegal immigrant she employed illegally.

It puts further pressure on her to resign and overshadows this week's Labour conference.