And in further news, Tory MP discovers he is six months late

Last week I wrote that Tom Watson MP was six months behind me in questioning why the DVLA were giving away Spanish built cars instead of British built cars.

This week a Tory MP asks the same question.

Nice to know that the Tories are six months behind the Lib Dems and a week behind Labour.

Hat Tip to Peter Black.

How many chances will Alan Duncan be given by Cameron ?

Before the expenses scandal really got a head of steam, Alan Duncan, when answering criticisms from Ian Hislop on Have I Got News For You described his ability to claim for a second home even though he own half a dozen homes as "wonderful". He later described this as a joke, in poor taste, and he apologised.

Now we read that Alan Duncan has described the MPs salary of £60k as having to "live on rations". Again, Alan Duncan has apologised unreservedly.

Now what will Cameron do ? Come on Dave, show some backbone.

Do you get the impression that now the by-election team have gone home, Chloe Smith doesn't know what to do ?

During the Norwich North by-election Chloe Smith was the face of the campaign for the Tories, but everything else was, I have on good authority, done by outsiders from CCHQ. A blog (which nobody could comment to) mysteriously appeared overnight and her website was suddenly updated very regularly. Now, it appears, the people who did this have done home. Witness the mess that is now her website.

It seems the phrase is very much the order of the day.

If you want to join Chloe's campaign to supportEmptyParas click HERE, and HERE and HERE and HERE to read more.

Perhaps CCHQ should make a note in future that it is not good enough merely to turn up in the campaign and run it but also leave someone behind with the knowledge to be able to maintain those things the campaign started up in the first place.

The murky politics of the Green Party

There is some interesting stuff on the the blog "Another Green World" about some really rather dodgy internal party politics and the Stalinist nature of the Green Party.

A membership list, it appears, were being used without permission, in order for one side to campaign on the internal referendum on the issue of a single leader for the Green Party. Then it is alleged that people are being thrown out of the Green Party for raising issues of concern about party procedures being broken, with a kangaroo court using a catch 22 situation in order to force people out.

From a local perspective we read in the comment section of the post that at least one Green Party Councillor in Norwich has been forced out of the Green Party for a period of five years, but remains (oddly) a member of the Green Group on Norwich City Council. It seems odd that the Norwich Greens are so at odds with their own national party that the national party can exclude someone from membership of the Greens yet their own deputy leader (who sits as a Norwich City Councillor) can work with this excluded member in his own council group. What does this say about Norwich Greens or the views that their deputy leader has of the Green Party nationally ?

There was an interesting comment made to me by a journalist at the Norwich North count who mentioned that the Green Party had in its deselection of a local candidate in favour of another in Norwich North and through its other internal problems which have started to appear, discovered that it is a political party with egos, factions and all the same problems and divisions of any other political party.

So are the Norwich Greens going to tell us which of their members has been thrown out of the Green Party nationally ?

What unites Iain Dale and Roger Helmer MEP ?

Iain Dale writes today in support of the rantings of Roger Helmer, the most unpleasant of Tory MEPs in my opinion, with the title "What Unites Roger Helmer and me".

Come on Iain, we know what unites you. It's pictured below. It's a shame you can't see past it sometimes.

Is it any wonder HBOS are in such trouble ?

Bloody HBOS. Damn them. Every bleeding 30 minutes today we are getting autodialer calls from HBOS for my wife. She's not in, so I can't answer the security question, so the computer (for that is what is phoning me) calls again, 30 minutes later asking for my wife.

I phone up HBOS and they inform me that they cannot do anything about it because my wife has to phone them up. For what reason ? The woman on the phone from HBOS didn't know.

I bet I bloody know why they are phoning, it will be to try and sell us car insurance or home insurance. So, for the rest of the day I have to put up with bloody HBOS every 30 minutes phoning up.

If I had an account with HBOS I'd close it.

Getting on wrong on flu again and again and again and again

I've posted too often about flu and must be boring people, but I feel there is a public duty to go on about the level of incompetence the government have shown in dealing with pandemic flu both before and during this outbreak.

I've listed the various cock ups the government have made since April HERE, but we need to look very carefully at the government's whole flu strategy to see where they have gone so badly wrong, and in particular their reliance on the "silver bullet" that they think Tamiflu is.

The government announced back in 2005 that they were to order progressively (with about 3 million doses arriving each year) 14.3 million doses of Tamiflu in case of an outbreak of bird flu (which may still happen at some future point). The problem is that Tamiflu is almost completely useless against the bird flu anyway, and this has been known since 2005. Now we hear today that against the much milder swine flu Tamiflu will not save your life. Infact, all that tamiflu does is reduce the length of the illness by between 12 and 24 hours but in children can have nasty side effects. It does not stop you dying from flu if you are going to die, all it does is lessen the symptoms of those who are actually suffering from a milder type of flu. So much for the wonder cure that would save us if bird flu strikes.

So what's the government's strategy now ? Well its what it was before. Keep your fingers crossed, give out the placebo that is tamiflu and hope that a vaccine arrives soon (the same vaccine that was delayed because the UK government put pressure on the World Health Organisation to delay declaring a pandemic.

We just have to pray this shower are not still in charge when bird flu mutates to a human form.

No nominations please

I might be being very presumptuous even suggesting it, but anyone thinking of suggesting any postings of mine or thinking of nominating my blog for any Lib Dem Voice blog awards shouldn't bother.

Last year I wrote in Iain Dale's guide to political blogging that I felt the awards were too self congratulatory, rather too on message, and the judges rather self selecting in that the same people and the same "friends" get chosen every time. Those of you from the provinces (and I use that term loosely) and who don't get to conference really don't matter. Yes, I am sure I'll get comments decrying my views, but I would add that it would me hypocritical for me to seek votes or feign interest in these awards given my published views.

For my money, Stephen Glenn writes the best Lib Dem blog at the moment so perhaps he will get some credit for his good writing.

Horribly unfair posting alert !

Before the Norwich game this afternoon I saw new Norwich North MP Chloe Smith in the club shop (she looked slightly hassled so I didn't speak to her). Presumably (as many MPs do) she was going to attend the match in order to confirm her local credentials (although she may well have been a fan for years).

Anyway, it occurred to me after the game that I often used to see Ian Gibson (her predecessor in Norwich North) at Carrow Road, yet as soon as a Tory gets elected Norwich get their worst home result in over 100 years of their existence.

You see people of Norwich North, that's what you get with the Tories !!

(Note, I am trying to make light of a pretty dismal day and am not just having a go at the Tories or Chloe Smith)

Flaming Sambuca anyone ?

I think 95% of the population hangs its head in shamed ambarrassment at the way a small hardcore of British tourists behave abroad. So whilst it is, of course, terrible what happened to a British tourist in Crete, you do have to ask whether it will take THIS kind of treatment to get some British men to keep their shorts on and British women to keep their tops on in bars abroad.

Murdoch's plan to move his newspapers to the periphery of the web

Rupert Murdoch has announced today that his newspapers websites are to become subscription sites, charging a fee, and will no longer be free. Whilst this might generate some cash, it is going to drastically affect the influence his companies have on the internet.

For starters, the vast majority of people will not pay for news on the internet. If you want free news you can go to the BBC website (I know we pay a license fee but the website is free for everyone to use) or any other number of free to read sites. Murdoch believes other papers will follow his lead. Personally I don't think they will and those that don't will have a greater market share, more readers and more influence.

Then there is the issue of advertising. Advertisers are going to be less inclined to place adverts with Murdoch's papers if they have less of a market share. This will mean more money for his rivals and less for his subscription titles.

Then there is the issue of influence. Murdoch has an unparallelled amount of influence in the UK at the moment. His papers can make or break politicians and political parties. Yet with the growth of new media, he seems to be willing to let this go and diminish his influence.

The world, it seems, is moving on and away from newspapers. More and more young people expect things on the internet to be free. Yet the Murdoch's seem to thing that they can roll out a similar policy to that which works for SKY on to newspapers. The difference is that SKY has control of the pay TV market with very few and much smaller rivals. Newspapers and the internet are very different things.

As I see it I welcome the news from Murdoch today. Anything that diminishes his ability to manipulate our political system and moves his titles to the periphery has got to be good.

I don't begrudge John Bercow making his accomodation child friendly but ...

My initial reaction when I read earlier that the new speaker, John Bercow, has ordered £20,000 worth of alterations and refurbishments to his quarters was slight shock. Then I read that it was in order to make the accommodation more child friendly, and I thought it wasn't so bad. Then, however, reading the details I changed back to my initial reaction.

According to The Times he is spending money on making the place safe and having ducts checked to ensure his children will come to no harm, but I was shocked to read

"A further £3,880 has been spent on planters on the terrace to make it safer for the children.
The drawing room will get a new sofa and cushions for the window seat, costing £7,524.30.

Are these planters manufactured by Rolls Royce ? This is a ludicrous price and I could but planters from Homebase for considerably less.

But the real extravagance comes in his choice of sofas and cushions. To spend £7524.30 on a sofas and cushions shows a real ability to spend money without a care or concern for those paying for it.

Yes, I know it is less that Michael Martin spent, but then again Premiership footballers spend less on their mock mansions than Mr Martin spent, but I would have expected Mr Bercow to show a little more restraint.

And we went to war for this lot

I have discovered an only occasionally updated blog that tells us much of what happens in Kuwait, and to describe Kuwait as anything other than an authoritarian racist state would be unfair.

Remember, we went to war to remove a tyrannical dictator so that the rules of Kuwait could return to their opulent lifestyle, taking advantage of foreign migrant workers and perpetuating a racist policy which prevents foreigners from having equal access to the law and equal treatment.

Click HERE to read Q8 Undressed.

What's Iain Dale's take on this ?

Yesterday Iain Dale branded my concerns about the open primary the Tories held in Totnes as "pathetic".

I wonder then what he makes of THIS.

Labour MP agrees with me ... but does so 6 months late

Iain Dale brings our attention to the fact that Labour MP John Spellar is wondering why a UK Government agency is giving away foreign built cars as prizes instead of UK built cars.

I would at this stage like to point out that I raised this point six months ago !

Why has it taken six months to notice this ? .Nice to know you are keeping up Mr Spellar.

I am a Lib Dem (or so this website says)

Clicking on this website and answering the questions told me I am a Lib Dem. Interestingly my third choice is apparently "Green". Funny that as I don't support their policy of allowing people to stay out of work and earning a "citizens income" with no compulsion to work, I don't believe in the nationalisation of supermarkets and I don't support green plans to abolish stem cell research.

Open Primaries - Another way for a party with money to buy off the electorate

Forgive me for scoffing at the Conservative Party holding open primaries, but for me these do nothing for the democratic process as a whole an instead are a means of buying lots of publicity for the Tory party whilst giving a pretence of being at the leading edge of reform of the political system.

The cost of the Totnes open primary is reported to be in excess of £40000. This is a cost that Lib Dem and Labour constituency parties cannot afford. So instantly this idea is a one sided affair, with the Tories using their Ashcroft money (when will he get his affairs in order as he promised when he got his peerage) and and the rest of the cash that is flying in to their reserves in order to appear to be the bastions of electoral reform when anyone with any political knowledge will know that the Tories are the very last party who want to see a fairer electoral system in this country.

The truth of the matter is that this is an expensive PR exercise, and in many ways it has worked. But let's not pretend that this is a model for all constituencies or all parties. If the Tories were lower in the polls do you think they would do this ? Why are they not doing it in safe Labour seats ? Might the answer be that they know that in Tory seats the Tory majority of the electorate are more likely to choose the candidate the Tories want whereas in safe Labour seats the Labour majority could land the Tories with the least palatable candidate ?

So yes, I am a sceptic of this system because it is a system that discriminates against the parties without cash and a system that pretends to be more democratic than it is.

Update : Iain Dale has linked to this article referring to my arguments as apthetic, yet in the article above his Daily Dozen he points the the electoral reasons for the open primary being a good thing. The Tory Party can't have it both ways. Is it about opening up democracy (the Tory line) or PR and winning votes (Iain's line) ?

Is Mandelson the new Heseltine ?

In the dying months of the last Tory government, when all was doom and gloom for the Tories, when everyone knew they were going to lose the 1997 election heavily, there was one Tory who was unbowed, still took the fight to Labour and despite the polls saying otherwise, was telling the press he was predicting a Tory majority of 20 seats. In many ways Michael Heseltine was like the German propaganda ministry in April 1945 or Comical Ali in Iraq in 2003, talking a good war, making much of tiny successes whilst ignoring the obvious. It seemed slightly ludicrous at the time, but must have been offering some reassurance to Tories in those dark days. It appears Peter Mandelson has taken on this role with gusto for the Labour Party.

Peter Mandelson has nothing to lose of course. he has no parliamentary seat and has no reputation to lose with the press. By offering such a resolute defence of Labour even when they are in the wrong, he does not woo voters or the media, but he gives Labour activists some hope, he wins lots of kudos within Labour ranks and can then hope to play a leading role in reshaping the Labour Party after the next general election, and this is perhaps the most significant thing. Whereas Heseltine was coming to the end of his career in politics, Peter Mandelson is not yet at that stage and having been heavily involved in the creation of New Labour, he might be one of the few positives the Labour Party might have after the next general election. A man with a vision.

There are other interesting parallels between these two political characters. Both have stood on the periphery after holding ministerial office whilst they also share a love hate relationship between themselves and their parties. Mandelson is blamed by some on the left of betraying the socialist principles of Labour. Heseltine, in contrast, is still loathed by some Tories for having the guts to stand against Thatcher.

In the meantime we can expect another nine months of Mandelson defending the indefensible. Whilst it might look and sound ridiculous for him to do so, remember that with each utterance his position becomes stronger with the Labour Party.

Have Sat-Navs made road sign makers lazy ?

Having spent the last few days on a mini break near Windsor without a sat nav, I am left wondering whether the sheer volume of people owning sat nav systems has made those responsible for putting up road signs forget that there are some of us who do not use sat navs and actually rely upon signs.

I'll give you a couple of examples. Upon leaving Legoland on Friday we could turn left signposted for Windsor and the M4 (the way we came and lots of traffic) or right, which was signposted M4 Alternative route. As we wanted the M4, we thought we'd turn tight. After a while, we reached a roundabout which had one junction shown on the sign as M4. So we followed this road for another two miles, came to a roundabout, drove around it several times looking vain for any sign which the said M4. Not one did. So the directions simply dried up. It's like getting the instructions to a piece of flatpack furniture only to find that everything after the third instruction is missing.

Then there was trying to get back on to the M25 today. Driving along from where we were staying it told me to turn left if I wanted to go on the M25 South. Since I didn't, I stayed on the road. So having stayed on the road, was there a sign saying M25 North ? Was there hell. No, looking back at the map it appears the road sign should have said M25 North and South, but it didn't.

Now I know I am getting older and I have no aversion to sat navs. I simply don't own one because I have got around the country quite happily before without needing one. But I, like many others, rely on decent signing on the way, and lots of what I have seen over the last few days seems to be there just to conform to legal requirements but does not actually tell you what you need to know.

Separated at birth ?

I found THIS from a few days ago on the every excellent City Unslicker/Capitalists at Work blog.

They do sound somewhat similar, although someone suggest on a comment to my blog that Chloe looks like Ant from "Ant and Dec", but with a fringe instead of a forehead. She actually looks better in the flesh than she appears on TV and in pictures, although she is painfully thin.