What do you have to do to have "succeeded spectacularly" ?

I am something of an anomaly in the Lib Dems. I don't support the coalition and I am no fan of the EU. So David Cameron's capitulation to the Eurocrats today came as a ruther disappointment o me.

Apparently, according to David Cameron, he "succeeded spectacularly" when he managed to negotiate an increase in UK payments to the EU of £450m a year. It does make me wonder what else he might describe in such terms.

Presumably England "succeeded spectacularly" when getting hammered by the Germans 4-1 in the World Cup.

I would love to read your suggestions as to what else David Cameron use the term "succeeded spectacularly" to describe.

Cameron's judgement and Coulson

If the broadcast media start reporting what is being reported worldwide, that there are serious questions to be answered by Cameron's top political aide, former News of the World Editor Andy Coulson, it would place David Cameron in something of a predicament.

As can be seen from the depth this story is being written about in the USA, this is no story without substance, yet the BBC, ITV and Sky seem scared to touch it. This does beg the question as to why this is being ignored by our broadcast media. The BBC may be rather scared of the response they might get from Downing Street whilst we know why Sky News won't report on this story with it being very difficult for News International to report on a scandal involving News International.

If this story does get "legs", and there is any truth in the widely reported allegations against Mr Coulson (which he denies), that he knew of the attempts to hack in to the Royal Family's phones, then it will say a lot about the judgement of David Cameron.

We await the result of any court case that might happen in the future.

Remember folks, we went in to coalition with this man

This says it much more politely than I could.

I have not bought the Cameron myth that some Lib Dems have fallen in to, and these sorts of comments collowing on from his diminishing of Britiain's role in World War Two show Cameron to be less a thinker, more a plonker.

No outright winner from tonight's debate.

Tonight's Prime Ministerial debate appears to have given no leader an outright win like last week.

YouGov had the results as Cameron 36%, Clegg 32% and Brown 28%.

ComRes had Clegg: 33%,  Brown: 30% and Cameron: 30%

Whilst Angus Reid have (in what is still a live poll) Clegg 35%, Cameron 32% and Brown 23%

So given the fact that there are three polls, guess which one the Rupert Murdoch owned Sky News are reporting ?

Yes, the YouGov poll paid for by The Sun.

I felt the debate was nowhere near as well run as last week. Sky seemed to abandon the remit which was that this debate was on foreign policy and Europe (why there was a question about The Pope was in this section is a mystery).

Adam Boulton kept interrupting Nick Clegg and started asking his own questions about The Telegraph headline today, which was outrageous.

The less than great ignored slogan - Cameron drops his campaign slogan

Andrew Neil on This Week on the BBC tonight (this morning) reports that the Tories have dropped the Cameron slogan "The great ignored", presumably after focus groups ahve shown the slogan was not working with the electorate.

What a way to start your campaign with a slogan you drop after one day !

Cameron's speech - Seeing through the spin

David Cameron spoke today in an attempt to blame Gordon Brown for the expenses scandal. The press seem to have allowed Cameron to be quoted, but not put any of his quotes in context.

Cameron said

"Last week we had the latest revelations from Parliament. The details might be new but the feelings they provoke are all too familiar. Disappointment. Despair. Even disgust. But as I argued in my speech at the Open University in May last year, anger at the expenses scandal is just the most forceful expression of a deep frustration people feel with our whole political system."

Indeed David Cameron might have said this, but the last time expense reform went before the house of Commons it was blocked with the great help of 21 Conservatives MPs, many of whom are members of David Cameron's front bench. If he really felt that strongly about reform, should these parliamentary expense reform "blockers" really be in his shadow cabinet ?

"It’s a system in which too much power is concentrated in the hands of the elite and denied to the man and woman on the street. We’ve been seeing the symptoms of that for years. Decisions made behind closed doors. The Houses of Parliament bypassed and undermined."

The ironic thing is, as Michael Brown, the respected journalist and former Tory MP said on Newsnight tonight, David Cameron has been the most controlling centralising leader the Conservative Party has had. He has introduced systems in to the Tory party that have manipulated who gets selected for safe Tory seats, and his words do not match his actions. and that leads us on to ...

"Money buying influence. Too often just an elite few choosing the people who become MPs for many years. We can’t go on like this."

Don't mention Lord Ashcroft to Mr Cameron. A multi millionaire who over nine years after receiving a Tory peerage, has yet to confirm if he pays full UK tax. Money, it seems clearly to me, can buy influence within the Tory Party.

"We’re just weeks away from an election. This should be the highest point in our democratic life – but never has the reputation of politics sunk so low. We’ve got to fix our broken politics and we’ve got to start fixing it now. The question is: who’s going to do it, and how are they going to do it?"

And one wonders why Mr Cameron when you make such a duplicitous speech, decrying the Labour Party but then replicating and in many cases doing exactly the same things within your own party.

"We are a new generation, come of age in the modern world of openness and accountability. And when we say we will take power from the political elite and give it to the man and woman in the street - it's not just because we believe it will help fix broken politics. It's what we believe, full stop.

We don't believe that an arrogant, all-controlling government sitting in London passing endless laws and regulations actually makes things better. In fact, on many occasions it makes things worse."

But again Mr Cameron, this does not equate or add up with your own party policies announced this week. Only yesterday the Tories were announcing plans to remove powers from local government to scrutinise and make planning decisions on new schools. Instead of locally elected local councillors making these decisions, and being locally accountable for them, the Tories propose that a minister in Westminster would make the decision. This flies in the face of your comments in your speech.

"As well as cleaning up Parliament, we’ve got to empower it. There was a time when Parliament used to stand tall, a beacon of democracy leading national debate. But people look at it now and see a place they feel little connection to, play little part in, and don’t feel proud to represent them. It all adds up to a weak Parliament – and we’ve got to get its strength back.

That must start by making people feel connected to it. They don’t right now, because they don’t feel connected to the politicians in it. To restore that link we need to restore proper accountability – we need to give people the feeling that they are the ones pulling the strings and that they hire and fire their representative in parliament."

The best way to get people to engage with politics would be to get rid of safe seats, have a system of fair votes and ensure that people's votes actually count. Of course, it is only the Conservative Party that actually opposes these plans. Hypocrisy ?

"And one of the biggest constitutional changes in our history - our membership of the European Union - has practically passed Parliament by. We are hopeless, totally hopeless, at scrutinising the European legislation, regulation and spending that affects our country."

Indeed Mr Cameron, we have given away lots of powers to the EU. too many in my opinion (as a Euro sceptical Lib Dem). But the biggest give aways in recent years were the Single European Act (signed by Mrs Thatcher without any referendum) and the Maastricht Treaty, signed by John Major without a referendum. We really should take no lessons on the EU from the Tory Party.

Why does Cameron stand by someone accused of using figures "likely to mislead he public"

It is unsurprising that the Tory press and media have tried not to mention Chris Graylings rather disturbing misuse of statistics in order to make a political attack on the government.

This government is poor enough to be criticised on its real record. Quite why Chris Grayling has to go to such lengths to make inconsistent comparisons between data is really poor, highlights his unsuitablility for high office and must make people question why it is that David Cameron is standing by him.

Are front bench spokesmen for the Tories encouraged to lie ?

Anyway, the Independent has a full listing of Grayling's gaffes for people to check out.

Update Although it is a shame that the Independent do not know that the headline "Lies damn (sic) Lies and Tory statistics" should really read "damn(ed)", from the Mark Twain/Benjamin Disraeli quote. I recall the Labour Party using the incorrect quote in a leaflet they put out to slag of the Lib Dems in 1997 saying our bar chart statistics were wrong. Actually they turned out to be only one half of one percent out from the final result.

The simple statement that shows the stupidity of Cameron's marriage tax break

The Tories are proposing a tax break for married couples. This statement from Nick Clegg on the issue says it all.

"What does is mean for the poor woman who has been left by some philandering husband who goes on to another marriage and gets the tax break and she doesn't?"

No wonder David Cameron wants to hug a hoodie

David Cameron told us a few years ago that we should be more understanding of the issue of those "hoodies" who exhibit antisocial behaviour. Now we know why. He employs people with the same credentials as your typical hoodie.

Surely Cameron would know or he would know who to ask ?

David Cameron has said in response to questions about whether his photo was airbrushed that "he hopes it wasn't". I don't think that he answered the question though.

He claims he was not responsibly for the photo so does not know about it. However, as leader of the Tory Party, surely he would know this or he would know who to ask ?

The fact is that if it had not been airbrushed, he would have answered immediately "no". As Stephen Glenn points out, the evidence of airbrushing does seem pretty clear. I'm sure I would know if a picture of me was airbrushed by the fact that that the photo would not accurately represent what I see in a mirror each morning. Is "Dave" saying he has no reflection ? Now that would make sense.

Rabbit in the headlights ? Cameron crumbles under the spotlights

It is not a good start to the Tories unofficial election campaign that under proper scrutiny, the sort of scrutiny he can expect every single day of a general election campaign, David Cameron appeared to flip flop, changing Tory party policy from the previous policy then changing it back again in the space of a few hours.

As the BBC reports

(Cameron) was forced on to the defensive over tax breaks for married couples after telling the BBC he hoped to bring them in but could not promise them.

Mr Cameron later issued a statement saying they would "definitely" come in.

Where does gummer's decision to stand down leave Cameron's Green policies ?

Whilst it may have seemed fairly minor news when it was announced that John Selwyn-Gummer is to stand down as MP for Suffolk Coastal at the next general election, it does raise some questions about the Tories Green credentials and the future of Cameron's claims that the Tories can be trusted on the Green agenda.

Gummer is standing down to be a a campaigner on environmental matters, very noble. But when only 40 of David Cameron's MPs even voted to support the climate change bill, and with many of the possible new intake of Tory hopefuls being even more ardent global warming deniers, it must be ablow to Cameron that one of the few Tories who would support Camerons greener policies is to go.

Is almost everything about Cameron spin and falsehood ?

David Cameron, it appears, is worried about the Tories chances of having a working majority at the next election. Why else would he have made such an overt attempt to woo Lib Dem voters in his new Year statement yesterday if he wasn't confident ? The problem is, his statement is so hollow in the context of everything we know about the Tories and his motives.

Whilst he says that differences between the Lib Dems and Tories are much less obvious than they were before, that is only because the Tories have not had the opportunity to support illegal wars started by the Labour government. In truth, yawning gaps exist between the Lib Dems and the Tories on many issues, and Cameron knows this. So why did he make his statement ?

The truth is it is not about removing differences between parties, as Cameron claimed. It was about a cynical attempt to woo voters from the Lib Dems on a false premise that the Tories stand for the same things that the Tories stand for. Dishonest ? Of course, but when it comes to sanctimonious rubbish dressed up as proper political discourse, Cameron is truly the heir to Blair.

I know people in the Tories who have met or know Cameron, and finding one of them in private to say anything positive about him as a person is a real struggle. One ultra loyal Tory I know did a good job once of defending him. When I listed some of the things I had been told about Cameron, the reply I got was "I don't think he means anything by it. It's just his style". Some defence !

For me Lib Dem MP Dany Alexander summed up the difference between the Lib Dems and Tories best of all

"David Cameron seems to be confused about what a fairer Britain means. For the Liberal Democrats it means cutting taxes for the lowest paid, for him it means cutting them for millionaires."

Lib Dems shouldn't be fooled by Cameron. If you want an unfair Tory government whose priorities are to give money to the rich, cut from the poor and legalise fox hunting, then vote Tory. If you want a fairer Britain, the only way you will get that is by voting Lib Dem. The Tories offer only a fake liberalism.

What's the delay Dave ?

David Cameron announced today that a Tory government would introduce a law preventing anyone who does not pay UK from sitting in parliament in the UK.

So here's a question or two.

1) Why does he not make it a rule for Tory candidates and MPs now ?

2) Why, dsepite repeated reminders at press conferences an in TV interviews ove the last three years, has he never sought to tell Lord Ashcroft (The Tory party's largest donor) that he needs to be registered for tax in the UK ?

It's all very well telling us what you would do, but how about acting on it first within your own ranks Dave ?

Brown and Cameron both in the wrong over photo opportunity on Remembrance Day

It's good to see that those in charge of marking the Day of Remembrance have told David Cameron and Gordon Brown that they were wrong to turn the act of remembrance in to a photo opportunity.

Quite why we should believe the Tory spokesman who claimed it was a "last minute decision", is beyond me. How many people just happen to turn up with a camera man with an expensive SLR camera with them in case you make a "last minute decision" ?

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 !

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.

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.

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.

Why Nick Clegg is right about the Tory con trick

Nick Clegg will open the Lib Dem conference with a stinging attack on David Cameron and the Tories for trying to con the electorate in thinking that Tories offer a change that will be break from the politics of the last 30 years. He also will also say the Tories arrogantly believe it is "their turn".

The questions is, was it ever any different ?

In 1997 I remember friends of mine who were not interested in politics get swept along in the religious fervour of New Labour and that things were going to change. Aide from the fact that I was a Lib Dem back then, I felt rather down the day Labour were elected because I knew a massive opportunity to deliver real change had been missed by Tony Blair in an attempt to appear safe to Middle England voters. As a result reforms were small, change was merely window dressing and we kept most of the same old systems and institutions that needed radical reform. Unless you lived in Scotland or Wales, change passed you by.

Now what is different ? What are the Tories planning to do which they think earns them the title to be called progressive ? As I see it the only thing that people expect the Tories to do is make cuts. Now I know the Lib Dems (and Labour belatedly) pledge this too, but I hear nothing else which involves reform other than bland and rather idiotic statements about allowing people with no educational background to run schools. Where is the Tory big idea ?

The answer is that there is no big idea. The Tory plan is to play it safe, follow the Basic Fawlty line of "Don't mention the war" but change it to "Don't mention a policy". I have visions of Tory shadow ministers returning to Cameron's office saying "I mentioned a policy once but I think I got away with it !"

The truth is this country needs more than a rearranging of the deckchairs. We do need policy that will dramatically alter the directing we take if not we risk returning back to where we are now in 10 years time because nobody genuinely believes the Tories will properly regulate the City (after all, their fundraising efforts are co-ordinated by hedge fund managers) whilst genuine policy breakthroughs like those outlined by IDS the other day on welfare do not seem to have been welcomed with open arms.

So whilst the Tories might be better than Labour (come off it, anyone would be better than Labour), what we really want is a something that is more than "a bit better", because this country deserves so much more.