Those Tory Boy Bloggers on T'Interweb: Done Up Like Kippers

Ministry of Truth has done up Dale and Dizzy like a harmless Porbeagle masquerading as a marauding Great White.

Save Our Airports: From Nice But Dim Tories

The unfashionably out of step, dare I say nice but dim Tory MP for Altrincham and Sale West Graham Brady has given vent to his ideas on high flying capitalism in The Spectator. Iain Dale thinks dear Graham's analysis is brilliant. But it isn't.

The people of Manchester own an airport business worth at least £3 Billion. Ten years ago it wasn't as far as I can recall worth £1 Billion. It provides a good harvest of jobs - directly and indirectly - and is not in the same ownership as competing regional airports.

It has invested most of its profits in capacity building towards even more profit.

It has nonetheless provided a steady stream of cash to Manchester (55%) and each of the nine other local authorities (5% each). And it has also invested heavily in the region's arts, culture, sport and good causes.

Selling the airport or its holdings is not a good idea. Selling it to John Whittaker the car-obsessed boss of out-of-town shopping developer Peel Holdings is even more of a bad idea and he is already making his bids through the papers.

Keep the airport. And get back the buses and the railways too!

Weather in Padstow = warm but somethingly overcast.

Rock Salmon: Newquay's Man Eaten Shark

Tosser and doorman Kevin Keeble claimed to have taken a picture of a Great White Shark off Newquay. He has now admitted this was a prank. He is yet to admit that the picture - taken in South Africa - was not even a Great White. Subeditors have missed the obvious headline above as sharks (Porbeagles) caught in the area last week have made it straight to the plate.

Electoral Commission: Really Must Try Harder

UKIP has beaten the Electoral Commission. I absolutely agree with Iain Dale that this is the right result. A donor presenting more than £600,000 was not on the electoral register by an administrative slip. The whole loan was to be returned in the High Court verdict which has today been overturned.

I repeat: I agree with Iain Dale. This is the right decision. If this man wants to waste his money on backing UKIP let him do it.

The Electoral Commission should start doing their job properly in other areas. For example policing the spending during the live period at elections so that parties do not get away with exceeding these - in some cases by an order of magnitude and more.

This is done in collusion between the warring parties but particularly in by-elections, in marginals and in far fetched attacks that become surprise wins for the party shifting unfeasible amounts of paper.

At Brighton conference 2005 I asked the representatives of the EC whether they carried out the most fundamental analysis of the norms of a general election budget.

How much per leaflet by quality.

How much 'phone time.

How much for temporary offices.

And so on.

Serious anomalies and patterns should then be investigated. There should be proceedings and convictions where appropriate. Guidance should evolve to cover any persistent evasions and shibboleths about what counts and what does not.

Parties should also be required to submit examples of every single print item they produce (or tardily distribute) in the course of the live period.

There should be a clamp down on fibbing. Fibs repeated after they have been identified should attract serious fines - perhaps even enough to allow all other parties to finance an extra leaflet.

And so called parliamentary reports should be tied to a few weeks either side of a particular date which should be suitably distant from known election timings e.g. Euro, LG and parliament/assembly elections.

These are paid for by the tax payer
and so should not have an ounce of party political leverage in them.

Elected reps should not be able to place paid for adverts in their party's literature.

And all individual donations above a certain proportion of someone's wealth or income should require a process of independent legal advice to prevent the exploitation of weakness and the application of duress to supporters.

From a lawyer or an accountant. Yes, this person can afford this amount; yes, their family are in agreement; yes, they understand what they are doing; and yes, it is clear whether the contribution is a gift, a loan or a combination.

More on this when the beach isn't beckoning perhaps.

Laurence Murder: No More Fascist Excuses

The Bournemouth Nationalist (no link from me) said...

A loud of lying scumbag, racist, defamatory tosh about Stephen Laurence. I have removed it. Similar is not welcome here. I'm not going to go to moderation but please no repeats. Stick it on your own blog with your full name and address for service of defamation writs, and incitement charges.

Quoting these excuses for a racist gang murder year after year does nothing for Dave's so called "party" and its so called "mainstream status" but it does speak volumes to the thugs (and bomb makers and would be assassins) in suits reputation that the BNP do enjoy.

James Cleverly commented too suggesting that limiting what you don't agree with is not free speech. That would be fair comment if that's what this was about.

I don't agree with racist killing or illegal defamation and incitement. I do not agree with shouting FIRE with impunity in a crowded place and causing panic, mayhem and even death.

If one looks properly at the rights we enjoy - whether ICHR, ECHR, Bill of Rights, putative Brit constitutions - they include rights which MUST BE BALANCED. Some are sometimes mutually exclusive. Free speech is fettered in this country and it has to be to allow quiet enjoyment, right to life, right to trade and so on. Discuss.

But please no defamation, incitement or general nastiness.

Watergate Bay: Blogging Light and Summery

Like the sea breeze today. Brilliant sunshine yesterday. Rain overnight. Set fair again today.

Stephen and Doreen Laurence: Free Speech?

Over at James Cleverley's Blog a couple of days ago:

At 23:09 on Friday night Anonymous said...
I have spoken to one of Stephen Lawrence's mates... far from being the church going saint made out by the family he was part of a particularly odious inner city black gang who took particular delight in beating other rival gang members to within a minute of their life.
Those who live by the sword...

I hoped that James would remove this remark from a BNP sock puppet. Or at least ridicule it and call it to account?

He has done the latter and encouraged me to use free speech to do likewise. Thing is that much as I believe in and practice free speech I understand that this right must be balanced with other rights and responsibilities.

Free speech does not extend to defamation, it does not extend to shouting "Fire" with a view to starting a panic in a crowded place, and it certainly does not extend to inciting racially-motivated or any other violence.

The comment seemed to do all three really. It defamed Stephen Laurence and his family, it uttered words to cause panic and distress, and it suggested with its last line and ellipsis that "those who live by the sword ..." should die by the sword. Condoning and indeed encouraging killing.

I believe that goes beyond reasonable free speech rights. Anti Nazi League summary of the Laurence case is here.

Guantanamo Bay: Miliband Pops the Question

About bloody time too. Mili asks Condi "Can we have our British residents, breadwinners, family men etc back, please pretty please?"

Boris Johnson: James Cleverly Clogs the Blogs

Councillor Iain Lindley suggested that James Cleverly had got things right on the Doreen Laurence vs Boris Johnson crisis. I'm happy to post a link to the post but I must say that neither James nor Boris is half as clever as they think they are.

Dave-id Cameron looked utterly uncomfortable uttering tart nothings on Foot and Mouth. Like he knew he was losing. Like he also knew he could be having a lot more fun doing something else.

Dave-id will never be PM. Boris will never be Mayor. George will never be Chancellor. Mark my words.

How to Refuse Gracefully: Anti-Factual

One of the Gweirdo crew has announced a new blog. It seems completely and unashamedly anti-factual and I am certainly not going to link to it.

Boris Johnson: Mayoral Application is a Shambles

Pickled Politics linked to Doreen Laurence reasonably questioning the Boris appeal to most of London's communities. But Iain Dale who will not hear a word against Boris and asks who put Doreen up to it. What a patronising so and so!













The BBC meanwhile have Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler backing Doreen up. This and this are Ken's own response to Boris' obvious lack of suitability, the latter with links including graphic proof of some of his tabloid rattling weaknesses.

Neither Doreen Laurence nor the Abbott and Butler double act have bothered to include Boris' outrageous remarks about cannibals in Papua New Guinea.

This would certainly have supported their case that Bojo is a complete and utter Bozo race-wise, highly unsuitable to greet international visitors to London, and another disaster for toff and fellow Bullingdon Alumnus Cameron in persuading anyone that the Tories are Cuddly and New.

The London paper also link to most pages of Boris' actual application form.

Which is chronic. Where is asks for a very specific account of how much time he would devote Boris writes "quite a bit".

I really do shudder to think what was on the missing page three.

Click the images above to enlarge.

Newsnight: Was Top Blogger Iain Dale Cut Again?

Or did I nod off? Think perhaps the foot in mouth outbreak finally got him.
Image hat tip: Iain's conscience Tim.

Pickled Politics: Report Economist Skim of Study

Sunny at Pickled Politics found the chart below in The Economist.


I was a little puzzled at the chart and posted this comment:

How big were these samples? (1) And were they structured in any way? (2) USA, France and Italy totally obviously would be like that. The rest of them also distributed as I’d expect.

Why are Irish roots (3) and central european Jewish roots (4) not treated? I’d guess the latter would be towards the top but wouldn’t be surprised if the Irish were huddling with the other hold-outs in the middle (5).

There was a really really LOL comment over at Dale’s where he stuck up for Catholics being allowed to be or to marry royalty. Or royals being allowed to marry Cats. Something like that anyway. The funny comment was that this move if led by Tories would help win urban Irish votes in Manchester and Liverpool. Hah hah hah. Let them try!

The Economist piece skims the surface of this three-page summary item in LSE's Centrepiece which in turn is a precis of this serious paper. Perhaps, with all this publicity there will be some comments now at the EOPP Blog where the study was tagged six weeks ago.

The answers to my questions were:

(1) Only ethnic/legacy groups with 100 or more in sample were plotted;
(2) Not found a particular sample structure yet. But there is a lot of detail in the full paper;
(3) They are, and indeed plotted (strange the journalists missed this! not);
(4) There are faith based results in the tables including Jewish but no identified plot for this group;
(5) These LOL predictions were indeed correct. The Irish are low down (un-
British) despite plotting far right (long residency). Off the chart! Exactly why Iain's Tory vote grab comment was so hilarious to me.

Labour's Fightback: Six Predictions for Six Years

Labour's Fightback is back after the sort of hiatus we used to despair at from "Reclaim Labour". Incidentally of the so-called parliamentary "Left" Jon Cruddas and John McDonnell have also been very quiet. While Michael Meacher has maintained his tempo. (Links in last post).

Owen sees his glass half empty or worse with Brown, and he makes six predictions. Here they are, with my view in italics:

Firstly, there will be a general election in the not-too-distant future.
First week in June 2009

Secondly, Labour will win the election with a similar majority as today.
Probably a bigger majority. Perhaps 90 or so.

Thirdly, David Cameron will resign as Tory leader and leave Parliament.
Quite possible I suppose. If I'm right about the majority. If Owen is right, perhaps not. He was supposed to be on a two-stop strategy after all.

Fourthly, David Davis will be his only viable replacement.
Hague will still be there and might be a more attractive option. Davis is a bit like Labour picking ... oh, I don't know who ... go on then, John McDonnell. Davis would be a change in the direction of travel, not necessarily towards electability.

Fifthly, there will not be another Labour leadership contest for at least six years. Such a contest will be bittersweet for the left: there won't be an obvious successor in whom the trade union bureaucracy and softer left have illusions in (like Brown) - but there will be fewer left MPs and the soft left will be more likely to run their own candidate (probably Cruddas - who has gone very quiet since the deputy leadership contest).
Ten years. Perhaps twelve or thirteen. There is a prospect here of something a bit Swedish occuring in the UK. Ten to thirteen years is a long time in politics. Even six years is. Some nurturing and pragmatism from the left could widen this caucus.

Oh - and sixthly - Michael Meacher's leadership ambitions will continue unabated. You think I'm joking. Seriously, I'm not.
At six years, perhaps. Any more than that, highly unlikely. But he is blogging like a good 'un unlike "bloggers' hero" Jon Cruddas.

Iain Dale's Diary: MPs Who Blog

Mr Dale's draft list of MPs who blog missed quite a few out (see comments at the link). Notably his direct line manager Dave-id Cameron who was the future once, the next leader of the Labour Party John McDonnell, the one after next Jon Cruddas who was many a Labour blogger's fave - for getting IT - but has given up, and Britains' truther in chief Michael Meacher who is pretty prolific.

If David McClean MP has one he is naturally keeping it quiet along with his expenses. But he does have a Tell David pseudo consultation site.

The other Web Cameron is a poet, performer and webmeister with not a hint of a political policy. No change there then.

Marie Louise Gardens: The "Now" Picture

Between those "Before" and the "After" pictures there really ought to be a "Now" and I've had a try at capturing the same view. I had to go much farther back into the park than I expected. More tomorrow.

The park was incredibly quiet. A great place to reflect after attending yet another funeral and wake. Only saw one other in a full half an hour.

But the low footfall and unpampered overgrowth meant squirrels are both numerous and extraordinarily bold. They seem to have a strong red tinge, to their chops in particular. Are these foreign usurpers going a bit ginger? Or turning Red as Man Wit must surely do come the General Election?

And is this post just a warm up for an attempt to make Jon Henley's Squirrel Nutkins Diary in the Guardian? He did pick up LOL's £1-a-minute exclusive on the Boris phone scam jackpot line, even though no squirrels were harmed in the making of it.

RUDDY SQUIRREL PICTURE: To follow.

Europe: North West to Lose Another MEP?

The Electoral Commission has published its recommendations (pdf download) on how to further reduce our MEPs from 78 to 72. There were 87 originally. And no dratted PR.

The Commission used the exciting Sainte-Laguë method to wild enthusiasm from psephologists and statisticians.

Major distortion is from the over-representation of Northern Ireland, forced by minimum three MEPs per region. But if one were handed back it would go to the Brummies rather than the NW. This method makes us the second most hard done by region. In other words if there were 74 rather than 72 seats we would have had one of them.


Now you don't have to look. But table A5 gives a little taste.

Hat tip: LDV

Libdemologists Voice: Grant Shapps At It Again

LDV's Mark Pack has scored another of his exclusives on Tory Campaigning Genius Grant Schweppes MP (above, uhurr just like that). Schweppes said Tories could hold their head up after a gain in share in Ealing Southall, which they'd "not been able to do for years". He was sadly forgetting 2005 and 2006 when this feat was achieved in Cheadle and Blaenau Gwent respectively.

But in fact I seem to recall that that Cheadle by-election was also marred by Lib Dems making quite a spectacle of themselves by complaining about the supposedly "dirty", "scandalous", "despicable", "outrageous" leaflets the Tories put out against them. These pointed out the Lib Dem candidate's broken record as the local Council leader.

Fair enough? The Lib Dems didn't think so and they complained to the media, on their own leaflets, on the doorstep and to everyone who might listen to their whining and whingeing.

But if these leaflets were so very shocking and damnable to our Lib Dem friends are they now going to apologise for using the same stories - verbatim - when they were attacking elsewhere? Yes folks! The dirty, despicable etc Tories copied every word from dirty, despicable etc Lib Dem leaflets procured from Labour friends!

The Hunter becomes the Hunted!

UPDATE: Mark Pack (comments) says there was a Tory leaflet implying their man was a rapist. I didn't know about that.

Bicycling: One of Our Bicycles is Missing 1

Dear Boris Piffle Johnson's bicycle is missing. Stolen from a Fort Knoxian mooring by an insolent scallywag. This sort of thing can happen to the best of us and the police are sanguine:

Up here in Manchester's leafy suburbs we had a reverse bike burglary when crack-addled crooks broke in, stormed upstairs shouting, stormed downstairs muttering 'wrong house', nicked some useless stuff (most of which they dropped on the way out), and traded up from a bike to a getaway car.

They left the bike in the drive. The police told us to keep it and they'd be in touch if it were claimed. We did and they haven't been. It does get used every now and then. Not bad.

Perhaps someone round the corner from you has lost their Beamer and gained a silver-grey Marin Sausalito?

Like the one this young scallywag is pushing furtively past the paps.

Libdemologists Voice: Playing Straight Off the Bat

LOL have been following Lib Dem Voice with interest on their rather queer Alan Duncan-bashing exploits. Mark Pack is clinging on like a Leech to the idea that using the word "straight" about your own candidate or the choice ahead of the voters is not automatically "homphobic" (sic). The word seems to bother him so much that his normally impeccable spelling repeatedly stumbles on it.

LOL agree absolutely with this general point, while being concerned that Mark has got a bit manic, with a rising pitch of the Captain Ahab or Don Quixote wild goose chase.

Sometimes e.g. when against a known gay opponent banging on and on about "the straight choice" or even the coded "family man" can clearly be nasty and homophobic. The rest of the time it's perhaps just a bit quaint or mildly dog whistling. Best avoided full stop in all three scenarios.

Manically collecting examples of Tory, Labour and SNP use of the word "straight", where there was no complaint or suggestion of homophobia, does not excuse the Lib Dems from any case where there is such a complaint and it is well-founded. In fact in such a case Simon Hughes has apologised to Peter Tatchell and expressed profound regret at the iffy bits of his Bermondsey campaign.

If Mark's scattergun examples could be construed as homophobia he should explain why. Googling opponents for the word "straight" in any and all literature and throwing stones is I feel protesting too much.