Ayyo Gurkhali!

Yesterday Gordon Browns government was dealt a shocking, but just, defeat over their proposals for the Gurkha’s wishing to settle in the UK. The delight on the faces of everyone (bar Labour MP’s) after the motion passed was obvious. Afterward David Cameron joined campaigner Joanna Lumley and Nick Clegg outside Parliament to celebrate the vote in the House which, for a time at least, has restored some faith in the honour of the Commons. I congratulate the Lib Dems for tabling the motion, Cameron and the Conservatives for their support of it and those brave Labour MP’s who stood firm in the face of their governments threats and coercion. This was an issue that should have brought the nation together in condemnation of our governments brutal betrayal of those who have fought and died for us and for the most part it did. However I personally find it shameful that such a large majority of Labour MP’s still voted with their government when it is quite obvious to everyone else how much of a disgrace this government is. Some people clearly have no conscience.

The Lady Still Lords It

As we approach the 30th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power there is a huge swell in the National Press about her legacy which will delight many Conservatives across the country. A new poll published by YouGov has yielded some suprising results which I thought I’d share with you. A crude analysis would argue that this poll confirms that which we already suspected: Margaret Thatcher remains Britains most influential but divisive post war Prime Minister.

What suprises me however is the fact that this enduring division over Thatcher’s legacy does not neccessarily translate into unpopularity. Indeed Lady T is still regarded as Britains most popular post war Prime Minister trumping every contemporary politician. Even now in the face of the recession (bearing in mind the Tory record in regard to boom and bust is hardly squeaky clean) Mrs Thatcher is still the choice of the public as 47% of voters would prefer her to lead us through the crash as opposed to 37% for Brown.

Interestingly however Baroness Thatcher dominates when it comes to the ’Tory popularity stakes’ as 49 per cent prefer her to David Cameron, compared to only 24 per cent backing the current Tory leader. So what does this poll tell us? Well it continues a trend that has been going on for years; Mrs Thatcher remains unsuprisingly by far our most divisive Prime Minister yet interestingly she is also our most respected. There is also continued consensus that no-one who has followed her holds a candle to her and given the choice a clear majority of those polled would prefer her as Prime Minister today than Brown or indeed Cameron. Therefore in terms of public approval the Lady still lords it…

Desperate Depths

Oh dear oh dear. It can’t get much worse for Labour can it? Im told that our Labour counterparts are already resigned to the fact that a victory at the next election looks unlikely, apart from a diehard few who can’t see the writing on the wall. Bless. Well they’re going to be a whole lot more peeved to discover the latest nugget of information that has just come to my attention. All readers Im sure will recall the Labour party’s sheer contempt for the Daily Mail? Well it will delight people from all political colours across the land to hear that the Daily Mail political correspondant Michael Lea has just become ‘Chief Writer to the Prime Minister’. May I congratulate our Labour compadres on their newest recruit. There was me thinking no-one was willing to enter the bunker ;)

A Response to the ‘Budget’

 

Its been long overdue but here is the official BUCF Response to the Budget.

What can we really say about this budget? In simple terms this budget wasn’t worth the paper it was written on and the public can see that so I’m not going to pick it apart piece by piece or go on my usual tyrade of abuse at a government I despise more than I ever imagined possible. This ‘Budget’ speaks for itself as the hostile public reaction to it demonstrates. We all can see, apart from our dear Labour counterparts, that we are in the worst economic situation in living memory which try as they might cannot be solely blamed on the bankers or the Americans. However the reality of this budget is much worse. Usually at times like this we could console ourselves an election was round the corner and the Conservatives could come in and sort it out (as we always do) but the fact remains that whoever does come in next and whoever comes after that is inheriting the worst economic legacy in living memory. This is down to the fact that what lies behind the numbers in this Budget is a set of assumptions that are ficticious. Darling confidently predicts that by 2011 the economy would have swung around to rapid growth, trampolining from a shrink of 3.5pc this year to a miraculous growth by that same amount in 2011. How exactly? By taxing higher earners more? Give me flaming strength… weve been there before and it failed!!!!

Indeed following the rise in public borrowing and the increase in taxes on the wealthy outlined in the budger there has been much talk of a return to ‘old Labour’ politics and this wouldn’t be an entirely outrageous statement. The ‘old’ Labourites that lurk on the governments backbenches never truly accepted ‘New’ Labour and have always yearned for a return to the divisive class concious politics that blighted the country. In that light the 50% tax hike on the highest earners, which incidently is the most productive part of the economy, will delight those ‘old’ Labourites who have always deomonstrated a ‘politics of envy’ and led our country to ruin. But this budget is far worse than ‘old’ Labour. Unlike new Labour, old Labour had the ‘honesty’ to outrageously tax the electorate at the time, rather than tax subsequent generations. Britain is going to be riddled with debt that will be all but impossible to pay back. Even by the governments own figures our national debt will soar to 79% of GDP in 2013/14, while Public Sector Net Borrowing will peak this year at 12% of GDP.  In sum, no matter how they try to spin it, this budget clearly shows our national finances are in a much worse position now than they were even at the point of maximum humiliation in 1976 when Denis Healey held out the begging bowl to the IMF for a £2.3bn bail-out. So this government and this budget can be summed up in 5 clear words: Labour have done it again.

The sick man of Europe is back. Enter ‘Thatcher’.

New Labour: The Shame of a Nation

 

After 4 months the government has finally issued the new rules of eligibility for Gurkha veterans to live in the UK. However todays announcement by the government is nothing more than a brutal betrayal of those brave soldiers who have fought and died for Britain. The Home Office has come up with yet more massaged figures to suggest that the new rules would let a further 4,300 Gurkhas settle in Britain however the Gurkha Justice Campaign has insisted the number is not even 100. Who are we to believe? The most dishonest and decietful government in our history that has squandered our future and pillaged our pensions or a group whose sole intention is to see that those who have fought and died for this country are allowed to remain in it. There have been many wise words on the situation today ranging from famed actresses, to ordinary people on the streets, to solicitors, but the message from all was clear: This government should hang their head in shame so low that their forehead should touch their boots. This is a disgrace and a betrayal of our armed forces and our veterans.

Happy St Georges Day!

Britain Can’t Afford Another 5 Years Of Labour

CF Members across the country descended on their local train stations following the ‘budget’ to ram the message home that Britain can’t afford another 5 years of Labour. Conservative Future have put the campaign photos from across the country on their facebook group and unsuprisingly BUCF comes top of the list ;)

Pre-emptive response to the Budget

God Save the Queen

BUCF Joins the nation in wishing Her Majesty the Queen a Happy 83rd Birthday with the hope of many more to come

Welcome back boys….

David Cameron and George Osborne finally have taken the opportunity to throw out their previous pledge to match Labours unrealistic spending plans that have led us to economic ruin and are finally ‘talking Tory’. Gone are the pledges to match Labours unsustainable spending and in comes good old fashioned Tory thrift. Osborne told the Financial Times that sticking to Labours proposed 1.1% rise in spending was not only unrealistic but completely unaffordable. I was further delighted to hear his belief that spending cuts rather than tax rises were the best way to deal with the biggest peacetime budget deficit. We Conservatives have never flinched from taking the tough decisions neccessary to get this nation back on track when faced with dire a Labour economic inheritance. Over the last year in particular Cameron has sought to invoke Margaret Thatcher not only to reassure his core vote, but to revive the memory of a tough and decisive leader in the minds of the British public who yearn for such conviction when faced with what we have at present.

They may not have liked her personally but the vast majority of Britons, as poll after poll confirms, admired her determination and drive and her ability to be upfront and honest with the public. Cameron and Osborne are showing such honesty. They are looking at the nations finances and, like the housewife, reigning in their spending to suit. It has been overzealous spending and borrowing that has got us in to this mess in the first place and now only through tough Tory thrift can we get this nations finances back on track. It won’t be easy, of course it wont and we can no doubt expect Labour to throw our planned public expenditure cuts back in our faces. But the British public will not be fooled. They don’t believe a word that Labour say anymore and we must take their windy rhetoric on the chin. As Winston Churchill, that most Conservative and British of Icons, once said the British people “are the only people who like to be told how bad things are – who like to be told the worst” We are telling them the worst and we can have faith that they will respond to it.

Who Do You Trust?

Public faith in politicians has hit record lows with both Gordon Brown and David Cameron trailing behind other public figures including the Queen. When 2000 British people were asked who they trust over half chose Her Majesty while David Cameron scored 21% faring better than Gordon Brown who trailed with just 12%. Perhaps Dan’s dream of a return to absolute Monarchy is not as far fetched as one might assume! ;) On a political note its good to see that EVERY poll now confirms that Cameron and the Conservatives are leagues ahead of Brown and Labour.

Hollie Jones: A Response

I was going to resist saying anything about ‘smeargate’ everyones had their two penneth. However, this post from Hollie Jones (who is a good friend of mine and who I genuinely old in high esteem within the Labour Party).However as a member of BULS and Vice President of the Guild for Welfare (Yes Welfare, ‘smeargate’ revolved around spreading viscous rumours about peoples welfare) I just simply could not resist ‘fisking’ it. Hollie fundamentally misunderstands where and why the Labour Party is failing on the internet . . .

My response to the BBC News twitterfeed was less than polite this afternoon- BORING! Can we hear something new please? Do you mean boring or embarrassing?

But my real issue is the way we have handled the issue as a Party. The focus should be on the PM not ‘the party’. McBride was employed by the taxpayer.

 Collectivism, an ideal that supposedly forms the foundation of our politics is in severe question, with Labour loyalty nowhere to be seen. I am sorry, what do you imply by this? McBride should have stayed. Or the fact that former Cabinet Ministers should be gagged and not allowed to speak out. I really hope it is the second.

 Our strength lies behind the vacuous Tory Party manifesto, which provides no basis or legitimacy to attack Labour policy. YAWNNN. If our policies are so weak why do you steal them?

 “Smeargate” has given the Conservatives a much sought after gift- grounds on which to lawfully critique our Party. Incorrect. We barely mentioned it until Monday.

Well if “smeargate” was a gift then the Tories must think that Christmas has come early! Yes I am sure George Osborne’s face looked like a kid at Christmas when he heard the government were trying to spread lies about his wifes mental stability.

Party members proudly jumping at the opportunity to say their piece. So all party members should be gagged as well!!! This is exactly why you will not succeed on the internet. The beauty of the internet is that it can allow a medium for an expression of diverse opinions you need to open up and stop trying to be so controlling of your members and the whole party.

Feeding the monster that is the media and playing into the hands of our opponents, ensuring that one foolish mistake is worthy of the front page day after day after day. No this was not as a result of party members or Cabinet Ministers it was because your Prime Minister would not say’sorry’ for hiring someone to spread viscous personal rumours about the MPs families.

Well today is day 5- and I have had enough! Let’s hope there are not anymore revelations out there . . .

With the general election looming, and the European elections on our doorsteps now is not the time for naval gazing and petty infighting is not an option. We need to build a bridge and get over it, stand shoulder to shoulder once again and only by doing this will we secure a historic fourth term. Very Obamaesque . . . however, it is going to need a lot more that party discipline to get you anywhere near a fourth term.

Hollie, I think you do not understand the severity of what has happened. Imagine if in Guild elections, an opposition member set out to spread viscous personal lies about other candidates health. Shocking no? And imagine then if they decided to do this to their families as well? Terrible.

It seems ridiculous doesn’t it!? And yet it has happened at the very top of the government!!

Finally, if you think that you just require party discipline you are living in a dream world. Yes that is important but the party needs something (or someone) to unite behind. You have nothing and I just dont think you understand the anger at the government.

Take students for example, you have brought in top up fees and now left the average student crippling under the weight of £20’000 odd worth of debt and the worst graduate prospects since the World War Two. And if we ever get rid of that debt the chance of getting on the housing ladder before 30 is almost zero.  Why would an average student consider voting Labour based on what your government has done??

Jimmy McLoughlin is the Regional Co-ordinater for the West Midlands.

New Labour Is Finished… Whats Next?

The outrageous events of the last week have shown all too clearly just what toxic individuals fester at the heart of the New Labour government. However these toxic individuals are merely a symptom of the wider disease that his crippled the government and the party that have led us for 11 years and it is a disease that is clearly terminal. You’d struggle to find many ordinary people in Britain today who believe the New Labour project has been successful or lament its demise. In fact if you ask people for their opinion of the last 11 years you’ll find responses which are far to obscene to write here! There is a general feeling amongst the public that the Tories are bad but Labour are worse because they’ve hidden their deceptions through their hyperactive spin machines and abandoned their own principles and philosophy for the sake of political power. “At least you knew what you were getting with the Tories” is a phrase I hear muttered alot and whilst I think the general publics attitude towards us is rather unfair and indeed 11 years out of date, I understand where it has originated from.

However the ironic thing about the whole New Labour project, as many of their own including former Deputy Leader Roy Hattersley have conceded, is that its greatest supposed ‘achievements’ have only been made possible through following Conservative, indeed Thatcherite, policy particularly in regard to economics. This is not to say they followed it to the letter or that it was flawless. No political platform, however much we might like to argue otherwise, is flawless. However their acceptance and development of privatisation and extension of neo-liberal economic inspired by the Thatcher years did indeed continue the already prevailing economic stability and prosperity that Britain was experiencing and it would be churlish of Labour’s greatest of critics to deny this. As one commentator put it New Labour in the economic sense “brought Thatcherism full circle”. However that circle has ended and as Jim Callaghan said every 30 or 40 years there is a sea change in British politics, we are experiencing such a sea change and it is up to the government of the day to initiate and equipt the country for it. That, amongst many other things, is where New Labour have failed.

They are a party and a government who are and have always been bereft of ideas of their own. They are sailing blind without, considering the weeks events, any hint of a moral compass. New Labour lacks the wherewithal to get out of its present dire situation because to do so would mean a radical reversal of political direction that would involve a repudiation of all that New Labour has supposedly stood for over the past decade. To change direction now would severely undermine the last 11 years and show them for the shameless and self seeking party they are. So like the headless chicken who doesn’t know it is dead, New Labour will continue to run around until it is finally cast on political scrap heap as one of the biggest political deceptions of the last century. For Conservatives and indeed for the country at large it won’t be a moment too soon.

Happy Easter!

BUCF wishes all its members and supporters a Happy Easter!

Jokeblog: Thatcher The Ultimate Bond Girl

An uncanny impression of Margaret Thatcher in ‘For Your Eyes Only’

BUCF Endorses YBF ‘Get Behind Our Troops’ Campaign

The YBF Campaign ‘Get Behind Our Troops’ launched in 2008 was formed in response to a nasty collection of anarchists and socialists who came together in campuses across the country with the intention of banishing all reference to our armed forces on university campuses, these groups include: Kick ‘em off Campus. Such odious campaigns are designed to banish all references to the military from UK campuses and is an insult to those that have fought and died for their country. This ban were it imposed in Birmingham would ensure that military groups such as the OTC, URNU etc, military guest speakers and military recruiters would all be barred from campus. I am endorsing this campaign in order for BUCF to promote the work of our forces on campus ensuring such a motion never reaches our own Guild Council and if it does we have a campaign platform to fight it. My support for this campaign however extends for beyond campus politics and is concerned with the state of Britain’s relationship with its forces today.

Personally I find it disgraceful the way some politicians and swathes of the public treat our armed forces today with such indifference despite the fact we seem to be calling upon them more and more frequently to serve in increasingly dangerous situations with faceless enemies. That criticism  however is not exclusively held for New Labour. Indeed whilst I was heartened to hear Cameron pledge to restore the bond between armed forces and country which I wholeheartedly encourage, I was supremely disappointed to hear him refuse to explicitly condemn Labour’s scandalous treatment of our troops which extends far beyond insufficient funding levels and had hoped to hear him pledge to increase funding himself. Having said this I recognise he faces a similar dilema to Margaret Thatcher in 1979. When Thatcher came in borrowing was at record levels and she could not committ herself to increasing funding because frankly the country was on its knees (deja vu).

However not long after the election of Margaret Thatcher, the Chief of the Defence Staff was able to speak of “this government’s tremendous gut feeling for defence” and between 1979 and 1986 defence spending increased 26%. Were it not for the increase in spending, were it not for that gut feeling and that priceless boost to morale, the task force would not even have sailed let alone been able to retake the Falklands and I am confident that in time Cameron will put the forces back at the heart of Tory party policy. This New Labour government by contrast have an inexcusable contempt for our forces, despite their hollow rhetoric every PMQ’s when the names of another service man or woman who fell doing this governments dirty work are read out. The fact is funding for the Armed Forces has been run down progressively over the past ten years under New Labour’s stooges who produce what can only be described as bloodstained budgets cutting defence expenditure whilst at the same time committing them to overseas operations. Indeed by contrast to Thatcher’s spending hikes, as a percentage of national income defence expenditure is lower today than at any time since the early 1930s.

Now I can almost feel the critics amongst you almost jumping out of your chairs to say “but the Tories were cutting defence spending in the early 1990’s”… and you’d be right (although not to the same degree). The difference was we were operating in a different world. Our big threat, the Soviet Union, had collapsed we werent committed to lengthy wars abroad. All of a sudden the world looked forward to a New World Order post Soviet Union free of the scourge of war and communism. In hindsight it was a mistake to cut our funding, which I acknowledged above when I said this criticism is not mutually exclusive to Labour, but there is no justification for the cuts that we have seen since. The rundown in military spending has continued in earnest year on year, even after Britain had been committed by Labour to a war on two fronts in the Middle East. The Afghanistan war is now in its eighth year; it has lasted longer than the First World War and Second World War yet there has been no surge in funding to match the surge in commitments. Tony Blair was responsible for the original decision to support the US invasion of Iraq, but Gordon Brown, as Chancellor, was an assenting party. He accepted the arguments for the war, as many of us did, but would not agree to pay for it.

Labour have exploited and betrayed our troops. Just as they have exploited and betrayed our country. Therefore in that light I am delighted to endorse YBF’s ‘Support our Troops’ campaign which I hope will be one of a very long line in pushing for greater gratitude and support to be directed towards our brave men and women on the frontline. It is vital that we recognise the perilous and selfless work that our armed forces do to keep us safe and promote our ideals of freedom and liberty abroad. We, indeed the world, owe the British armed forces past and present an eternal debt of gratitude and BUCF will do all it can to ensure that the Universityof Birmingham will never accept abhorrent groups such as ‘Kick em off campus’ on our campus.

BUCF will be holding campaign days to ’support our troops’ in the next term and the next academic year.

The Lady’s Not for Turning?

Earlier this week I found myself in a confrontation with regular BUCF reader Jack Matthew over a flippant remark I made regarding Thatcher’s attitude to terrorism. I am loathed to admit he might have more of a point than I first cared to admit. I am currently in the process of studying for my impending Topics in British Politics exam and am revising Thatcher. In order to revise effectively I am looking beyond the core texts toward more contemporary editorial analyses. One I have stumbled across this week, combined with some elements of the core reading, suggests that Mrs Thatcher was far more pragmatic than we were led to believe.

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that Mrs Thatcher was prepared to make concessions in a number of areas. For example documents have come to light which show, despite her harsh rhetoric, Thatcher was trying to negotiate over the hunger strikes but she was repeatedly blocked by the IRA. The hunger strike began in March 1981 when Bobby Sands began the protest over living conditions for IRA prisoners in the Belfast jail. By the time it ended in October, ten inmates, including Sands, had died. In July, with four men already dead, Richard O’Rawe, the IRA spokesman in the Maze, and Brendan “Bik” McFarlane, its commanding officer in the jail, withdrew a demand that the British government treat IRA inmates as prisoners of war.

In a document sent on 5 July the government reportedly responded with its own concessions. It gave in to a number of their demands, including one that the prisoners would be allowed to “wear their own clothes … provided these clothes were approved by the prison authorities”. According to Mr O’Rawe, he and Mr McFarlane agreed at the time that the British government’s concessions were enough to end the strike but were told that the IRA council had rejected them. Therefore it was the IRA that betrayed the hunger strikers and not Mrs Thatcher and her government as the myth has led us to believe.

Mrs Thatcher was a woman who surely made mistakes as do all great figures faced with less than desirable conditions. But what I have learned through my studies and something that suprised me, is that her strength lay not in her ‘bully boy nature’ but  in her collective attitude that in many ways stood at odds with the Iron Lady image she liked to portray. Don’t get me wrong, she was an Iron Lady. When she made her mind up, usually after consultation with her allies, she was intransigent. She was incredibly principled and formed her policies around those principles some of which she rightly refused to compromise on. She fought tooth and nail against opposition both within and outside her own party to get where she was and it was inbuilt in to her mentality to fight for her position because she always had to.

However it was when her principle over-rode her pragmatism and her ability to ‘bend’ that she sealed her own fate. The century’s most exceptional peacetime Prime Minister fell because she forgot what made her great in the first place; her ability to respond to public and private opinion and adapt her policy platform to suit. Thatcher, love her or loathe her, was the people’s Prime Minister. She wasn’t just liked by her grassroot supporters, she was adored and the grassroots never really recovered from her forced removal. She was seen as the first leader to truly represent them and their ideals and her removal denied them their champion.

Furthermore her policies, even those most divisive like the Miners and Trades Union policies, were supported by a clear majority of the public seeing her returned to office 3 times with large majorities which was unprecedented in modern British history. However it was when she defied public opinion with the Poll Tax, when she refused to bend that the country turned against her. Had she not imposed such a policy and refused to delpoy the pragmatism that had served her so well, Thatcher would surely have took us to victory in 1992 and her place in history would have been even more unquestionable than it is today.

Even the G20 Can’t Save Labour…

CONSERVATIVES 43% (+1)
LABOUR 30% (nc)
LIB DEMS 18% (-1)

13% Conservative Lead

5 Minute Q&A

The Regional Co-ordinater for the West Midlands and BUCF member, Jimmy McLoughlin has just taken part in the Conservative Future 5 Minute Q&A.

In interview, Jimmy comes up with an interesting argument that the General Election could be held in Autumn 2010 . . .

You can read the rest here.

Why I now agree with the smoking ban…

I once opposed the smoking ban. But now I realise why it was largely unopposed and why the new law settled in rather well.

If the Government had tried to ban smoking in the 1970s there would have been uproar. Society was not informed to the extent it is today about the health consequences of smoking and passive smoking. 

From the 1970s attitudes changed rapidly. Pubs, restaurants and hotels were already starting to respond. JD Wetherspoon is a big example of a company that independently decided to ban smoking in its premises. Many more places at least had no smoking areas. Long before the legislation was passed there was a significant attitude that viewed smoking in public spaces as dirty, unhealthy and inconsiderate. 

It was only after this shift in attitudes that legislation was acceptable to society and thus practical. Libertarian opponents complained that it was an affront to individual liberty, however their stance was not reinforced by social attitudes whereas Parliament’s ban was. 

There are many other cases such as compulsory seat-belts and anti-discrimination laws, where legislation mirrors changing attitudes and is therefore reinforced by society.

It is a slow process, in fact a very Conservative process, whereby the law reflects and is reinforced by social and cultural evolution. This is the only way that law can be made. An attempt to impose a law that is completely unsubstantiated by wider attitudes, such as Prohibition in the United States, will ultimately fail.

It will be interesting to see which social norms today become abnormal tomorrow and eventually outlawed.

The New BUCF web-site!

 

 

This week BUCF launches its new all-singing, all-dancing interactive web-site. The above photo was taken at the official launch earlier this week. BUCF supremo Dan O.D was strapped to the rocket.

Just some of the features on the new site include an interactive page with direct links to the BUCF Facebook page, Twitter account and live blog. There is also a membership application page, and featured Birmingham attractions. 

Of course, the site will be perfected over the next few weeks. Do comment with any suggestions, likes and dislikes.

BUCF

If you think our Guild is bad! (Part II)

Thats right, after the shocking antics from Nottingham’s elected President that Jimmy mentioned in a previous post, it seems the President of the Edinburgh University Students Union is attempting to ban the Daily Mail from its campus. Frankly this is just another clear example of the left wing’s true feelings toward ‘freedom of speech’. They believe in freedom of speech alright as long as it’s their speech. If they don’t agree with you they are positively venomous and do all they can to discredit and silence you. If I were Guild President here at Birmingham, I would never dream of imposing a ban on papers I reagrd as left wing trash such as the Guardian or the Independent, even though I find their views utterly ridiculous. So the fact that this self righteous President at Edinburgh and his cronies have taken it upon himself to ban a perfectly legitimate, and indeed nationally popular, publication is beyond reproach.

You may not agree with everything that is written in it, indeed you wouldn’t be alone, but the students of Edinburgh University have a democratic right to buy whatever paper they wish. It is not the right of jumped up students to tell them what they can and can’t read. That my friend is nothing other than blatant censorship worth of Stalin’s Russia. As far as I am concerned people have a democratic right under the terms of free press and freedom of speech to make their own mind up. They can decide what paper they buy. They can decide what paper they don’t buy. It is not for any one individual to make that decision for them. Tory bear, who Im told resides in Edinburgh, has himself commented on this issue.

Thoughts on the G20 – The End of Thatcher/Reagan-omics?

It was all very nice wasn’t it? Seeing the worlds leaders rub shoulders with one another, seeing Brown playing host and not cocking it up as much as I had suspected, seeing the Queen being warmly embraced by Barack and Michelle Obama, who was clearly unaware of protocol when she place her hand on the Queen’s back and pulled her in for a hug,  (although Her Majesty clearly did not mind as she responded in kind) so all in all it was a very nice spectacle. But I have a sneaky suspicion thats all it was; a spectacle and a bloody expensive one at that. I don’t know about the rest of you but I find the idea that we have just funded a multi million pound conference, which naturally drew huge protests incurring yet more disruption and cleanup cost to the capital, in the middle of a recession a tad bit irritating.

So what have we got out of it all? Well the photos are for keeps thats for sure. It also gave the leaders of the world a chance to get to know the Obama’s and certainly gave Brown his much sought after ego rub to be seen as the Saviour of the World alongside the Chosen One. But what will this summit really achieve? I suppose we are all meant to look on in awe at todays announcement that a deal has been reached between the supposedly irreconcilable leaders of the world, although I always suspected that the chasm between them was being over stated purely for political purposes, so that when they finally did come together the citizens of the world would be overwhelmed by the leaders’ brilliance. However the truth is what sane politician would look at what is happening in the world financial system and think something didn’t need to change? What credible politician would not look at the reckless action of the banks over recent years and think ‘we need more regulation’? There was more of an agreement that change was needed in the financial system than we were led to believe at times.

Furthermore lets call a spade a spade… all this talk of reforming hedgefunds, bonuses, tax havens etc… what is that going to do to help economic recovery today? Oh yes it all sounds very good; lets squeeze the rich a bit more and deny them tax havens, everyone (apart from the rich) likes to hear that during a recession when times are tough. But the question remains how are such measures really going to help the recession as it stands now? How is it going to help the British, the American, the German, the French taxpayer struggling to keep their home and struggling to get a job? The truth is it won’t. It’ll just stop the rich getting richer. So what else have the leaders got to tout about?… ah yes… the £500bn donation to the IMF. Well theres not much that needs to be congratulated there either as that was effectively agreed at the finance ministers’ summit last month, and has merely been held back in case the rest of the summit was a complete disaster, although having said this more money to the IMF is certainly required and a positive step forward…who knows we might have to go to it ourselves in the near future!

The biggest problem that came out of this summit and the pink elephant in the room that few seem to be noticing is the fact that the leaders have failed to come up with a solution for disposing of banks’ toxic assets which continue to impede a recovery. Until this question is settled no matter how much money is donated to the IMF, no matter how close and eye we keep on hedgefunds and bonuses and no matter how much we regulate and restrict tax havens the recession will continue, get worse until the question is solved and then we can begin more speedy recovery. One thing that is for sure however is that the age of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan style economics is over. It has served us well and provided up to present unprecedented stability and growth, reversing the 30 year slump that preceeded it, but as Jim Callaghan once said “every 30 or so years there is a sea change in politics” such a sea change is occuring. It remains to be seen whether it is one for the better.

Never give in to them…

I was beyond appalled tonight to discover that a 13 year old boy has been hacked to death with an axe by a Palestinian attacker whilst a 7 year old boy is in a critical condition. You may find the fact that I have used the word ‘hacked’ a little disturbing, as do I, however the fact remains that such a shocking tone of phrase is an accurate and abhorrent reflection of this situation and a reminder of the enemy we face. I say ‘we’ because I am a passionate vocal and continued supporter of Israel and believe that Britain should stand by her side against this continued Palestinian aggression however much the liberal media might like to pin everything on Israel. I find the methods and motives of many Palestinian militants, and indeed politicians, beyond reproach and have always argued that their methods to achieve their ends are barbaric and inhumane. In simple terms I believe these people are sub-human and should be treated as such.

The liberals amongst you as always will call for restraint, will claim these attackers are not reflective of the majority of the Palestinian’s searching for a Palestinian state and I might be inclined to agree with you. Indeed not all Palestinians are like these wicked wicked creatures but that moderate majority have become silent even subservient to the will of this ever increasing cruel minority. The fact is we in the West have a duty to defend Israel in its fight against these militants. While they remain, Israel, Palestine indeed the world can never be free or peaceful. So long as we sit back and allow these wicked individuals an ounce of political legitimacy the peace process hasn’t got a hope in hell. We have to root them out and deal with them in the only language they understand: brutality.

The military wing of Islamic Jihad and Imad Mughniyeh Group have already admitted they carried out the attack and as usual basked in their own self righteous glory at the murder of this helpless child. Unless Hamas and other Palestinian political organisations come out completely against this action I would say Israel is justified in what ever methods it deploys in order to rid us of these cancers. There is no justification what so ever to accept such an attack on ones so young. Although in a curious way I hope Hamas and other Palestinian political groups do not come out against the killling because then perhaps the world can truly face up to the type of people we are fighting; people who make no distinction between man, woman and child, people who deserve to rot in hell.

Even Obama Loves the Queen….

Im even more convinced, if I needed to be, that this country depends on its Monarchy. This afternoon Barack Obama, the ‘Chosen One’ or whatever you want to call him, met his ‘Chosen One’ it seems in the form of Her Majesty the Queen. Before the meeting, at the end of a press conference this morning, a clearly excited Obama said “There’s one thing that I should mention that I love about Great Britain, and that is the Queen. I’m very much looking forward to meeting her for the first time later this evening and as you might imagine, Michelle has been really thinking that through. I think in the imagination of people throughout America, I think what the Queen stands for and her decency and her civility, what she represents, that’s very important”. His words are an ever present reminder that this country would be largely insignificant without its monarchy. Her Majesty can turn the most powerful and influential men to mush with just a casual glance. She has an aura that is incomparible with any other living person. She is the most unique Head of State in the world and even the great Barack Obama isn’t immune to her mystique.