Choices?

On a day when Cameron is accused of arrogance from one of his own party's donors- I mean how dare he be summoned to Parliament to answer questions:

David Cameron himself was absolutely furious at being asked to come to the Commons to answer an urgent question on Hunt. I do not see what he has to be so annoyed about, unless perhaps he is deep down annoyed with himself and the mess he is in. More likely, he just didn't like his enemy Speaker Bercow ordering him to turn up.

We have this rather depressing article by Mary Riddell in the Telegraph:

For the first time, a working majority in 2015 does not look beyond Mr Miliband’s grasp. Anything could happen in these volatile times. Labour could combust as fast as the Government has disintegrated, and Mr Cameron could become a three-term legend. Even so, the traceless rise of Ed Miliband should not be under-estimated. As of today, the election is Labour’s to lose. 

So the choice is apparently only between Cameron or Millband? It's the political equivalent of wishing to be hit either by a car doing 39mph or one doing 40mph...

Splicing The Mainbrace

After a weekend of indulging in very rare joy (you have to appreciate these things fully when you can) I've spent the morning catching up, so blogging will hopefully resume again shortly.

Looks like not much has changed; the euro is still knackered, democracy is still non-existent and the coalition is still useless.

Ho hum...

"You Get Found Out"

In truth I've not been following the details of the Leveson Inquiry that closely. I suspect it won't tell us much that we don't already know or have guessed at - it'll only just put slightly more detail into the mix.

But it is rather nauseating watching various vested interests trying to take the moral high over the revelations when they were all involved in the cosy consensus at one point or another. This is not a 'left / right' battle but an 'us and them' one.

In the meantime one can take some amusement at the impact on Cameron and revel in his discomfort. Alarmed Downing Street aides have apparently remarked:

“We are aware that we have created a ------- great monster here,”

We're not even two years into this government and already it's resembling a shambles, the lack of ability or substance at the top obvious. Cameron's lack of judgement is coming to the fore.

Even Murdoch appears to be imbued with similar characteristics at times. Asked whether he thought the Prime Minister was “lightweight” during his time as opposition leader, Mr Murdoch replied: 

“No. Not then, certainly.” 

Not then? The implication is clear what he thinks now, but it leaves one wondering what took him so long to reach such a conclusion?

It reminds me of this excerpt below from the classic book Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby:

One of the great things about sport is its cruel clarity; there is no such thing, for example, as a bad 100m runner, or a hopeless centre-half who got lucky; in sport, you get found out.

I'm tempted to apply this to the Cameron-led coalition. "Wait 'till Dave gets in" was the cry before the election. Well now he's in, he's been found out.

Update: As Richard North says, Cameron's now damaged goods

Lamprey Pie

The Daily Mail Wails:

For the people of Gloucester, it wouldn't be a Jubilee year without a lamprey pie.

In a custom stretching back for centuries, the city marks every one of these royal milestones - as well as Coronations - by sending the monarch a traditional dish made with an eel-like fish native to local rivers.

But this time around the uniquely British recipe will have to be prepared with lampreys from abroad, due to a shortage of the species in Gloucester waters.

So instead we have to import them from Canada:

The Canadian sea lamprey are set to arrive in Britain on May 4, when Dr Marc Gaden of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission will present them to Gloucester City Council.

It may seem an enormous effort to spare one pie's worth of Severn lamprey, but Steve Axford, the Environment Agency's principal fisheries scientist, said it was important 'to protect them and conserve stocks'.

He told the Daily Telegraph the Severn Estuary is home to all three species of lamprey and has been designated as a conservation area.

'We have a duty to protect them, and safeguard rivers,' he said.

Well of course we have a duty to protect them...they have a conservation status as per Annexes II and V of the EU Habitats Directive. Funnily enough after 40 years of EU membership the Mail still can't bring itself to mention details like this.

Getting It Wrong (2)

For God's sake it's not difficult is it. Why do the media consistently fail to spell Paolo Di Canio's name right.

This from Sky:

And from the Mirror:

How hard can spelling a bloke's name correctly be?

Her Majesty's Government

Criticising usually is the easy part, and working out how to resolve a problem the hard part. But when it comes to our constitution the former seems to take on a difficultly as well when trying to get it right.

It's understandable that Americans may not fully understand our subtleties and nuances of centuries of changes but less excusable when it's our own Prime Minister and those who are charged with holding our system of government to account. The BBC interviewed with Douglas Carswell last Thursday. At around 01:19mins in Mr Carswell was asked the following question by a BBC presenter:

"But this is your Government, would you vote against it, if you had a chance?"

Carswell rightly corrects him:

I point out that I'm not a member of this Government...I sit on the backbenches, I'm a member of the Legislature, my job is to hold this Government to account.

Is it any wonder the media fail so miserably in their supposed role as the fourth estate when they can't even get the basics right?

Getting It Wrong

It's not just the news, but the media struggle with details regarding sport particularly football - despite being a lucrative staple of the MSM and Sky Sports.

So given the high profile nature of Swindon Town's manager you would think some fact checking would be done regarding his name, at least. But no, above is an image from Sky Sports regarding Swindon's recent promotion.

And in the Telegraph last year:

It's Paolo not Paulo, his name is easily found on Wikipedia. And this is a mistake describing a former Premiership player who's on the list of best goals scored since its inception.

Amateurs.

Because They Can...

With local elections looming, it's becoming clear that, rather than a temporary blip, the rise in Ukip's poll ratings is a little bit more concrete. Whether that turns into actual council seats in May is something we'll have to wait and see for. What's obvious though, as England Expects notes the rise in Ukip is enough to start rattling the TPTB:

This has brought forth a small deluge of mostly hostile commentary in the press, some from commentators, others from largely Conservative politicians. The insults have flown "Swivel eyed" etc, the condescension dripped. "'UKIP were relevant 15 years ago", said George Eustice MP on Newsnight, "But now we have a robust Eurosceptic as Prime Minister they are irrelevant".

The immediate default response to a perceived threat to the cosy consensus, is not to listen, but unsurprisingly to turn the guns on the little guy even if he represents largely majority views. England Expects darkly warns:

However I am certain that this will not be the last story of its sort. Birds have told me that an edict has gone out from the coalition headquarters to friendly editors that UKIP must be hit hard. So I expect that in the next couple of weeks we will see a few more stories like this, dredged up, polished and presented to the public.

Naturally the MSM will oblige albeit with an additional bizarre and contradictory mixture of hostility, bewilderment and belated 'chin-stroking-what-does-it-all-mean' commentary, such as this from Iain Martin in Standpoint (my emphasis):

This is not just a Conservative problem. All the large mainstream British parties are in trouble and do not know how to respond to deep unpopularity, public resentment and the erosion of traditional boundaries. The Conservative response seems to consist mainly of pointing out that Labour leader Ed Miliband and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg are more unpopular than David Cameron.

This seems to be more than just a blip. Those in the Westminster village who say that the British have long mistrusted their leaders are underestimating the scale of alienation and potential for further fragmentation in a system that is so widely mistrusted. Turnout at the last general election was only 65.1 per cent; until 2001, turnouts were above 70 per cent. Britons have long moaned that voting changes nothing, but a greater number believe it true enough to not bother taking part than did even 20 years ago.

Iain Martin gets it wrong. That the 'mainstream' British parties are in trouble is true, but they do know how to respond to the problem. They are perfectly aware of the public resentment and the causes for it. Opinion polls, canvassing, letters to MPs, focus groups all tell them the details, as do comments under MSM articles. Trevor Kavanagh in today's Sun notes regarding the threat to the Tories due to Ukip (my emphasis):

UKIP will do well in the 2014 European poll, but it would be bizarre if David Cameron allows it to pinch Tory votes in the General Election.

The PM could kill the threat stone dead.

All he needs is an IN-OUT referendum on Britain’s EU membership to be held at the same time as the General Election.

Cameron's 'phantom veto' last year lead to a dramatic poll rise for the Conservatives made it perfectly clear what it takes to respond to resentment. They know. So it's utterly revealing that Cameron et al don't kill the issue stone dead. The lack of response to public anger is not ignorance by the main parties, but through choice...and crucially it's a choice for them because they can. And therein lies all that is wrong with our system of government.

Democracy is often seen as a positive process, basically you vote for a party who is more likely to be on your side, whereas in my view it's a negative process - a power to vote them out to force them to listen. To paraphrase Lincoln;

"[the] government of the people, by the people, for the people...or else"

And it's the rapidly deteriorating power to prick the consensus means that sadly I'm coming to the conclusion that our system has gone beyond reform within. While I wish Ukip good luck in the local elections, in order to win they have to play the game - where the odds are very heavily stacked against them. Even if they managed to, eventually, form a coalition or even form a government they face a very hostile establishment which will hamper them all the way. Just leaving the Lisbon Treaty alone requires 2 years of negotiations - a daunting task for any party let alone one that is inexperienced in the process of government and dealing with a pro-EU civil service. Instead I increasingly feel we need a 'cold' reboot of the system.

And it's for this reason I will be an attendee at the meeting in July for the Old Swan Manifesto. Its outcomes or influence is not yet clear. But politics like nature abhors a vacuum, with rapid disengagement from the political process we have to somehow fill that vacuum with something workable and reasonable. The consequences of the failure to do so doesn't bear thinking about.

Happy St George's Day

Above is the flag of St George flying proudly from the flagpole in my garden this morning.

Beware Of The Leopard

As regular readers will be aware I'm currently in the process of moving house. This has meant I've had to tidy my current place up a little - basically finish off those little DIY jobs that I'd always intended to do but never got around to completing. And as I'm downsizing slightly a couple of trips to the local rubbish tip recycling centre is required.

Now what used to be sometime ago a relatively simple visit is no longer. No way. There are more signs telling you what you can't do than there are rubbish skips. Everything, but everything has to be sorted into the correct bin of which there are countless numbers of them; a process which means disposing of your rubbish takes many times longer and turns you effectively into an unpaid council worker - the length of time needed creating long queues of cars waiting to get in. The landfill skip is made as inconvenient as possible to get to - so much so they might as well have a 'beware of the leopard' sticker on it.

Knowing this, I thought I would be cunning (or so I thought) and turn up as soon as they open this morning when it wouldn't be busy. Now as it turned out that was a big mistake. Being the only car there, I was significantly outnumbered by copious numbers of chaps in hard hats and fluorescent uniforms manning each bin, one of whom took a great deal of interest in what I was disposing of. At first he wanted to inspect every black bag I had and 'helpfully' direct me to the correct bin...then we got to my old television:

He asks: "Have you cut the plug off? We can't accept it without the plug being cut off".

Me: "Er no I didn't know you had to. I don't have any wire cutters on me, do you have a pair I can borrow".

Him "No, you have to use your own. We won't accept it with a plug. What's that?" (pointing at something else in my car)

Me: "A couple of sheets of Plasterboard"

Him: "We can't take that, it's recyclable  and we don't have the bin for it and it can't go in landfill - you'll have to take it to [a centre that's 30 miles away]. What are those, are they car batteries?

Me: No, they're UPS ones.

Him: "You can't dispose of those here, we only accept car batteries, you'll have to go to [a different centre altogether which is 15 miles in the opposite direction]"

At this point I was very tempted to chuck him in the landfill skip. So more than half of my rubbish was refused and I was directed to go onto two different other places that are 45 miles apart. Lucky petrol is dead cheap these days isn't it?