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?

Don't Panic!

This is now getting silly, as we have yet another anti-UKIP piece in the Telegraph, by Europlastic Daniel Knowles. This from the same man who believes Thatcher brought in VAT.

"Ukip is an irrelevance" they keeping saying failing to appreciate the irony of continuously mentioning it. The recent coverage does however illustrate a neat point. This is what it's like when Ukip have a relatively modest rise in some opinion polls, imagine what the pro-EU MSM coverage would be like during an 'in/out' referendum campaign.

The 'outers' will lose.

Judas Goats And Other Stories

Master Hannan's rather pathetic apologetic piece for the Tories in the Telegraph is rightly getting a thorough kicking in his own comments and across the blogosphere.

Ultimately his conclusions are, albeit expressed slightly more opaquely than his colleagues usually do, is that it's Ukip's fault the Tories are in trouble and thus we should all be ashamed of ourselves. This is tribal loyalty at its most deluded as Hannan claims the Tories are Eurosceptic. The Talking Clock highlights this to be the fallacy that it always has been. Indeed, Labour has a better history of Eurosceptisim than the Tories.

Eureferendum calls the piece the return of the Judas goat. I really do like the term Judas goat. Not only does it sum up Hannan et al wonderfully concisely and accurately but it sounds deliciously rude - particularly if preceded with robust terms meaning 'move along quickly please'.

The Devil's Kitchen does a great fisking of Hannan's piece, well worth a read in full here. You really do have to wonder (if not admire) the levels of cerebral twister required to justify the following as a defence of your party and criticism of others not to vote for it:

It’s true that most Conservative voters would withdraw from the EU tomorrow. So would most party members. And so, I suspect, would most Tory MPs in a secret ballot. That, though, is not party policy.

But soon it's local elections and Hannan has to do his bit for the party like a good little boy. And given the dramatic increase in anti-UKIP rhetoric for the Tories, it does suggest that they are getting confirmation via internal polls, of their electoral problems.

UKIP In 3rd Place

The Sun reports:

UKIP has ousted the Lib Dems as the third most popular political party, a Sun poll reveals today.

The anti-EU party led by Nigel Farage has nine per cent support — with Deputy PM Nick Clegg’s lot on just eight.

This anti UKIP 'swivel eyed' rhetoric in the Telegraph recently seems to be going well then, almost as well as Cast-Iron's reforms of the European Court of Human Rights.

Belligerent Icebergs

The Daily Mail has a typical article bemoaning the lack of education by highlighting ridiculous twitter users who didn't know the sinking of the Titanic was real:

But the event has evidently proven more educational for some than others.

A number of tweeters have used the micro-blogging site to confess that they were unaware that the Titanic was a real ship.

However it rather undermines the sanctimonious tone of the piece when it then writes this, letting us helpfully know that:

RMS Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15 1912, after being struck by an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

Now I'm sure that's what the owners of the Titanic put on their insurance claim form, however the iceberg didn't strike anything. There it was in the middle of the sea minding its own business until some buffoons came along in a large ship and didn't watch where they were going.

"I Actually Believe My Own Bullshit"

It's very difficult not to take great pleasure in the heightened anxiety of the Tory party over the impact of Ukip on their poll ratings. As Richard North notes, there's a whiff of panic as the Cameron friendly media try desperately to mitigate the potential damage.

The Tories of course thoroughly deserve this, arrogantly taking their core support for granted in the belief there was nowhere else to go, they've increasingly been caught out by the 'Cameron-lite' and 'policy by Mumsnet' obsession of Notting Hill. It's such a joy to see those that supported Cameron from the start finding out that he's not quite what he seems, even though the rest of us had worked that out ages ago.

Naturally, as a form wagon circling, we can expect the usual tired mantra in response; a vote for Ukip allows Labour in, it splits the Eurosceptic vote etc etc.

So in the spirit of above I can't resist this from Fraser Nelson regarding the Cameron project:

Exactly two years ago today, David Cameron launched the Conservative Manifesto — one of those rare moments in the Tory campaign where it all seemed to make sense.

Don't laugh, he continues:

When he launched the Tory manifesto in Battersea Power Station, Mr Cameron was pleading to be taken seriously. This is not just a politician’s promise, he said, but a solemn pledge to bring in a new style of politics: “people power not state power”.

But whoops...

If he meant it, he should tell his Chancellor that charities, the vehicles of people power, cannot exist without their benefactors – so a Treasury assault on these benefactors is intolerable. This is not just another Budget hiccup, it’s a question of whose side Cameron’s government is on. As the old Tory poster put it: social responsibility, or state control. The choice is his.

 And in the Spectator he concludes on the same point:

The raid on philanthropists is the precise antithesis of what Cameron claims he came into politics to do.

Barack Obama, during the campaign, warned a reporter that ‘I actually believe my own bullshit’. Does Cameron believe in his own BS? We’ll soon see.

Given the recent polling most have already made up their own minds regarding that question. Nevermind though, the Telegraph continues its anti-UKIP message today:

What we hear here is not only the sound of panic but the closing of ranks.

Ten Out Of Ten

I've made my feelings known about blogger Guido Fawkes before - a blogger that claims to be against the establishment but is a tedious and fundamental part of it. With this in mind I spot a post from his on Wednesday (I'm not linking to it) on rumours that at least two Tory MPs are seriously considering jumping ship to Ukip,

Guido therefore gives the possible riders and runners. One of the 'runners' according to him is (my emphasis):

Bill Cash Cash has a history of causing trouble over Europe, and was famously part of the Maastricht Rebellion that did for John Major. He has a fractious relationship with Dave and led a rebellion against the Coalition last year. Said to be reaching the end of his tether, though has stated on the record he does not want to quit the EU.

And Guido's 'Eurosceptic rating of Bill Cash? 10/10.

Oh dear.

Plain To See

One of the BBCs favourite subjects was back in the frame today as it got terribly excited about the Government's latest anti-smoking measures:

The government is considering plans to strip all branding from cigarette packs sold in England in a bid to make smoking appear less attractive. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the BBC he hoped the ban would prevent people from taking up smoking and also help those trying to give up.

The government is to launch its consultation on the issue on Monday.

And there's a whiff of deja vu, this from 2010:

Cigarette packets should have plain packaging to make smoking less attractive, ministers have suggested.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said "glitzy designs on packets" attracted children to smoking and it made sense to look at "less attractive packaging".

I'm not sure what good plain packaging will achieve as there's a ban on displaying them in shops anyway. But of course logic doesn't come into it. No, not when the manufacture. presentation and sale of tobacco products comes under the authority of the European Union, notably Directive 2001/37/EC.

So naturally it comes as no surprise that in 2010 we had this:

An EU consultation document on revising the 2001/37/EC Directive. And Option 3 (page 7) says:

Option 3 - Introduce generic or plain packaging

Plain or generic packaging would standardise the appearance of tobacco packaging. Manufacturers would only be allowed to print brand and product names, the quantity of the product, health warnings and other mandatory information such as security markings.

The package itself would be plain coloured (such as white, grey or plain cardboard). The size and shape of the package could also be regulated.

The European Commission is currently deliberating the responses to the consultation and is due to make recommendations later this year.

Of course that the EU is considering such proposals and the UK have launched a consultation is entirely a coincidence. When the EU eventually gets round to making a decision, then by keep announcing proposals we can pretend it was our idea all along, aided and abetted by the great and the good in our media.

Drowning In Sentimentality

One has to laugh:

A Titanic memorial cruise was this afternoon forced to turn round just hours after leaving dock as it retraced the doomed liner's voyage across the Atlantic.

MS Balmoral – carrying relatives of Titanic victims among its 1,309 passengers, the same number as on the doomed ship – was earlier battered by 30ft waves as it crossed the Irish Sea.

Maybe it's just me but I find the whole cruise ship jolly nothing more than a shallow and pathetic self-publicity seeking exercise. There was never such tribute - a memorial trek to the South Pole - for Scott and his colleagues. Perhaps because that would have been too difficult.

Update: Nevermind at least you can buy Titanic tat from the shopping channel QVC:

Wake me up when it's all over...

It Was Twenty Years Ago...Yesterday

I didn't get time to blog, but yesterday marked 20 years since the 1992 election when the Tories won their last ever majority. The election itself was notable for many reasons; the War of Jennifer's Ear, the infamous Sun front page and Major campaigning on his soap box. And as the picture above illustrates (shamelessly nicked from political betting) the exit polls got the predictions spectacularly wrong.

1992 also marked the terminal decline of the Tory party as divisions, particularly over Europe, wreaked havoc from which they have never recovered. Diehard party members and supporters departed en masse, donations and subscriptions collapsed between 1992 and 1997. Labour's win in 1997 was less to do with Tories switching sides but that they stayed at home instead.

On a personal note, I remember 1992 well. It was the first election I ever stayed up all night to watch - I missed out being able to vote in it by just 2 months. It also marked the beginning of my journey of eurosceptisim, as the next 18 months left their mark on our country in the form of Maastricht and the ERM crisis.

20 years on and still they can't win an election. Couldn't happen to nicer chaps. Bastards.

Another Brick In The Wall

This above image (click to enlarge) is probably quite old, but one is bored with vacuous, infantile and depressingly popular bollocks that passes itself off as journalism.

Record Low...

Mike Smithson at Political Betting has an interesting post on the latest polling figures of the 3 leaders of the main parties (my emphasis):

Combined view of the three leaders moves to record low.

After I’d Tweeted the latest YouGov leadership numbers I was asked whether the overall aggregate negative of 121% was a record. I stand to be corrected but I cannot find a period in modern UK political history when all three leaders have registered such poor numbers at the same time.

Generally when one or two are down then the other is up. What we are seeing is quite exceptional. 

This view is echoed by the Spectator:

Everyone's a loser

Have the opinion polls ever looked more discouraging, overall, for the Tories during this government? Not that I can remember, although I'm happy to be corrected...But Ed Miliband, for all his bravado in the Observer today, shouldn't get too excited just yet...the public appear similarly mistrustful of both the Tories and Labour at the moment...

One final point: the proportion of people telling YouGov that they will vote ‘Other’ at the next election is at its highest level (17 per cent) for all of this Parliament. 

Individual polls always have to be treated as just that, but it does add to a trend that the gap between the governed and governing is ever widening. One major, albeit largely unacknowledged, reason is we are outsource more and more of our sovereignty away to an unelected bureaucratic body, our own MP's are left with an ever diminishing pool of power as highlighted by Dr Richard North:

Having offshored most of Britain's governmental powers, some to Brussels and others to amorphous, anonymous groups such as the Bank of International Settlements, there is so little left of public policy-making in the UK that the elites are driven ever-more to micro-managing an increasingly limited spectrum.

So emerged the "schools 'n' hospitals" meme, as the only two issues of any substance over which British politicians still had any influence – issues which have dominated successive elections. And so it is that today The Boy returns to the Failygraph to write about – you guessed it - schools 'n' hospitals.

I link to it in the side bar, but it's worth reproducing the words of the infamous document 1971 FCO 30/1048 (my emphasis):

...the transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic and social policies will be essential.

Parliamentary sovereignty will be affected as we have seen. But the need for Parliament to play an increasing (if perhaps more specialised) role may develop. Firstly, although a European Parliament might in the longest term become an effective, directly elected democratic check upon the bureaucracy, this will not be for a long time, and certainly not in the decade to come.

In the interval, to minimise the loss of democratic control it will be important that the British Parliamentarians should play an effective role both through the British membership in the European Parliament and through the processes of the British Parliament itself.

The document suggested that problems of "public anxieties" masquerading as concern for "loss of sovereignty" would only become fully evident at the end of the [20th] Century. This situation has now come to pass and despite the reluctance of the MSM to acknowledge where the power has gone as the big three UK Parties operate as a closed shop. In the real world "public anxieties" are at an all time high as predicted.

It can't (and won't) continue like this

Quote Of The Day

An interesting use of logic reached me via my inbox last week. A UKIP candidate due to stand in the local elections asked Oxford City Labour Councillor Delia Sinclair (who incidentally has been investigated for failing to declare an interest) the following question:

"Why can't we have a return to weekly waste collections?"

A fair and reasonable question I think. And the response from Councillor Sinclair?

"Weekly collections are already in place on an alternative weekly basis."

Its Orwellian beauty is truly genius. And it wouldn't do to mention the elephant of course.

Have Your Say And Make A Difference

Credit where credit's due, sometimes one has to acknowledge that occasionally the EU gets things completely right, and today against all the odds, contrary to all my expectations and constant criticisms, the EU has begun the much desired process of democratic reform, to the extent where it now leads the way on democracy.

As per the requirements of the Lisbon Treaty today is when the European Citizens’ Initiative comes into effect:

In accordance with the Regulation, it will only be possible to launch the first European Citizens' Initiatives from 1 April 2012.

Which allows:

....one million EU citizens to participate directly in the development of EU policies, by calling on the European Commission to make a legislative proposal.

Don't delay, you can find all the facts here, learn how to sign up here and follow the procedure here. We can all make a difference, all we need is enthusiasm. Please partake, together we can help make the EU a safer, happier and more prosperous place to live for everyone.

Update: and you know what? UKK41 agrees with me