Match The Polls To The People 30 September 2006
Posted by David in Conservatives.add a comment
Match the polls to the party leaders (post your answers in the comments thread, winner gets our respect).
Poll A: LAB 34; CON 38; LIB 22
Poll B: LAB 36; CON 36; LIB 16
Poll C: LAB 37; CON 36; LIB 20
Poll D: LAB 34; CON 38; LIB 27
Poll E: LAB 35; CON 40; LIB 19
Poll F: LAB 36; CON 41; LIB 17
Poll G: LAB 43; CON 45; LIB 9
Poll H: LAB 29; CON 43; LIB 25
A Stupid Law Against Freedom 30 September 2006
Posted by David in Policy.2 comments
Today the new anti-age discrimination laws come into force across the UK. I believe that it is ridiculous to not employ someone due to their age – young or old. However, that is my opinion. Others are entitled to their own views and, if they run a business, should be free to act upon them as they see fit. It is after all, their business, not mine, and not the governments.
The government states that a third of the workforce will soon be aged over 50, and that it’s crazy for them not to be in work. This law they say is designed to help them. But, if a third of the workforce will be over 50, employers will have to employ them – there will be a shortage of alternatives. Therefore no patronising law is needed.
This new legislation will instead make employing people even more of a minefield. Asking for a date of birth now risks costly legal disputes, as does recruiting largely at schools or university fairs, or even joking about someone being ‘past it’ or ‘still wet behind the ears’. Most hit will be the building trade, where suddenly employers will need to turn down applicants after proving them incapable. How do you do this, and how much will it cost?
Any decision of any employer can be challenged legally. Picked older but more experienced over young and more qualified – illegal. Picked young and keen over older and sour – illegal. Promoted who you think is best, but they and the court disagrees – illegal.
What about Saga which, for as long as it has existed, has had a policy of employing people over 50 to match its over 50 clients? Illegal.
Who people employ, promote, demote or sack is really no one else’s business but their own. The government should butt out – scrap these stupid ‘anti-discrimination’ laws and let people get on with their lives. Stop making us all into victim groups.
Australia To Flood Due To Global Warming Says Academic 30 September 2006
Posted by David in World.add a comment
Over at Sky News they must be bored. They are reporting a graphic simulation done by an American acadmic which shows Australia slowly disappearing due to rising water levels, caused by global warming. He predicts only an archipello of islands will be left.
The simulation however is total rubbish. Each of his 5 ‘generated’ pictures shows the effect of a 100 metre rise in sea levels – over 330 feet! By the final picture, in which Australia is all but gone, he has shown sea levels rise by 1650ft – roughly half the height of Snowdon and higher than most of the World (especially England).
But no one – not even the most alarming ‘experts’ – is predicting 100ft sea level increases, let alone an 1650ft increase. What a madman.
The Kamikaze Chameleon Vs The Commuter Mayor 29 September 2006
Posted by David in Conservatives, Labour.add a comment
Penny Mordaunt (Conservative PPC
for Portsmouth) is considering standing for Mayor of London on a commuter platform (no pun intended). Brilliant.
I have long thought it stupid that the Mayor of London has so many powers. Ken Livingstone, who by now really should be back home caring for his newts, tramples on local councils and has set himself up as the capital’s de facto El Presidente.
He is elected by Londoners, but his decisions affect so many more. His irritating congestionKengestion charge, £100m a year advert budget, strange looking city hall and obsession with bizarre causes – from Hugo Chavez to becoming a City State, building a Super Mosque near the Olympic site, the Olympics full stop – all drive everyone mad. Poor commuters, who are the city’s driving force, are treat as contemptible by Red Ken.
If I was Mayor of London, the first day would be fantastic. I would abolish bus lanes, chainsaw congestion charge cameras, bring in new buses that look like the iconic old Routemasters, sack all of City Hall, abolish the GLC part of council tax, then sack myself – abolishing the post at the same time. Call me the Kamikaze Chameleon.
However the Kamikaze Chameleon Mayoralty, or the Commuter Mayoralty, are both highly unlikely. Neither of us can even vote.
A Cameron Chatline? 29 September 2006
Posted by David in Conservatives.add a comment
“Businessmen who pay up to £50,000 to the Conservative Party can join a secret club that gives them the right to have regular dinners with David Cameron and private telephone chats with him. So far, between 60 and 70 businessmen have joined the Leader’s Club, one of several the party is using to harness support and capitalise on the growing popularity of the Conservatives.” – Telegraph
Does this make you think of those awfully sad chatline adverts shown on TV after 11pm? “Call Cam on 01850 333 XXX…”
Shuv Ubuntu 28 September 2006
Posted by David in World.add a comment
Earlier I was wondering to myself, what on Earthis all this ubuntu stuff everyone is going on about? That’s not even a word I thought, who makes up this rubbish. Then I read this on the BBC and realised, it’s not a load of rubbish at all, it’s a load of utter tosh.
Basically, ubuntu is Marxism, or near enough anyway. As the BBC rambles on “if someone is hungry, the ubuntu response is that we’re all collectively responsible”. Communism. Collectivism. That may explain why Africa’s so poor despite huge mineral wealth.
It thus fits perfectly with the BBC/Marxist/Islamist/PC World view of collective responsibility. We are all responsible for the following; global warming, death, disease, famine, poverty, upsetting radical Muslims, etc etc. It got some great comments from readers.
“Ubuntu is an excellent traditional as well as modern Africa worldview. The concept has a powerful meaning and potential to transform the world into one of better understanding and respect for every human being” like in Zimbabwe with that lovely Nationalist Marxist Robert Mugabwe? It is about treating others as we would to be treated. It is about a sense of sharing, belong and togetherness including the fact that no human being is an island. What if we want to be islands? I’m Barbados.
No man is an Island and a tree cannot make a forest so the saying goes in Bini, Edo state of Nigeria. I strongly agree with former President Clinton in the use of the word Ubuntu. Let us be our brothers’ keeper. Like in Nigeria, where inter-ethnic conflict is riffe? It even disrupted the Miss World contest! The fortunate should lend a helping hand to the unfortunate. Unity is strength. War is peace, ignorrance is strength, blah blah blah.
The essence and depth of ‘ubuntu’ as a concept lies in the age-long African philosophy and practice of communalism and shared objectives. Like ethnic warfare? And you can keep your communalism thank you very much. You are your neighbours’ keeper. No I’m not. With the emergence of ‘western civilization’ we are increasingly becoming individualistic and competitive. Good, it’s called freedom. Capitalism and the philosophy of every person for himself is a challenge for ubuntu. Good, it’s freedom. We are all extricably linked and if you buy into the philosophy of ubuntu then I have your back and you have mine. I don’t want your back and certainly aren’t letting you have mine. I am because you are am what?– togetherness is it togetherness is what?
“Umuntu” is a concept that the west struggles to grasp. People in the West are so individualistic it’s called freedom, whereas in Africa its all about community like in Zimbabwe? In Africa you cannot seperate yourself from your community lack of social mobility then? Prisonners of the community, how awful. For example, I am from Highfield, Harare Zimbabwe, and I grew up knowing about 95% of my neighbors, all the way up to six streets down. I am now a student in the USA and I hardly know the people that stay next door. But you’ve not been made homeless by Robert Mugabwe’s house clearances, you can eat, you are free, and you can get to know them if you want.
Ubuntu is at the heart of the South African truth and reconciliation process. The term Ubuntu, according to Tutu, has perhaps its equivalent in Western world: ¿I think therefore I am.¿ That’s Descartes, nothing to do with ubuntu, he was trying to prove he existed, hence “I think therefore I am a thinking thing” – so must exist to be a “thing”. The Ubuntu version of this same concept would be translated as ¿I am human because I belong. I participate, I share.¿ Please read Descartes before you talk rubbish. Ubuntu embraces the worst in the other with the awareness that I would have done the same evil if I were in their shoes. What rubbish, this accepts murder, terrorism, war crimes, rape, paedophilia, anything. How can anyone believe this rubbish. It comes from the grim realisation that in as much as people are capable of doing good, there is always a danger of an evil force that works at various levels possessing people and making them do things that they would not normally do. Yes, and that’s why we have individual responsibility to punish them. It’s their fault, not ours. We are not the cause of others evil.
So there you are, ubuntu = African Communism. What a load of utter tosh, I don’t believe such nonesense still gets taken seriously. So shuv ubuntu.
Tote Sale Exposes Failure To Understand Privatisation 28 September 2006
Posted by David in Labour.add a comment
News today
that the planned sale of the Tote – the state owned bookmaker and racecourse owner – may be against EU rules is frankly crazy. Has Hugo Swire, the Conservative Shadow Culture Secretary who announced the news, got nothing better to do?
What is more of a problem is the Labour governments total lack of understanding privatisation. I am very much in favour of privatisation – why on Earth should the state run a bookies – but the government misses the point.
Privatisation is not meant to be about flogging assets off to whoever is favoured, it is meant to be about floating these companies as independent entities on the stock exchange where private people can invest. Remember BP – Be Part of It.
Instead of being floated the Tote is being sold off hugely undervalued to a state selected consortium. The same happened with Quinteq. Put the Tote on the LSE and let private people invest.
It Won’t Be Gordon 27 September 2006
Posted by David in Labour.add a comment
I am surprised Gordon Brown is still the bookies favourite to become the next Labour leader, I just cannot see him doing it. I feel the only reason he is still favourite is because he has been seen as a dead cert and heir apparent for so long it is taking time for it to sink in. Once the challenge is real, and rivals get air time and campaigns going, the momentum will be away from him. Far more likely to win I feel is the man pictured, John Reid.
It hasn’t had the same impact as last year’s Conservative version, but Frank Luntz’s Newsnight survey of Labour voters the other night sent a clear signal to me. No-one likes Gordon Brown; smug, untrustworthy, back stabbing and Scottish are all criticisms heard. The photograph of him grinning in the car after his spat with Blair has really damaged him, and his recent media schmoozing hasn’t gone down well either. Surprisingly the audience reacted well to his sickly speech about his parents.
The other contenders all got big thumbs down too. Milliband was too young, school like and had a poor CV, no-one said nerdish but all were thinking it. They liked Alan Johnson’s life story but not the man himself. Millburn went down like a ton of bricks. Only Reid went down well, despite being Scottish (suggesting to me the ‘Scottish’ allegation may be a bit of a mask and excuse for a general dislike).
Reid will almost certainly mount a leadership bid. His recent media coverage all has a certain air about it. His recent toughness on terrorism (“any judge’s decision that puts the rights of a foreign prisoner above UK citizen’s safety is a wrong decision. Full stop. No qualification.” – don’t you wish Cameron or Davis had said that) is very popular and a breath of fresh, realistic air. His visit to a Muslim area to tell British Muslims about the need for community action and observation on extremists, and his heckling with Trevor Abu Izadeen whilst there, was all great PR.
Cameron should be most affraid of Reid, he can outflank on the right and if terrorism, crime and immigration are important at a general election, his tough, no-nonesense and plain speaking will be very popular. As for Brown, it is his leadership to lose. The SAS motto “who dare’s wins” applies. As Brown thinks he has won, he won’t dare. If the others dare, they may just win.
Europe A Nation Says BBC News 27 September 2006
Posted by David in BBC, Europe.3 comments
Huge Freudian slip over at the BBC Ten o’clock News last night on Gavin Hewitt’s piece about the Bulgarian/Romanian EU enlargement.
“Europe will be a nation of 27…”
Are you sure you meant to say that, Gavin?
Vote Cleverly For Battersea X-Factor 26 September 2006
Posted by David in Europe, Uncategorized.3 comments
Tomorrow the electors of Battersea will be able to take part in an open primary to select the next Conservative candidate. I am not entirely convinced at the merits of open primaries, as everyone (including the local Labour MP) can vote! It is thus open to wrecking tactics, and in an era of low political interest (particularly as the next general election is probably years away) this is a real possibility. I personally would rather only local party members vote, a so called closed primary.
Anyway I digress. The four candidates for what Guido is calling the Battersea X-Factor are Jane Ellison, Sam Gyimah, Louise Bagshawe and James Cleverly. From these it can only be said that Cleverly is by far the best candidate, and a person whom this blog fully endorses.
Jane Ellison is more left wing than Brown or Blair, having campaigned against Thatcherism as a student and being a member of the softly named but extreme Tory Reform Group – a divisive organisation with Euro-Nationalist beliefs. She is the sort of person who gladly signs anything marked “Europe”. If she wins, many Tories will vote Labour to stop her or switch to UKIP. Few if any activists will campaign for her.
Louise Bagshawe and Sam Gyiamah are both acceptable candidates, but not ideal for this seat. Bagshawe writes trashy novels popular with bored people at airports some people. A slight worry is the fact she was once a Labour member, and her story on this subject seems unclear, particularly as whether she voted NuLab in 1997 and 2001. Sam Gyiamah is an excellent media performer and will no doubt make a great MP, and so he is our second choice.
But it is Cleverly we favour. Born and bred in London, he sadly ditched his Mayoral ambitions to concentrate on getting into Westminster, where he will be a great asset. With an Army background, now in the business of publishing, and a normal education (the others are all Oxford graduates), he ticks all the boxes. But what swings it is two things; he was an A-list sceptic who got on the A-list, and he runs a good humoured and popular blog.
Update 28/09: Jane “EU” Ellison narrowly won the primary with the support of non-members including many wreckers from both Labour and the Lib Dems (Michael Crick and his daughter among others). Unless deselected, she’ll fight the Lab/Con ultra-marginal Battersea constituency at the next election. Expect deselection or a huge lack of activists, plus a strong UKIP vote.
Chameleons on Bicycles 