Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather is a thief

Brent East Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather - who snatched her seat from Labour in a 2003 by-election is a bloody awful Member of Parliament.

Tory Bear a couple of weeks ago visited Brent to doorstep Sarah Teather at her rent-free (to the LibDems) constituency office paid for out of expenses.

Brent Liberal Democrats and the local party made no payment in rent for five years which resulted in the taxpayer footing the bill.

Harry (Tory Bear) is now being threatened with legal action by the diminutive Lib-Dem MP. The reason is that he has called her a thief in his blog.

I am going to back Harry. Sarah is a thief. She should be ashamed of herself. She’s an utter disgrace.

She was one of those MP’s who were appearing on television criticising her fellow colleagues on the green benches.

“I’m frankly astonished that when we’re in the middle of a recession and constituents are coming to us complaining they can’t afford to live, they can’t afford to pay their bills that MPs are still claiming money that they must know is morally unjustified”

Don’t worry People. There is a high chance that Sarah will not be sitting on the green benches after the General Election. Following the review of parliamentary representation in North London, the Boundary Commission for England reduced the number of parliamentary seats in Brent, and Brent East is to be abolished.

At the next general election it will be replaced by parts of two new constituencies: most will form part of a Brent Central seat, while three wards covering Kilburn area will be part of the new Hampstead and Kilburn seat.

Because Sarah Teather chickened out of challenging Ed Fordham for the Liberal Democrat nomination in Hampstead & Kilburn, she will be challenging Dawn Butler MP for the Brent Central constituency instead. Dawn is more than likely going to be elected as Brent Central’s MP.

She does not deserve to be an MP. Let’s hope she isn’t for much longer. I have faith in the people of Brent Central!

So go ahead and threaten legal action agaisnt all us centre-right bloggers Sarah.......

Labour SpAds caught exploiting Civil Service

Following a series of Freedom of Information requests, the Conservatives have unearthed evidence of how Labour Special Advisers have used Civil Service resources to make party political attacks, in breach of Whitehall rules.

The new documents show how civil servants have been instructed by Special Advisers to produce attack material to be used in the media against the Conservative Party.

As you may know, Whitehall probity rules prohibit government resources being used for Party political purposes; that Special Advisers must not ask civil servants to act politically; and that Special Advisers should not act in ways that "might reasonably lead to the criticism that people paid from public funds are being used for party political purposes".

Despite this, new information revealed by Freedom of Information requests shows:

• Treasury Special Advisers demanded material "ASAP" from civil servants to attack the launch of the Conservative Party's Quality of Life policy review.

• With no notice, they demanded immediate costings to smear Iain Duncan Smith's Breakthrough Britain report launched that morning.

• Costings on the Conservative Party's council tax freeze policy were demanded on 20 November 2009 - then to appear in the Labour Party's dossier on 4 January 2010. The work was commissioned at a time of economic turmoil – when Treasury Special Advisers should actually have been dealing with significant developments involving the OECD, CBI and the Bank of England.

It’s not exactly surprising

Anyone with any Political knowledge knows that this Labour Government has several inbuilt advantages: constituency boundaries that make it easier to elect a Labour MP with fewer votes, massive financial aid from the trade unions and a huge army of taxpayer-funded spin doctors.

We can’t go on like this. The British People deserve better.

Legg report costs more than the sums to be repaid

If you were bothered by the parliamentary expenses scandal because it was a waste of taxpayers' money, you may want to look away now.

The cost of running Legg review into MP's expenses is higher than the money reclaimed from MPs.

Total Cost - £1.16 million

Total Re-payments - £1.12million (The figure after successful appeals)

Therefore, the taxpayer is now £40k worse off than if we had simply written off past over-claims and reformed the parliamentary expenses system for future claims.

I'd love to know the breakdown of that £1.14m cost, to see just how they managed to spend so much of taxpayer’s money reading documents. I'm sure there would've been many people willing to offer their time for free to do those jobs!

The Alternative Vote System

Well, the political news is full of the planned Commons vote-on- referendum for electoral reform.

The system to be voted on is a classic – the old ‘AV’ system. This is no surprise. Elements of the Labour party have long preferred the Alternative Vote as the basis for electoral reform (though I suspect that the majority of that parliamentary party has never quite seen the point).

The main two advantages of AV:

• All MPs would have the support of a majority of their constituents,

• It eliminates the need for tactical voting. Electors can vote for their first-choice candidate without fear of wasting their vote.

The main two disadvantages of AV:

• It is prone to a certain amount of 'Donkey voting', where voters rank candidates randomly, not knowing enough about all of them to make an informed decision.

• It would not do anything to end the relentless focus on a handful of key marginal seats.

The political motivations of Labour’s move appear to be twofold. Firstly, they hope to show up the Conservatives as visibly opposed to a reform that, following the whole Adventure of the Abused Expenses, may be viewed as a popular measure to hand stronger accountability to the public.

The other reason boils down to electoral mathematics: by building the mandate for electoral reform now, Labour is eyeing a future election where the Conservatives are still broadly the most popular party nationally, but will be unable to build anything resembling Labour’s 1997-2005 unofficial super majority in the Commons. It’s possible that serious treatment of voting reform could only ever emerge from a vaguely leftist, unpopular government.

Very few Tories support any Proportional representation system. Personally, I would prefer us to slim down parliament, establish larger constituencies which would allow us to use Single Transferable Vote (STV), by far the fairest form of PR which preserves individual votes for individual candidates, and a constituency link - although it would be a much larger constituency.

At present - There is only one reason that I could support this move towards AV would be because it would shut the Lib Dems up. Actually, no matter what happens, they’d have to shut up: if they voted against it, they’d have said no to the change, and if they said yes, they’d have to be satisfied with AV.

Guest Post: Danny Lee - Snobbery and class war obscures the real facts.

Danny Lee, a BBC South-East  Audience Council Member and Blogger has agreed to do a guest post for you all. He is a rather  impressive operator.

William Barlow’s masterpiece, St Pancras International symbolises the harmonic balance of class in Britain.

Whilst sheltering rail operators such as Eurostar and Southeastern High Speed, big name retailers such as Marks and Spencer while housing Europe’s longest Champagne bar, the stunning visual and fine attention to detail at the terminus is all to behold stunning in several deep breaths.

The overhaul of St Pancras International delivers the delicate balance of upmarket retailers and boutiques whilst catering for the seasoned business traveller or family of four on holiday to Disneyland without having a fast food giant like McDonalds in plain sight.

You may ask what the hell am I talking about, I am making reference to ‘The Great Leader’ and Labour’s war class war, squaring up to the Tories “on the playing fields of Eton”. Only someone in the inner workings of the party could have dreamt that up or Gordon may have paid for a few joke writers.

An utterance of class is a real distraction from frontline politics and the facts that surround the prolonged economic breakdown we are all in, but to the credit of Labour, unemployment is not as bad as first feared by economists and others being bullish about a nation of 3 million unemployed.

Yet to the detriment of the many, we have felt cuts, feeling cuts or are fucked by cuts in the future.

Despite the unemployment figures to Labour’s credit, the political bitching in PMQ’s for start is increasing voter apathy, from firsthand experience the class war raises its flag for battle at the general election.

Added touches to make St Pancras International a hub of activity bring no shame of adding a smidge of class to this fine building. It is not all right for a class war to destabilise the electorate from voting.

We, the public may argue and heckle asking whether our representative MPs have had any life experiences but there is no shame in getting access to the best education to increase your potential to flourish to where you are.

Nevertheless, MPs finding themselves accesses the best education, private schooling and on to Oxbridge must expect tougher scrutiny to know whether they can relate to the public from their life experiences. One would suspect they hire a team of crackpot advisors to get the job done for them and deliver the right sound bites.

As long as they deliver and I never see a fast food chain in St Pancras International, the world will continue to spin round.

Pipe down Gordon Brown and get on with it.

Danny is not affiliated with any political party.

The poor simply get poorer under socialism.

Inequality under Labour has risen to its highest level since World War II.

A report from the National Equality Panel, published today, reveals that after 13 years of Labour Government:

We have the highest levels of income inequality since soon after the Second World War; that we have some of the highest overall poverty rates in Europe with social mobility having stalled.

The latest figures show that the average family is almost £900 worse off than in 2005. Under Gordon Brown, Britain has simply gone backwards, not forwards.

Though, it should not be surprising to anyone who has studied history or had and an interest in Politics for a long time. Poverty usually increases under Labour, because Labour impoverishes the country with its insane, incompetent economics and politically-motivated, divisive and incredibly damaging social interference.

We can’t go on like this.......

What we need are policies which raise the sights and motivate the energies of the many. The way to reduce inequality – and to make most people better off – is to encourage and foster, not to regulate and tax in a fit of jealous anger that some have still succeeded.

The Conservative Party has already introduced a range of policy measures that encompass many of the NEP’s suggestions including early intervention, improving educational attainments of poorer children and new measures to tackle youth unemployment.

Conservatives will tackle the root causes of poverty and equality, not just the symptoms. Our approach will take into account the importance of families, communities and incentives to work.

Gosh who would have thought that badly planned out champagne socialism would hit the poorest in society the most.

The question non- Tory reader most ask themselves is this: if Labour can't even help making worse something they themselves presume to champion (ostensibly curing poverty but really robbing aspirational wealth creators to flatten social diversity), then what, exactly, are Labour good for? The answer that I for one have known for a long time now is simple enough: precisely nothing.

The Labour Party needs to be dead and buried. It would be easy enough to do for any new incumbent government. Just make union funding illegal. Job done!

"You don't make the poor richer by making the rich poorer." (Winston Churchill)

"You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money."(P. J. O'Rourke)

"When you hold back the successful, you penalize those who need help."(Margaret Thatcher)

Today’s announcement is unlikely to convince voters

The UK has become the last major economy to come out of recession with growth of 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Overall, the economy slumped 4.8% last year - the biggest annual contraction since records began in 1949 - and it has lost 6% since the recession began in 2008.

The criticisms Labour make about previous recessions in Tory times in power are worthless now, the recessions then were fairly short and with relatively small contractions in GDP. This recession has lasted almost 2 years and has seen a very large fall in GDP.

Today’s announcement is unlikely to convince voters that Brown's Labour Party has a strong grip on the economy.

Andrew Lilico, Chief Economist of Policy Exchange said today:

These are appalling figures. This is just the preliminary estimate, and the chances of being revised down by 0.1% or more are about evens, so we may well still be in recession. And that is taking account of an inventory bounce as firms restocked their warehouses and the shift of consumption from January into December as households tried to avoid the VAT rise.

 It now seems certain that there will be a double dip back into recession next year, and that may come as soon as the first quarter. The slip back into recession might be announced in late April, right at the peak of the General Election campaign.

Gordon Brown likes to blame everyone other than himself for this recession. He still believes that he has 'done a good job'. He must think the British People are stupid.

He was the one who set up the banking regulation system which failed so thoroughly. He was the one who spent so much without setting anything aside for a rainy day. He was the one who claimed to have abolished Boom and Bust.

Labour has yet again wrecked the country and the people know it.

David Milliband: 'Britain’s NOT Broken'

YESTERDAY, the arrogant David Miliband dismissed Tory claims of 'Broken Britain' as he insisted life on sink estates is getting better.

The Foreign Secretary claimed David Cameron was making a mistake by ‘talking the country down’.

I'm not sure whether David Milliband was sitting in the comfort of his £1.5 million 'house' in Primrose Hill when he made the comment "this is not a broken society". Wherever he was sitting, this comment is yet another display of just how out of touch this Labour Government is.

David has clearly not been doing any canvassing in his South Tyneside constituency, where he has a majority of over 12,000.When he does bother, he will find that the vast majority of votes agree and understand that our overtly broken society needs fixing urgently.

I would recommend to Karen Miller - the Tory PPC for South Fields, to emphasise David’s opinion on our society in the constituency. His constituents need to know how out of touch he really is.

Britain should ban the burka

Last night’s Question time was exceptionaly good. The Panel included both the broadcaster Richard Madeley and the historian Andrew Roberts.

Though, Caroline Spelman’s performance was unfortunately disappointing. What was she doing? She went on QT without being properly prepared to defend policy and without sound, studied, rehearsed arguments to undermine the predictable attacks on Conservative policy? It's not like this is new policy - why does she not seem to know how to sell it?

At least Andrew Roberts was there to present the case. The Conservative Party really cannot be putting Shadow Cabinet people up without them being properly prepared.

In fact Andrew spoke complete commonsense throughout the hour long program. The Burka debate was rather interesting but not surprising.  I am one of the very few Tory bloggers, who have spoken out about the need to Ban the Burka.

Many Conservative MP’s, Candidates and activists agree with Muslims such as Saira Khan. It’s just a shame that they don’t wish to be counted. I suppose they are worried people will start putting a label on them.

Say No to Protectionism

So the Cadbury family lament the passing of ‘their’ family business into ‘foreign hands’.

There is huge uproar from those that have never studies economics. I’m not saying that I know much, but I know the basics!

Many People in the UK seem to want Protectionism. For those that don’t know - Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining overseas competition by imposing tariffs, restrictive quotas and other barriers on imports as a means to foster the domestic industries and protect them from foreign take-over.

It would be completely wrong for any Political Party in Westminster to force such a policy on Cadburys. Britain would be making a big step backwards. In today's global economy, international takeovers are a fact of life. Plenty of UK firms own American brands.

I was quite stunned and worried to read this blog post by a Tory PPC. He calls for outmoded protectionist laws to keep British things British. This is unbelievably Un-Conservative. It’s not the first time this Candidate has published  a rather Un-Conservative Post. I wonder what his view would be if the  US blocked  BP from opening more petrol stations in the UK.....

Free trade is what keeps both the world and local economies vibrant and ever expanding.

People should want what is best for the company in the long term. For all we know Kraft may invest heavily into Cadbury and push its products much more in the US. Instead of less jobs why couldn’t there be more? Of course job losses could be on the cards. Let’s just wait and see.

Gordon Brown - As Deluded as Ever

Ha - Gordon Brown sought to place his party back in the center-ground of politics yesterday, promising to place middle class aspirations and social mobility at the heart of his Labour party's election agenda.

In a campaigning speech, the Prime Minister abandoned his class war tactics and claimed the Conservatives were the enemy of the middle classes!

Gordon Brown is now seeking to present Labour as the party of middle class aspiration.

Preposterous. Utterly preposterous. The British people won’t be fooled.

Let’s just recall what Labour has done in office — and remember that everything they’ve done for the last thirteen years has Gordon’s finger-prints all over it.

Debt: Gordon Brown’s long-term spending binge, plus the current down-turn, has landed us with an average debt of something like £30,000 for every man, woman and child in Britain. Most of that tab will eventually be picked up by the middle classes, through tax on their incomes, their savings, their investments and their businesses.

The Hunting Act: No one who has followed the evidence thinks the Hunting Act has anything to do with animal welfare. It’s all about “Targeting the toffs” and “Getting our own back for the miners”. Sheer class-based spite.

50% tax rate: Labour is finally breaking its pledge on tax rates by introducing a new 50% rate on high earners (no special pleading here, by the way — I’m nowhere near the 50% threshold!). Everyone knows that this new rate will contribute virtually nothing to the Exchequer. Indeed it may drive high earners abroad, and reduce the tax take. It’s gesture politics, sheer spite against the better off.

Schools:Labour continues to persecute grammar schools and private schools, with their ideological hatred of élitism and quality. Through the Charities Commission, they are applying absurdly onerous tests of “public benefit”, as though educating children, and relieving the public purse of the costs of educating hundreds of thousands of children, were not public benefit enough. This is scandalous, class-based persecution of the middle classes, that also damages education and our economy.

Universities: They carry through their class prejudice against private schools by setting socially-engineered admission standards for Universities which deliberately discriminate against the middle classes and against private education. Universities should be free to set their own admissions criteria without government interference. The problem is not disadvantage in isolation, but disadvantage arising from the poor quality of many (not all) state schools. That is the problem they should address.

Instead of raising educational standards and creating a system where the most able from any background can succeed, Labour's method links progression to university with parental background, with the middle class losing out of course. No wonder social mobility, for all classes, has collapsed under Labour.

The Brown spin is all about begging votes for the coming election. The People of this country will not take such nonsense from this awful Prime Minister.

SNP ministers ban right to buy

Alex Neil, the Scottish housing minister, tabled new restrictions on the right-to-buy that will mean 18,000 fewer tenants buying their homes over the next decade in Scotland.

For reader that don’t know, The Right to Buy scheme was introduced in 1979 by the Thatcher government, which allowed social tenants to buy their dwelling at a considerable discount.

Over 2.5 million households bought their dwelling and local authorities now own less than 2 million dwellings instead of the 6 million in 1979.

The scheme was one of the most transformative pieces of social policy of the last century. It encouraged the people of this country, to do the best for themselves and their families. It encouraged households to be independent and to take responsibility for themselves.

Thanks to Thatcher, the number of council tenants significantly dropped - from one in three in 1979 to only 12% now. Private ownership is something we must continue to encourage in our society.

Conservative MSP David McLetchie said right to buy had done more to make housing affordable for working people in Scotland than any other policy.

He said of the government plans: "It is little short of naked political vandalism.

"Alex Salmond wants to deny the great benefits of right to buy to the next generation, who will have fewer chances to own their home because of the current limits on mortgage lending.

"It makes no sense to stop people buying their own homes at a modest discount whilst, at the same time, spending millions on other home ownership schemes."

 It is a sad day for thousands of Scots who want to better themselves by realising their dream of home ownership. The right-to-buy policy has proved hugely popular in Scotland – with 450,000 buying their homes under the scheme.

Norman Tebbit, a Cabinet minister in the Thatcher government, described ending right-to-buy as “anti-aspiration and (going) back to the old idea of the state being the landlord”.

Couldn’t have put it better myself............

Sex Thoughts: 5000 Times a Year for Males

You are getting something very different from this blog today! I came across this story yesterday.

Researchers found the average male turns their thoughts to sexual Intercourse 13 times a day – a total of 4,745 times every year.

Almost a third even admitted it is often the first thing they think about when they wake up in the mornings.In comparison, women think about sex just five times day – or 1,825 times a year.

A spokesman for market research company said: ''Men are well-known for thinking about sex a lot, but to find out exactly how often is staggering.

''It seems blokes have sex on the brain whether they are going through a dry spell or jumping between the sheets on a regular basis.

''They can't even get away from the sexy thoughts when they first wake up in the morning.

''So when you catch your man staring into space, you know what he's likely to be thinking about.''

The study of 3,000 people also showed that despite the difference in the amount of times men think about sex and actually do it, almost three quarters claim they are happy about the amount of sex they were getting.

But just 58 per cent of women said the same.

And 43 per cent of couples also admitted arguing over who instigates the lovemaking, with men most likely to make the first move.

Researchers also found one in three guys think a candlelit dinner is the best way of getting a woman in the mood, followed by a relaxing massage.But women are more likely to play romantic music or cook their partner's favourite meal to try and get them into bed!

Decided to be PC for one day!

Cameron on Immigration

Anyone else catch David Cameron interviewed by Andrew Marr this morning? David Cameron outlined that a Tory Government would be tough on Immigration to insure that the population of Britain did not reach 70 million.

Cameron pleased me. But, has he convinced the voters? I believe, the electorate still needs to be convinced that the Tory policies on Immigration would make any significant difference.

This week I spent a day with a Parliamentary Candidate, who is rather concerned about the Parties policies on Immigration. The particular candidate suggested  that if Cameron does not send a loud and clear message on Immigration, then he will not be sitting on the green benches in May. His seat is a target seat, which must be won in order for a Conservative victory. He said ‘Without doubt, immigration is one of the biggest worries for people living in my constituency’

I couldn’t agree more.

Thirteen days ago I made clear, that Cameron’s team must do better on this very issue.

_______________________________________________________
                 Immigration: Cameron’s team must do better

With Britain’s borders effectively thrown open and scores and hordes of people moving in to Britain either to strive for a better life, to better themselves or in some cases to squander and take advantage, citizens are concerned. And they are entitled to worry.

Immigration is not just an economic issue. It has a social impact too. The landscapes of communities change dramatically as a result as builders rush to build blocks of flats and homes to house the increasing population. In metropolitan places, issues of schooling, religion, language and culture come into repute.

There simply isn't the space in this overcrowded country for a policy of open borders. Many forget that we are just a dot on the world map yet we are one of the most populated areas - the 75 million mark isn't that infeasible in the near future.

While it would be wonderful to welcome the world on our doorstop, let's face facts, this inn is nearly full.

Even in political ideology tests, there is only one option for those who aren't cheerleaders for the all welcome cause. It's all or nothing. You either agree or you are deemed racist and dubbed a budding BNP supporter. But there is a middle ground. It's called sensible immigration.

There should be a quota where immigrants who have a skill or profession we desperately seek are pushed to the front of the queue. The rest must prove their loyalty and earn a right to live in this great country of ours and they must contribute first to society before being eligible to the benefits being British entails.

No wonder people are disillusioned and can't even be bothered to vote or spoil their ballot paper if again and again their views are ignored. The public need to be heard and immigration needs to be the debating issue of the day.

The only reason the British Nasty Party poll votes is out of spite. It's a ploy by people for one last attempt to get their message across. This country prides itself on being a tolerant and diverse nation and it is disgusting that the public are treated and named racists on this issue.

Despite getting it so right on virtually everything else the Conservatives, still aren't getting the message. However unpopular, we must stop ignoring the 'i' word. It's not going away and that's the problem for many.

We have more down for policy on the countryside than we do on immigration and it isn't good enough. If Cameron must take a stand at the dispatch box and say, hey, here's our policy on immigration.

It would be wrong to ban the mosquito device

The Children's Commissioner, Liberty and the UK Youth Parliament have called for the banning of a device used by retail outlets which deters groups of young people from gathering outside their premises. Tim Loughton, the Tory shadow Children’s Minister also supports the ban of the device.

In short, the device emits a high pitched tone which can only be heard by people normally aged under 20. It is not harmful to young people- but makes them move on because of the irritating nature of the noise. I have actually met Howard Stapleton, the inventor of the device.

We are told that the device demonises young people, and that their human rights are being violated.

What rubbish. If Young People are not gathering outside these premises for long periods of time then there is no problem. The fact is, some young groups gather to smoke, drink, make a nuisance to other customers and in some cases ask these customers to buy them drink or cigarettes.

Campaigners should be working to protect rights of well behaved Young People – The majority. Young Individuals who are scared to walk into their local shop, because of their being a large group of ‘hoodies’ hovering around the door. Retailers and other customers have rights too. They have businesses to run. This device is one of the least invasive around. Most people don't even know that it is there. Young people who are minded to gather just have a background noise sense and then move away.

I do accept that we have a problem with the image of our young in this country. With only 12% of stories about young people being positive. Almost half the articles about young people being crime related and only one in ten stories about young people actually bothers to quote a young person.

There are many young people in Britain – who are doing great things. We most definitely should be celebrating these magnificent Young People. Most  forget that many have important responsibilities. Whether caring for a relative or representing their pears.

What am I getting at, you may be asking? Well, I have come to the conclusion that I would not ban them nor would I encourage them. Would I buy one if I owned a shop? If I had  Young People being a nuisance to customers. Most definitely.