Only David Cameron can form a government

Very convincing analysis by Adrian Sykes (Money Week) on why only David Cameron can form a government  http://moneyweek.com/election-2015-why-david-cameron-will-remain-prime-minister/

Trident is all about national prestige

None of the politicians discussing Trident are telling the public the truth.

Trident has very little relevance to defence of the United Kingdom.

Trident is all about national prestige.

Giving up Trident would cause a fall in British prestige equivalent to giving up dominion over India in 1947.

And although you might argue this would be a good thing, you should be aware that there would be a severe economic cost to a fall in prestige - it would have all sorts of knock-on effects.

Prestige is an asset that does not appear on the Treasury's balance sheet, but you will certainly feel its loss once it has gone.

More:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-scotland-32236184

The prevalence of smoking in the United Kingdom

What impact has post-1997 immigration had on the prevalence of smoking in the United Kingdom?

Is it not the case that the vast majority of migrants from eastern Europe are smokers, including the majority of young migrants?

Is this inward flood of millions of smokers moving the United Kingdom backwards in terms of health objectives?

And supposing that the migrants stay here, what provision is being made for a rise in the numbers of people developing lung cancer and other smoking-related health conditions (and who is going to pay for their treatment since migrants are on minimum wage and will not be paying taxes)?

What a mendacious twisting deceiver Stewart Hosie looked

Stewart Hosie MP (the SNP's Parliamentary Group Deputy Leader, Chief Whip and Treasury spokesperson) was absolutely trounced on Daily Politics this lunchtime:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

How satisfying it is to see evasive politicians cornered and pinned down.

And how remorselessly Andrew Neil presses his finger on the painful pressure point.

What a mendacious twisting deceiver Stewart Hosie looked.

Oh how happy Daily Politics has made me feel!

Politically-correct pogrom

The new Labour policy on non-doms is a welcome attack on foreigners, although dressed up in mealy-mouthed language:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/07/ed-miliband-non-dom-tax-status-labour

This politically-correct pogrom is to be encouraged, and creates space for other parties to be even more robust about the way in which migrants are ripping off Britain.

If we are being run from Brussels what do we need all the Westminster MPs for?

There are thirty four areas comprising eighty policy areas that the EU operates in (over a seven year perspective):  http://ec.europa.eu/policies/index_en.htm

The Westminster Parliament does little more than rubber-stamp EU diktats.

If we are being run from Brussels what do we need all the Westminster MPs for?

Why UKIP seem to be slipping in the polls

Michael Crick on Channel 4 News was wondering why UKIP seem to be slipping in the polls.

Two reasons:

1  They are not focussing on immigration.
2  Nigel Farage has not been on television as much as he was during the Euro elections.

http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

Incumbency will deliver a late boost

My assessment is that the Conservatives will gain a tiny majority - but that will leave them very vulnerable to by-elections.

It is inevitable that incumbency will deliver a late boost.  There is a significant number of don't-knows who WILL vote, and will vote "safety-first".  Which will boost the Conservatives.

More analysis:  http://electionsetc.com/2015/04/03/forecast-update-3-april-2015/

Intervention over the planned referendum on Europe

Tony Blair's intervention over the planned referendum on Europe, reported on Daily Politics, was an illustration in how the metropolitan elite thinks and acts http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

What he was really saying was:  if we in the elite stick together it doesn't matter what ordinary people think.  It doesn't matter about any democratic deficit.  If we in the elite (Tories and Labour and LibDems) stick together we can go on running the country as WE think it should be run and there is nothing anyone can do about it.

And is there no-one in London who can perform a citizen's arrest? 

Or even chuck ink over him like that Frenchwoman did to Ted?

Barnett Formula

Westminster should use reform of the Barnett Formula to undermine nationalist parties by making enhanced Formula grants payable directly to local authorities.

That will remove the cancer of nationalism, make the formula fairer across the whole United Kingdom (since English regions can be included), and take the principle of devolution to its logical conclusion.

Local authorities can of course voluntarily give their grants to regional assemblies if they wish.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/election-essays-douglas-alexander-scottish-labour-1-3732203

Several hundred at the 10.30 Eucharist.

As everyone was coming back from the High Altar two eastern Europeans came and sat next to me (I always sit near the front where the pews tend to be half-empty).  I tried to talk to them but they didn't understand.  Aged about 20, they were slightly dishevelled and dressed in trackies, t-shirts and leather jackets.

No service sheets, so they must have come in half-way through the service and joined the queue for Communion.

We stood when the choir(s*) sang the Hallelujah Chorus.

I would have asked them back for lunch, but there was no way of communicating with them.

I drank too much at lunchtime and must have passed out.

I woke at 7, and felt terribly dehydrated.

Which is my present state, despite drinking four glasses of water.

*two choirs were at the service.

Nicola Sturgeon and the French Ambassador

The memo about a conversation between Nicola Sturgeon and the French Ambassador is intriguing:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/04/ed-miliband-nicola-sturgeon-allegations-damning-labour-snp-david-cameron

Everyone is denying everything, but an inquiry has been launched which must mean the memo exists.

As always, it is not the original blabbermouth "misspeaking" that will do the damage but the denial and cover-up.

And if it all comes out the SNP fanatics will turn on her with a ferocity that will be shocking.

Presumably journalists are now combing through other conversations by Nicola Sturgeon, checking whether she has made similar comments that would confirm the sentiments expressed in the memo - that the SNP would rather Scotland endured five more years of Tory overlordship if it means that they will gain political advantage from it.

Good Friday

I didn't plan it this way, but the library book (collected yesterday) I am reading on Good Friday is Caiaphas by Adele Reinhartz.

At the 2 o'clock service this afternoon the priests prostrated themselves on the floor, only the male choir sang, the Passion was read out.

The great cross was brought in for veneration, no wine with Communion, everyone left in silence.

His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o’er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.

"What I'm hearing is more debt and more taxes, more debt and more taxes, a lot more debt and more taxes, some more debt and more taxes, and definitely more debt and more taxes."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Sv2AOQBd_s 

My assessment is that Nigel Farage won the leaders' debate.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/leaders-debates

I find it spooky when politicians suddenly turn to the camera.

It's like those really cheap drama where the lead character turns into narrator.

Nigel Farage has been astonishingly lucky to be in the centre where he can pose as an honest broker.

The others are just me-too socialists, referring every argument to David Cameron.

Rather a cliche for Nicola Sturgeon to wear bright red - looks rather silly to dress up in a political colour.

So far the leaders' debate is very pedestrian.

David Cameron has gravitas - none of the others do.

Migrants do not value trade unions

In my opinion Daily Politics on BBC2 is providing the best coverage of the general election (Newsnight's coverage so far has been poor).

Today on the Daily Politics there was a short discussion on immigration and TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady refused to say whether she thought immigration was too high (she just refused to answer the question).

Perhaps Frances O'Grady could tell us how many of the post-1997 surge in migrants are members of a trade union?  If they are being exploited then why are the unions not signing them up?  Or is it the case that the migrants do not value trade unions?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

You may find this surprising considering the author is Zoe Williams, but this article on immigration is mostly very sensible:  http://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/mar/31/immigration-big-issue-left-cant-get-right-labour?CMP=share_btn_tw

Cahal Milmo will now have to resign as a journalist

Were you taken in by this Independent smear against Enoch Powell?  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tory-mp-enoch-powell-investigated-as-alleged-member-of-westminster-paedophile-network-10142235.html

Then you should read this:  http://barthsnotes.com/2015/03/30/dead-mps-accused-of-satanic-ritual-abuse/

I suppose Cahal Milmo will now have to resign as a journalist and find employment more in line with his credulous and dishonest nature - perhaps he could lecture at the Baron Munchhausen Academy for fake shiekhs. 

And the Independent needs to invest in a fact-checking department.

No real focus so far in the election coverage of how each of the parties plans to stimulate investment.

Investment is the main way in which we can achieve growth and avoid future downturns.

So what are the various policies on offer to encourage investment (particularly internal investment in research and development).

The new Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank is very interesting:  http://www.wsj.com/articles/taiwan-to-apply-to-join-aiib-1427771800?mod=e2tw

The United Kingdom was right to join as a non-regional member.

Racist mug

Labour's racist mug has really got the left agitated:  http://www.leftfutures.org/2015/03/immigration-is-a-mugs-game-for-labour/

Have you seen this Bonnie Greer - it's YOU the mug is talking about.

Have YOU seen it Diane Abbott - this is the party you aspired to lead.

And what about you Chi Onwurah - are you happy campaigning for this programme?

Of course, Ed Miliband will be asked to apologise for the mug.

Hell yes, he will be asked to apologise.

The SNP hate the Tories

We have heard endlessly about how the SNP hate the Tories:  http://www.itv.com/news/2015-03-29/sturgeon-if-tories-cant-win-majority-they-dont-deserve-to-be-in-government/

And I suppose if they really hate us there is nothing we can do about it.

Except to point out that hatred is an entirely negative emotion.  When hatred is gone nothing remains of it.  Only love (and in this case the love of Scottish Tories for the old civilised unionist Scotland of the pre-SNP past) endures.

"But even if the world's beauty and love are on the edge of destruction, theirs is still the only side to be on.  Hate's victory does not make it other than what it is.  Defeated love is still love."

The stupidity and ignorance of the Labour Party as demonstrated by Jonathan Reynolds MP

Here you can see the stupidity and ignorance of the Labour Party as demonstrated by Jonathan Reynolds MP  https://twitter.com/jreynoldsMP tweeting to Chris Cook (Policy editor, BBC Newsnight) https://twitter.com/xtophercook

The devaluation of the pound sterling on 18th November 1967 from $2.80 to $2.40 resulted in a fourteen per cent increase in the price of imports (as Harold Wilson said at the time "the pound abroad is worth 14 per cent less in terms of other currencies") and thus a considerable rise in prices in the shops, including the price of food.

This in turn stoked inflation and led to increased pay demands by the unions - with the historical results that we are all familiar with.

Mr Reynolds should also note that his party had promised no less than twenty times in the three years before November 1967 that they would not devalue the currency.

Devaluation had implications for the United Kingdom's standing internationally as all those countries that held sterling balances saw the value of their deposits cut by 14 per cent overnight.

And if Mr Reynolds cares to read the Hansard accounts of the parliamentary exchanges that followed devaluation he would perhaps be amused to discover Robert Maxwell (then Labour MP for Buckingham) lecturing the Conservative side of the house on economic competence.

The "two-state solution" is no longer viable

One has to disagree with the American President on his policy towards Israel:  http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21647292-although-barack-obama-right-chastise-binyamin-netanyahu-israels-prime-minister-has-point?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fpe%2Fed%2Ftheireoveriran

On the whole I think the "two-state solution" is no longer viable, and I would like to see the British government recognise the so-called occupied territories as part of Israel with (generous) resettlement grants paid from an international fund to those Arabs who do not wish to remain in the enhanced Israeli state.

As events in the Middle East have demonstrated, there is nothing to be gained from pandering to the Arab world.  They are engaged in a process of in-fighting and self-destruction that could go on for decades.  While they are thus occupied there is an opportunity to establish Israel as an inviolate power.

Vote Labour, Pay Later

Remember what Ted Heath warned as far back as the 1960s:  Vote Labour, Pay Later.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/566800/Ross-Clark-Ed-Miliband-Labour-ruin-economy

Landlordism among the Parliamentary Labour Party

How can Labour's housing policy have any credibility when the Shadow Minister for the Arts Chris Bryant is directly contributing to the housing shortage in London by owning one home but insisting that the taxpayer pays for alternative accommodation?

Of the 200,000 new homes Labour is promising to build can we have an assurance that none of them will be rented out to Labour MPs who already own a property?

And is it not curious that Guardian journalist Owen Jones, normally so quick to vilify landlords, is astonishingly silent tonight about landlordism among the Parliamentary Labour Party?

More on the story:  http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/rhondda-mp-chris-bryant-among-8937399

Channel 4 News report on MPs morally fiddling their expenses

Shocking Channel 4 News report on MPs morally fiddling their expenses ("it's in the rules, I've done nothing wrong")  http://www.channel4.com/news/mps-expenses-46-claim-in-london-despite-owning-a-property

Chris Bryant (Shadow Culture Minister) is a former vicar for heaven's sake - you would think he would know the difference between right and wrong.

And who would have thought gentle genial Scottish Labour Leader Jim Murphy would be trousering £39k all the time he was uttering his soothing assurances and kindly words.

Thank goodness no Tories of any note are involved - just some small fry and Andrew Lansley with a £7k finesse to explain.

Worth noting that SNP MP Angus MacNeil has helped himself to £42k of public money, but I suppose he will justify this by saying its only British money and he is helping to "liberate" it.

But surely Chris Bryant must be sacked for what he has done?

It is unfair of Stan Colleymore (has-been sportsperson, so-so presenter) to make sniping remarks about Kay Burley  https://twitter.com/StanCollymore

Both Jeremy Paxman and Kay Burley are superbly professional interviewers with a distinguished track record.

Is it because Kay Burley is a woman that she is getting this unfair treatment?

If you are Leader of the Opposition you have plenty of time to rehearse

I suppose the question and answer sessions proved last night that if you are Leader of the Opposition you have plenty of time to rehearse, if you are Prime Minister you have almost no time to rehearse.

http://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2015/03/cameron-wins-but-miliband-gains.html

Ed Miliband did a Nick Clegg in the question and answer session

Can it be possible that Ed Miliband did a Nick Clegg in the question and answer session last night?

Perhaps I am too jaded, but I was not convinced for one moment of his arguments.

But then, I was not convinced by Nick Clegg's act in 2010.

Obviously Ed Miliband was coached intensively for his performance.

Can you imagine the endless rehearsals where Ed Miliband fumbles over the words and his exasperated team keep yelling "Get it right":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydXtCpYimN8&list=RDydXtCpYimN8#t=115

Highlights from the questions:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32064712 

Kelvin McKenzie attacked "white poor thickos"

On Daily Politics earlier today when urging more immigration Kelvin McKenzie attacked "white poor thickos".

This is a hate crime.

Are the Metropolitan Police going to arrest him?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02mt9xl

At least Bercow got a good kicking.

One he will not soon forget.

Not only should John Bercow be dumped as Speaker, his name should be struck from all records as if he had never been.

Turncoats must not prosper.

I am curious about the name Oisin Tymon

A minor aspect of the Jeremy Clarkson farrago, but I am curious about the name Oisin Tymon.

Is this person an immigrant from southern Ireland?

Or was he born into an immigrant community that has failed to integrate?

"Oisin" indeed.

No wonder he provokes people.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jeremy-clarkson-sacked-top-gear-5392446 

The Prime Minister was subjected to organised heckling at the Age UK conference

Like many people (perhaps most people) I was disgusted by the way the Prime Minister was subjected to organised heckling at the Age UK conference:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/24/pensioners-mock-david-cameron-at-age-uk-conference-nhs

And by a coincidence, in the post arrives a begging letter from Age UK.

Age UK is one of the charities I normally support.

But after the heckling there is no way I would give them any money.

They are yet another charity that seems to have been taken over by the left.

Left-wing infiltration of national charities is becoming a significant problem.

And does it not prove the wisdom of the Coalition government to legally restrict the use of charities for political purposes.

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/

They are going to lose on May 7th

Lisa Nandy MP completely fails to integrate her argument in this speech on patriotism from the perspective of the left:  http://labourlist.org/2015/03/patriotism-and-the-left-lisa-nandys-full-speech-to-class/

If British values mean anything, they must include a commitment to democracy.

Democracy means STOP DOING THINGS TO THE MAJORITY THEY DO NOT WANT and start doing things they DO want.

The vast majority of people in this country do not want mass immigration.

They have never wanted it in every post-war test of opinion.

Therefore any "patriotism" advanced by Lisa Nandy (and her party) that includes a commitment to immigration or to the multiculturalism that has resulted from immigration is false.

A society built on an injustice cannot stand.

No-one can feel proud or patriotic about a country in which the majority of the people have been ignored in such a fundamental way.

Lisa Nandy and her party cannot admit this, even to themselves.

Which is why they are going to lose on May 7th.

Two terms are enough for a Prime Minister

David Cameron's assertion that two terms are enough for a Prime Minister is entirely consistent with his innovation on fixed term parliaments.

It is removing the element of "surprise surprise" that has traditionally been used by politicians of all parties to manipulate the electorate.

We the people now know when Parliaments will start and end, and how long Prime Ministers are going to hang around for.

And also allowing a process of succession without all the usual cant about "allowing my name to go forward", and stalking horses, and denying that emergency installations of telephones have any significance.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-cameron-admits-he-wont-serve-beyond-2020-10128858.html

The History Is Now exhibition at the Hayward Gallery

In a break I went to see the History Is Now exhibition at the Hayward Gallery.

"Curated" by seven "artists" (John Akomfrah, Simon Fujiwara, Roger Hirons, Hannah Starkey, Richard Wentworth, Jane Wilson, Louise Wilson) the exhibition claims to provide "fresh perspectives" on British cultural history.

Actually it represents an attempted cultural coup in which a left-wing narrative is superimposed on post-war history.

If anyone doubts why a new Conservative government must stop all funding to the Arts Council they should go and look at this exhibition.

Huge lump of coal - is this some kind of socialist fetishistic object?

The costume worn by Meryl Streep when playing Margaret Thatcher - were we supposed to snigger at the underware on display? (and would it still have been "art" if Neil Kinnock's underpants had been substituted?).

A Clink Restaurant place setting - "fine dining within British prisons".

What a load of junk!

Not surprisingly the place was almost empty.

"Why do they hate us so much?"

Tory MP Anna Soubry and Labour MP Gloria de Piero on the Andrew Marr Show discussed "soft bigotry" against working class people and "why do they hate us so much?":  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

One of the biggest issues in society is the way in which ordinary people are denied their cultural identity.

For Muslims the reaction among some of their people is to go overseas and join Islamic State.

Among English working class people the suppression of cultural identity is just as profound.  However it is being experienced as a "reduction of self-confidence... and self-criticism and despair about their future".  How soon before this mutates into a more serious reaction?

I hope Anna Soubry and Gloria de Piero think their unspoken agreement to maintain multiculturalism is worth it.

The human cost of maintaining this ideological charade is enormous.

And if anyone doubts whether the situation could turn violent, consider the amount of violence that is already taking place.  Suicide levels among young white men are at alarming levels.  If this inwardly-directed violence were to turn outwards it would shock everyone.

Hypocrisy of hypocrisies

Cheryl Cole is not on-message over the mansion tax:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/cheryl-fernandezversini-does-a-myleene-klass-pop-star-suggests-labours-mansion-tax-could-make-her-sever-ties-with-party-10123289.html

And Ed Miliband is accepting donations from a hedge fund manager:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/labour-open-to-the-charge-of-hypocrisy-after-failing-to-divulge-hedge-fund-managers-donation-10124387.html

Hypocrisy of hypocrisies, all is hypocrisy (to paraphrase the book of Ecclesiastes).

Eclipse

Bright sunshine streaming down, then at 9.25 it went dark.

Not completely dark, but enough to be noticeable.

I made the mistake of looking at the sun (only for a second) and became dazzled.

And that was the eclipse.

The Chancellor's budget yesterday was a triumph

"Giving money to home buyers without building any more homes just means you push up the price of homes (helping elderly home owners)" Evan Davis (Newsnight presenter) tells us https://twitter.com/EvanHD/status/578186700956037121

Mr Davis doesn't seem to understand how the accelerator principle works.

If you want to get money circulating in the economy you need to lend it to people who will spend (rather than lending to the banks, who just sit on it).

Therefore the Chancellor is not only helping first-time buyers, but also ultimately putting money into the hands of the one group (pensioners) in society who are likely to spend any cash that comes their way, thus stimulating the economy.

Personally I thought the Chancellor's budget yesterday was a triumph.

Taking churnalism too far

What an absurd person Matthew Parris is.

In this article in the Spectator he claims to have an insight into the social issues surrounding multiculturalism, immigration and the Islamic community because "I shop in the (overwhelmingly Bengali) Whitechapel Road and Stepney markets..."  http://www.spectator.co.uk/columnists/matthew-parris/9472722/anti-muslim-prejudice-is-real-and-its-scary/

Does this mean that if I buy a pencil sharpener in the shop at the LSE I can claim to be an expert on economic theory?

Or if I buy a tea towel at the Dickens Museum I can set myself up as an authority on the works of one of our greatest authors?

And in his article Matthew Parris references no less than three fellow journalists - Janice Turner, David Aaronovitch and Danny Finkelstein.  Are we really expected to read an article about other people's articles?  Is that not taking churnalism too far?

One of the most dangerous people in the world is a politician who takes himself seriously and thinks his views are important.

One of the most pathetic people in the world is a has-been politician who doesn't realise no-one is listening any more.

In Prime Minister's Questions we have had two questions now (both from women MPs as it happens, one asking about Job Centre Plus, one asking about cancer waiting times) where the person asking the question has been giggling and grinning,

We all know that a large percentage of questions are placed by the party managers, but do they need to make it so obvious?

Is this not showing contempt towards the electorate?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006nldz

Lots of amusing kitchen-themed banter at Prime Minister's Questions.

But was it wise for Ed Miliband to remind people of the expenses scandal?

She knew full well what she was saying

In the Independent Roisin O'Connor looks at the astonishing comments by Rachel Reeves, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rachel-reeves-says-labour-does-not-want-to-represent-people-out-of-work-10114614.html

"We are not the party of people on benefits. We don’t want to be seen, and we're not, the party to represent those who are out of work" Ms Reeves is reported as saying.

This is of course a kick in the teeth for a significant sector of Labour's potential voters.

Why would she make such a remark?

Three reasons occur to me.

1  She is genuinely trying to take Labour up-market and make a pitch to a better quality of voters.

2  Private polling has told her that people out of work do not tend to vote, so there is nothing to be gained from representing them.

3  (this I think is the most likely) She knew full well what she was saying, wanted to make a populist gesture by aiming a kick at the unemployed, BUT intended from the start to claim her comments were taken out of context.  That way she gets the best of both worlds.  She has made a populist gesture (and the mud will stick) but will reassure the out of work people that she still loves them.

A party dedicated to maxing-out public spending

I suppose it is ironic that a party dedicated to maxing-out public spending should issue pledges in the form of a credit card:  http://www.labour.org.uk/pledges

Note that "controls on immigration" is one of the top five ways in which Labour wants to build a better future.

You got that Diane Abbott?



http://news.sky.com/story/1445015/ed-miliband-unveils-labours-election-pledges

Labour's reckless open-door immigration policy is going to require a huge extension of the public sector

“Nine per cent of the country is developed and that includes roads, factories and so on: only 2% is housing" - statistic used in Rowan Moore's article http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/14/britain-housing-crisis-10-ways-solve-rowan-moore-general-election

No acknowledgement that the 9% of development has blighted 80% of England, so that most of the country is covered by "thin town".

And no mention of the role immigration is playing in the chronic housing crisis.  The left would have you believe that it is entirely a supply problem.  Actually it is a demand problem - you cannot import millions of cheapo workers (and potential Labour voters!) and not make any provision for where they will live, and what road space they will occupy when driving, and where their sewage will go, and what water is available for them to drink and wash in, and who will treat them when they fall ill, what beds they will occupy when in hospital, what school places are available for their children, who will collect their rubbish, who will arrest them when they commit crimes etc etc.

Labour's reckless open-door immigration policy is going to require a huge extension of the public sector - which the rest of us will have to pay for, since most of the immigrants are on minimum wage.

Anti-British actor Sean Penn

The luvvy spot on the Andrew Marr Show this morning featured anti-British actor Sean Penn:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

Why is the BBC giving a platform to a person who is espousing campaigns hostile to the interests of the United Kingdom?

And why didn't Andrew Marr ask this person about his anti-British activities?  http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/feb/14/sean-penn-argentina-falkland-islands

It is the cover-up that kills

Ed Miliband having two kitchens is not a problem.

The concern is that he tried to HIDE his ownership of two kitchens.

This is not good.

As with Watergate, it is the cover-up that kills.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31875297

Daily Politics just now did a poll from the riverside in Richmond, and in the background you saw Quinlan Terry's superlative 1988 development:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Labour's existential crisis

"Fewer and fewer Labour MPs now believe Ed Miliband will make it over the line" - Philip Collins in The Times writes about Labour's existential crisis:  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4380474.ece

Philip Collins is former political advisor to Frank Field and former speech writer for Tony Blair. 

"The rise of the po-faced left"

James Bloodworth writes about the Clarkson phenomenon, and ascribes it to "the rise of the po-faced left" :  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/bring-back-clarkson-petition-god-forbid-jeremy-clarkson-ever-goes-into-politics-10101557.html

Legend

On World At One yesterday Maria Miller MP referring to Jeremy Clarkson said "he is a legend".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054qf7b

Make the arts less elitist

How can we make the arts less elitist asks Sorcha Carey (Director, Edinburgh Art Festival) writing on the Museums Association website:  http://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/comment/04032015-voxpop?utm_source=ma&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=12032015

And how patronising the suggestions that follow!

The arts can be made less elitist by junking modernism and abstraction and all the rest of the emperor's-new-clothes arts scams that have blighted the last hundred years.

Let the elites fund abstraction from their own pockets.

The rule should be no public money spent on art that is unintelligible to ordinary people.

Prime Minister's Questions

Watching Prime Minister's Questions it is rather absurd for Ed Miliband to use a House of Commons debate to talk about debates.

The leadership debates are essentially an electioneering technique and not really a matter of gravitas for Prime Minister's Questions.

And it is good to see the Prime Minister robustly attacking the SNP instead of the walking-on-eggshells usual treatment of the Scottish Nationalists. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

What on earth is a "fracas" in this context?

My brother is beside himself with curiosity and excitement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-31824040

Arrogant twerp Charles Walker MP

What an arrogant twerp Charles Walker MP is making of himself on the Daily Politics:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

How he tells, in an irritated and impatient style, that he does not have to make any effort to communicate with his constituents because he was elected as a "representative" and therefore must decide issues entirely according to his own conscience.

What he is actually telling us is "I am a great and lordly Member of Parliament so don't you dare try to tell me what to do because I AM A FUCKING GOD".

How does someone get onto the Conservative Candidates List with such a disgusting sense of entitlement?

Oh I see, he is Christopher Chataway's step-son.  He had a free ride into the House of Commons through privilege, inheritance and the old-boys network (and Labour is just as bad).  When oh when are we going to have a ban on family members following each other into Parliament?

Voters of Broxbourne, please tell Charles Walker to fuck off (and I write that as a Conservative - if he is alienating fellow Tories what impact is he having on ordinary people!).

Endless humiliations and pathetic reactions

This is interesting:  https://www.facebook.com/DavidCameronOfficial/photos/a.658575084166813.1073741829.653092548048400/947584051932580/?type=1&theater

The fact that a major party is using the SNP as a bogeyman does not bode well for people who live in Scotland.

This would have been tested on focus groups to the nth degree before it went public, and so therefore must reflect English attitudes to the SNP and Alex Salmond.

Have people who live in Scotland (I cannot use the phrase "Scottish people") thought seriously about what an independent nationalist Scotland is going to experience from a hostile nationalist England?

At the end of the day "we" are ten times bigger than THEM.

We will just take whatever we want.

The future of an independent nationalist Scotland will be one of endless humiliations and pathetic reactions such as Eamon de Valera's laughable economic war against England in the 1930s.

Leadership debates

On the whole I think it will be wise for the Prime Minister to stand back from the leadership debates and let the other party leaders hurt each over - SNP kicking Labour, UKIP kicking Labour, Greens kicking Labour.

Of course, they will all have a go at the Conservatives, but it is not all that easy to argue with an empty chair - they are likely to come across as bullies, as not quite fair.

The Prime Minister merely has to be firm

The threat by the broadcasters to "empty chair" the Prime Minister if he does not participate in the so-called leadership debates is a hollow threat:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31778343

Without the Prime Minister the debates will have little value, and will not have the televisual appeal the broadcasters are hoping for.

Therefore the Prime Minister merely has to be firm - he holds all the cards.

Matthew Engel asserts in the Financial Times

In the week that the report on Oxford child abuse was published Matthew Engel asserts in the Financial Times "The bloodshed Powell foresaw from mass immigration has not happened":  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6c55ce92-babe-11e4-8447-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk#axzz3TUtisIK4

Of course the blood split by the abused girls in Oxford and Rochdale and Rotherham etc was only chav blood.

Mr Engel, in his superior article, would not think their blood was worth noticing.

Perhaps he think they had it coming anyway, and brought it all on themselves through lifestyle choices.

And obviously he will not acknowledge the blood is a river.  Not even a trickle.  Just a smear of chav blood from girls no-one connected to the FT is ever going to bother about.

Certainly no reason to curb the mass immigration that brings such stonking low wages that boosts the dividends of shareholders - now that IS something of interest to FT readers.

Nevertheless, if you add up all the smears and drips and seepages of blood from English girls abused by immigrants over the decades it assumes the proportions of a river.

A river YOU are partly responsible for Mr Engel in your uncritical enthusiasm for mass immigration.

Apropos drones on Daily Politics, what is to stop terrorists from using them to drop anthrax or sarin?

Will he treat the SNP in Holyrood as a branch office of the party

Daily Politics discussed the latest Ashcroft poll which shows the SNP winning almost all seats in Scotland (or North Britain if you prefer).

What impact will this have on the SNP administration at Holyrood?

Will the SNP parliamentary party become the fulcrum of SNP power or will power reside with Nicola Sturgeon?

Will Alex Salmond kowtow to micro-management from Holyrood?

Or will he treat the SNP in Holyrood as a branch office of the party?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Words from Sunny Hundal about the widespread abuse of young girls in Oxfordshire

Weasel words from Sunny Hundal about the widespread abuse of young girls in Oxfordshire:  http://labourlist.org/2015/03/the-harsh-uncomfortable-truths-about-child-abuse-in-oxfordshire-and-rotherham/

The council was to blame, society was to blame, WE were to blame - Mr Hundal makes the usual excuses.

And yet is it not a fact that if those "Pakistani-heritage men" were not in the country they would not have carried out their crimes here?

Whoever else is attacking and abusing young girls, it is undeniable that if these Pakistani-heritage men had been back in Pakistan hundreds of girls in Oxfordshire, and hundreds of thousands of girls nationwide, would have been safe.

Therefore I think we are justified in saying Enoch Powell was right.

There HAS been rivers of blood - the blood of these young girls when they are beaten and abused and subjected to unimaginable sexual tortures.

The shame is on those apologists (and we have to include Douglas Carswell MP in this) who say this is not a real river of blood, this is a mere trickle of blood, on the worldwide index of blood rivers the Oxfordshire girls barely register, in any case no-one really cares about these girls and the blood weeping from their sores and bruises, certainly no-one cares when political reputations are at stake, much easier to blame Enoch Powell for the failure to talk about immigration rather than admit that over decades politicians became cowards when faced with the chorus of "racist racist racist" that went up whenever anyone tried to say these people were not integrating into our society and we need to think again about them.

This news about Sudan is very concerning:  http://www.rescue.org/blog/new-waves-refugees-flee-violence-sudan-nuba-mountains

https://www.change.org/p/facebook-ban-violence-against-animals?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=254081&alert_id=zKZbvpsSki_tCoWL1N7urvmpFnZVT%2BmOfVVBf6Lu1B%2Fa6u%2BJ0CF15We51lnp1tVBkXndN36ot%2BV

We call on Facebook to change their Community Standards to stop the glorification and inciting of violence against animals. Only the inclusion of those terms will allow users to report specifically on certain Facebook pages. This way, violence against animals could be banned from Facebook.

There are plenty of pages, groups and events where animals abusers post pictures of sadistic and cruel violence against animals. These pictures show animals being trampled alive, stuffed into jars, burned alive or being sexually abused.

No matter how often you report these pages, groups, events and images, you always get the same answer:

"Thank you for taking the time to report something that you feel may violate our Community Standards. We reviewed the comment you reported for containing credible threat of violence and found it doesn't violate our Community Standards." (source: Facebook)

Obviously Facebook think, that violence can only be executed against humans and not against animals. But violence against animals is also unacceptable and morally wrong. This doesn’t seem to be the case for Facebook and some of their users.

We call on Facebook to change this and consider animal welfare. Facebook should not encourage potential imitators by allowing sadistic content online. By changing their Community Standards they can show, that society doesn’t tolerate such behaviour.

At Prime Minister's Questions Ed Miliband was trying to outflank the Conservatives on immigration.

Even trade union activists are turning against the Labour leader https://twitter.com/MissEllieMae

And the silence from these people is deafening when it comes to the Daily Mirror's phone hacking.

Mired in hypocrisy, the left has given up trying to win the general election - their only hope is to steal it through a sordid deal with the SNP

This is interesting:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/frank-lampard-turns-down-tory-offer-to-stand-as-an-mp-in-malcolm-rifkinds-kensington-seat-10081646.html

If JT were to stand I would join his campaign team.

Wrecking ball

Fragments

Zoltan Hojnal in the Washington Post

Interesting article by Zoltan Hojnal in the Washington Post:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/02/27/opposition-to-immigration-reform-is-a-winning-strategy-for-republicans/

It rather undermines the claim (made by Bright Blue, British Future and others) that the Conservatives need to start pandering to immigrants to win elections.

Probably if the Conservatives stopped pandering to immigrants they would attract back support from UKIP and also begin attracting Labour voters.

Kenwood

After the meeting I walked back to Archway and got on a 210 'bus to Highgate and along Hampstead Road, getting out at Kenwood House.

As I entered the grounds of the mansion the drab damp day was transformed, so that every element became refined by the exquisite Kenwood aura.  The grey clouds arranged themselves into a subtle grisaille of silver, ash and slate.  The fine rain fell as delicate precipitations that felt like a gentle cool anointing.  The crushed gravel crunched satisfyingly underfoot.  Damp vegetation, normally so uninspired, exuded an aromatic fresh scent.  Among the camellias a precious first bud, blood-red, about to burst.

Entering the house, I had the place to myself apart from the volunteers (who seemed grateful to see someone new).  Although I only wanted to see The Guitar Player, I wandered around the other rooms - upstairs Jacobean portraits, downstairs old masters, the Adam library with a pink ceiling.  It all seemed completely different from my previous visit.

You would expect The Guitar Player to be in a room of its own, with two security guards either side.  But it was just on a wall with lots of other art.  Perhaps English Heritage has become blasé about Vermeers.

To get to the tea shop you had to go back out the front door and then right round the whole house, along the elegant terrace with its stupendous view, and down some steps to the old kitchen area.  Tea in a pot, with a plate loaded with gooey raspberry meringue and a big slice of walnut cake.  Yes, I know this was greedy.

Tangible policies win elections

The difficulty with Ed Miliband's policy on tuition fees announced today is the same with all his policies - it relies on a grasp of abstract ideology.

The difference between £6,000 and £9,000 is an abstract one that most voters will not be able to grasp.

It is the difference between "we will load you with a frightening level of debt" and "we will load you with thirty per cent less debt but you will still be frightened anyway".

Tangible policies win elections.

Not abstract arguments over amounts of money that are not real to most people.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31640592

For the record, I think education should be completely free, as many courses as an individual wants, for as long as they want (providing they pass the exams).

How can I support a party that is not serious about controlling immigration

The immigration figures just announced are absolutely shocking.

Just as shocking is the blasé reaction of the government - oh well, we tried our best, but why not turn your attention to the economy...

As a Conservative this is problematic.

How can I support a party that is not serious about controlling immigration.

However painful it might be, possibly it is necessary to punish the Conservatives even at the risk of Labour creeping back in.

Labour will be a nightmare of course.

But a society with ever-accelerating immigration is also a nightmare (unless you are wealthy and privileged enough to be able to insulate yourself from it).

The rhetoric from the Conservatives on immigration is going to have to get a great deal tougher if they hope to retain my support.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31638174

Devastating dismissal of the political class by Sir Peter Tapsall at Prime Minister's Questions.

His scornful condemnation of "obsessive crackpots" covers almost ninety per cent of most wannabe members of parliament.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006nldz

Journalistic scrutiny of the political class

Daily Politics researchers are on the ball today - within half an hour of Ed Miliband using a quote in Prime Minister's Questions they were able to ascertain it was taken out of context and Andrew Neil was able to challenge a Labour MP live on air about the issue (and you could see she was beginning to panic).

This is journalistic scrutiny of the political class at its best.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Jack Straw was not "within the rules" (even though the rules are so permissive as to be meaningless):  http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2015/02/24/jack-straw-almost-certainly-did-break-commons-rules

What sort of people do we want as MPs?

Why not the sort of people for whom £65k is a fortune.

“Gross over-development”

The demolition of much of the Bishopsgate Goodsyard’s vaults and of nearby Victorian residential buildings:  http://heritagebuildingsdigest.com/2015/02/23/victorian-society-slams-bishopsgate-goodsyard-plans/

A sign of recognition, a request for help, an indication that the interviewer needs to back off?

On Channel 4 News this evening Gary Gibbon interviewed Labour's Jack Straw about the cash-for-access scandal:  http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

When Gary Gibbon asked Jack Straw (6.26 on the film) about his prospects of going into the House of Lords he made a sign that had absolutely no relevance to the subject he was discussing.

Was this just a casual and accidental movement of his hand?

Or was it a sign of recognition, a request for help, an indication that the interviewer needs to back off?

I do not believe in the "illuminati" or any of that rubbish.

I do think old-boys networks operate in Masonic Lodges and their "brotherhood" is extended to helping each other out.

Is it possible that Gary Gibbon is a mason?  Presumably not as the interview was broadcast.  But perhaps Jack Straw was using the Channel 4 News broadcast to make a wider appeal for help from whomever was watching? 

I would like to see a woman interviewer ask Jack Straw tough questions about his prospects in the House of Lords.

And there is this:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2009/nov/05/jack-straw-judges-masons

And is it not interesting to look at Twitter and see how many people are now saying Dispatches was no big deal - make a note of the names please and perhaps we can try a masonic "taught to be cautious" sting. 

Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind should not be allowed to "pop up" in the House of Lords

Surely it goes without saying that Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind should not be allowed to "pop up" in the House of Lords.

Have doubts about the knighthood remaining as well - I thought it could be removed by Royal Warrant?

Malcolm Rifkind's performance on Daily Politics

Not happy with Malcolm Rifkind's performance on Daily Politics this lunchtime.

He came across as arrogant and hectoring and continually pointing to the small print of parliamentary procedures instead of acknowledging the wider issue of morality.

And I cannot see how he can remain Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee.  He has clearly been embarrassed by the current "sting".  How can we be sure that a future "sting" will not be used by a foreign power to blackmail him?

As a humble Conservative foot-soldier, this kind of scandal does not motivate me to work for the return of a Conservative government that will have any input from Malcolm Rifkind.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Swift

Does Taylor Swift mythologise all her relationships?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CmadmM5cOk

John Gray writes about Ed Miliband in the New Statesman

Harsh but true - John Gray writes about Ed Miliband in the New Statesman:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/misunderstanding-present-ed-miliband-wants-govern-country-doesn-t-exist

With all the thinking Labourites distancing themselves from Ed Miliband, that only leaves the canvassing drones and the lumpen voting fodder to support the party in this election.  Their fury when they realise they have been taken for granted is going to be immense.  The Labour Party may already have passed the point at which it can reform itself.

Some quotes from John Gray:

He has often expressed admiration for Thatcher’s determination to effect radical change…

…its Scottish bastions crumbling, its support among ethnic minorities weaker, working-class voters in the English north and Wales defecting to Ukip and the Greens posing a mounting challenge on the left that could deny it seats in marginal constituencies…

Miliband is misreading British society in ways not altogether dissimilar to those that hobbled Labour in the 1980s and allowed the Conservatives to rule for nearly two decades.

It’s not that Miliband despises the world that the majority of people inhabit. He just can’t enter into it. This isn’t only his problem, of course.

Labour risks an acute form of the voter alienation that affects all the mainstream parties. It is like other parties in drawing its leaders from a narrow and privileged social stratum..

Contrary to Miliband’s Blairite critics, there is no way forward in trying to re­occupy the middle ground.

The trouble with Miliband is that he cannot speak a language that voters understand. His instinctive bent is towards a type of academic discourse that has zero popular appeal.

…speeches such as the one he gave at the Labour conference in September 2014, a dire threnody to togetherness that could have come straight from Armando Iannucci’s The Thick of It.

Miliband is parroting the delusional consensus of the past few years: the belief that Britain’s long-term future is inevitably in ever closer union with a united Europe.

…it is the Conservatives who are on “the right side of history”.

Ed Miliband’s project amounts to a ragbag of populist measures.

Perhaps the Church of England is becoming UKIP at prayer?  http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/generalelection/ukip-rise-more-among-church-of-england-members/

Speaking personally, I am fed up with left wing clerics getting up into pulpits and lecturing us on political correctness and the need for "change".

It's time congregations were able to directly elect their priests, not have a shortlist of two presented and told "you can have this lefty candidate or you can have this extreme lefty candidate".

Quelle surprise!

Syriza has sold out.

Tsipras has betrayed his supporters and done a Ramsay MacDonald.

And suddenly all those lefties who were banging on about how Syriza was the future have gone very quiet and started muttering (digitally) dark warnings that we all know will come to nothing.

The Left is pathetic.

Absolutely pathetic.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21644237-greece-had-chance-make-euro-zone-work-better-it-blew-it-syrizas-scattergun

Damaging effects of migration

More evidence of the damaging effects of migration:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31488046

Free movement of people is a crazy and unsustainable ideology.

It is like those American college fraternities on long-haul flights who get up all at once and jump to one side of the plane causing it to lurch violently - it may seem harmless fun to them, but they risk crashing the aircraft.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.

It's a holy day, and the beginning of a profoundly holy season.

What are you giving up?

Labour donor Dale Vince

Channel 4 News interviewed Labour donor Dale Vince:  http://www.channel4.com/news/dale-vince-labour-donor-tax-video

Mr Vince sounded intensely relaxed about being filthy rich, and told us it was no big deal he could not remember the details of his financial affairs and whether a "loan" from his company to himself was moral or not.  As his company has only one shareholder (Dale Vince) he was lending the money to himself.  To me that seems somewhat "dodgy" although I readily admit I am not a tax expert.

"I am half-sick of shadows".

If you know what I'm saying.

Completely out of touch

I think it is a bit of a cheek that the Bishops are interfering in politics with their "letter":  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31499189

What mandate do the Bishops have?

Constitutionally, the bishops are appointed by the Crown on the advice of the Prime Minister and thus should have a rough approximation to the political mood of the country at the time they were appointed.

However, for the last thirty years or so they have become a self-perpetuating elite, completely out of touch with their congregations and with ordinary people (a Old Etonian Archbishop!).

Have the Bishops and most of the clergy (I am thinking Giles Fraser) set up the idol of multiculturalism and bowed down before it?

On BBC News 24 this lunchtime Isobel Hardman (Spectator) talked of the "visceral hatred" that exists in Scotland between the SNP and the Labour party and how that made a Coalition at Westminster after the general election extremely unlikely.

On the Andrew Marr programme on BBC1 this morning Ray Davis from The Kinks was interviewed.

Normally I have an aversion to the 1960s.

But it seems that The Kinks propagated a recerché-nostalgist ideology.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

St Valentine's Day

It is St Valentine's Day.

I picked out some heart-shaped biscuits and gave them to my darling little dog.

And she gobbled them up.

But perhaps Margaret Hodge MP benefits from strategies set up to avoid tax?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/businesslatestnews/9668396/Margaret-Hodges-family-company-pays-just-0.01pc-tax-on-2.1bn-of-business-generated-in-the-UK.html

Manspreading by Owen Jones (Guardian) when discussing tax avoidance

Excessive amounts of manspreading by Owen Jones (Guardian) when discussing tax avoidance on Daily Politics this lunchtime:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

The manspreading was so intimidating that Toby Young (Spectator) had to close his legs and half-raise his left knee so that his own genitalia were not threatened.

Is this what we are going to experience over the coming days and weeks of the general election campaign?

More about manspreading can be found on the Independent website:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/i-need-to-sit-that-way-because-of-my-balls--and-6-other-misguided-defences-of-manspreading-on-public-transport-9976792.html

The common consensus on the welfare state

More evidence that large-scale immigration destroys the common consensus on the welfare state:  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9248.12194/abstract